ABSTRACT
Initially, all programming was carried out using the hardware. Then programming was carried out using assembly language or the primitives of the CPU. Assembly language programming focused on hardware manipulation as well as the procedure for solving the problem at hand. Assembly languages were considered the second-generation programming languages, as the first generation was in binary numbers. Then the third generation languages were developed, beginning with For Translation/Translator (FORTRAN) and Common Business-Oriented Language (COBOL) leading the pack. COBOL was selected as the programming language for all governmental data processing work by the USA. The third generation languages focused on the procedure for solving the problem, and the hardware manipulation was relegated to the OS. That is why the third generation programming languages were referred to as procedural languages. The user interface was limited to displaying characters on the screen to prompt the users. As the graphics capabilities developed further, graphical user interface was developed. The fourth generation languages were developed to program the screen controls displaying graphics. As these languages focused on programming the events of the controls, fourth generation languages are referred to as event-oriented languages. What the fifth generation will bring is anybody’s guess. All these aspects are discussed in this chapter.
