Introduction to Language

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Introduction to Language

In this article, I will give a brief introduction to the language, computer language, programming language, why we need a programming language, and what a programmer’s job is.

What is language?

Language is a complex and multifaceted system used for communication. It is a cornerstone of human culture and society, enabling individuals to convey thoughts, feelings, ideas, and information.

A language is nothing but a set of instructions. So generally, if you take English or Hindi, the languages we use to communicate. If we want to communicate with another person, we pass instructions using a particular language. But we need to follow some of the instructions while using a language. For example, if I want to speak in English, I want to form a sentence, to form a sentence. First, we should be grammatically good, or else we cannot form a sentence.

What is computer language?

A computer language is a formal language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. It can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine, express algorithms precisely, or as a mode of human-computer interaction. So, a computer language is also a set of instructions; in other words, you can say a set of programs we give an application to understand.

What is the need for computer language?

The need for computer languages arises from the necessity to bridge the communication gap between humans and computers. Computers operate using binary code, a series of 0s and 1s, which is difficult for humans to understand and use effectively.

If one person wants to communicate with another, they generally have to share information, which means passing instructions for general communication. They are using general languages like English, Telugu, Hindi, etc.

Communicating with the machine is a simple task. Just consider if I am asking the question, what are the five factorials? Everyone can answer easily; it’s 20. All right, it is a simple calculation. If so, my next question is, what is the factorial of 120 factorials? No one can answer because it’s a bit complex operation. This complex operation is performed by a Computer/PC using programs. The computer understands the binary language. That’s why there is a need for a programming language.

If the person wants to communicate with the computer, the person needs to pass instructions in a machine code only, i.e., a computer can understand only machine code. So that’s why first we have to learn one programming language properly. Many programming languages like C, C++, Java, and C# exist. And all these are programming languages like high-level languages.

To communicate with Computers, we write programs in any programming language.  If you want to communicate with the computer using the C language, first you should learn the C language perfectly. After learning the language, we write programs, which means a set of instructions. For example, A equals 10, b equals 20, and c equals a plus b. We are taking two variables, nothing but two values, and adding and printing the result.

Programs get converted by the Compiler, and the output result gets generated on the screen. The compiler converts all these instructions into binary language or machine code. Now, the machine code is ready. So, once the machine code is ready, you can pass it as an input to the computer.

The computer will produce the output. This is actually the process of communication with the computer. Directly, we cannot communicate with the computer. We are communicating to perform complex operations efficiently.

Imagine an ATM facility is unavailable, and I want to withdraw some money from my account. How difficult is it right? So, it is a long process. First, I have to visit the bank, and then I have to complete so many processes. finally, I will get the money. Suppose machine availability is there. Within one minute or two minutes, you will get the money.

So, machines always make our tasks very easy, which is the only reason we communicate with machines. Direct communication with the computer is not allowed because we cannot pass instructions in a binary language. First, we have to learn one programming language, and after learning the programming language, we will write programs and then convert them into binary instructions using the compiler.

What is an Interface?

Being a programmer is not always necessary to communicate with the machines. An end-user also can communicate with the machine using an interface. The interface means without having the background details, we can perform our tasks.

Consider the end user and user; the end user wants to perform one ATM transaction and can communicate using interfaces. For example, the end-user understands the English language. The end-user clicks on English, then all the instructions will come in English, and operations will be performed.

What is happening in the background is not required for the end user. For example, if you are driving a car you want to increase the speed of the car, you will accelerate generally. So, the speed will increase automatically whenever we accelerate, but what is happening in the background? We don’t know.

We will learn how this interface will communicate with different machines to complete the operations. The End user enters how much they want to withdraw, communicating with the server machine, and how it communicates with the server machine and the database machine that is not required by the end-user.

The end-user leaves the ATM center with the money. For any reason, if the transaction has failed, the end-user directly contacts the bank management, and the bank management contacts the programmer because the programmer provides the interface.

So, here, as a programmer, we are not communicating with the machines; we are just developing applications, nothing but providing interfaces by which every end-user can easily interact with the machine, and that is our motto.

In the next article, I will give an overview of different types of programming languages. Here, in this article, I try to give an overview of the language, computer language, programming language, why we need a programming language, and what a programmer’s job is. I hope you enjoy this article.