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ComputerLanguageandProgrammingI.IntroductionProgramminglanguages,incomputerscience,aretheartificiallanguagesusedtowriteasequenceofinstructions(acomputerprogram)thatcanberunbyacomputer.Similartonaturallanguages,suchasEnglish,programminglanguageshaveavocabulary,grammar,andsyntax.However,naturallanguagesarenotsuitedforprogrammingcomputersbecausetheyareambiguous,meaningthattheirvocabularyandgrammaticalstructuremaybeinterpretedinmultipleways.Thelanguagesusedtoprogramcomputersmusthavesimplelogicalstructures,andtherulesfortheirgrammar,spelling,andpunctuationmustbeprecise.Programminglanguagesvarygreatlyintheirsophisticationandintheirdegreeofversatility.Someprogramminglanguagesarewrittentoaddressaparticularkindofcomputingproblemorforuseonaparticularmodelofcomputersystem.Forinstance,programminglanguagessuchasFORTRANandCOBOLwerewrittentosolvecertaingeneraltypesofprogrammingproblems—FORTRANforscientificapplications,andCOBOLforbusinessapplications.Althoughtheselanguagesweredesignedtoaddressspecificcategoriesofcomputerproblems,theyarehighlyportable,meaningthattheymaybeusedtoprogrammanytypesofcomputers.Otherlanguages,suchasmachinelanguages,aredesignedtobeusedbyonespecificmodelofcomputersystem,orevenbyonespecificcomputerincertainresearchapplications.Themostcommonlyusedprogramminglanguagesarehighlyportableandcanbeusedtoeffectivelysolvediversetypesofcomputingproblems.LanguageslikeC,PASCALandBASICfallintothiscategory.II.LanguageTypesProgramminglanguagescanbeclassifiedaseitherlow-levellanguagesorhigh-levellanguages.Low-levelprogramminglanguages,ormachinelanguages,arethemostbasictypeofprogramminglanguagesandcanbeunderstooddirectlybyacomputer.Machinelanguagesdifferdependingonthemanufacturerandmodelofcomputer.High-levellanguagesareprogramminglanguagesthatmustfirstbetranslatedintoamachinelanguagebeforetheycanbeunderstoodandprocessedbyacomputer.Examplesofhigh-levellanguagesareC,C++,PASCAL,andFORTRAN.Assemblylanguagesareintermediatelanguagesthatareveryclosetomachinelanguagesanddonothavetheleveloflinguisticsophisticationexhibitedbyotherhigh-levellanguages,butmuststillbetranslatedintomachinelanguage.1.MachineLanguagesInmachinelanguages,instructionsarewrittenassequencesof1sand0s,calledbits,thatacomputercanunderstanddirectly.Aninstructioninmachinelanguagegenerallytellsthecomputerfourthings:(1)wheretofindoneortwonumbersorsimplepiecesofdatainthemaincomputermemory(RandomAccessMemory,orRAM),(2)asimpleoperationtoperform,suchasaddingthetwonumberstogether,(3)whereinthemainmemorytoputtheresultofthissimpleoperation,and(4)wheretofindthenextinstructiontoperform.Whileallexecutableprogramsareeventuallyreadbythecomputerinmachinelanguage,theyarenotallprogrammedinmachinelanguage.Itisextremelydifficulttoprogramdirectlyinmachinelanguagebecausetheinstructionsaresequencesof1sand0s.Atypicalinstructioninamachinelanguagemightread1001011001011andmeanaddthecontentsofstorageregisterAtothecontentsofstorageregisterB.2.High-LevelLanguagesHigh-levellanguagesarerelativelysophisticatedsetsofstatementsutilizingwordsandsyntaxfromhumanlanguage.Theyaremoresimilartonormalhumanlanguagesthanassemblyormachinelanguagesandarethereforeeasiertouseforwritingcomplicatedprograms.Theseprogramminglanguagesallowlargerandmorecomplicatedprogramstobedevelopedfaster.However,high-levellanguagesmustbetranslatedintomachinelanguagebyanotherprogramcalledacompilerbeforeacomputercanunderstandthem.Forthisreason,programswritteninahigh-levellanguagemaytakelongertoexecuteanduseupmorememorythanprogramswritteninanassemblylanguage.3.AssemblyLanguagesComputerprogrammersuseassemblylanguagestomakemachine-languageprogramseasiertowrite.Inanassemblylanguage,eachstatementcorrespondsroughlytoonemachinelanguageinstruction.Anassemblylanguagestatementiscomposedwiththeaidofeasytoremembercommands.ThecommandtoaddthecontentsofthestorageregisterAtothecontentsofstorageregisterBmightbewrittenADDB,Ainatypicalassemblylanguagestatement.Assemblylanguagessharecertainfeatureswithmachinelanguages.Forinstance,itispossibletomanipulatespecificbitsinbothassemblyandmachinelanguages.Programmersuseassemblylanguageswhenitisimportanttominimizethetimeittakestorunaprogram,becausethetranslationfromassemblylanguagetomachinelanguageisrelativelysimple.Assemblylanguagesarealsousedwhensomepartofthecomputerhastobecontrolleddirectly,suchasindividualdotsonamonitorortheflowofindividualcharacterstoaprinter.III.ClassificationofHigh-LevelLanguagesHigh-levellanguagesarecommonlyclassifiedasprocedure-oriented,functional,object-oriented,orlogiclanguages.Themostcommonhigh-levellanguagestodayareprocedure-orientedlanguages.Intheselanguages,oneormorerelatedblocksofstatementsthatperformsomecompletefunctionaregroupedtogetherintoaprogrammodule,orprocedure,andgivenanamesuchas“procedureA.”Ifthesamesequenceofoperationsisneededelsewhereintheprogram,asimplestatementcanbeusedtoreferbacktotheprocedure.Inessence,aprocedureisjustamini-program.Alargeprogramcanbeconstructedbygroupingtogetherproceduresthatperformdifferenttasks.Procedurallanguagesallowprogramstobeshorterande