Software are developed through various programming languages. Programming started with machine languages and evolved to new age- programming systems.
| First Generation of Programming Languages (1GL) | Early programming was done on in machine language. |
| Second Generation of Programming Languages (2GL) | Post machine language, the assembly language programming came about. Together 1GL and 2GL are called low-level languages that are easier for computers to understand but difficult for programmers. |
| Third Generation of Programming Languages (3GL) | These languages were largely based on the English language and hence were easier for programmers to comprehend. The 3GLs are also called High-Level Languages, for example, ALGOL, COBOL, Fortran, BASIC, C, PASCAL, etc. |
| Fourth Generation of Programming Languages (4GL) | These programming languages are similar to 3GL but are even easier to understand with their proximity to the natural language. The most popular 4GL is SQL (Structure Query Language) |
| Fifth Generation of Programming Languages (5GL) | The fifth-generation programming languages are used mainly in Artificial Intelligence research, for example, Prolog, OP, Mercury, etc. |
Let’s take a closer look at some of these languages:
