THE PROGRAMMING WORLD

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The Programming world is about the history of programming languages briefly, the different types of programming languages and also the most used programming language presently. The history of programming languages spans from documentation of early mechanical computers to modern tools for software development. Early programming languages were highly specialized, relying on mathematical notation and similarly obscure syntax. Throughout the 20th century, research in compiler theory lead to the creation of high-level programming languages, which use a more accessible syntax to communicate instructions. The first high-level programming language was Plankalkül, created by Konrad Zuse between 1942 and 1945. The first high-level language to have an associated compiler was created by Corrado Böhm in 1951, for his PhD thesis. The first commercially available language was FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslation), developed in 1956 (first manual appeared in 1956, but first developed in 1954) by a team led by John Backus at IBM.

During 1842–1849, Ada Lovelace translated the memoir of Italian mathematician Luigi Menabrea about Charles Babbage's newest proposed machine: the Analytical Engine; she supplemented the memoir with notes that specified in detail a method for calculating Bernoulli numbers with the engine, recognized by some historians as the world's first published computer program. The first computer codes were specialized for their applications: e.g., Alonzo Church was able to express the lambda calculus in a formulaic way and the Turing machine was an abstraction of the operation of a tape-marking machine. To some people, some degree of expressive power and human-readability is required before the status of "programming language" is granted. Jacquard Looms and Charles Babbage's Difference Engine both had simple, extremely limited languages for describing the actions that these machines should perform.

In 1954, FORTRAN was invented at IBM by a team led by John Backus; it was the first widely used high-level general purpose programming language to have a functional implementation, as opposed to just a design on paper. When FORTRAN was first introduced, it was viewed with skepticism due to bugs, delays in development, and the comparative efficiency of "hand-coded" programs written in assembly. However, in a hardware market that was rapidly evolving; the language eventually became known for its efficiency. It is still a popular language for high-performance computing and is used for programs that benchmark and rank the world's fastest supercomputers.

Other languages still in use today include LISP (1958), invented by John McCarthy and COBOL (1959), created by the Short Range Committee. Another milestone in the late 1950s was the publication, by a committee of American and European computer scientists, of "a new language for algorithms"; the ALGOL 60 Report (the "ALGOrithmic Language"). This report consolidated many ideas circulating at the time and featured three key language innovations:

Here, some not all programming languages will be discussed

  • PYTHON

    • Ease of Learning: Easy to Moderate

    Use Cases: General Use and Specialty,Web Applications, Artificial Intelligence

    Python is a relatively new interpreted programming language, first introduced in 1989. It is an interpreted language that supports automatic memory management and object-oriented programming. Python is very popular for general-purpose programming, including web applications. It has recently become known for specialty use in artificial intelligence applications. Python jobs are very plentiful, so it’s easy to find a job using Python.

    Two key Features of Python

  • The USP of Python is its language design. It is highly productive, elegant, simple, yet powerful. Python has set the gold standard in terms of developer experience and heavily influenced modern languages like Go, Julia.

  • Python has first-class integration with C/C++ and can seamlessly offload the CPU heavy tasks to C/C++. Also, Python gives powerful toolset for Mathematics, Statistics, and Computational Science with various libraries like NumPy, Pandas, SciPy, Scikit-Learn. As a result, Python dominates the Machine Learning/Deep Learning/Data Science landscape and other Scientific domain.

  • C++

    • Ease of Learning: Difficult

    Use Cases: General Use, Specialty Local Applications, Web Services, Proprietary Services.

    C++ extends C with object-oriented features. The “double-plus” comes from the increment operator from C. C++ was developed to bring features from older languages to faster, more powerful platforms. C++ occupies a similar area in the market as C, including systems programming and low-level hardware development. Over the years, the C++ standard libraries and specification have been expanded considerably, leading to criticism that it has become over-complicated and difficult to learn.

  • JAVASCRIPT

    • Ease of Learning: Moderate

    Use Cases: General Use, Local Applications, Web Applications.

    JavaScript is a high-level, dynamically typed, interpreted language. It uses Java-like syntax, hence the name JavaScript. JavaScript was first introduced in the early days of the public Internet, 1995. JavaScript is used to write code that runs in web browsers, on the client side. If you’ve been using the Web long enough to remember the introduction of Google Maps, you witnessed some of the first magic: the “infinite scrolling” in Maps is done using JavaScript. Since its first introduction, JavaScript support has been added to all major web browsers. JavaScript frameworks including React, Angular, and Vue offer a Model-View-Controller application development paradigm, running entirely in the browser. JavaScript now supports the visual, browser-run elements of most modern web applications, which is why most real user monitoring tools cater for JavaScript.

