Steve Jobs once said, “Everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer… because it teaches you how to think.” And much more, one may add. Programming is everywhere, right from using a smart phone and a chat app to unlocking a car and commanding a plane. A programming language is a set of grammatical rules that instruct a computing device to perform specific tasks. Computer programming bestows the ability to create absolutely anything and scale it instantly. For example, an application can be created to monitor a person’s heart rate in some part of the world and this can be immediately scaled up for the benefit of humankind all over the world.

Types of Programming Languages

Programming languages can be classified into two categories, viz. Low Level and High Level.

Low Level Languages

Low level Languages use the primitive operations of a computer. Machine Language and Assembly Language are Low level Languages as they write programs on the basis of a computer’s architecture. Machine languages are popularly known as first generation languages. In a machine language program, the computation is based on binary numbers and all instructions such as operations, data and memory locations are specified in those terms. Assembly languages are called second generation languages as they substitute the binary codes of machine language with alphabetic and numeric symbols.

High Level Languages (HLL)

High level languages are procedure-oriented and machine-independent. They are procedure-oriented as they use natural language-like structures to write the programs, which are then executed with the help of compilers and interpreters. They are machine-independent as they can be ported on any computer. Third generation languages such as C+, Java and APL are examples of high-level languages.

Top Programming Languages

JavaScript

JavaScript is the universal programming language of the web and the most sought-after programming language in the contemporary employment market. JavaScript works on both the client and server side, thus making it possible to build offline and desktop apps and run them on Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

Python

Python is a popular programming language as it is incredibly beginner friendly and easy to master. It is also the language of choice for machine learning, which is becoming a ubiquitous reality of our times. It makes immense sense to pursue Certification Training and other Python Spark courses like this.

C#

C# was released way back in 2000, but is still one of the most liked programming languages in use today. It is easy to code and is deployed in all types of software development environments, ranging from writing web and mobile applications to 3-D games. C# is also a good starting point for learning other computer languages as it has conceptual and architectural similarities to Java and others.

To conclude, people get into programming for varied reasons spanning career, money, excitement of computers and challenge of building something new. Learning programming makes immense sense even for a person who does not wish to become a programmer. Computers are a part of life and learning to program will only make it better.