This document defines programming and programming languages. Programming is designing, coding, and testing computer programs to complete tasks. Programming languages have rules and syntax that allow humans to write instructions for computers. Some examples of programming languages mentioned are FORTRAN, Java, C, C++, Cobol, and Python. Programming languages can be classified as low-level or high-level based on how close they are to the computer hardware. Low-level languages like machine language and assembly language execute directly on hardware while high-level languages need interpretation.

2. Definition;
Program
 A program is a series of instructions to a
computer that are executed to complete a
particular task.

3. Programming
 This is the designing, coding and testing of
computer programs that are used to complete a
particular task.
 Programming is made possible by the use of
specially designed software known as
programming languages
 Each programming language has a set of
rules, which can be similar at some instances to
another programming language , that are known
as syntax.

4. Programming Languages
 As we have seen on the previous slide, programming
languages are specially designed software used to code
computer instructions.
 Computers are machines or else electronic devices
which cannot communicate directly with human(who
include the programmers and the users) ie by use of
the natural language.
 This programming languages are used to design
programs to be executed by the computer hardware
and are written in codes which are understandable to
the computer.

5. Examples of programming
languages.
 Currently , programming languages are so many and
similary have many different types of syntaxes to suite
the programmer’s design and maybe the tasks that a
program is intended to execute.
 This can be seen in a practical comparison of two
languages ie FORTRAN, a programming language
designed in the ‘70s was designed to make programs
for use by engineers while Java , designed in the ‘90s
was designed for a broad use by programmers
including programming multimedia software and web
applications.

6. Cont…
 Other Computer Programming languages include :-
 C
 C++
 Cobol (mostly used for businesses ,design year; 1956)
 Basic (an easy to use language, mostly was used to teach
programming to kids)
 Fortran
 Python etc

7. Classification of programmming
languages
 They can be classified according to the level
of execution on the Computer hardware. In
this method of classification which is the
broadest of all, programming languages can
be categorised into two :-
Low level languages
High level languages

8. A: LOW LEVEL LANGUAGES
 Were the first programming languages after the
designing of the first computer. Include :-
 Machine language – coded as 0’s(zeros) and 1’s
 Assembly language – coded in the natural language had
to be translated using an assembler tool for the
computer to understand
o Basically, programs written in these low level
languages executed much faster as they execute on the
computer hardware itself and therefore don’t need
special software for the hardware to understand the
code.

9. B: HIGH LEVEL LANGUAGES
 These category of programming Language were
designed after low level languages.
 The difference with these category and that of low
level languages is that , programs written with high
level languages are interprated at a higher level by the
computer hardware unlike programs written in low
level languages.
 Most of the modern programs are written using high
level languages.
 High level languages include java, C, C++ etc