R.I.B.H.U. Academy^®

Concept & Origin of Programming

    Though this post is not about history of Invention of Computer, etc. I only touch on the topic of different level of programming languages. When the computer was invented by Charles Babbage (father of computer), between 1833 and 1871, it was basic calculating mechanical machine. Alan Turing, a Professor of Mathematics and Logic, a computer scientist, crypt-analyst, had invented the Universal Turing Machine, used for cracking Enigma Codes, in 1936.

    The computer screen was first developed in 1964 and, released in 1973. Before that, computer engineers and programmers worked on electronic circuits, output on paper, etc. Computer Programs were LOW-LEVEL languages. Steve Wozniak, a computer engineer and programmer, had developed micro-computer and PC in 1976. Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie, father of computer programming, has invented C programming language in 1969-73. Bjarne Stroustrup developed C++ programming language in 1979. C and C++ are HIGH level programming languages.

History of Computer Programming:

There are many computer programming languages, some of famous and generally used are:

1957 FORTRON (first compiler)

1959 COBOL (used in finance, business, etc.)

1960 ALGOL (ALGOL 58 & ALGOL 60) by International Group

1967 BCPL (forerunner to C) by Martin Richards

1970 B by Ken Thomson

1972 (Traditional) C by Dennis Ritchie

1978 K&R C by Kernighan & Dennis Ritchie

1978 SQL (database query language)

1979 C++ by Bjarne Stroustrup

1989 ANSI C by ANSI Committee

1990 Python

1995 Ruby

1995 Java

1995 PHP by Rasmus Lerdorf

1995 JavaScript

1999 C99 by Standard Committee

2011 C11 by Standard Committee

2011 Kotlin

Difference between LOW-Level and HIGH-Level Programming Languages:

    As you have seen above that there are many computer programming languages, developed from 1950s to till date. Many programming languages are LOW level, which means that they are developed to be understood by computers and machines (e.g. TV remote, appliances, etc.)

    However, LOW level programming languages are difficult to be understood by general public at large. And therefore, when C and C++ were developed, they are used by millions of programmers. Many programming languages, for example, Java, C#, PHP, JavaScript, Python, etc. are based on C programming language.

Difference between COMPILE-TIME & RUN-TIME programming languages:

    C, C++, Java, etc. are compile-time programming languages, which means that they are written in human language, but they are required to be converted into BINARY language (0101100100111011). This conversion of any programme from human language, for example, English to Binary (Low-level programming) language, is called compiling.

    C, C++, Java, etc. are written in some software / code editor and thereafter, are required to be compiled by another software, called as "COMPILER", and then you can EXECUTE that output to RUN the program. This means that you have to give command twice: Once for compiling the program, and another for running the program.

    However, many programming languages, for example, JavaScript, PHP, Python, Kotlin, are not required to be compiled. Thus, these programming languages are called RUN-TIME programming languages. These programmes are written in human language, for example, English, and interpreted by the respective softwares. For example, JavaScript is interpreted by the web-browser, and PHP is interpreted by the Apache server.

    RUN-TIME programming languages have advantages and disadvantages over the COMPILE-TIME programming languages. Former is open to another programmer and cannot be distributed in encryption, while the latter is written in human language, and compiled in binary language, and therefore, encrypted. PHP is programming language of creating WEB-PAGES, which is stored on WEB-SERVER. It is not distributed to public at large. But, JavaScript is open to everyone and downloaded directly to web-browser. Any person can see the source-code of a JavaScript file/code.

Difference between Strict Data-type and Dynamic Data-type programming languages

    Generally, compile-time programming languages are strict data-type programming languages. It means that data-types are strictly defined, and names of containers (variables, constants, etc.) are pre-assigned to a particular data-type and values of only that data-type can be stored in respective containers. Containers are memory (RAM) locations, where a program can store values, and then processes them.

    Run-time programming languages are generally, dynamic or loose data-type programming languages. It means that containers (memory locations) can store values of any data-type. This is intentionally designed to reduce memory (RAM) consumption, and better execution of programmes, where millions of users interact with the programs simultaneously. However, dynamic or loose data-type programming languages can have BUGS (programming errors and loop-holes).

    However, modern updation of differnt versions of PHP and JavaScript also emphesises on strict data-type usage, and various changes/ developement have been taken in these programming languages. It means that users can input data of any type, but when these values are processed by PHP and JavaScript, they are converted to strict data-types.

Indentation & white-spaces

    C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, PHP, Python, Kotlin, etc. are HIGH level programming languages. All these programming languages are written in English. Thus, these programming languages are written with some syntax, that is, sentence (statement) terminator (generally semi-colon), words (parameters, arguments, etc.) are separated with commas. These programming CODES are written in paragraphs (blocks), and therefore written within curly braces { }. Mathematical and logical operations (expressions) are done with + − * / ( ) parenthesis. Brackets [ ] are used to store multiple vales into one container.

    First four are COMPILE-TIME programming languages. These are strict data-type programming languages, which means data-types of containers are pre-assigned, for example, with String, int, float, double, boolean, array, etc. Writing CODEs in these programming languages don't need INDENTATION. Indentation is spaces left by programmers to make CODEs readable. While latter four are RUN-TIME programming languages. And, these programming languages are dynamic (loose) data-types. Except JavaScript and PHP, other two programming languages, that is, Python and Kotlin even don't need some of these above-mentioned separators, that is, semi-colon and curly-braces. Therefore, to write CODES in Python and Kotlin, you need INDENTATION, which is must. You can give one, two, three, or four spaces left before each line inside a block of CODEs. This will be explained later in next page.