Introduction To Programming

Introduction To Programming

"Programming isn't about what you know; it's about what you can figure out."

So, let's start our journey with programming and its languages.

What is a programming language?

A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs.

The computer only understands binary language, which consists of 0's and 1's. To instruct the computer to perform a task, we must use binary language. However, telling a computer to do something in binary will be extremely difficult, especially if we need the computer to perform complex tasks. That is precisely why we require a programming language. There are many such programming languages like JAVA, C++, Python, Kotlin, JavaScript etc.

In this article, we'll explore some of the most common classification of programming languages

Types of Programming Languages

1. Procedural Programming Languages

In Procedural languages, the program code is written as a sequence of instructions and is executed in order.
It is a programming language where the user has to specify "what to do" and "how to do" it. We give instructions directly to the PC and tell it how to reach its goal through processes.

2. Functional Programming Languages

In Functional programming languages, programs are constructed by applying and composing functions.
Its main focus is on what to solve in contrast to an imperative style where the main focus is how to solve. It never modifies the variables but creates new ones as output.

3. Object-Oriented Programming Languages

In Object-oriented programming (OOP), programming is based on the concept of "objects", which can contain data and code.
It is used to organise/ model software design around data, or objects rather than functions and logic.OOP focuses on "how to solve".

Now let us see another classification of programming language on basis of type-checking.

Type checking is the process of checking and verifying the type of a construct (constant, variable, array, list, object) and its usage context. It helps in minimizing the possibility of type errors in the program. Type checking may occur either at compile-time or at run-time.

Dynamic Languages

The type-checking is done at the run-time. The error will not be shown till run time and we don't need to declare the data type for variables.

Static Languages

In Static Languages, the type-checking is done at compile-time. The error will be shown at the compile-time and we need to declare the data type for variables.

That's all on the classification of programming language.

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