List of programming languages by type
Programming language lists |
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This is a list of notable programming languages, grouped by type.
The groupings are overlapping; not mutually exclusive. A language can be listed in multiple groupings.
Agent-oriented programming languages
Agent-oriented programming allows the developer to build, extend and use software agents, which are abstractions of objects that can message other agents.
Array languages
Array programming (also termed vector or multidimensional) languages generalize operations on scalars to apply transparently to vectors, matrices, and higher-dimensional arrays.
Aspect-oriented programming languages
Aspect-oriented programming enables developers to add new functionality to code, known as "advice", without modifying that code itself; rather, it uses a pointcut to implement the advice into code blocks.
Assembly languages
Assembly languages directly correspond to a machine language (see below), so machine code instructions appear in a form understandable by humans, although there may not be a one-to-one mapping between an individual statement and an individual instruction. Assembly languages let programmers use symbolic addresses, which the assembler converts to absolute or relocatable addresses. Most assemblers also support macros and symbolic constants.
Authoring languages
An authoring language is a programming language designed for use by a non-computer expert to easily create tutorials, websites, and other interactive computer programs.
Command-line interface languages
Command-line interface (CLI) languages are also called batch languages or job control languages. Examples:
- 4DOS (shell for IBM PCs)
- 4OS2 (shell for IBM PCs)
- bash (the Bourne-Again shell from GNU, Free Software Foundation)
- CLIST (MVS Command List)
- CMS EXEC
- csh and tcsh (by Bill Joy UC Berkeley)
- DIGITAL Command Language CLI for VMS (DEC, Compaq, HP)
- DOS batch language (for IBM PC DOS, pre-Windows)
- EXEC 2
- Expect (a Unix automation and test tool)
- fish (a Unix shell)
- Hamilton C shell (a C shell for Windows)
- ksh (a standard Unix shell, written by David Korn)
- Nushell (a cross-platform shell)
- PowerShell (.NET-based CLI)
- rc (shell for Plan 9)
- Rexx
- sh (standard Unix shell, by Stephen R. Bourne)
- TACL (Tandem Advanced Command Language)
- Windows batch language (input for COMMAND.COM or CMD.EXE)
- zsh (a Unix shell)
Compiled languages
These are languages typically processed by compilers, though theoretically any language can be compiled or interpreted.
- ArkTS
- ActionScript
- Ada (multi-purpose language)
- ALGOL 58
- ALGOL 60 (influential design)
- SMALL a Machine ALGOL
- ALGOL 68
- Ballerina→ bytecode runtime
- BASIC (including the first version of Dartmouth BASIC)
- BCPL
- C (widely used procedural language)
- C++ (multiparadigm language derived from C)
- C# (into CIL runtime)
- Ceylon (into JVM bytecode)
- CHILL
- CLIPPER 5.3 (DOS-based)
- CLEO for Leo computers
- Clojure (into JVM bytecode)
- COBOL
- Cobra
- Common Lisp
- Crystal
- Curl
- D (from a reengineering of C++)
- DASL→Java, JS, JSP, Flex.war
- Delphi (Borland's Object Pascal development system)
- DIBOL (a Digital COBOL)
- Dylan
- Eiffel (developed by Bertrand Meyer)
- Elm
- Emacs Lisp
- Emerald
- Erlang
- Factor
- Fortran (first compiled by IBM's John Backus)
- GAUSS
- Go (Golang)
- Gosu (into JVM bytecode)
- Groovy (into JVM bytecode)
- Haskell
- Harbour
- HolyC
- Inform (usually story files for Glulx or Z-code)
- Java (usually JVM bytecode; to machine code)
- JOVIAL
- Julia (on the fly to machine code)
- Kotlin (Kotlin/Native uses LLVM to produce binaries)
- LabVIEW
- Mercury
- Mesa
- Nemerle (into intermediate language bytecode)
- Nim
- Objective-C
- P
- Pascal (most implementations)
- PL/I (originally for IBM mainframes)
- Plus
- Python (to intermediate VM bytecode)
- RPG (Report Program Generator)
- Red
- Rust
- Scala (into JVM bytecode)
- Scheme (e.g. Gambit)
- SequenceL – purely functional, parallelizing and race-free
- Simula (object-oriented superset of ALGOL 60)
- Smalltalk platform independent VM bytecode
- Swift
- ML
- Standard ML (SML)
- OCaml
- F# (into CIL, generates runtime)
- Turing
- V (Vlang)
- Vala (GObject type system)
- Visual Basic (CIL JIT runtime)
- Visual FoxPro
- Visual Prolog
- Xojo
- Zig
Concatenative programming languages
A concatenative programming language is a point-free computer programming language in which all expressions denote functions, and the juxtaposition of expressions denotes function composition.[4] Concatenative programming replaces function application, which is common in other programming styles, with function composition as the default way to build subroutines.
Concurrent languages
Message passing languages provide language constructs for concurrency. The predominant paradigm for concurrency in mainstream languages such as Java is shared memory concurrency. Concurrent languages that make use of message passing have generally been inspired by process calculi such as communicating sequential processes (CSP) or the π-calculus.
- Ada – multi-purpose language
- Alef – concurrent language with threads and message passing, used for systems programming in early versions of Plan 9 from Bell Labs
- Ateji PX – an extension of the Java language for parallelism
- Ballerina – a language designed for implementing and orchestrating micro-services. Provides a message based parallel-first concurrency model.
