A fundamental computing question..?

Question

There's one thing i don't get in computer.. We use Languages to create windows, software and applications. Computer doesn't know anything other than 1s and 0s. My question is, How did he(who ever it might be) created a language in the first place..so that they can use it to create graphics, applications and softwares.. Can any please give me the idea.. behind computer language in the 1st place..

Answer 1

A programming language is an artificial language designed to express computations that can be performed by a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine, to express algorithms precisely, or as a mode of human communication.



Many programming languages have some form of written specification of their syntax (form) and semantics (meaning). Some languages are defined by a specification document. For example, the C programming language is specified by an ISO Standard. Other languages, such as Perl, have a dominant implementation that is used as a reference.



The earliest programming languages predate the invention of the computer, and were used to direct the behavior of machines such as Jacquard looms and player pianos. Thousands of different programming languages have been created, mainly in the computer field, with many more being created every year. Most programming languages describe computation in an imperative style, i.e., as a sequence of commands, although some languages, such as those that support functional programming or logic programming, use alternative forms of description.



















11.1. Compiled languages



The most conventional kind of language is a compiled language. Compiled languages get translated into runnable files of binary machine code by a special program called (logically enough) a compiler. Once the binary has been generated, you can run it directly without looking at the source code again. (Most software is delivered as compiled binaries made from code you don't see.)



Compiled languages tend to give excellent performance and have the most complete access to the OS, but also to be difficult to program in.



C, the language in which Unix itself is written, is by far the most important of these (with its variant C++). FORTRAN is another compiled language still used among engineers and scientists but years older and much more primitive. In the Unix world no other compiled languages are in mainstream use. Outside it, COBOL is very widely used for financial and business software.



There used to be many other compiler languages, but most of them have either gone extinct or are strictly research tools. If you are a new Unix developer using a compiled language, it is overwhelmingly likely to be C or C++.

11.2. Interpreted languages



An interpreted language depends on an interpreter program that reads the source code and translates it on the fly into computations and system calls. The source has to be re-interpreted (and the interpreter present) each time the code is executed.



Interpreted languages tend to be slower than compiled languages, and often have limited access to the underlying operating system and hardware. On the other hand, they tend to be easier to program and more forgiving of coding errors than compiled languages.



Many Unix utilities, including the shell and bc(1) and sed(1) and awk(1), are effectively small interpreted languages. BASICs are usually interpreted. So is Tcl. Historically, the most important interpretive language has been LISP (a major improvement over most of its successors). Today, Unix shells and the Lisp that lives inside the Emacs editor are probably the most important pure interpreted languages.

11.3. P-code languages



Since 1990 a kind of hybrid language that uses both compilation and interpretation has become increasingly important. P-code languages are like compiled languages in that the source is translated to a compact binary form which is what you actually execute, but that form is not machine code. Instead it's pseudocode (or p-code), which is usually a lot simpler but more powerful than a real machine language. When you run the program, you interpret the p-code.



P-code can run nearly as fast as a compiled binary (p-code interpreters can be made quite simple, small and speedy). But p-code languages can keep the flexibility and power of a good interpreter.



Important p-code languages include Python, Perl, and Java.

Answer 2

Let me give you a picture :



Computer understand 1's and 0's, which is machine language / binary language,

We human understand words, which is high level language



in the steps in converting high level language to machine language, several software/mechanism is involved. they are compiler, linker, assembler and there's some more (i dont remember... sorry). The compiler's job is to read the words that human typed (the source code) and then convert it into object code, then the linker will link the object with respective (needed) libraries that is pre-defined in the computer system. then it will generate an assembly files to be assembled by the assembler, then, (woo... it becames cocoa crunch.. heheh, just some ads to make you not bored reading this.. ) the assembler will generate a binary files which contains machines code, which is 1's and 0's. So, the main translator of the cpu was the assembler. That's how they do it.

Answer 3

in those days, people whose computers' only software was a monitor ROM flipped bits to write their programs. people knew their processor opcodes very well.



eventually people got enough memory that they could toggle in Tom Pittman's Tiny Basic (which was really popular) - If I remember right it was a hard-coded language - no assemblers used to make it. You can get the code in Dr. Dobb's Journal of Computer Calisthenics and Orthodontia. It came out every so often (I came along late in life and I ended up with about 4 large volumes out of the entire set which I no longer have). people would recode the languages for their own particular type of processor, whether it was a motorola 6800 or an Intel 8080 or later a Z80 or a Signetics 6502. games, utilities, assemblers, you name it, people were writing it. anything to make the lights blink on the front panel.



and you had to toggle all 8 or 16 switches (depending on your model) to get the data in. People eventually came out with enhanced versions of their monitor ROMs that you could buy or burn yourself onto an EPROM.



People would sell punched paper tapes with the bytes on it. If you really wanted something that lasted you got mylar. And people, if they happened to have purchased a Teletype. Eventually hobbyists had a growing market for data storage and cassette tape (inexpensive) hacks and disk drives for $1000, if you had money, were available. back then in the 70's it was a lot of money.



at least that's the way it was in the hobby computer days.

long before that, programs like charles babbage's analytical difference engine (which generated interest tables I think) were hard-coded into the gears of the machinery. then things were still hard-coded with the relay and tube computers. patch panels so you could change the program. Eventually expensive tape and disk drives came along.



CP/M came along and allowed you to boot to a CP/M OS prompt like DOS, which prompted more languages like tiny C and assemblers.



so I guess you could say things kind of grew into place.

In the 70s COBOL and Fortran were available on the mainframes (probably available earlier). there were also programmable calculators (via magnetic strip).

Answer 4

i think this may be a C++ direction meant for engineering majors (a call for) based upon the pattern coursework you have pronounced - no longer something that a liberal arts pupil might take lol. Will or no longer this isn't any longer straight forward - I dunno, it must be difficult the place you will desire to take a place diverse time in - it relatively is very customary of computing gadget programming classes, even for the main gifted of all of them. yet surely, people who can bypass by using a common engineering center of calculus and calculus based physics even have the brains to bypass their way by using it so i does no longer sweat approximately it.