A programming language is a machine-readable artificial language A planned or constructed language—known colloquially or informally as a conlang—is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary have been consciously devised by an individual or group, instead of having evolved naturally. There are many possible reasons to create a constructed language: to ease human communication ; to bring fiction designed to express computations Computation is a general term for any type of information processing. This includes phenomena ranging from human thinking to calculations with a more narrow meaning. Computation is a process following a well-defined model that is understood and can be expressed in an algorithm, protocol, network topology, etc. Computation is also a major subject that can be performed by a machine, particularly a computer A computer is a machine that manipulates data according to a set of instructions. Programming languages can be used to create programs A program is list of instructions written in a programming language that is used to control the behavior of a machine, often a computer (in this case it is known as a computer program) that specify the behavior of a machine A machine is any device that uses energy to perform some activity. In common usage, the meaning is that of a device having parts that perform or assist in performing any type of work. A simple machine is a device that transforms the direction or magnitude of a force without consuming any energy. The word "machine" is derived from the, to express algorithms In mathematics, computing, linguistics, and related subjects, an algorithm is a finite sequence of instructions, logic, an explicit, step-by-step procedure for solving a problem, often used for calculation and data processing and many other fields. It is formally a type of effective method in which a list of well-defined instructions for precisely, or as a mode of human communication.
Many programming languages have some form of written specification of their syntax In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing sentences in natural languages. In addition to referring to the discipline, the term syntax is also used to refer directly to the rules and principles that govern the sentence structure of any individual language, as in "the syntax of Modern Irish." and semantics Semantics is the study of meaning. The word "semantics" itself denotes a range of ideas, from the popular to the highly technical. It is often used in ordinary language to denote a problem of understanding that comes down to word selection or connotation. This problem of understanding has been the subject of many formal inquiries, over a, since computers require precisely defined instructions. Some (such as C C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed in 1972 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system) are defined by a specification document A document is a bounded physical representation of body of information designed with the capacity (and usually intent) to communicate. A document may manifest symbolic, diagrammatic or sensory-representational information. To document (verb) is to produce a document artifact by collecting and representing information. In prototypical usage, a (for example, an ISO The International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO (pronounced /ˈaɪsoʊ/), is an international-standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded on 23 February 1947, the organization promulgates worldwide proprietary industrial and commercial standards. It has its Standard), while others (such as Perl Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall, a linguist working as a systems administrator for NASA, in 1987, as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone many changes and revisions and become widely) have a dominant implementation.
The earliest programming languages predate the invention of the computer, and were used to direct the behavior of machines such as Jacquard looms The Jacquard loom is a mechanical loom, invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1801, that simplifies the process of manufacturing textiles with complex patterns such as brocade, damask, and matelasse. The loom is controlled by punchcards with punched holes, each row of which corresponds to one row of the design. Multiple rows of holes are punched on and player pianos The player piano is a self-playing piano, containing a pneumatic or electro-mechanical mechanism that plays on the piano action pre-programmed music via perforated paper rolls. The rise of the player piano grew with the rise of the mass-produced piano in the house and the sheet music industry explosion of the late 19th and early 20th century.[. Thousands of different programming languages have been created, mainly in the computer field,[1] with many more being created every year.
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My professional interests center on programming languages and tools, and how to improve the languages and tools that are used for building complex software ...
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Michael Feathers
hu, 16 Jul 2009 09:16:00 GM
In this interview with Sadek Drobi, Michael Feathers explores working with legacy code, working with different . programming languages. , the right scope/size of modules, and the importance of readability of code regardless of the ...

