Programming language: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 23:28, 14 February 2025

Revision as of 23:55, 21 February 2025

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{{Main|History of programming languages}}

===Early developments===

The first programmable computers were invented at the end of the 1940s, and with themthen, the first programming languages.{{sfn|Gabbrielli|Martini|2023|p=519}} The earliest computers were programmed in [[first-generation programming language]]s (1GLs), [[machine language]] (simple instructions that could be directly executed by the processor). This code was very difficult to debug and was not [[portability (computing)|portable]] between different computer systems.{{sfn|Gabbrielli|Martini|2023|pp=520–521}} In order to improve the ease of programming, [[assembly languages]] (or [[second-generation programming language]]s—2GLs) were invented, diverging from the machine language to make programs easier to understand for humans, although they did not increase portability.{{sfn|Gabbrielli|Martini|2023|p=521}}

Initially, hardware resources were scarce and expensive, while [[human resources]] were cheaper. Therefore, cumbersome languages that were time-consuming to use, but were closer to the hardware for higher efficiency were favored.{{sfn|Gabbrielli|Martini|2023|p=522}} The introduction of [[high-level programming language]]s ([[third-generation programming language]]s—3GLs)—revolutionized programming. These languages [[abstraction (computing)|abstracted]] away the details of the hardware, instead being designed to express algorithms that could be understood more easily by humans. For example, arithmetic expressions could now be written in symbolic notation and later translated into machine code that the hardware could execute.{{sfn|Gabbrielli|Martini|2023|p=521}} In 1957, [[Fortran]] (FORmula TRANslation) was invented. Often considered the first [[compiler|compiled]] high-level programming language,{{sfn|Gabbrielli|Martini|2023|p=521}}{{sfn|Sebesta|2012|p=42}} Fortran has remained in use into the twenty-first century.{{sfn|Gabbrielli|Martini|2023|p=524}}