Saint Anthony College of Technology

Computer Programming Language

Submitted by:
Maryanne Katherine V. Magbag

Programming Language
A vocabulary and set of grammatical rules for instructing a computer to perform specific
tasks. The term programming language usually refers to high-level languages, such
as BASIC, C, C++, COBOL,FORTRAN, Ada, and Pascal. Each language has a unique
set of keywords (words that it understands) and a special syntax for
organizing program instructions.
High-level programming languages, while simple compared to human languages, are
more complex than the languages the computer actually understands, called machine
languages. Each different type of CPU has its own unique machine language.
Lying between machine languages and high-level languages are languages
called assembly languages. Assembly languages are similar to machine languages, but
they are much easier to program in because they allow a programmer to
substitute names for numbers. Machine languages consist of numbers only.
Lying above high-level languages are languages called fourth-generation
languages (usually abbreviated 4GL). 4GLs are far removed from machine languages
and represent the class of computer languages closest to human languages.
Regardless of what language you use, you eventually need to convert your program into
machine language so that the computer can understand it. There are two ways to do
this:
1) compile the program
2) interpret the program
The question of which language is best is one that consumes a lot of time and energy
among computer professionals. Every language has its strengths and weaknesses. For
example, FORTRAN is a particularly good language for processing numerical data, but
it does not lend itself very well to organizing large programs. Pascal is very good for
writing well-structured and readable programs, but it is not as flexible as the C
programming language. C++ embodies powerful object-oriented features, but it is
complex and difficult to learn.
The choice of which language to use depends on the type of computer the program is
to run on, what sort of program it is, and the expertise of the programmer.

JAVA
Java is a class-based, object-oriented programming language developed by Sun
Microsystems in the 1990s. It's one of the most in-demand programming languages, a
standard for enterprise software, web-based content, games and mobile apps, as well
as the Android operating system. Java is designed to work across multiple software
platforms, meaning a program written on Mac OS X, for example, could also run on
Windows.
On 23 May 1995, John Gage, the director of the Science Office of the Sun
Microsystems along with Marc Andreesen, co-founder and executive vice president at
Netscape announced to an audience of SunWorld TM that Java technology wasn't a myth
and that it was a reality and that it was going to be incorporated into Netscape
Navigator.
At the time the total number of people working on Java was less than 30. This team
would shape the future in the next decade and no one had any idea as to what was in
store. From being the mind of an unmanned vehicle on Mars to the operating
environment on most of the consumer electronics, e.g. cable set-top boxes, VCRs,
toasters and also for personal digital assistants (PDAs). Java has come a long way from
its inception. Let's see how it all began.

Why is it called Java?

It is customary for the creator of a programming language to name the language
anything he/she chooses. The original name of this language was Oak, until it was
discovered that a programming language already existed that was named Oak. As the
story goes, after many hours of trying to come up with a new name, the development
team went out for coffee and the name Java was born.
While Java is viewed as a programming language to design applications for the
Internet, it is in reality a general all purpose language which can be used independent of
the Internet.

Principles
There were five primary goals in the creation of the Java language:
1. It must be "simple, object-oriented, and familiar".
2. It must be "robust and secure".
3. It must be "architecture-neutral and portable".
4. It must execute with "high performance".
5. It must be "interpreted, threaded, and dynamic".
Versions
As of 2015, only Java 8 is supported ("publicly"). Major release versions of Java, along
with their release dates:

JDK 1.0 (January 21, 1996)

JDK 1.1 (February 19, 1997)

J2SE 1.2 (December 8, 1998)

J2SE 1.3 (May 8, 2000)

J2SE 1.4 (February 6, 2002)

J2SE 5.0 (September 30, 2004)

Java SE 6 (December 11, 2006)

Java SE 7 (July 28, 2011)

Java SE 8 (March 18, 2014)

Java Today
Today Java is a commonly used foundation for developing and delivering content on the
Web. According to Oracle, there are more than 9 million Java developers worldwide and
more than 3 billion mobile phones run Java.

In 2014 one of the most significant changes to the Java language was launched with
Java SE 8. Changes included additional functional programming features, parallel
processing using streams and improved integration with JavaScript. The 20th
anniversary of commercial Java was celebrated in 2015.
Java: An Object-Oriented Language

Java is an object-oriented language similar to C++, but simplified to eliminate language

features that cause common programming errors. Java source code files (files with
a .java extension) are compiled into a format called bytecode (files with
a .class extension), which can then be executed by a Java interpreter. Compiled Java
code can run on most computers because Java interpreters and runtime environments,
known as Java Virtual Machines (VMs), exist for most operating systems,
including UNIX, the Macintosh OS, and Windows. Bytecode can also be converted
directly into machine language instructions by a just-in-time compiler (JIT). In 2007,
most Java technologies were released under the GNU General Public License.

Java on the Web

Java is a general purpose programming language with a number of features that make
the language well suited for use on the World Wide Web. Small Java applications are
called Java applets and can be downloaded from aWeb server and run on your
computer by a Java-compatible Web browser.

Applications and websites using Java will not work unless Java is installed on your
device. When you download Java, the software contains the Java Runtime
Environment (JRE) which is needed to run in a Web browser. A component of the JRE,
the Java Plug-in software allows Java applets to run inside various browsers.

COBOL

The programming language COBOL has been around since the 1950's, though by the
changing standards of technology it was considered to be old news by the 1980's. Still,
the programming language continues to be used today and shows no signs of fading
away anytime soon. This lesson will take a brief look at the history, resiliency and
continued relevance of COBOL.

COBOL Language Defined

COBOL is a programming language that reads like regular English and is often used for
business and administrative purposes. The name means Common Business Oriented
Language. COBOL is referred to as a legacy language, which means it is in a format
that is no longer used or supported by new systems. But, COBOL is critical to the
success of many companies and so has stuck around even as technology has moved
forward.
History of COBOL
COBOL has been around since 1959, when it was developed by the Conference on
Data Systems Languages (CODASYL). It was one of the first high-level programming
languages created. COBOL is run on the mainframe as well as on the PC.
It was during the 1980's that some small businesses moved some of their mainframe
COBOL programs to PC. But, this was no simple task. In the 1990's, COBOL was
widely considered a thing of the past. It was obsolete, mainly because technology was
becoming more object-oriented and moving away from the mainframe. However,
COBOL wasn't left behind completely.
It was still used by banks and other major corporations who depend heavily on accuracy
and the stability of their programs to keep their companies running. COBOL worked as
many of them wanted it to for the most part. When hit with the idea of migration to new
languages, they found that many of their COBOL programs were quite large and difficult
to migrate. So, as many corporations prepared for year 2000, they upgraded their
COBOL programs to run well beyond 2000 versus changing over to a new languages.
Programming in COBOL
To begin writing a COBOL program, you need a compiler and a location to write the
program. You can write COBOL programs in text editors like Notepad or Notepad++.
Once it is written, the program must be compiled to check for errors and converted into
a language that the computer can read.
Divisions of COBOL
The first thing to understand is that COBOL is divided into four divisions. The divisions
are created in the program in this order:

1. Identification Division
2. Environment Division
3. Data Division
4. Procedure Division
Areas of application
COBOL applications often run in critical areas of business. For instance, over 95% of
financeinsurance data is processed with COBOL (Arranga et al - In COBOL's Defense:
Roundtable Discussion (March/April 2000) - IEEE Software). This is why there was so
much panic over the year 2000 problem.

Is COBOL still used?

According to a report from Gartner group, In 1997 they estimated that there were about
300 billion lines of computer code in use in the world. Of that they estimated that about
80% (240 billion lines) were in COBOL and 20% (60 billion lines) were written in all the
other computer languages combined (Brown, Gary DeWard - COBOL: The failure that
wasn't - COBOLReport.com)
In 1999 they reported that over 50% of all new mission-critical applications were still
being done in COBOL and their recent estimates indicate that through 2004-2005 15%
of all new applications (5 billion lines) will be developed in COBOL while 80% of all
deployed applications will include extensions to existing legacy (usually COBOL)
Distinct Features of COBOL
The language is simple
No pointers
No user defined types
No user defined functions
Structure like data types
File records are also described with great detail, as are lines to be output to a printer

 COBOL is self documenting