    JavaScript can also be combined with HTML to make cross-platform mobile applications. NodeJS is a web server that runs JavaScript on the server side. NodeJS applications are written entirely in JavaScript. Given all these use cases and support, JavaScript is both popular and in high demand. It is not very difficult to learn, though there are advanced programming techniques that take time to master. If you are more comfortable with object-oriented languages, consider looking into TypeScript. TypeScript “overlays” object-oriented features and syntax, and transpiles to native JavaScript.

    Two Key Features of JavaScript

  • JavaScript is the undisputed king in Browser programming.Today, Web development is dominated mainly by JavaScript based SPA frameworks like React, Vue.js, Angular.

  • JavaScript has gone through massive modernization and overhaul in the last several years, especially in 2015, 2016, and later. The major JavaScript releases like ES5, ES6 has added many modern features, and JavaScript of today is entirely different from JavaScript of the last decade.

  • PHP

    • Ease of Learning: Easy

    Use Cases: General Use, Web Applications.

    PHP originally stood for “Personal Home Page” as part of its first name, PHP/FI (Forms Interpreter.) The official acronym is now PHP: Hypertext Processor. Its primary role is as a web application server-side scripting system. It was originally developed to extend a CGI program to support.php forms and database access. The code of a PHP program is mixed in with the.phpL, making it similar to Microsoft’s classic (pre-.NET) Active Server Pages. The interpreter reads the L and code, and executes the code portions of the page.

    PHP is popular because it’s easy to learn. It is also the basis of popular web-based applications such as WordPress and Joomla. However, PHP also has a mixed reputation relating to software quality. Early versions lacked security controls and features that made it difficult to develop highly-secure applications. Recent developments in PHP frameworks and libraries have made improvements in security. There are plenty of PHP jobs available, for content-focused web applications like WordPress, and proprietary systems developed in PHP.

    Two key features of Php

  • PHP is one of the highly productive Server-Side Web development programming languages. As a result, it is widely used in the industry to develop a Web application at a rapid pace. The most prominent social networking Facebook was developed in PHP.

  • As PHP is used in Web development for the last 35 years, there are many successful and stable PHP frameworks in the market.

  • RUBY

    • Ease of Learning: Easy to Moderate

    Use Cases: General, Web Applications, Scripting.

    Ruby is an interpreted, dynamically typed, object-oriented language first introduced in the mid-1990s. It was inspired by several other languages on this list, including Lisp, Perl, and Ada. Ruby is very popular for web application development. The Ruby on Rails framework (now known simply as “Rails”) is a model-view-component server-side framework written in Ruby.

    Ruby is fairly easy to learn. Its common use in web applications makes job opportunities easy to find.

    Three Key Features of Ruby

  • Ruby has combined some of the best features of programming languages successfully: dynamic, object-oriented, functional, garbage-collected, and concise.

  • Although Ruby itself is not disruptive, its Web development framework Ruby on Rails is probably the most disruptive and influential Server-side Web development framework.

  • Ruby is used by some of the largest software projects like Twitter, GitHub, Airbnb, and has excellent tooling and framework support.

  • COBOL

    • Ease of Learning: Moderate to Difficult

    Use Cases: Mainframe Application Development

    COBOL is a very old language used primarily for mainframe development. It is somewhat difficult to learn, by comparison with more modern languages. Programmers that have been using COBOL for decades are enjoying high employability, due to the scarcity of COBOL programmers that are working and not retired. This is not a good reason to learn it if you don’t already know it, however. Much better to invest in new skills for a new generation of languages and platforms.

  • JAVA

    • Ease of Learning: Moderate to Difficult

    Use Cases: Web applications, Mobile, Embedded systems

    Java is the leading general-purpose application development language and framework. It was introduced in 1991 by Sun Microsystems as a high-level, compiled, memory-managed language. Java’s syntax is similar to C/C++, with curly braces for closures and semicolons to end statements. Automatic memory management is one of the features that made Java so popular, quickly after its initial release. Before Java was introduced, languages that required manual memory management, such as C and C++, were dominant. Manual memory allocation is tedious and error-prone, so Java was hailed as a major step forward for application developers.

