Categorical list of programming languages

1. Alphabetical list of programming languages
2. Chronological list of programming languages
3. Generational list of programming languages

See: Programming language

• Assembly languages directly correspond to a machine language (see below) in order to allow machine code instructions to be written in a form understandable by humans. Assembly languages allow programmers to use symbolic addresses which are later converted to absolute addresses by the assembler. Most assemblers also allow for macros and symbolic constants[?] as well.

• Authoring languages[?]
  • Tutor[?]
  • Coursewriter[?]
  • PILOT

• Batch languages
  • Bourne Shell (sh)
  • Bourne-Again shell (bash)
  • C shell (csh)
  • Korn shell (ksh)
  • REXX

• Compiled languages
  • BASIC (select dialects)
  • C++
  • Delphi
  • Java
  • Perl
  • Visual Basic

• Curly-brace languages are languages whose syntax defines statement blocks using curly-brace characters { and }. Examples of curly-brace languages include:
  • C
  • C++
  • C#
  • ECMAScript (JavaScript)
  • Java
  • Perl

• Dataflow languages[?] rely on a (usually visual) representation of the flow of data to specify the program. Frequently used for reacting to discrete events or for processing streams of data. Examples of dataflow languages include:
  • LabView[?]
  • Max[?]
  • Pure Data[?]

• Data-oriented languages[?] provide powerful ways of searching and manipulating the relations that have been described as entity relationship tables which map one set of things into other sets. Examples of data-oriented languages include:
  • dBase[?]
  • SQL

• Data-structured languages[?] are languages whose logic is structured in a similar way as their data. Examples of data-structured languages include:
  • Lisp which uses lists as its organizing principle
  • FORTH, Poplog and Postscript which are conceptually based on an open stack model
  • assembly languages which statically link data inline with instructions

• Functional languages define programs and subroutines as mathematical functions. Many so-called functional languages are "impure" and also contain imperative features. Examples of functional languages include:
  • APL
  • F#
  • Lisp
  • ML
  • Ocaml
  • Scheme
  • Haskell
  • Joy

• Interpreted languages
  • BASIC (select dialects)
  • Perl
  • VBScript

• Syntax handling languages
  • AWK
  • Lex
  • M4
  • Yacc

• Logical languages specify a set of attributes that a solution should have rather then a set of steps to obtain such a solution. Examples of logical languages include:
  • Prolog which formulates data and the program evaluation mechanism as a special form of mathematical logic known as Horn logic[?] and a general proving mechanism called logical resolution[?]
  • Mercury which is based on Prolog

• Machine languages are directly executable by the computer's CPU. It is typically formulated as numbers expressed in octal or hexadecimal. Each group of numbers is associated with particular fundamental operations of the hardware. The activation of specific wires and logic controls the computation of the computer. Individual machine languages are architecture-dependent and are therefore not portable. Each of the following architectures have their own proprietary machine language:
  • Intel 80386
  • Motorola 68000
  • PowerPC
  • Zilog Z80

• Procedural languages are based upon the concept of the unit and scope (the data viewing range of an executable code statement). A procedural program is composed of one or more units or modules--either user coded or provided in a code library; each module is composed of one or more procedures, also called a function, routine, subroutine, or method, depending on programming language. Examples of procedural languages include:
  • Ada
  • BASIC
  • C
  • C++
  • C#
  • CFM
  • COBOL
  • Delphi
  • ECMAScript (JavaScript)
  • FORTRAN
  • Java
  • Pascal
  • Perl
  • PL/1
  • Rapira
  • VBScript
  • Visual Basic

• Object-oriented languages are languages that support objects. The data structures are defined in object classes, which also include code (methods). Thus the effects of a change to the code remain very localized. Object classes can be extended by inheritance. Examples of object-oriented languages include:
  • Ada 95
  • C++
  • C#
  • Common Lisp
  • Delphi
  • ECMAScript (JavaScript)
  • Eiffel
  • Java
  • Modula-3
  • NewtonScript
  • Oberon(?)
  • Objective C
  • Perl 5
  • PHP
  • PowerBuilder[?]
  • Python
  • Ruby
  • Sather
  • Self
  • Simula
  • Smalltalk
  • VBScript
  • Visual Basic

• Prototype-based languages are a special type of object-oriented programming languages, where the distinction between classes and instances have been removed. Examples of prototype-based languages include:
  • ECMAScript (JavaScript)
  • NewtonScript
  • Self

• Rule-based languages[?] instantiate rules when activated by conditions in a set of data. Of all possible activations, some set will be selected and the statements belonging to those rules will be executed. Examples of rule-based languages include:
  • OPS-5[?]
  • Prolog
  • Clips[?]
  • Jess

• Scripting languages
  • AppleScript
  • Perl
  • PHP
  • Python
  • Ruby
  • Tcl
  • VBScript

• Turing tarpits
  • Befunge
  • Brainfuck
  • INTERCAL
  • Unlambda

• XML-based languages are languages based on or that operate on XML. Although the big-boy equivalents of oracle/postgresql/mssql don't yet exist for XML, there are languages to navigate through it and its more tree-oriented structure:
  • XSLT
  • XPath

• Concurrent languages[?] are those that define commands as messages to a process. Processes are collections of message passes. Generally based on the Pi-Calculus, these have had no commercial success.
  • Occam2[?]
  • Pict[?]