Common Programming Terms --- Part I

[Tariqul Islam]

What is Programming Language
Programming Language is a communication system between human and the computer. Computer only understands flow of the electricity through its various wires. On the other hand, human only understands various sounds uttered by their mouth. So, when a human wants to tell the computer to do something for him/her, he/she has to tell that command in such a language that the computer can understand the command. This is called Programming Language.

Classification of Programming Language
Programming Languages are of four kinds. They are:

• Machine Language or Low Level Language
  • As we know already, computer can understand the flow of the electricity through its various wires. If we consider a particular wire, there must be only just two possibilities. Whethere there is electricity flow or not. When there is electricty flow we consider the situation as 1 and when there is no electricity flow we consider the situation as 0. As the computer can't understand anything but this 0 and 1s, we have to command the computer by this magic 0 and 1 series. This system to command the computer by using 0 and 1 is called Low Level Language.
    As Computer structure varies from computer to computer, Programmes written in Machine Language is also changed. So we have to write different programmes for different computers when using Machine Language. It is very much difficult for a person to understand & remember this 0 and 1s series commands.
• Assembly Language
  • Assembly Language starts its journey to reduce the difficulties of Machine Language. Using this kind of languages, we can make the commands easy and shorten than Machine Language. Besides, this kind of languages are English like. As an example, 10001011 commands the computer to add two digits in Machine Language where we can assign the same command by using ADD in Assembly Language. Thus by using this English like easy and short commands, we can write a computer program in Assembly Language.
    Assembly Language also varies from computer to computer. So we have to write different programmes for different Machines. The programmer has to have very deep knowledge about the said computer hardware when he/she wants to write a program for that computer.
• High Level Language
  • There is a vast similarity with the High Level Language and English Language. So using this kind of programming language, one can write computer programmes very quickly and easily. We need to interpret the commands that is assigned in High Level Language to the computer as Machine Language by using Interpreter and/or Compiler.
    Programmes written in High Level Language are slower than the programmes written in Machine Language. The leading High Level Languages are: C, Pascal, Basic, Fortran, Cobol etc.
• Fourth Generation Language
  • The Programmer does not need to know about the hardware of the computer, when using Fourth Generation Language. It is very easy to write programmes in this kind of language. Examples of Fourth Generation Languages are: dBase, FoxPro etc.

What is Source Code
Source Code is a series of commands written in any kind of Programming Language. Source Code is written by the Programmer to serve a particular purpose. Computer then converts this Source Code to Machine Language using Compiler or Interpreter. After successfully converting the source code to the Machine Language, computer can run the said program. So the source code is not directly understandable by the computer but understandable by the human. Source code is the human version of the said program.
If you want to discuss on something of this Article, please feel free to ask me.

 

[Jesse]

Thanks for this info. This will help me a lot

 

[Tariqul Islam]

So, Can I proceed with the rest of this tutorial ?