    The promise of Java, beyond memory management, was its cross-platform capability. This was marketed as “write once, run anywhere.” The Java Virtual Machine (JVM) runs Java bytecode, which is compiled from the Java language. JVMs are available for most major operating systems, including Linux, Mac, and Windows. It doesn’t always work perfectly, but when it does, a program written in Java can run on any platform with a compatible JVM. Java is used for business, web, and mobile applications. It is the native language for Google’s Android OS. Java also powers millions of set-top boxes and embedded devices. Java development skills are highly sought after. If you’re considering a job in software development, you should strongly consider learning Java.

    Three key features of Java

  • Java offers a powerful, feature-rich, multi-paradigm, interpreted programming language with a moderate learning curve and high developer productivity.

  • Java is strictly backward compatible, which is a crucial requirement for business applications. Java has never introduced a major breaking change like Python or Scala. As a result, it is still the number one choice for enterprises.

  • VISUAL BASIC

    • Ease of Learning: Moderate

    Use Cases: Web Applications, Local Applications

    Visual Basic.NET (VB.NET) is Microsoft’s implementation of the Visual Basic language that compiles to .NET Intermediate Language. This allows developers to write .NET applications using Visual Basic. Applications written in VB.NET are, more or less, just as capable as any other.

    However, VB.NET was never very popular for business applications. Application developers preferred C, C++, and C#. Most applications written in VB.NET tend to be older, and are likely to be considered to be “legacy” applications destined for decommission or redevelopment.

  • C#

    • Ease of Learning: Moderate

    Use Cases: Web Applications, Local Applications, Services/Microservices.

    C# was developed and introduced by Microsoft in 2000, along with the overall .NET Framework. Syntactically, C# is very similar to Java and C/C++. It is a compiled, object-oriented language that compiles to .NET Intermediate Language.

    Originally, C# was used for Microsoft-focused development of Windows Forms and web development with ASP.NET. The .NET ecosystem has evolved recently with the introduction of the. NET Standard and .NET Core. These new frameworks and standards are cross-platform, running on Windows, Linux, and Mac. C# is popular for local and web application programming, often (but not necessarily) in systems developed primarily based on Microsoft technology. Microsoft’s Xamarin framework allows developers to write Android and iOS applications in C#. It is suitable for systems programming in some cases, and has libraries available for embedded systems.

    Two key Features of C#

  • Backed by Microsoft and being in the industry for 20 years, C# has large ecosystems of libraries and frameworks. Like Java, C# is also platform independent (thanks to CLR) and runs on Windows, Linux, Mobile devices.

  • Anders Hejlsberg did an excellent job to bring C# out of Java’s shadow and give its own identity. In terms of developer experience, C# is ahead of Java. The ASP.NET is used for Web Development, especially on Windows.

  • SQL

    • Ease of Learning: Easy to Moderate

    Use Cases: Database Queries

    SQL stands for Structured Query Language. SQL is used to query and modify data in a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS.) Vendor-specific implementations, such as PL/SQL (Oracle) and T-SQL (Microsoft) offer product-specific features.

    SQL isn’t a general purpose language that can be used to write applications. However, it is at least a useful, if not required skill of most developers. The term “full-stack developer” refers to a developer with a well-rounded skill set that includes all aspects of an application. This almost always includes accessing and saving data to a database. SQL is not hard to learn initially, though there are advanced use cases in Big Data and data analysis that require significant experience.

    SQL is very popular with both developers and Database Administrators, so jobs that require SQL skills are plentiful. However, it is not a complete skill unto itself. SQL experience is a big plus on a resume, but it is rarely the primary skill required for any given job.

    Key Words in Programming languages

    In programming, a keyword is a word that is reserved by a program because the has a special meaning. Keywords can be commands or parameters. Every programming language has a set of keywords that cannot be used as variable names. Keywords are sometimes called reserved names .

    1. Conditionals

      2. Conditionals, conditional statements, and conditional expressions are features of programming language, which help the code make a choice and result in either TRUE or FALSE. These perform different actions depending on the need of the programmer, and multiple conditions can be combined into a single condition, as long as the final value of the condition is either TRUE or FALSE. Examples of conditional statements are ‘IF’, ‘IF-Else’, ‘While’ and ‘Else-If’.

