Programming language is an artificial [language](formal_language.md) created so that humans can relatively easily communicate [algorithms](algorithm.md) to [computers](computer.md). Such language often tries to mimic human language (practically always [English](english.md)) but is much MUCH simpler so that a computer can actually analyze it and understand it precisely so it also partially looks like [math](math.md) expressions. A programming language can be seen as a middle ground between pure machine code (very hard to handle by humans) and natural language (very hard to handle by computers).
For beginners: a programming language is actually much easier to learn than a foreign language, it will typically have fewer than 100 "words" to learn (out of which you'll mostly use like 10) and once you know one programming language, learning another becomes a breeze because they're all (usually) pretty similar in basic concepts. The hard part may be learning some of the concepts.
A programming language is distinct from a general computer language by its purpose to express algorithms and be used for creation of [programs](program.md). There are computer languages that are NOT programming languages (at least in the narrower sense), such as [HTML](html.md), [json](json.md) and so on.
We divide programming languages into different groups. Perhaps the most common divisions is to two groups:
- **compiled** languages: Meant to be transformed by a [compiler](compiler.md) to a [native](native.md) (directly executable) binary program. These languages are more efficient but usually more difficult to program in, less flexible and the compiled programs are non-portable (can't just be copy-pasted to another computer with different [architecture](isa.md) and expected to run). These languages are usually [lower level](low-level), use static and strong [typing](typing.md) and manual [memory management](memory_management.md). Examples: [C](c.md), [C++](cpp.md), [go](go.md), [rust](rust.md), [Haskell](haskell.md) or [Pascal](pascal.md).
- **interpreted** languages: Meant to be interpreted by an [interpreter](interpreter.md) "on-the-go". Basically to run the program you need the interpreter of the language installed on your computer and this interpreter reads the [source code](source_code.md) as it is written and performs what it dictates. These languages are generally less efficient (slower, use more RAM) but also more flexible, easier to program in and [independent of platforms](platform_independent.md). These languages usually [higher-level](high_level.md), use weak and dynamic [typing](typing.md) and automatic [memory management](memory_management.md) ([garbage collection](garbage_collection.md)). Examples: [Python](python.md), [Perl](perl.md), [JavaScript](js.md) and [BASH](bash.md).
Sometimes the distinction here may not be completely clear, for example Python is normally considered an interpreted language but it can also be compiled into [bytecode](bytecode.md) and even native code. [Java](java.md) is considered more of a compiled language but it doesn't compile to native code (it compiles to bytecode). [C](c.md) is traditionally a compiled language but there also exist C interpreters etc.
We can divide language in many more ways, for example based on their **[paradigm](paradigm.md)** ([impertaive](imperative.md), [declarative](declarative.md), [object-oriented](oop.md), [functional](functional.md), [logical](logical.md), ...), **purpose** (general purpose, special purpose), computational power ([turing complete](turing_complete.md) or weaker), level of **[abstraction](abstraction.md)** (high, low), [typing](data_type.md) (strong, weak, dynamic, static) or function evaluation (strict, lazy).
{ *THIS IS NOT A COMPREHENSIVE LIST, I can only include languages that I am familiar with, please add more* ~drummyfish }
- [C](c.md): the one and only, the go-to language of the [suckless](suckless.md) community and of compiled languages in general, greatly [future-proof](future_proof.md), uncontested in performance and with nice oldschool [meme](meme.md)-free design, our beloved C
- [Scheme](scheme.md): the minimal/elegant member of [lisp](lisp.md) family of [functional](functional.md) languages
- [Forth](forth.md): beautifully simple stack-based language
- [Lambda calculus](lambda_calculus.md): ultra extremely [minimal](minimalism.md) [mathematical](math.md) [functional](functional.md) language
- [LIL](lil.md): very nice KISS & [suckless](suckless.md) interpreted language
- [Lua](lua.md)
- [Sigma calculus](sigma_calculus): yes or no? seems like yes
- [Brainfuck](brainfuck.md): However funny and meme this language may look, its simple design is actually pretty beautiful and interpreters are ultra extremely simple to make.
