OverSimplified: Programming Languages

Welcome! In this series, I try to oversimplify CS concepts in an attempt to help us all better understand them. Thanks for your time, enjoy!

What is a Programming Language?

• Programming Languages are tools that provide us with a set of rules and keywords which we can use to communicate with computers.

Okay so... how does this help us communicate?

• Computers only understand Binary (1's and 0's) or Machine Code.
• Programming Languages allow us to write code that is legible to us, but can also be compiled into machine code.

(If you want to take a deep dive into how computers read and execute code I recommend watching this video.)

Low-Level vs High-Level Languages

• Lower Level Languages (Assembly, Machine Code, etc...):
  • Require management of hardware processes
  • Harder to read/write
  • Quicker to compile/execute
• Higher Level Languages (Python, JS, etc...):
  • Hide hardware processes from us / abstract them away
  • Easier to read/write
  • Slower to compile/execute
• Abstraction is a buzzword that refers to the level of control a language requires us to have over hardware processes.

Statically Typed vs Dynamically Typed Languages

• Types refer to how a language treats variables.
• Statically typed languages:
  • Define the data types of variables
  • Variables can not have a value with a different data type

int numTen = 10
str greeting = "Hello World"

• Dynamically typed languages:
  • Data type of variable = data type of the value
  • Allow us to assign and reassign any value to any variable

numTen = 10
numTen = "Hello World"

Best Programming Languages to get you employed in 2023

• Entry level:
  • JavaScript (Web Development)
  • Python (Data Science & A.I.)
  • Swift (Mobile)
• Robotics and Gaming:
  • C++
• Blockchain:
  1. Solidity
  2. Rust
  3. Go
• Enterprise:
  • Python
  • C++
  • Java