- ChucK – domain specific programming language for audio, precise control over concurrency and timing
- Cilk – a concurrent C
- Cω – C Omega, a research language extending C#, uses asynchronous communication
- Clojure – a dialect of Lisp for the Java virtual machine
- Chapel
- Co-array Fortran
- Concurrent Pascal (by Brinch-Hansen)
- Curry
- E – uses promises, ensures deadlocks cannot occur
- Eiffel (through the SCOOP mechanism, Simple Concurrent Object-Oriented Computation)
- Elixir (runs on the Erlang VM)
- Emerald – uses threads and monitors
- Erlang – uses asynchronous message passing with nothing shared
- Gambit Scheme – using the Termite library
- Gleam (runs on the Erlang VM)
- Go (Golang)
- Haskell – supports concurrent, distributed, and parallel programming across multiple machines
- Java
- Julia
- Joule – dataflow language, communicates by message passing
- LabVIEW
- Limbo – relative of Alef, used for systems programming in Inferno (operating system)
- MultiLisp – Scheme variant extended to support parallelism
- OCaml
- occam – influenced heavily by Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP)
- occam-π – a modern variant of occam, which incorporates ideas from Milner's π-calculus
- Orc
- Oz – multiparadigm language, supports shared-state and message-passing concurrency, and futures, and Mozart Programming System cross-platform Oz
- P
- Pict – essentially an executable implementation of Milner's π-calculus
- Python – uses thread-based parallelism and process-based parallelism[6]
- Raku[7]
- Rust
- Scala – implements Erlang-style actors on the JVM
- SequenceL – purely functional, automatically parallelizing and race-free
- SR – research language
- V (Vlang)
- Unified Parallel C
- XProc – XML processing language, enabling concurrency
Constraint programming languages
A constraint programming language is a declarative programming language where relationships between variables are expressed as constraints. Execution proceeds by attempting to find values for the variables which satisfy all declared constraints.
Curly bracket languages
A curly bracket or curly brace language has syntax that defines a block as the statements between curly brackets, a.k.a. braces, {}
. This syntax originated with BCPL (1966), and was popularized by C. Many curly bracket languages descend from or are strongly influenced by C. Examples:
- ABCL/c+
- Alef
- AWK
- ArkTS
- B
- bc
- BCPL
- Ballerina
- C – developed circa 1970 at Bell Labs
- C++
- C#
- Ceylon
- ChucK – audio programming language
- Cilk – concurrent C for multithreaded parallel programming
- Cyclone – a safer C variant
- D
- Dart
- DASL – based on Java
- E
- ECMAScript
- GLSL
- Go (Golang)
- HLSL
- Java
- Limbo
- LPC
- MEL
- Nemerle (curly braces optional)[9]
- Objective-C
- PCASTL
- Perl
- PHP
- Pico
- Pike
- PowerShell
- R
- Raku
- Rust
- S-Lang
- Scala (curly-braces optional)
- sed
- Solidity[10]
- SuperCollider
- Swift
- UnrealScript
- V (Vlang)
- Yorick
- YASS
Dataflow languages
Dataflow programming languages rely on a (usually visual) representation of the flow of data to specify the program. Frequently used for reacting to discrete events or for processing streams of data. Examples of dataflow languages include:
Data-oriented languages
Data-oriented languages provide powerful ways of searching and manipulating the relations that have been described as entity relationship tables which map one set of things into other sets.[citation needed] Examples of data-oriented languages include:
- Clarion
- Clipper
- dBase a relational database access language
- Gremlin
- MUMPS (an ANSI standard general-purpose language with specializations for database work)
- Caché ObjectScript (a proprietary superset of MUMPS)
- RETRIEVE
- RDQL
- SPARQL
- SQL
- Visual FoxPro – a native RDBMS engine, object-oriented, RAD
- WebDNA
- Wolfram Mathematica (Wolfram language)
Decision table languages
Decision tables can be used as an aid to clarifying the logic before writing a program in any language, but in the 1960s a number of languages were developed where the main logic is expressed directly in the form of a decision table, including:
Declarative languages
Declarative languages express the logic of a computation without describing its control flow in detail. Declarative programming stands in contrast to imperative programming via imperative programming languages, where control flow is specified by serial orders (imperatives). (Pure) functional and logic-based programming languages are also declarative, and constitute the major subcategories of the declarative category. This section lists additional examples not in those subcategories.
- Analytica
- Ant (combine declarative programming and imperative programming)
- Curry
- Cypher
- Datalog
- Distributed Application Specification Language (DASL) (combine declarative programming and imperative programming)
- ECL
- Gremlin
- Inform (combine declarative programming and imperative programming)
- Lustre
- Mercury
- Metafont
- MetaPost
- Modelica
- Nix
- Prolog
- QML
- Oz
- RDQL
- SequenceL – purely functional, automatically parallelizing and race-free
- SPARQL
- SQL (Only DQL, not DDL, DCL, and DML)
- Soufflé
- Wolfram Mathematica (Wolfram language)
- xBase
- XSL Transformations
Embeddable languages
In source code
Source embeddable languages embed small pieces of executable code inside a piece of free-form text, often a web page.
Client-side embedded languages are limited by the abilities of the browser or intended client. They aim to provide dynamism to web pages without the need to recontact the server.
Server-side embedded languages are much more flexible, since almost any language can be built into a server. The aim of having fragments of server-side code embedded in a web page is to generate additional markup dynamically; the code itself disappears when the page is served, to be replaced by its output.
Server side
- PHP
- VBScript
- Tcl – server-side in NaviServer and an essential component in electronics industry systems
- WebDNA – dedicated to database-driven websites
The above examples are particularly dedicated to this purpose. A large number of other languages, such as Erlang, Scala, Perl, Ring and Ruby can be adapted (for instance, by being made into Apache modules).
