Defining Programming Language
First, let’s begin by defining what exactly a computer programming language is. At the simplest explanation, a programming language is a set of rules established to tell a computer to complete certain tasks. Normally, when people speak of programming languages, they are referring to high level programming languages. Typical high level programming languages include COBOL, Pascal, and BASIC. Each programming language has a certain number of words, otherwise known as keywords, that it can comprehend. Each language also has a unique syntax, or form, to organize program instructions.
Programming Language History
Programming languages actually existed before computers were invented. The first programming languages were used in 19th century player pianos and Jacquard looms. Since then, thousand of programming languages have been created, thanks to the creation of the computer. The first programming languages that are now common today were developed in the 1960s and 1970s. These languages include C and Prolog. A few leading computer programming researchers include Paul Abrahams, developer of the SPLASH language, and James Gosling, creator of JAVA programming language.
Measuring Programming Language Popularity
Although thousands of computer programming languages now exist, determining which is the most popular is a difficult task. This is because the term usage varies greatly between researchers and when used in different contexts. For example, programmers may use one language for a long period of hours, but another language might have more lines of code – thus usage must really be measured within relevant contexts. However, several methods of measuring usage have been proposed including measuring how many job posting have mentioned a specific programming language, how many books exist on a certain programming language and how many references to a certain programming language exist on a search engine. Using these methods, a top ten list of programming languages was developed in 2008. The top ten most mentioned programming languages are: C, C++, Java, Javascript, C#, PHP, Perl, Ruby, Python, and SQL.