    2. Constants

      3. A constant (also known as Const) is a term used to describe a value that does not change throughout the execution of the program, unlike a variable. Constant cannot be altered and will remain fixed, and a constant can be a number, character, and string.

    3. Data types

      4. A data type is the classification of a particular type of data. We as humans can understand the difference between a name and a number, but the computer cannot. The computer uses special internal codes to distinguish between different types of data it receives and processes. The most common data types include integer type which are numbers, a floating-point number data type which are decimal based numbers, Boolean values which are TRUE or FALSE and character data type which is alphabets.

    4. Array

      5. Arrays are lists or groups of similar types of data values that are grouped. All values in the array are of the same data type and are only differentiated by their position in the array. For example, the age of all students in a class can be an array as they will all be numbers. Similarly, the name of every student in a class will be an array as they will all be of the character data type.

    5. Declaration

      6. A statement that describes a variable, function or any other identifier is called a declaration. A declaration helps the compiler or interpreter identify the word and understand its meaning, and how the process should be continued. Even though they are important, they are optional and may be used depending on the nature of the programming language.

    6. Exception

      7. A special, unexpected and anomalous condition encountered during the execution of a program is known as an exception. It can also be termed as an error or a condition that alters the way of the program or the microprocessor to a different path. An example of an exception can be the case when a program tries to load a file from the disk, but the file does not exist. The exceptions must be handled and eradicated in the program code to avoid any fatal error.

    7. Expression

      8. An expression is a legal grouping of letters, symbols, and numbers being used to represent the value of one or more variables. Expressions are highly used in a number of programming languages and many other programs, with each having its own set of legal and illegal expressions. Every expression contains one or more operands (objects being manipulated) and operators (symbols representing actions). For example, in the expression A+B-C, A, B and C are operands while + and – are operators.

    8. Framework

      9. Framework in programming is a foundation with a specified level of complexity that may be altered by the programmer, making use of their code. A framework might include different software libraries, APIs, compilers and much more. In simpler terms, a framework provides a favorable environment for a certain type and level of programming for a project. A framework allows the developers to bypass the general necessities and focus on more project-related specifics.

    9. Hardcode

      10. In computer programming, the term hard code or hardcode is used to describe code that is not likely to change. Hardcoded features are built into hardware or software in such a way so that they cannot be modified later on. For example, if font size 10 is hardcoded in the software, then it might not change for a long time.

    10. Loop

      11. A loop is a sequence of instructions that repeat the same process over and over until a condition is met and it receives the order to stop. In a loop, the program asks a question, and if the answer directs the program to perform an action, the action is performed, and the loop runs again, performing the same task. It runs until the answer is such that no action is required and the code can proceed further. Loops are considered one of the most basic and powerful concepts in programming.

    11. Endless loop

      12. An endless loop or infinite loop is a continuous repetition of a program snippet, which is everlasting. This occurs majorly due to conditional operators and functions which redirect the code back to the snippet, making it endless.

    12. Iteration

      13. Iteration is a single pass through a set of operations that deal with code. One form of iteration in computer programming is via loops. A loop will repeat a certain segment of code until a condition is met and it can proceed further. Each time the computer runs a loop, it is known as an iteration. In simple terms, iteration is the process to repeat a particular snippet of code over and over again to perform a certain action.

    13. Keywords

      14. Words that are reserved by a programming language or a program as they have special meaning are known as keywords. These keywords are reserved to perform certain tasks, and they can be either commands or parameters. Each programming language has a set of reserved keywords (also known as reserved names) which cannot be used as variable names. Some keywords in ‘C’ language are ‘return’, ‘while’, ‘if’, ‘static’, ‘continue’ and ‘default’.

    14. Null

      15. Null defines the lack of any value whatsoever. A null character is a programming code, which represents a character with no value, missing value or the end of a character string. If we state $val1= ”” and $val2= “1”, $val1 has a null value.

    15. Operand

      16. An operand is a term used to denote the objects which can be manipulated using different operators. In the expression ‘A+F+Q’, ‘A’, ‘F’ and ‘Q’ are operands.

    16. Operator

      17. An operator is a term used to denote the object which can manipulate different operands. In the expression ‘A+F-Q’, ‘+’ and ‘-‘are operators. Examples of different operators are + (addition), -- (decrement), = (equals), != (not equal) and >= (greater than or equal to).

