OverSimplified: Programming Languages

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Sina Nikmaram

Welcome to Oversimplified, a series where I oversimplify CS concepts in an attempt to help us all better understand them.

What is a Programming Language?

• Programming Languages are tools that provide us with a syntax (rules and keywords) which we can use to communicate with computers.

Okay so... how does this help us communicate?

• Computers only understand Binary (1's and 0's) or Machine Code.
• Programming Languages allow us to write code that is legible to humans, and can be transformed or compiled into machine code.

(If you want to take a deeper dive into how computers read and execute code I recommend watching this video.)

Low-Level vs High-Level Programming Languages

• Abstraction is a buzzword that refers to the level of control a language requires us to have over hardware processes.
• Lower Level Languages (Assembly, Machine Code, etc...):
  • Require management of hardware processes
  • Harder to read/write
  • Quicker to compile/execute
• Higher Level Languages (Python, JS, etc...):
  • Hide hardware processes from us / abstract them away
  • Easier to read/write
  • Slower to compile/execute

Strongly/Statically Typed vs Weakly/Dynamically Typed Languages

• Types refer to a programming languages behavior in regards to variables.
• Strongly/Statically typed languages:
  • Require you to explicitly define the data types of variables.
  • Do not allow the assignment of values that have a different data type than the variable.

int num = 10
str greeting = "Hello World"

• Weakly/Dynamically typed languages:
  • Infer the data type of a variable based on the data type of the value.
  • Allow us to assign and reassign any value to any variable.

num = 10
num = "Hello World"

Best Programming Languages to Learn for 2022

• Entry level: High-level Dynamically Typed Languages
  1. JavaScript (Web Development)
  2. Python (Data Science & A.I.)
  3. Swift (Mobile)
• Robotics and Gaming: High-level Statically Typed Languages
  • C++
• Blockchain: High-level Statically Typed Languages
  1. C++
  2. Solidity
  3. Go
• Enterprise: High-level Languages
  1. Java
  2. Python
  3. JavaScript
  4. C++

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Sina Nikmaram

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