Language Types
Functional or Applicative Languages Logic, Declarative, or Rule Based Languages Imperative and Procedural Programming Languages Scripting Languages
Now that you have gone through the logic, concepts, and the basics of programming per se, it is now time for you to go through the different kinds of programming languages. When you start programming on your own, you will have the freedom to select from many different types of programming languages out there.
Functional or Applicative Languages
The Applicative or Functional languages concentrate on the desired result of the program through evaluation of mathematical functions. Because of this, Functional programming languages have automatic memory management unlike other languages that use explicit memory management. Examples of languages under this paradigm are LISP and ML.
Logic, Declarative, or Rule Based Languages
Rule-based or Logical programming is basically the use of mathematical logic for computer programming. Logic is used for the declarative representation language while the model generator is used as a problem solver. This paradigm works around the premise of checking for certain conditions or rules (logic) and then executing the action when the rule is satisfied (derived by a model generator). Prolog is an example of this kind of programming language.
Imperative and Procedural Programming Languages
The Imperative or Procedural languages are chiefly command-driven or statement oriented languages. The most significant characteristic of the Imperative paradigm is its chronological execution of steps specified by a list of commands. When Imperative programming is combined with subprograms, it is called procedural programming. This paradigm assumes that the program maintains a modifiable storage for variables in which by changing its values will alter its state. Some languages that implement this paradigm are COBOL and FORTRAN.
www.cobol.com, the COBOL language has evolved since the earlier days. COBOL is mainly used in most business legacy systems today .
Scripting Languages
Scripting languages are programming languages that are typically interpreted. In other programming languages, the code is usually converted into a binary executable file. In scripting languages, what you type remains as it is. An interpreter simply communicates with the machine for execution purposes. Scripting languages were created in order to shorten the edit-compile-link-run process. VBScript and JavaScript are examples of scripting languages.
