Every novice developer, as well as a regular Internet user, might wonder: ‘What is a programming language?’

To put it bluntly, it’s a set of specific words and symbols called code which puts applications, websites, video games, or other software programs into operation.

My personal definition of the programming language is as follows:

A programming language is nothing more than a formal language capable of being read by a Turing machine and allows producing an output through a set of instructions.

The world of programming is vast and complex and never stops developing; thus, programming languages can be divided into a few general categories you should know about. Let’s talk about them in detail.

Classification Of Programming Languages

• High-level programming languages

A high-level programming language, like C, Python, and Java, is that thing with lots of letters, independent of a particular type of computer; even your grandpa could understand it.

For example, below is a piece of code using a high-level programming language:

“SELECT Nome,Cognome FROM Utenti”

It is very readable, or rather: very humanly readable, isn’t it? Here, a high-level programming language is very similar to the one humans speak.

Fortunately and unfortunately for us, not all programming languages ​​are like this.

• Mid-level programming languages

Your grandfather most likely wouldn’t understand a medium-level programming language, but you can barely read it. It’s made up of many uncommon symbols and a few well-known words that allow you to create many different programs.

Here we are halfway:

int isOdd(int numb){

    return numb%2==0;

}

So by mid-level, we mean something still similar to human language but also related to machine language. C++ and Java are the perfect representation of what a mid-level programming language is.

In terms of the time it takes to run it, it’s much faster than the previous one. The deal is the computer must spend time and effort to translate this stuff into machine language and then translate it into binary code. This can be done much quicker using an online binary translator by romannumeralsconverter.net.

• Low-level programming language

A low-level programming language looks like it can read the Rosetta stone but allows your smartphone camera to broadcast a live stream on YouTube.

Here’s a code example:

MOV AL,4C

SUB AH,0F

This stuff scared me too much during my first computer science class in the third year of high school. But don’t be afraid to deal with low-level languages; despite being difficult to use, they’re quite simple to learn.

Conclusion