Computer language
Formal language for communicating with a computer
A computer language is a formal language for humans to communicate with a computer, not a natural language. In earlier days of computing (before the 1980s), the term was used interchangeably with programming language, but today, used primarily for taxonomy, is a broader term that encompasses languages that are not programming in nature. Sub-categories (with possibly contended hierarchical relationships) include:
- Construction
- Programming , for controlling computer behavior
- Command , for controlling the tasks of a computer, such as starting programs
- Query , for querying databases and information systems
- Transformation , for transforming the text of a formal language into text that meets a specific goal
- Structural
- Configuration , for writing configuration files
- Data exchange , examples: JSON, XML
- Markup , for annotating a document in a way that is syntactically distinguishable from the text, such as HTML
- Page description , for describing the appearance of a printed page in a higher level than an actual output bitmap
- Style sheet , for expressing the presentation of structured documents, such as CSS
- Programming , for controlling computer behavior
- Modeling , for designing systems
- Architecture description , for describing and representing system architecture
- Hardware description , for modeling integrated circuits
- Simulation , for simulating
- Specification , for describing what a system should do
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Computer language”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
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