Client side
- ActionScript
- JavaScript (aka ECMAScript or JScript)
- VBScript (Windows only)
In object code
A wide variety of dynamic or scripting languages can be embedded in compiled executable code. Basically, object code for the language's interpreter needs to be linked into the executable. Source code fragments for the embedded language can then be passed to an evaluation function as strings. Application control languages can be implemented this way, if the source code is input by the user. Languages with small interpreters are preferred.
Educational programming languages
Languages developed primarily for the purpose of teaching and learning of programming.
Esoteric languages
An esoteric programming language is a programming language designed as a test of the boundaries of computer programming language design, as a proof of concept, or as a joke.
Extension languages
Extension programming languages are languages embedded into another program and used to harness its features in extension scripts.
- AutoLISP (specific to AutoCAD)
- BeanShell
- CAL
- C/AL (C/SIDE)
- Guile
- Emacs Lisp
- JavaScript and some dialects, e.g., JScript
- Lua (embedded in many games)
- OpenCL (extension of C and C++ to use the GPU and parallel extensions of the CPU)
- OptimJ (extension of Java with language support for writing optimization models and powerful abstractions for bulk data processing)
- Perl
- Pike
- PowerShell
- Python (embedded in Maya, Blender, and other 3-D animation packages)
- Rexx
- Ring
- Ruby (Google SketchUp)
- S-Lang
- SQL
- Squirrel
- Tcl
- Vim script (vim)
- Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)
Fourth-generation languages
Fourth-generation programming languages are high-level languages built around database systems. They are generally used in commercial environments.
- 1C:Enterprise programming language
- ABAP
- CorVision
- CSC's GraphTalk
- CA-IDEAL (Interactive Development Environment for an Application Life) for use with CA-DATACOM/DB
- Easytrieve report generator (now CA-Easytrieve Plus)
- FOCUS
- IBM Informix-4GL
- LINC 4GL
- LiveCode (Not based on a database; still, the goal is to work at a higher level of abstraction than 3GLs.)
- MAPPER (Unisys/Sperry) – now part of BIS
- MARK-IV (Sterling/Informatics) now VISION:BUILDER of CA
- NATURAL
- Progress 4GL
- PV-Wave
- RETRIEVE
- SAS
- SQL
- Ubercode (VHLL, or Very-High-Level Language)
- Uniface
- Visual DataFlex
- Visual FoxPro
- xBase
Functional languages
Functional programming languages define programs and subroutines as mathematical functions and treat them as first-class. Many so-called functional languages are "impure", containing imperative features. Many functional languages are tied to mathematical calculation tools. Functional languages include:
Pure
Impure
- APL
- ATS
- CAL
- C++ (since C++11)
- C#
- VB.NET
- Ceylon
- Curl
- D
- Dart
- ECMAScript
- Erlang
- Fexl
- Flix
- G (used in LabVIEW)
- Groovy
- Hop
- J
- Java (since version 8)
- Julia
- Kotlin
- Lisp
- ML
- Standard ML (SML)
- OCaml
- F#
- Nemerle
- Nim
- Opal
- OPS5
- Perl
- PHP
- PL/pgSQL
- Python
- Q (equational programming language)
- Q (programming language from Kx Systems)
- R
- Raku
- Rebol
- Red
- Ring
- Ruby
- REFAL
- Rust
- Scala
- Swift
- Spreadsheets
- V (Vlang)
- Tcl
- Wolfram Mathematica (Wolfram language)
Hardware description languages
In electronics, a hardware description language (HDL) is a specialized computer language used to describe the structure, design, and operation of electronic circuits, and most commonly, digital logic circuits. The two most widely used and well-supported HDL varieties used in industry are Verilog and VHDL. Hardware description languages include:
HDLs for analog circuit design
- Verilog-AMS (Verilog for Analog and Mixed-Signal)
- VHDL-AMS (VHDL with Analog/Mixed-Signal extension)
HDLs for digital circuit design
Imperative languages
Imperative programming languages may be multi-paradigm and appear in other classifications. Here is a list of programming languages that follow the imperative paradigm:
- Ada
- ALGOL 58
- ALGOL 60 (very influential language design)
- ALGOL 68
- BASIC
- C
- C++
- C#
- Ceylon
- CHILL
- COBOL
- D
- Dart
- ECMAScript
- FORTRAN
- GAUSS
- Go
- Groovy
- Icon
- Java
- Julia
- Lua
- MATLAB
- Machine languages
- Modula-2, Modula-3
- MUMPS
- Nim
- OCaml
- Oberon
- Object Pascal
- Open Object Rexx (ooRexx)
- Open Programming Language (OPL)
- OpenEdge Advanced Business Language (ABL)
- Pascal
- Perl
- PHP
- PL/I
- PL/S
- PowerShell
- PROSE
- Python
- Raku
- Rexx
- Ring
- Ruby
- Rust
- SETL
- Speakeasy
- Swift
- Tcl
- V (Vlang)
- Wolfram Mathematica (Wolfram language)
Interactive mode languages
Known as REPL - Interactive mode languages act as a kind of shell: expressions or statements can be entered one at a time, and the result of their evaluation seen immediately.
