GENERATIONS OF PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE

A low-level programming language is a programming language that provides little or no

abstraction from computer’s microprocessor. A high-level programming language is a

programming language that is more abstract, easier to use, and more portable across platforms.

LEVELS OF PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE

FIRST GENERATION OF PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE

The first generation of programming language, or 1GL, is machine language. Machine language

is a set of instructions and data that a computer's central processing unit can execute directly.

Machine language statements are written in binary code, and each statement corresponds to one

machine action.

SECOND GENERATION PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE

The second generation programming language, or 2GL, is assembly language. Assembly

language is the human-readable notation for the machine language used to control specific

computer operations. An assembly language programmer writes instructions using symbolic

instruction codes that are meaningful abbreviations or mnemonics. An assembler is a program

that translates assembly language into machine language.

THIRD GENERATION PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE

The third generation of programming language, 3GL, or procedural language uses a series of

English-like words, which are closer to human language, to write instructions.

High-level programming languages make complex programming simpler and easier to read,

write and maintain. Programs written in a high-level programming language must be translated

into machine language by a compiler or interpreter. PASCAL, FORTRAN, BASIC, COBOL, C

and C++ are examples of third generation programming languages.

FOURTH GENERATION PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE

The fourth generation programming language or non-procedural language, often abbreviated as

4GL, enables users to access data in a database. A very high-level programming language is

often referred to as goal-oriented programming language because it is usually limited to a very

specific application and it might use syntax that is never used in other programming languages.

SQL, NOMAD and FOCUS are examples of fourth generation programming languages.

FIFTH GENERATION PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE

The fifth generation programming language or visual programming language is also known as

natural language. Provides a visual or graphical interface called a visual programming

environment, for creating source codes. Fifth generation programming allows people to interact

with computers without needing any specialized knowledge. People can talk to computers and

the voice recognition systems can convert spoken sounds into written words. Prolog and Mercury

are the best known fifth-generation languages.

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 HISTORY OF C++

 The C language was developed in 1972 by Dennis Richie at Bell Telephone laboratories,

primarily as a systems programming language. That is, a language to write operating

systems with.

 C’s excellent portability allowed UNIX to be recompiled on many different types of

computers, speeding its adoption. C and UNIX had their fortunes tied together, and C’s

popularity was in part tied to the success of UNIX as an operating system.

 C ended up being so efficient and flexible that in 1973, Ritchie and Ken Thompson

rewrote most of the UNIX operating system using C.

 Bjarne Stroustrup, a Danish and British trained computer scientist, began his work on "C

with Classes" in 1979, the idea of creating a new language originated from his experience

in programming for his Ph.D. thesis

 1983- The name of the language was changed from C with Classes to C++ (++ being the

increment operator in C). New features were added including virtual functions, function

name and operator overloading, references, constants, user-controlled free-store memory

control, improved type checking, and BCPL style single-line comments with two forward

slashes (//)

 1983- development of a proper compiler for C++, Cfront

 1985- The first edition of The C++ Programming Language was released, providing an

important reference to the language, as there was not yet an official standard.

 1985- The first commercial implementation of C++ was released in October

 1989- Release 2.0 of C++ came in

 1990- The Annotated C++ Reference Manual was published. This work became the basis

for the future standard. Late feature additions included templates, exceptions,

namespaces, new casts, and a Boolean type

 1991- The updated second edition of The C++ Programming Language was released.

New features included multiple inheritance, abstract classes, static member functions,

const member functions, and protected members.

C++ continues to be used is and is one of the preferred programming languages to develop

professional applications.

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