What are the main purposes of all programming languages?

[StratosP]

Eg..

C++ is mainly for creative/programming <insert here> etc

I want to learn C++ in future..I am new at this and since I am 13, I think it will be good since I start young and I can further develop my skills overtime. All I know is a tiny tiny tiny bit of Visual Basic..like I can make a windows customizable pop-up come up at start up and a script the makes the CD-Rom open and close until the process is stopped.

So list all the purposes of all the programming languages because I want to find the one suitable for me like creating games, websites, software and using the coding maybe even in hardware.

Thank you!
-StratosP

 

[Celegorm]

All languages can do pretty much anything. C++ is pretty common just about everwhere, and with the correct tools and be put into webpages although that is uncommon.

Really the only two that tend to stick out from the rest are JAVA and HTML as they dominate the webpage based programs/webpage creation.

 

[JogaBonito1502]

Well, the purpose of programming languages is to create things that will allow users to utilize their computers to do more and more things as programmers become more advanced. Everything you use has been programmed using some sort of programming language. Like celegorm stated, the internet is almost dominated by HTML and Java. Most "regular" programs are coded using C++, DX, VB, and many others. Some programs are created of two languages used in combination. A common example is C++ and DX. Plenty of games are created using those two languages.

To effectively learn programming will take you anywhere from five to ten years of programming. And by effectively I mean you will have complete dominance of the language. Contrary to popular belief, programming is not all about learning syntax and learning how to use certain functions. Programming is all about how you intertwine those functions to produce the effect needed. Additionally, most of your programming will consist of preventing errors (I forget the technical term).

Once you fully understand the concept of programming you will be able to easily program in any other language; the only difficulty will be learning the new syntax and functions.

 

[StratosP]

Thanks Joga and Celegrom,
My dad got some Microsoft C++ software from work a while ago, should I use that to start off?
Oh and by the way, next year for Year 8 I am doing a "Computer Networking and Applications" class which is basically creating/managing networks, Visual Basic scripting and flash..so that would help a lot!

 

[JogaBonito1502]

You remind of me:

Freshman year: VB
Sophomore year: C++
Current year: Networking

I would recommend you download a P.E. called Python. It's "real time" programming (you'll understand what I mean once you use it). With that you'll learn some of the principles of basic programming functions. C++ is a bit complicated to go right off the bat I think. I myself started with VB so you can give that a try if you don't want to mess with Python.

 

[StratosP]

Yeah, I've heard of Python, I'll download it after school!

 

[Celegorm]

Yeah MS compilers are good. you can get a good start on all their language compilers by downloading Microsoft visual studio Express. It's free.

 

[gwen005]

Source History of programming languages
Pages: 880
Year of Publication: 1996
ISBN:0-201-89502-1
Editors Thomas J. Bergin, Jr. The American University, Washington, D.C.
Richard G. Gibson, Jr. The American University, Washington, D.C.

Publisher ACM New York, NY, USA
Front matter Pdf (685 KB) Front matter (TOC, Editor's introduction, General introduction, Development of program, Acknowledgments)
Back matter Pdf (1.52 MB) Back matter (Call for papers, List of attendees, Final conference program)
Bibliometrics Downloads (6 Weeks): n/a, Downloads (12 Months): n/a, Citation Count: 6

grew up with Pascal. It's been my language of choice for doing mostly everything. Everytime I try and switch to other (case sensitive) languages, specifically C++/C#, I am incredibly put off by the case sensitivity of the syntax.

What especially gets me, especially from a readability point of view, are things like variable declarations in the following fashion:


TD_SOMETYPE td_sometype;


That's the most braindead thing I've ever seen, naming a variable after the type, except it's unique because the character case is different....

Not only does this kill readability, but the very nature of the case sensitive syntax means that you're constantly having to think about variable names, instead of just using the bloody things in that activity otherwise known as programming.

And don't get me started on the debugging headaches it causes simply because you typed "S" instead of "s", somewhere. To me, it makes the coding process needlessly complicated.

The ordinal value of a character shouldn't change its meaning except if it specifically occurs as data. Of course, the source code of a program IS data, but only for use by the compiler. Why should we as programmers have to suffer just to keep the compiler happy.

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Gwen