- APL
- BASIC (some dialects)
- Clojure
- Common Lisp
- Dart (with Observatory or Dartium's developer tools)
- ECMAScript
- Erlang
- Elixir (with iex)
- F#
- Fril
- GAUSS
- Groovy
- Guile
- Haskell (with the GHCi or Hugs interpreter)
- IDL
- J
- Java (since version 9)
- Julia
- Lua
- MUMPS (an ANSI standard general-purpose language)
- Maple
- MATLAB
- ML
- OCaml
- Perl
- PHP
- Pike
- PostScript
- PowerShell (.NET-based CLI)
- Prolog
- Python
- PROSE
- R
- Raku
- Rebol
- Red
- Rexx
- Ring
- Ruby (with IRB)
- Scala
- Scheme
- Smalltalk (anywhere in a Smalltalk environment)
- S-Lang (with the S-Lang shell, slsh)
- Speakeasy
- Swift
- Tcl (with the Tcl shell, tclsh)
- Unix shell
- Visual FoxPro
- Wolfram Mathematica (Wolfram language)
Interpreted languages
Interpreted languages are programming languages in which programs may be executed from source code form, by an interpreter. Theoretically, any language can be compiled or interpreted, so the term interpreted language generally refers to languages that are usually interpreted rather than compiled.
- Ant
- APL
- AutoHotkey scripting language
- AutoIt scripting language
- BASIC (some dialects)
- Programming Language for Business (PL/B, formerly DATABUS, later versions added optional compiling)
- Eiffel (via Melting Ice Technology in EiffelStudio)
- Emacs Lisp
- FOCAL
- GameMaker Language
- Groovy
- J
- jq
- Julia (compiled on the fly to machine code, by default, interpreting also available)
- JavaScript
- Lisp (early versions, pre-1962, and some experimental ones; production Lisp systems are compilers, but many of them still provide an interpreter if needed)
- LPC
- Lua
- MUMPS (an ANSI standard general-purpose language)
- Maple
- MATLAB
- OCaml
- Pascal (early implementations)
- PCASTL
- Perl
- PHP
- PostScript
- PowerShell
- PROSE
- Python
- Rexx
- R
- Raku
- Rebol
- Red
- Ring
- Ruby
- S-Lang
- Seed7
- Speakeasy
- Standard ML (SML)
- Spin
- Tcl
- Tea
- TorqueScript
- VBScript
- Windows PowerShell – .NET-based CLI
- Some scripting languages – below
- Wolfram Mathematica (Wolfram language)
Iterative languages
Iterative languages are built around or offering generators.
Languages by memory management type
Garbage collected languages
Garbage Collection (GC) is a form of automatic memory management. The garbage collector attempts to reclaim memory that was allocated by the program but is no longer used.
Languages with manual memory management
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (November 2016) |
- ALGOL 68
- Assembly (various)
- BLISS
- C
- C++
- Component Pascal
- Forth
- Fortran
- FreeBASIC
- Modula-2
- Oberon
- Pascal
- PL/I
- Zig
Languages with optional manual memory management
- Ada implementations are not required to offer garbage collection, but the language semantics support it, and many implementations include it.
- Blitz BASIC (also known as BlitzMax) is usually reference-counted,[12] and also supports a garbage collector. However, it also ships with optional utilities for using pointers[13] and for directly allocating and freeing memory.[14]
- COBOL supports pointers[15] and heap allocation[16] as of COBOL 2002, along with a garbage collector.[17]
- Cython provides optional manual memory management by letting the user import
malloc
,realloc
, andfree
from C, which they can then use in Python code.[18] - D provides programmers with full control over its own garbage collector, including the ability to disable it outright.[19]
- Nim is usually garbage-collected or reference-counted by default, depending on its configuration, but the programmer may use the switch
--mm:none
to deallocate memory manually.[20] - Objective-C and Objective-C++ support optional reference counting and garbage collection as alternatives to manual memory management (Apple deprecated the garbage collector).
- PostScript originally required developers to manually reclaim memory using the
save
andrestore
operators. PostScript Level 2 introduced a garbage collector, but its usage is optional.[21] - Rust supports optional reference counting, but manual memory management is preferred.
- Scala normally manages the memory automatically in its JVM and JavaScript targets. However, the LLVM-based Scala Native compiler supports the use of pointers, as well as C-style heap allocation (e.g.
malloc
,realloc
,free
) and stack allocation (stackalloc
).[22] - Swift normally uses reference counting, but also allows the user to manually manage the memory using
malloc
andfree
. On Apple platforms, these functions are imported from the C standard library (which is imported fromFoundation
,AppKit
orUIKit
); on Linux, the developer needs to importGlibc
, anducrt
on Windows. - V (Vlang) uses GC by default, for user convenience, which can be turned off (-gc none). Users are free to manage memory manually. Can also use autofree (-autofree) or arena allocation (-prealloc).
- Vala uses reference counting by default, but the user is free to manage the memory manually if they wish.[23]
Languages with deterministic memory management
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (April 2018) |
Languages with automatic reference counting (ARC)
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (September 2018) |
List-based languages – LISPs
List-based languages are a type of data-structured language that are based on the list data structure.
Little languages
Little languages[26] serve a specialized problem domain.
- awk – used for text file manipulation.
- sed – parses and transforms text
- SQL – has only a few keywords and not all the constructs needed for a full programming language[a] – many database management systems extend SQL with additional constructs as a stored procedure language
Logic-based languages
Logic-based languages specify a set of attributes that a solution must-have, rather than a set of steps to obtain a solution.
