Programming Language

Programming language is a set of grammatical rules which instructs a computer to perform specific tasks. There are many types of programming languages, each being tailored to suit specific needs. Some of the languages developed have been based on a combination of other programming languages. The examples below are some of the most widely used languages.

JavaScript

JavaScript is used within an HTML document to allow functionality to a web page. Specifically it is useful for creating:

JavaScript is a result of a joint venture between Sun Microsystems and Netscape Communications Corporation. Netscape initially developed a script language called LiveScript, while Sun was simplifying its Java language. JavaScript is now endorsed by a number of software companies and can be used without a license.

PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor)

PHP is open-source, server-side scripting language used to create dynamic web pages. The "PHP" is derived from the first version of the programme called Personal Home Page/Forms Interpreter (PHP/FI) which was created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1995. This was based on simple Perl script, which later included C scripting to allow communication with databases. By 1998 PHP 3.0 (alpha) was released which was the official successor of PHP/FI 2.0 and which had strong extensibility features. It was these features that attracted dozens of developers to join in and submit new extension modules. Two key features that were added were the object-oriented syntax support and its much more powerful and consistent language syntax. The most recent release is PHP 5 which came out in July 2004.

PHP now identifies syntax from C, Java and Perl and is embedded within HTML pages for server-side execution. It's main use it to extract information from databases and display it on a web page.

C Programming Language

The C programming language was developed in the early 1970s by Dennis Ritchie for use on the UNIX operating system. It is general purpose, procedural and imperative computer programming language.

It is a minimalistic language which has enabled it to be used on an extensive range of platforms (possibly more than any other language). C stands out for the efficiency of the code it produces and, although it is widely used for writing software applications, it is the most commonly used programming language for writing system software.

Let's move on to the resources page which lists useful links for getting started with programming!