The Programming Language Guide

This video provides a crash course on programming languages, covering various modern languages and their applications. It also discusses concepts such as low level vs high level, compiled vs interpreted, and statically typed vs dynamically typed. The aim is to help beginners navigate the overwhelming world of programming languages.

Low-level programming refers to writing code that is closer to the hardware, while high-level programming involves using languages that are more abstracted from the machine. The level of a language determines how much abstraction there is between the code we write and what the computer understands.

Machine language is the lowest level of code that consists of instructions used to control the machine's CPU. It is written in zeros and ones, representing electrical states. Programmers no longer write machine code due to its tediousness and error-prone nature.

Assembly language is the next level after machine code. It uses numbers, symbols, and abbreviations instead of binary ones and zeros. Unlike higher-level languages, assembly code is not compiled but assembled into executable machine code by an assembler. Learning assembly language helps in understanding how software works with the CPU and computer hardware.

General purpose languages are used to develop software or firmware for embedded systems. They are considered high level languages compared to machine language and assembly language.

C is a low-level general-purpose language, created in the early 70s by Dennis Ritchie. It was derived from another language called B and used in the development of the Unix operating system. Unlike object-oriented languages, C is procedural and requires managing hardware resources like memory allocation.

A compiled language like C requires a compiler to convert the code into machine instructions. The resulting program is executed by the CPU and is not human-readable. In contrast, an interpreted language like Python or Ruby uses an interpreter to execute the source code directly without compiling it into machine code. Interpreted languages are easier to work with and have faster write times, but compiled languages offer more control over memory allocation and hardware access.

C++ is a lower-level language that was created in the 80s. It is a superset of C, meaning it includes all the features of C with additional tools. One key feature of C++ is its object-oriented nature, which allows for coding based on objects. Like C, there is no garbage collection in C++, requiring manual memory allocation and deallocation. Due to its power and versatility, C++ is used in various domains such as AAA gaming titles, operating systems, VR robotics, scientific computing.

Rust is a new low-level and high-performance language that provides higher level capabilities and memory allocation protection. It can be used for game engines, operating systems, browser components, VR, web servers, APIs, microservices development. Rust has frameworks like Rocket for building web applications. WebAssembly is a bytecode that can run in modern browsers with high performance. Rust is one of the languages that can be compiled into WebAssembly.

Higher level languages are interpreted and popular in the industry. They may not be as fast as lower level languages but they are easier to learn.

Java is a high-level class-based object-oriented programming language. It follows the 'write once run anywhere' principle, meaning that compiled Java code can run on all platforms without recompilation. Java is used for various purposes such as desktop applications, enterprise applications, web servers, mobile app development (specifically Android apps), and more.

In statically typed languages, type checking is performed at compile time and types need to be explicitly defined for variables and function returns. On the other hand, dynamic languages like JavaScript and Python perform type checking at runtime without requiring explicit type definitions. While dynamic languages require less code, statically typed languages are less prone to errors and more robust.

Kotlin is a programming language that uses the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and is commonly used for building native Android apps. It has gained popularity due to its ease of use compared to Java. Kotlin can also be used for web servers, data science, and more.

C# is a compiled and statically typed language that is fully managed in terms of garbage collection. It is higher level than other C languages and shares similarities with Java. It uses the .NET framework and can be used for desktop applications, web development, gaming (with Unity), and mobile apps (with Xamarin). Microsoft's Visual Studio IDE is commonly used to build C# apps.

Go, also known as Golang, is an open source language supported by Google. It is a compiled statically typed language that is fast and scalable. Go has a robust standard library inspired by other languages like C, Python, and JavaScript. Unlike other languages for web development, Go does not necessarily require a framework due to its extensive standard library.

Python: A Dynamic and Versatile Language Python is a dynamic language that is popular for its diverse uses. It is dynamically typed, interpreted, and often referred to as a scripting language. Python's bytecode compilation allows it to be executed by the interpreter. Many developers prefer Python due to its versatility in areas such as machine learning, AI, data science automation, and web development.

Python Frameworks for Web Development "Django" and "Flask" are two of the top frameworks used in Python web development. Django ranks among the best three frameworks of all time according to some experts. Unlike languages like C or Java which use curly braces or semicolons for termination, Python utilizes indentation instead.

Ruby: A Highly Portable Dynamically Typed Language Ruby is a highly portable dynamically typed language used by massive companies like NASA, Intel, IBM, and Spotify. It is an interpreted language that first compiles to bytecode and then gets interpreted by a virtual machine. Ruby shares many similarities with Python in terms of ease of learning and being high-level interpreted languages.

"Pretty" Ruby: Easy to Read and Write "Pretty" Ruby refers to the goal set by its creator Yukihiro Matsumoto (or Mats) when designing the language - making it visually appealing and easy to read/write. Unlike other languages using curly braces for syntax blocks, Ruby uses indentation syntax which resembles English sentences.

Ruby on Rails: Rapid Web Development Framework When discussing web development with Ruby, we often refer to "Ruby on Rails", a popular framework known for rapid development capabilities. Despite losing some popularity recently, it remains powerful due to its opinionated nature offering numerous tools that allow developers scaffold CRUD applications within minutes while utilizing databases effectively.

JavaScript: The Language of the Web JavaScript is a popular language used in web development, known for its versatility and wide adoption. It was initially used to create interactive widgets on web pages but has evolved with the introduction of front-end frameworks like React. With these frameworks, JavaScript can now be used to build powerful single-page applications that run strictly on the client side. Additionally, Node.js allows developers to use JavaScript on the server side, making it a preferred choice for many full-stack developers who value consistency across their tech stack.

"Write Once, Run Anywhere" with JavaScript "Write once, run anywhere" is made possible by technologies like React Native and Electron which enable building mobile and desktop applications using JavaScript. Companies such as NASA, PayPal Medium Netflix have adopted Node.js for their backend needs due to its speed and extensive ecosystem provided by npm (Node Package Manager). Furthermore VS Code along with other popular desktop apps including Postman and Slack are built using Javascript.

PHP is widely used in web development due to its popularity and practicality. It can be embedded directly into HTML, making it easy to add functionality without external files. PHP can be used as a procedural or object-oriented language, with the latter being preferred for cleaner code. There are also frameworks like Laravel and open-source tools like WordPress available for PHP developers.

Swift is a general purpose compiled language developed by Apple. It is used for developing applications for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and other Apple devices. It is easy to learn and faster than Objective-C.

Choosing the Right Programming Language "Outro all use swift in their tech stacks all right so obviously there's other programming languages out there but i think that these are some of the most popular ones at least at this time and as you can see they're all very different so what i would suggest is just look at what you want to do in tech and find the language that best suits you."

"You may have to try a few languages but that's fine even if you learn let's say the basics in ruby if you switch to python there'll be a lot that you can grasp very quickly because of what you learned in ruby and a lot of it comes down to syntax."

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