Notable languages following this programming paradigm include:
- ALF
- Alma-0
- Curry
- Datalog
- Fril
- Flix (a functional programming language with first-class Datalog constraints)
- Janus
- λProlog (a logic programming language featuring polymorphic typing, modular programming, and higher-order programming)
- Oz, and Mozart Programming System cross-platform Oz
- Prolog (formulates data and the program evaluation mechanism as a special form of mathematical logic called Horn logic and a general proving mechanism called logical resolution)
- Mercury (based on Prolog)
- Visual Prolog (object-oriented Prolog extension)
- ROOP
- Soufflé
Machine languages
Machine languages are directly executable by a computer's CPU. They are typically formulated as bit patterns, usually represented in octal or hexadecimal. Each bit pattern causes the circuits in the CPU to execute one of the fundamental operations of the hardware. The activation of specific electrical inputs (e.g., CPU package pins for microprocessors), and logical settings for CPU state values, control the processor's computation. Individual machine languages are specific to a family of processors; machine-language code for one family of processors cannot run directly on processors in another family unless the processors in question have additional hardware to support it (for example, DEC VAX processors included a PDP-11 compatibility mode). They are (essentially) always defined by the CPU developer, not by 3rd parties.[b] The symbolic version, the processor's assembly language, is also defined by the developer, in most cases. Some commonly used machine code instruction sets are:
- RISC-V
- ARM
- DEC:
- Intel 8008, 8080 and 8085
- x86:
- 16-bit x86, first used in the Intel 8086
- Intel 8086 and 8088 (the latter was used in the first and early IBM PC)
- Intel 80186
- Intel 80286 (the first x86 processor with protected mode, used in the IBM PC AT)
- IA-32, introduced in the 80386
- x86-64 – The original specification was created by AMD. There are vendor variants, but they're essentially the same:
- 16-bit x86, first used in the Intel 8086
- IBM[c]
- MIPS
- Motorola 6800 (8-bit)
- Motorola 68000 series (CPUs used in early Macintosh and early Sun computers)
- MOS Technology 65xx (8-bit)
- 6502 (CPU for VIC-20, BBC Micro, Apple II, and Atari 8-bit computers)
- 6510 (CPU for Commodore 64)
- Western Design Center 65816/65802 (CPU for Apple IIGS and (variant) Super Nintendo Entertainment System)
- National Semiconductor NS320xx
- POWER, first used in the IBM RS/6000
- PowerPC – used in Power Macintosh and in many game consoles, particularly of the seventh generation.
- Power ISA – an evolution of PowerPC.
- Sun Microsystems (now Oracle) SPARC
- UNIVAC[c]
- MCST Elbrus 2000
Macro languages
Textual substitution macro languages
Macro languages transform one source code file into another. A "macro" is essentially a short piece of text that expands into a longer one (not to be confused with hygienic macros), possibly with parameter substitution. They are often used to preprocess source code. Preprocessors can also supply facilities like file inclusion.
Macro languages may be restricted to acting on specially labeled code regions (pre-fixed with a #
in the case of the C preprocessor). Alternatively, they may not, but in this case it is still often undesirable to (for instance) expand a macro embedded in a string literal, so they still need a rudimentary awareness of syntax. That being the case, they are often still applicable to more than one language. Contrast with source-embeddable languages like PHP, which are fully featured.
- cpp (the C preprocessor)
- m4 (originally from AT&T, bundled with Unix)
- ML/I (general-purpose macro processor)
- TTM (developed at the California Institute of Technology)
Application macro languages
Scripting languages such as Tcl and ECMAScript (ActionScript, ECMAScript for XML, JavaScript, JScript) have been embedded into applications. These are sometimes called "macro languages", although in a somewhat different sense to textual-substitution macros like m4.
Metaprogramming languages
Metaprogramming is the writing of programs that write or manipulate other programs, including themselves, as their data or that do part of the work that is otherwise done at run time during compile time. In many cases, this allows programmers to get more done in the same amount of time as they would take to write all the code manually.
Multiparadigm languages
Multiparadigm languages support more than one programming paradigm. They allow a program to use more than one programming style. The goal is to allow programmers to use the best tool for a job, admitting that no one paradigm solves all problems in the easiest or most efficient way.
