PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES: A BIT OF HISTORY AND THEIR USES.

Programming is fundamental with computing. Most people today only surf the web, check bank statements, pirate movies, etc. Programming is the back end for every piece of software that facilitates these fun past times. Not all programming languages are the same, there is HTML to handle websites, Css to handle web design, Php can be used for login credentials and other nifty things, there is even a language for handling simple, everyday tasks.

Machine code:

Machine code was used prior to any known compiled language as it communicated with the CPU directly and it was the language that the CPU spoke. Machine code would use numbers, preferably binary, to manage data that was input into the computer. The time of the first GUI applications were still a long way off. Computers during this time, were merely used to handle data calculations. Machine language was used in the construction of computers and people who understood binary could do almost anything with the machines at the time. They were hackers before hacking was cool. Machine code was often implemented by microcode, which is another underlying type of Machine understood code which gave the processor its individual instruction set.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_code

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-machine-code.htm

Assembly language:

Assembly language was considered the first humanly readable programming language, it was really just a skin for Machine code so to speak. Assembly often used letters rather than numbers, but the letters meant something to the computer in Binary, Assembly made use of a primitive interpreter to take strings and associate them with binary. As each processor had its own instruction set, these languages worked differently according to the instruction set. While machine code was similar to microcode, Assembly was more related to bytecode, as both used an interpreter.

http://assemblylanguage.org/

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_language

FORTRAN:

Programming can be traced back to the time when computers were first being built. The first computers to accept some form of programming language were almost the size of a room. The first truly usable programming language was considered to be FORTRAN, a high level language thought to be a product of IBM in 1957. FORTRAN was designed to be easier to use than the prior programming language which was machine code. FORTRAN is, in one form or another, still used today. FORTRAN was touted to make the programmer be able to write programs 500% faster. Not only was FORTRAN easier to learn and write code in, it was also easily portable, this was a significant advantage, as machine code was often limited to a certain instruction set by the CPU.

http://groups.engin.umd.umich.edu/CIS/course.des/cis400/fortran/fortran.html

Byte code

Byte code was designed to be used via interpreter which took human readable input and created a binary set of instructions to be ran on the CPU. Byte code is not far removed from newer more modern programming languages. Byte code is written using Java format and is Object oriented. Byte code is similar to FORTRAN in that it is pretty portable and machine independent.

https://www.techopedia.com/definition/3760/bytecode

Python:

Created by Guido Van Rossum in circa 1991, Python was designed to make a programming language that was built for humans, it was meant to make things rather portable and easily read by people. It is a powerful high-level language, but it also a scripting type language. It’s not unlike Bash, but most Bash scripts can be retrofitted with the proper syntax alterations. Python can easily do things that Bash can not. Python is not a messy language, the philosophy behind it is why type more to accomplish less. Python can take ideas from other languages, but its syntax is different. Python doesn’t allow the user to do everything by default, some of its utilities are written as plugins. Import is the command often used to migrate the functionality of one of these plugins into the code. It is kind of like declaring an already declared variable that you haven’t declared yet. Python shines as a calculator on the go. You can literally type python in the terminal in Linux and then start doing your math homework. Python can even write websites. Python’s usability and capability is almost limitless, it’s still going and is very popular, however, some “haters” would wish it to go away. There are lots of people teaching Python online, because it is so popular and there is still a demand for skilled python programmers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_%28programming_language%29

https://www.python.org/

RUBY A REAL GEM

Ruby is a really easy programming language that is great for new coders. Its syntax is super easy for the most part. General programming and simple print statements are almost second nature if you are fluent in your current speaking language at all. Ruby is object oriented, but it is also possible to use this language for other things much in the same way as Python. I don’t know for sure if the two are interchangeable entirely, I’m assuming that they are but the language is quite easy, even easier for beginners than Python is. Ruby claims to have elements from a load of various programming languages such as Perl and even Lisp to name a couple. The creator’s name is Yukihiro Matsumoto. The language was released officially in 1995, however, 2006 is about the time when the language gained a true following. Ruby is a scripting language which means that it fits in the same family as Python, Perl, Shell, etc. Another great feature in Ruby is that you can customize the language. It is touted as being extensible or flexible in that users can add functionality into the language. Ruby uses an efficient way to code and even end modules. Unlike Python, you can use end to break out of a class which makes coding in Ruby that much clearer. To run Ruby written scripts you will have to install Ruby, however, in Linux at least, this is relatively easy to do. To learn more, link will be below.

https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/about/

Bash(Shell):

Used primarily in BSD, UNIX, Mac, and Linux type systems, Bash is a non-complicated way of solving many system issues, Bash is considered almost every command under the terminal or shell, but bash itself is kind of limiting. Bash wasn’t really developed to handle the same jobs that say Python was. Nevertheless, Bash does carry just about all of the syntax related rules you would expect in various other languages. If, While, For, Until, etc. Bash can utilize other utilities built into the user’s machine, but since it is primarily for unix-like systems, it can not be ported directly to Windows without some serious code modifications first. Bash is fun, Bash is easy, and Bash is free to use for anyone, without having to have anything more than a unix like system.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bash_%28Unix_shell%29

A really good starting place is a particular set of scripts here:

https://github.com/thedummy06/Helpful-Linux-Shell-Scripts

C, JAVA, AND OTHERS:

C and Java are a lot alike, in fact, many syntax rules seem exactly the same, but there is still a debate that C is less power consuming than Java. Java uses Objects rather than functions outright, but it is a similar procedure. Java tends to be more of a data crunching style language than C. Also C is a compiled Language while Jave is interpreted. Both are portable, however Java is more so, because Java uses an IDE or Integrated Development Environment. The IDE in Java takes the human written code and breaks it down into bytecode which is ran by the IDE in a virtual type of environment which interprets it into 1’s and 0’s. Java code doesn’t touch the system directly, it is interpreted, a compiled language sits on the system and is compiled to work with that system. C was developed to encourage cross platform programming, is also often used in popular applications, such as web browsers. Java was designed to be an alternative to C and C++ in 1990. Java was more heavily used for lower end phones. Many older phones from before 2013 relied on Java to be a complete suite of tools, from text messaging to music player to camera app. All runs on Java and all runs well on limited resources. Java makes use of built in memory management through Garbage Collection. What garbage collection essentially does is try to reclaim space on memory from apps who aren’t using it anymore.

https://introcs.cs.princeton.edu/java/faq/c2java.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_%28programming_language%29

http://durofy.com/10-major-differences-between-c-and-java/