Questions about programming languages???

Question

What are the primary uses for:

Pascal

FORTRAN

COBOL

BASIC

C

C++

Java

ALGOL

LISP

Ada

Salltalk

Scheme

Also what are their historical significance if any???

Muchas Gracias in advance :D

Answer 1

Some of these languages are pretty old, but some have different strengths and weaknesses. You see this in what programs use these languages. Java is used in a lot of games. Some languages are focused more on graphics will others have greater capabilities. C# is also a programming language its a newer one.

Answer 2

Actually "The man" FORTRAN and COBOL were among the first programming languages. Java is like the new kid on the block compared to them.

Answer 3

Pascal - Generally a language taught in college which models the style and structure of many other languages.  Not generally used for commercial application development.

FORTRAN - FORmula TRANslator, an early language whose origination was in translating mathematical formulas into computer code.  As the other poster mentioned, it was a very early language, I used it in 1977.

COBOL - COmmon Business Oriented Language, an early language used for business application development.  Known for it's "english-like" constructs.  Had robust I/O capability (indexed files, hashing, CICS) as compared to FORTRAN.

BASIC - Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code - an all-purpose, interpreted langage used for just about everything.  Depending on the version, which can usually be machine specific, it had a mix of math and business functions built in.  Ran relatively slow to FORTRAN and COBOL which are compiled languages.

C - developed to run primarily in the unix environment, but later transported to other OS platforms.  Can be used for math or business applications.  Complex structures are allowed similar to Pascal.  (Functioning, recursion, etc.)

C++ - built upon C, allows more transportability among different hardware/OS configurations

Java - Interpreted language, primarily used in website design although it has broken into other application areas.  Expensive in that it is generally slow, and requires a lot of memory.

ALGOL - short for ALGOrithmic Language, used as a basis for other languages and developed to be able to translate mathematical proofs into computer code

LISP - LISt Processing language - An old language which was also used to model mathematics into computers.  Used full parenthesis notation and allowed the user to embed instructions in "lists" which is a type of data structure (similar to a CASE statement in other languages)

Ada - a highly structured language related to Pascal.  Used primarily by the government and industry for device control.  Your microwave may have been coded in Ada.  The compiler was designed to capture many different types of errors and ensure correct completion of instructions.  It is used in industry because you can trap for almost any state and offer a coded solution.

Smalltalk - an object oriented language used in both business and sciences.  Developed by Xerox, it had a Graphical User Interface capability, and could do a form of "interprocess messaging" that at the time was unique.

Scheme - A variant of Lisp.

Hope this helps!

Answer 4

There primary use is to make software, Java was one of the first languages and is one of the best to start off with.

Answer 5

Oh jesus...

Okay.

Pascal

FORTRAN

COBOL

These are all depricated used by very few people, except Pascal, which is primarily used in 2D game design, to my knowledge. FORTRAN and COBOL were the first some of the first "high level " programming languages (FORTRAN being the first ever high-level programming language) used by scientists to aid them with experiments and models.

BASIC

Everything you could do with early computer, like ZX81s or Memotechs.

C

C++

Java

The applications you see today may be written in any of these (most likely Java and C++, or C#)

ALGOL

Precursor to Pascal, this was an algorithmic programming language. So Mathematicians and scientists use it.

LISP

LISP was like FORTRAN, except for mathematicians. It was the second "High level" programming language.

Ada

Based on pascal, Ada is a fully object-oriented programming language, but is extremely strongly typed (types like integer or string, meaning you can't turn an integer into a string or a string into an integer or an integer into a decimal without casting them). It is usually used for mission-critical programs where precision is important, such as in avionics

Salltalk

I have no idea.

Scheme

LISP, but supports functions.