- 1C:Enterprise programming language (generic, imperative, object-oriented, prototype-based, functional)
- Ada (concurrent, distributed, generic (template metaprogramming), imperative, object-oriented (class-based))
- ALF (functional, logic)
- Alma-0 (constraint, imperative, logic)
- APL (functional, imperative, object-oriented (class-based))
- BETA (functional, imperative, object-oriented (class-based))
- C++ (generic, imperative, object-oriented (class-based), functional, metaprogramming)
- C# (generic, imperative, object-oriented (class-based), functional, declarative)
- Ceylon (generic, imperative, object-oriented (class-based), functional, declarative)
- ChucK (imperative, object-oriented, time-based, concurrent, on-the-fly)
- Cobra (generic, imperative, object-oriented (class-based), functional, contractual)
- Common Lisp (functional, imperative, object-oriented (class-based), aspect-oriented (user may add further paradigms, e.g., logic))
- Curl (functional, imperative, object-oriented (class-based), metaprogramming)
- Curry (concurrent, functional, logic)
- D (generic, imperative, functional, object-oriented (class-based), metaprogramming)
- Dart (generic, imperative, functional, object-oriented (class-based))
- Delphi Object Pascal (generic, imperative, object-oriented (class-based), metaprogramming)
- Dylan (functional, object-oriented (class-based))
- ECMAScript (functional, imperative, object-oriented (prototype-based))
- Eiffel (imperative, object-oriented (class-based), generic, functional (agents), concurrent (SCOOP))
- F# (functional, generic, object-oriented (class-based), language-oriented)
- Fantom (functional, object-oriented (class-based))
- Go, Golang (imperative, procedural),
- Groovy (functional, object-oriented (class-based), imperative, procedural)
- Harbour
- Hop
- J (functional, imperative, object-oriented (class-based))
- Julia (imperative, multiple dispatch ("object-oriented"), functional, metaprogramming)
- LabVIEW (visual, dataflow, concurrent, modular, functional, object-oriented, scripting)
- Lua (functional, imperative, object-oriented (prototype-based))
- Mercury (functional, logical, object-oriented)
- Metaobject protocols (object-oriented (class-based, prototype-based))
- Nemerle (functional, object-oriented (class-based), imperative, metaprogramming)
- Objective-C (imperative, object-oriented (class-based), reflective)
- OCaml (functional, imperative, object-oriented (class-based), modular)
- Oz (functional (evaluation: eager, lazy), logic, constraint, imperative, object-oriented (class-based), concurrent, distributed), and Mozart Programming System cross-platform Oz
- Object Pascal (imperative, object-oriented (class-based))
- Perl (imperative, functional (can't be purely functional), object-oriented, class-oriented, aspect-oriented (through modules))
- PHP (imperative, object-oriented, functional (can't be purely functional))
- Pike (interpreted, general-purpose, high-level, cross-platform, dynamic programming language )
- Prograph (dataflow, object-oriented (class-based), visual)
- Python (functional, compiled, interpreted, object-oriented (class-based), imperative, metaprogramming, extension, impure, interactive mode, iterative, reflective, scripting)
- R (array, interpreted, impure, interactive mode, list-based, object-oriented prototype-based, scripting)
- Racket (functional, imperative, object-oriented (class-based) and can be extended by the user)
- Raku (concurrent, concatenative, functional, metaprogramming generic, imperative, reflection object-oriented, pipelines, reactive, and via libraries constraints, distributed)
- Rebol (functional, imperative, object-oriented (prototype-based), metaprogramming (dialected))
- Red (functional, imperative, object-oriented (prototype-based), metaprogramming (dialected))
- ROOP (imperative, logic, object-oriented (class-based), rule-based)
- Ring (imperative, functional, object-oriented (class-based), metaprogramming, declarative, natural)
- Ruby (imperative, functional, object-oriented (class-based), metaprogramming)
- Rust (concurrent, functional, imperative, object-oriented, generic, metaprogramming, compiled)
- Scala (functional, object-oriented)
- Seed7 (imperative, object-oriented, generic)
- SISAL (concurrent, dataflow, functional)
- Spreadsheets (functional, visual)
- Swift (protocol-oriented, object-oriented, functional, imperative, block-structured)
- Tcl (functional, imperative, object-oriented (class-based))
- Tea (functional, imperative, object-oriented (class-based))
- V (Vlang) (functional, imperative, procedural, structured, concurrent)
- Windows PowerShell (functional, imperative, pipeline, object-oriented (class-based))
- Wolfram Mathematica (Wolfram language)
Numerical analysis
Several general-purpose programming languages, such as C and Python, are also used for technical computing, this list focuses on languages almost exclusively used for technical computing.
Non-English-based languages
- Chinese BASIC (Chinese)
- Fjölnir (Icelandic)
- Language Symbolique d'Enseignement (French)
- Rapira (Russian)
- ezhil (Tamil)
Object-oriented class-based languages
Class-based object-oriented programming languages support objects defined by their class. Class definitions include member data. Message passing is a key concept, if not the main concept, in object-oriented languages.
Polymorphic functions parameterized by the class of some of their arguments are typically called methods. In languages with single dispatch, classes typically also include method definitions. In languages with multiple dispatch, methods are defined by generic functions. There are exceptions where single dispatch methods are generic functions (e.g. Bigloo's object system).
Single dispatch
- ActionScript 3.0
- Actor
- Ada 95 and Ada 2005 (multi-purpose language)
- APL
- BETA
- C++
- C#
- Ceylon
- Dart
- Oxygene (formerly named Chrome)
- ChucK
- Cobra
- ColdFusion
- Curl
- D
- Distributed Application Specification Language (DASL)
- Delphi Object Pascal
- E
- GNU E
- Eiffel
- Fortran 2003
- Fortress
- Gambas
- Game Maker Language
- Harbour
- J
- Java
- LabVIEW
- Lua
- Modula-2 (data abstraction, information hiding, strong typing, full modularity)
- Modula-3 (added more object-oriented features to Modula-2)
- Nemerle
- NetRexx
- Oberon-2 (full object-orientation equivalence in an original, strongly typed, Wirthian manner)
- Object Pascal
- Object REXX
- Objective-C (a superset of C adding a Smalltalk derived object model and message passing syntax)
- OCaml
- OpenEdge Advanced Business Language (ABL)
- Oz, Mozart Programming System
- Perl 5
- PHP
- Pike
- Prograph
- Python (interpretive language, optionally object-oriented)
- Revolution (programmer does not get to pick the objects)
- Ring
- Ruby
- Scala
- Speakeasy
- Simula (first object-oriented language, developed by Ole-Johan Dahl and Kristen Nygaard)
- Smalltalk (pure object-orientation, developed at Xerox PARC)
- SPIN
- SuperCollider
- VBScript (Microsoft Office 'macro scripting' language)
- Visual DataFlex
- Visual FoxPro
- Visual Prolog
- X++
- Xojo
- XOTcl
Object-oriented prototype-based languages
Prototype-based languages are object-oriented languages where the distinction between classes and instances has been removed:
- 1C:Enterprise programming language
- Actor-Based Concurrent Language (ABCL, ABCL/1, ABCL/R, ABCL/R2, ABCL/c+)
- Agora
- Cecil
- ECMAScript
- ActionScript
- ECMAScript for XML
- JavaScript (first named Mocha, then LiveScript)
- JScript
- Etoys in Squeak
- Io
- Lua
- MOO
- NewtonScript
- Obliq
- R
- Rebol
- Red
- Self (first prototype-based language, derived from Smalltalk)
- TADS
Off-side rule languages
Off-side rule languages denote blocks of code by their indentation.
