Modern Programming Language Types - An Overview

In this episode, we continue our overview of development languages with a focus on the types that exist.  We looked at some of the core concepts in the first part of this series.  The similarities (think dialects) among languages were also highlighted.  At this point, we look at some specific ones and how there are programming language types that make some better than others for the tasks at hand.

We start with the best known and most useful coding languages.  These have some strengths that may not be as strong as specialized ones.  However, they have limited weaknesses.  This combination makes these excellent choices for your first ones to master.  A general programming language not only gives you a tool for any application, but it also has a wealth of programming language concepts for you to work with and master.

As opposed to the general ones, specialized languages will make certain tasks easy to accomplish and maintain.  Some examples are languages that are better at building web applications, processing data, reading and writing files, presenting formatted output (reports), and the list goes on.  These tools are not going to be very helpful in the general case.  In fact, specialized languages sometimes are completely unable to solve certain problems.  They trade off having more capable strengths for reduced capability and weaker weaknesses in other areas.  Think of a drill, it is excellent for drilling (obviously), but close to useless if you want to saw through wood.