Generations of Programming Languages

 Programming languages have been developed over the year in a phased manner. Each phase of developed has made the programming language more user-friendly, easier to use and more powerful. Each phase of improved made in the development of the programming languages can be referred to as a generation. The programming language in terms of their performance reliability and robustness can be grouped into five different genera

1.     First generation languages (1GL)

2.     Second generation languages (2GL)

3.     Third generation languages (3GL)

4.     Fourth generation languages (4GL)

5.     Fifth generation languages (5GL)

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Machine language (1GL) is the lowest level of language, The language used to program the first-generation computers.

The instructions in 1GL are made of binary numbers, represented by 1s and 0s, it is Suitable for the understanding of the machine but very much difficult to interpret and learn by the human programmer.

Machine language

Assembly language (2GL) is Low-level language that allows a programmer to use abbreviations or easily remembered words instead of numbers, Programmer can write instructions faster but it is still not an easy language to learn.

assembly languages

High Level languages (3GL) is an English-like language, It allowed users to write in familiar notation, rather than numbers or abbreviations.

Most High-level languages are not Machine Dependent and it uses a Translator, For High-level languages the Translator is either a Compiler or an Interpreter.

Examples of High-level languages: FORTRON - COBOL – BASIC - C and C++.

C++

Very-High-Level Languages (4GL)  are much more user-oriented and allow programmers to develop programs with fewer commands compared with 3GLs, which is Saves a lot of time. 

4GLs consist of report generators, query languages, application generators, and interactive database management system

examples of Very-High-Level Languages ,RPG III (Report Generator) and SQL (Structured Query Language) .

RPG III

SQL

Natural Languages (5GL) are designed to make the computer solve a given problem without the programmer.

Natural languages are part of the field of study known as Artificial Intelligence ,Develop machines to emulate human-like qualities such as learning, reasoning, communicating, seeing and hearing.

there are two types of Natural languages ,Ordinary Human Languages; like English and Programming language that use human language to give people a more natural connection with computers.

examples of Natural languages ,Mercury ,OPS5 and Prolog.

Mercury