Procedural languages
Procedural programming languages are based on the concept of the unit and scope (the data viewing range) of an executable code statement. A procedural program is composed of one or more units or modules, either user coded or provided in a code library; each module is composed of one or more procedures, also called a function, routine, subroutine, or method, depending on the language. Examples of procedural languages include:
- Ada (multi-purpose language)
- ALGOL 58
- ALGOL 60 (very influential language design)
- SMALL Machine ALGOL Like Language
- ALGOL 68
- Alma-0
- BASIC (these lack most modularity in (especially) versions before about 1990)
- BCPL
- BLISS
- C
- C++
- C# (similar to Java/C++)
- Ceylon
- CHILL
- ChucK (C/Java-like syntax, with new syntax elements for time and parallelism)
- COBOL
- Cobra
- ColdFusion
- CPL (Combined Programming Language)
- Curl
- D
- Distributed Application Specification Language (DASL) (combine declarative programming and imperative programming)
- ECMAScript
- ActionScript
- ECMAScript for XML
- JavaScript (first named Mocha, then LiveScript)
- JScript
- Source
- Eiffel
- Forth
- Fortran (better modularity in later Standards)
- GAUSS
- Go
- Harbour
- HyperTalk
- Java
- JOVIAL
- Julia
- Language H
- Lasso
- Modula-2 (fundamentally based on modules)
- MATLAB
- Mesa
- MUMPS (first release was more modular than other languages of the time; the standard has become even more modular since then)
- Nemerle
- Nim
- Oberon, Oberon-2 (improved, smaller, faster, safer follow-ons for Modula-2)
- OCaml
- Occam
- Oriel
- Pascal (successor to ALGOL 60, predecessor of Modula-2)
- Free Pascal (FPC)
- Object Pascal, Delphi
- PCASTL
- Perl
- Pike
- PL/C
- PL/I (large general-purpose language, originally for IBM mainframes)
- Plus
- PowerShell
- PROSE
- Python
- R
- Raku
- Rapira
- RPG
- Rust
- S-Lang
- VBScript
- Visual Basic
- Visual FoxPro
- Wolfram Mathematica (Wolfram language)
- Microsoft Dynamics AX (X++)
Query languages
Reflective languages
Reflective programming languages let programs examine and possibly modify their high-level structure at runtime or compile-time. This is most common in high-level virtual machine programming languages like Smalltalk, and less common in lower-level programming languages like C. Languages and platforms supporting reflection:
- Befunge
- Ceylon
- Charm
- ChucK
- CLI
- Cobra
- Component Pascal BlackBox Component Builder
- Curl
- Cypher
- Delphi Object Pascal
- ECMAScript
- Emacs Lisp
- Eiffel
- Harbour
- Julia
- JVM
- Lisp
- Lua
- Maude system
- Oberon-2 – ETH Oberon System
- Objective-C
- PCASTL
- Perl
- PHP
- Pico
- Poplog
- PowerShell
- Prolog
- Python
- Raku[30]
- Rebol
- Red
- Ring
- Ruby
- Smalltalk (pure object-orientation, originally from Xerox PARC)
- SNOBOL
- Tcl
- Wolfram Mathematica (Wolfram language)
- XOTcl
- X++
- Xojo
Rule-based languages
Rule-based languages instantiate rules when activated by conditions in a set of data. Of all possible activations, some set is selected and the statements belonging to those rules execute. Rule-based languages include:[citation needed]
Scripting languages
- AngelScript
- AppleScript
- AutoHotKey
- AutoIt
- AWK
- bc
- BeanShell
- Bash
- Ch (Embeddable C/C++ interpreter)
- CLI
- CLIST
- ColdFusion
- ECMAScript
- ActionScript
- ECMAScript for XML
- JavaScript (first named Mocha, then LiveScript)
- JScript
- Source
- Emacs Lisp
- CMS EXEC
- EXEC 2
- Game Maker Language (GML)
- GDScript
- Io
- JASS
- Julia (compiled on the fly to machine code, by default, interpreting also available)
- JVM
- Ksh
- Lasso
- Lua
- MAXScript
- MEL
- Object REXX (OREXX, OOREXX)
- Oriel
- Pascal Script
- Perl
- PHP (intended for Web servers)
- PowerShell
- Python
- R
- Raku
- Rebol
- Red
- Rexx
- Revolution
- Ring
- Ruby
- S-Lang
- sed
- Sh
- Smalltalk
- Squirrel
- Tea
- Tcl
- TorqueScript
- VBScript
- WebDNA, dedicated to database-driven websites
- Windows PowerShell (.NET-based CLI)
- Many shell command languages such as Unix shell or DIGITAL Command Language (DCL) on VMS have powerful scripting abilities.
Stack-based languages
Stack-based languages are a type of data-structured language that are based on the stack data structure.
Synchronous languages
Synchronous programming languages are optimized for programming reactive systems, systems that are often interrupted and must respond quickly. Many such systems are also called realtime systems, and are used often in embedded systems.
