Why do we learn programming languages?

Before studying any programming language we should know about the programming. In the 'Programming Language' there are two words the first one is 'Programming' and  the other is 'Language'. First of all we try to understands what is a 'Language'. 

Language: - 'Language' is a medium that help us to express the ideas and thoughts of one person to another. We use natural languages(Hindi, English, French etc...) in our daily life to express ourself. Now let us starts to understand the programming - 

Programming: -  'Program' means the set of instructions. Every language has its own set of rules. Like S.V.O. is the writing pattern of English language. We form all English sentences in S.V.O. form, means first of all we use SUBJECT then VERB and then Object. Similarly every language has its own set of rules and pattern. These rules and pattern are known as program and writing of these program is known as PROGRAMMING.  

Why do we learn programming languages?

Suppose there are two person A and B. Both know different languages say X and Y respectively. Now the question is that how can they communicate with each other. The answer is THEY CON'T because they can not express themselves to other. So the problem is that - how can they communicate with each other? 

Here are the three possible ways for communication between them. 

• The First One is that anyone of them should learn the language of the other, means A should learn Y or B should learn X. In this way they can communicate to each other.
• The second way is that they learn an intermediate language for example Z. Now they can communicate with each other in language Z.
• And the last way is that they hire a translator who knows both the languages X and Y.

With the help of above example you can understand how two persons can communicate to each other. Now we can analyse the possible ways of communication between computer and the user. In the case of computer and user the communication problem is the same as the language of computer is machine and the language of user is natural language.  Now the question arises - 

Weather the above mentioned three ways can solve this communication problem. 


Lets check - 

• Here the first way will practicably not work, because computer can not learn natural language and learning machine language is extremely difficult.
• The second way will also not work because computer can not learn the intermediate language.  
• So the third way is the solution of the problem. The user takes a translator (also known as COMPILER) that translates the Intermediate language, which user learns, into machine language. In this way user can communicate with the computer.

So we can say-

"Programming language is a INTERMEDIATE LANGUAGE between COMPUTER and USER."  

For giving instruction to the computer it is important to learn a programming language. 

Category of programming langauges

Programming languages are classified into three categories and each one is divided into two parts as shown in the following diagram.

Now any programming language can be define.

For Example The definition of Basic Language is  -

Basic is a Non case sensitive, Unstructured and procedure oriented languages.

Now we are coming directly to C Language.

C is a case sensitive, structured and procedure oriented programming language.