    17. Variable

      18. A variable is a location that stores temporary data within a program which can be modified, store and display whenever need. For example, if we have an integer variable with a name XYZ and it stores a value 10. If the variable is again initiated with a different value, it will store the new value. So if XYZ=9 is implemented, the variable location of XYZ will discard the value 10 and store the new value, which is 9.

    18. Pointer

      19. In programming, a pointer is a variable that contains the address of a location in the memory. The location is the commencing point of an object, such as an element of the array or an integer. Using pointers improves the performance of the program as it is cheaper in time and space to copy and dereference pointers than to copy and access the data to which the pointer is referring.

    19. High-level language

      20. A high-level language (HLL) is a programming language that lets the developer write programs irrespective of the nature or type of computer. But if a computer has to understand a high-level language, it should be compiled into a machine language. HLLs are considered high-level because they are in close proximity to human languages and further from machine languages. High-level languages include BASIC, C, C++, Pascal, Prolog, and FORTRAN.

    20. Low-level language

      21. A low-level language is a language that is very close to machine language and provides a little abstraction of programming concepts. Low-level languages are closer to the hardware than human languages. The most common examples of low-level languages are assembly and machine code.

    21. Machine language

      22. Also known as machine code, machine language is a lowest-level programming language consisting of binary digits or bits that are read by computers. Machine language is the only language understood by computers. As it consists of only numbers, they cannot be comprehended by humans. Therefore, programmers write code in the high-level language, which is then translated into assembly language or machine language by a compiler, which is then converted to a machine language by an assembler.

    22. Markup language

      23. A markup language is a relatively simple language that consists of easily understood keywords and tags, used to format the overall view of the page and its contents. The language specifies codes for formatting the layout and style of a page, within a text file only. The most common markup languages are Hypertext Markup Language .phpL), Extensible Markup Language (XML) and Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML).

    23. Package

      24. A package is an organized module of related interfaces and classes. Packages are used to organize classes that belong to the same category or provide related functionality.

    24. Runtime

      25. Runtime or runtime is the time period during which a program is, in fact, running on a computer. If an operation occurs at ‘runtime’, it occurred when a program is running or the moment at which the program begins to run. Also known as execution time, the runtime is part of the life cycle of the program, and it denotes the time between when the program begins running and until it is closed by the OS or the user.

    25. Backend

      26. Backend is another term used for background in programming. A backend task is the one that is performed in the background with the user’s direct interaction. Similarly, a backend developer is a person who designs programs that process data and perform tasks that users don’t directly see.

    26. Front-end

      27. The Front-end is the user interface of a computer or any device. For example, any operating system provides users with the ease of navigation. A program or OS is considered good if the UI or Front-end is easy to use and seamless to navigate. Front-end developers are the programmers who design and develop the user interface of a device.

    27. Server-side

      28. When procedures and processes are performed on the server, they are deemed server-side. On the other hand, the client-side is at the end of the user. Many programming languages are designed for server-side programmings such as PHP, Perl, and ASP. With the internet boom, almost all websites make use of both server-side and client-side processing. An excellent example of a server-side script is a search engine.

    28. Source data

      29. Source data or data source is the key location from which data is used in the program. The source data can come from a database, spreadsheet or even a hard-coded data location. When a program is executed to display data in a table, the program retrieves the data from its source and then presents it in the arrangement as defined in the code.

    29. Statement

      30. In programming, a statement is a single line of code written legally in a programming language that expresses an action to be carried out. A statement might have internal components of its own, including expressions, operators and functions. An example of a statement is A = A + 5. A program is nothing but a sequence of one or multiple statements. Learn more about statements here.

    30. Syntax

      31. Similar to human languages, programming languages have their own set of rules on how statements can be conveyed. The set of these rules is known as syntax. While a number of programming languages share many features, functions, and capabilities, they differ in syntax. Without the proper use of the syntax, one cannot write an executable program, and a wrong syntax will lead to a plethora of errors.

    31. Token

      32. A token is the smallest individual unit in a program, often referring to a portion of a much larger data piece. For example, if a person’s name is John Thomas Wood, it can be broken into tokens; ‘John’, ‘Thomas’ and ‘Wood’. The programmer can then go on to use only the portion or token they wish to. Tokens are classified into keywords, identifiers, literals, operators, and punctuators.