Programming language

Definitions

General

A programming language provides a way of writing programs for computers to run. Unlike natural languages, programming languages are designed to permit no ambiguity and to be concise. They are purely written languages and are often difficult to read aloud. They are generally either translated into machine language by a compiler or an assembler before being run, or translated directly at run time by an interpreter. Sometimes programs are executed by a hybrid method of the two techniques. There are thousands of different programming languages — some intended to be general purpose, others useful only for highly specialized applications.

Japan

In Japanese copyright law, a programming language is defined as "letters and other symbols as well as their systems for use as means of expressing a program."

See also

• Assembly language
• Fifth generation language
• First generation language
• Fourth generation language
• High level language
• Low-level language
• Machine language
• Second generation language
• Third generation language