Examples:
Shading languages
A shading language is a graphics programming language adapted to programming shader effects. Such language forms usually consist of special data types, like "color" and "normal". Due to the variety of target markets for 3D computer graphics.
Real-time rendering
They provide both higher hardware abstraction and a more flexible programming model than previous paradigms which hardcoded transformation and shading equations. This gives the programmer greater control over the rendering process and delivers richer content at lower overhead.
- Adobe Graphics Assembly Language (AGAL)[31]
- ARB assembly language (ARB assembly)
- OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL or glslang)
- High-Level Shading Language (HLSL) or DirectX Shader Assembly Language
- PlayStation Shader Language (PSSL)
- Metal Shading Language (MSL)
- Cg
Offline rendering
Shading languages used in offline rendering produce maximum image quality. Processing such shaders is time-consuming. The computational power required can be expensive because of their ability to produce photorealistic results.
- RenderMan Shading Language (RSL)
- Open Shading Language (OSL)
Syntax-handling languages
These languages assist with generating lexical analyzers and parsers for context-free grammars.
- ANTLR
- Coco/R (EBNF with semantics)
- GNU bison (FSF's version of Yacc)
- GNU Flex (FSF version of Lex)
- lex (Lexical Analysis, from Bell Labs)
- M4
- Parsing expression grammar (PEG)
- Prolog
- Emacs Lisp
- Lisp
- Raku[32]
- SableCC
- Scheme
- yacc (yet another compiler-compiler, from Bell Labs)
- JavaCC
System languages
The system programming languages are for low-level tasks like memory management or task management. A system programming language usually refers to a programming language used for system programming; such languages are designed for writing system software, which usually requires different development approaches when compared with application software.
System software is computer software designed to operate and control the computer hardware, and to provide a platform for running application software. System software includes software categories such as operating systems, utility software, device drivers, compilers, and linkers. Examples of system languages include:
Language | Originator | First appeared | Influenced by | Used for |
---|---|---|---|---|
ESPOL | Burroughs Corporation | 1961 | ALGOL 60 | MCP |
PL/I | IBM, SHARE | 1964 | ALGOL 60, FORTRAN, some COBOL | Multics |
PL360 | Niklaus Wirth | 1968 | ALGOL 60 | ALGOL W |
C | Dennis Ritchie | 1969 | BCPL | Most operating system kernels, including Windows NT and most Unix-like systems |
PL/S | IBM | 196x | PL/I | OS/360 |
BLISS | Carnegie Mellon University | 1970 | ALGOL-PL/I[33] | VMS (portions) |
PL/8 | IBM | 197x | PL/I | AIX |
PL/MP and PL/MI | IBM | 197x | PL/I | CPF, OS/400 |
PL-6 | Honeywell, Inc. | 197x | PL/I | CP-6 |
SYMPL | CDC | 197x | JOVIAL | NOS subsystems, most compilers, FSE editor |
C++ | Bjarne Stroustrup | 1979 | C, Simula | See C++ Applications[34] |
Ada | Jean Ichbiah, S. Tucker Taft | 1983 | ALGOL 68, Pascal, C++, Java, Eiffel | Embedded systems, OS kernels, compilers, games, simulations, CubeSat, air traffic control, and avionics |
D | Digital Mars | 2001 | C++ | Multiple domains[35] |
Nim | Andreas Rumpf | 2008 | Ada, Modula-3, Lisp, C++, Object Pascal, Python, Oberon | OS kernels, compilers, games |
Rust | Mozilla Research[36] | 2010 | C++, Haskell, Erlang, Ruby | Servo layout engine, Redox OS |
Swift | Apple Inc. | 2014 | C, Objective-C, Rust | macOS, iOS app development[e] |
Zig | Andrew Kelley | 2016 | C, C++, LLVM IR, Go, Rust, JavaScript | As a replacement for C |
V (Vlang) | Alexander Medvednikov | 2019 | C, Go, Oberon-2, Rust, Swift, Kotlin | Vinix OS, OS kernels, compilers, games |
Transformation languages
Transformation languages serve the purpose of transforming (translating) source code specified in a certain formal language into a defined destination format code. It is most commonly used in intermediate components of more complex super-systems in order to adopt internal results for input into a succeeding processing routine.
Visual languages
Visual programming languages let users specify programs in a two-(or more)-dimensional way, instead of as one-dimensional text strings, via graphic layouts of various types. Some dataflow programming languages are also visual languages.
Wirth languages
Computer scientist Niklaus Wirth designed and implemented several influential languages.
- ALGOL W
- Euler
- Modula
- Oberon (Oberon, Oberon-07, Oberon-2)
- Pascal
- Object Pascal (umbrella name for Delphi, Free Pascal, Oxygene, others)
XML-based languages
These are languages based on or that operate on XML.
See also
- Programming paradigm
- IEC 61131-3 – a standard for programmable logic controller (PLC) languages
- List of educational programming languages
- List of markup languages
- Esoteric programming language
Notes
- ^ The objects of SQL are collections of database records, called tables. A full programming language can specify algorithms, irrespective of runtime. Thus an algorithm can be considered to generate usable results. In contrast, SQL can only select records that are limited to the current collection, the data at hand in the system, rather than produce a statement of the correctness of the result.
- ^ A notable exception would be the Soviet/Russian 1801 series CPU, which originally used their own domestic ISA, but were later redesigned to be PDP-11 compatible as a policy decision.
- ^ a b Submodels are not listed, only base models.
- ^ The concept of object with the traditional single-dispatch OO semantics is not present in Julia, instead with the more general multiple dispatch on different types at runtime.
- ^ Swift uses automatic reference counting.
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