Procedural programming. The history of the dialogue between a person and a computer

Communication with a modern computer is impossible without using a special programming language. Since the birth of the first computers, there are five generations of linguistic systems designed for dialogue between a person and a computer. At first it was an assembler in its original form. In the distant 50's, he worked on the principle of using in one line one instruction.

To replace it in the early 60's came a symbolic assembler. Its peculiarity is the presence of the concept of a variable. In fact, it is this assembler that can be considered a full-fledged programming language. With its advent not only the speed of development has increased, but also the reliability of programs has significantly increased. Also, the scripting programming language that runs in batch mode is developing in parallel.

By the middle of the decade appeared the third generation of programming languages. These were universal high-level languages. With their development already in the 60's there was a real opportunity to carry out the solution of problems from a wide variety of areas. Languages of the third generation differed relative simplicity, independence from the choice of computer and had the opportunity to work with powerful syntactic constructions. With their appearance, the work of the programmer has become more productive. Even today, third-generation programming languages are convenient tools for developing a wide range of different applications.

In the 1970s, the fourth generation of programming languages started. With their help, large projects are being implemented, reliability is increasing and application development speed is increasing. Their peculiarity is orientation to certain areas of application, it is precisely from the universality that it has become possible to solve specific tasks at a new level of productivity.

The fifth generation of programming languages appeared in the 90s. They relate to the extension of the functionality provided to the normal user system. With their help, even a person far from programming can create high-performance applications. With the fifth generation, programming at home becomes a reality for all comers.

In the classification of languages, there is a whole class that uses procedural programming as the basic principle of work. This principle is a reflection of the architecture of the computer, called the Neumann computer . When writing a program in a procedural language, a sequence of commands is used, which determines the algorithm for solving the task.

Procedural programming as a highlight implies the possibility of using memory to carry out data storage. In programs of this type, we come across an assignment command that allows you to define and change memory. The content is converted into the computer's memory, resulting in the original state being changed to the resulting state.

Procedural programming has found application in languages such as Fortran, which appeared in the early 50's to create programs that solve scientific and technical problems; Kobol (60s) - processing a large amount of data on various media; Algol is an advanced multi-purpose language. The latter is notable for the presence of "block structure" and "dynamic distribution".

Procedural programming did not pass and beginners. In the 60's, the well-known BASIC started. Its simplicity and versatility allowed the language to spread with great speed, winning every year a large number of admirers.

Behind the pioneering languages was a huge number of very different interpreters. Language PL-1, Pascal (PASCAL), ADA, SI continued the development of the principle of procedural programming.