Procedural programming is programming, which reflects the background of the Neumann architecture of a computer. All programs written in this language are a certain sequence of commands that establish a certain algorithm for resolving a particular package of tasks. The most important command is the assignment operation, which is designed to establish and adjust the contents in the computer's memory.
What is the main idea of this language?
The main feature of procedural programming languages is the use of computer memory to save information. The functioning of the program is reduced to the constant and sequential execution of different commands in order to transform the contents of the memory, change its initial state and lead to the necessary results.
How it all began
Procedural programming began with the creation of a high-level language called Fortran. It was created in the early fifties in the USA by IBM. The first publications about him appeared only in 1954. The Fortran procedure-oriented programming language was developed to perform scientific and technical tasks. The main objects of the language are numerical variables, real and integer numbers. All expressions are based on four main arithmetic calculations: exponentiation, relational operations, parentheses, logical manipulations AND, NOT, OR.
The main operators of the language are output, input, transition (conditional, unconditional), call subprograms, loops, assignment. Procedural programming in the Fortran language has long been the most sought after in the world. During the existence of the language, a huge database of different libraries and programs has been accumulated that were written specifically on Fortran. Work is still underway to introduce the next Fortran standard. In 2000, a version of Fortran F2k was developed, with a standard version called HPF. It was created for parallel supercomputers. By the way, in the languages PL-1 and BASIC many standards are used specifically from Fortran.
Tongue cobol
Procedural programming languages include the Kobol language. This is a programming language aimed at solving many information processing tasks. It is actively used to solve various management, accounting and economic problems. Procedural programming on Kobol was developed in the United States in 1958-1960. The program itself, created on Kobol, has several types of sentences in the English language, reminiscent of the most ordinary text. The thing is that a group of statements written sequentially are combined into whole sentences, sentences themselves into paragraphs, and paragraphs into sections. The programmer himself assigns paragraphs and sections assigned names or labels to facilitate access to a specific section of code. In the Soviet Union, the Russian version of the program was developed and was applied very successfully in practice.
Procedurally-oriented programming in the Kobol language is realized thanks to powerful work tools that are capable of processing huge data streams that are stored on various external drives. In this language, many applications have been written that are even actively used now.
An interesting fact: the highest paid programmers in the US write programs in the Cobol language.
Language Algol
This procedural-oriented programming language was created by a whole group of specialists in 1960. This was the result of the beginning of cooperation at the international level. Algol was developed for maintaining algorithms that were built in the form of a sequence of certain procedures that were used to solve the problems posed. At first, the language was perceived somewhat ambiguously, but it was recognized internationally and played a huge role in the formation of the basic concepts of programming and the training of a new generation of programmers. Procedural programming in Algol language for the first time introduced such concepts as “block structure of a program”, “dynamic memory allocation”.
Another feature of the language is the ability to enter some local marks in the block, which do not concern the rest of the program code. Yes, Algol-60, despite its international origin, was not as popular as Fortran.
Not all foreign computers had translators with Algola-60, so this procedural programming has undergone changes and an improved language Algol-68 has appeared.
Algol-68
It was already a universal and multi-purpose advanced programming language. Its main feature was that with the help of the same program it was possible to broadcast from various versions of the language without any cost to adapt this language to different categories of programmers who could have problem-oriented dialects of the language.
Judging by the capabilities of this language, Algol-68 is even ahead of many programming languages in its capabilities, however, due to the fact that there are currently no efficient computers for this procedural programming language, it has not yet been possible to create a high-quality and fast compiler.
How did the famous BASIC come about?
The procedural programming languages include the world-famous Basic. In the mid-sixties, staff at Dartmouth College named Thomas Kurtz and John Kemeny developed a unique programming language that turned everything around. It consisted of the simplest English words and the new language was recognized as a universal code for beginners or, in other words, BASIC. The year of birth of this language is considered to be 1964. BASIC has become widespread on a PC in interactive dialogue mode. Why did BASIC become so popular? All due to the fact that it was as easy to master as possible, in addition, the language helped to solve many different scientific, economic, technical, gaming and even everyday tasks. In BASIC, different rules were laid down by default, which is now considered a sign of bad taste in programming. After there appeared in the world a lot of versions of this language, which are often incompatible, however, understanding one of the versions, you can easily master the other. The original version was available only to the interpreter, and now there is also a compiler.
In the early sixties, all the languages that existed at that time were oriented toward solving various problems, but they were also tied to a specific architecture of a computer. This was considered a drawback, so it was decided to develop a universal programming language.
PL / 1
This is the very first multi-purpose universal language that was created in the USA by IBM. Years of creation 1963-1966. It is believed that this is one of the most common languages, it is adapted to solve many problems in the field of computer technology: planning, researching various calculation processes, modeling and solving logic problems, researching logic circuits, developing systems for mathematical support.
When PL / 1 was created, various concepts and tools from the languages Algol-60, Fortran, Kobol were applied in practice. PL / 1 is considered a flexible and rich language, it allows you to create inserts, adjust the finished text of the program even during debugging. The language is widespread, and translators from it are used in many types of computers. IBM even now continues to support this language.
Pascal
Pascal is a very popular procedural language, especially often used for personal computers. This procedural programming language was created as an educational language; the years of its creation are 1968-1971. It was developed by Niklaus Wirth at the Higher Technical School in Zurich. This programming language was named after the great French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal. The main task of Wirth was to create a language that was based on the simplest syntax, a small number of basic structures that are transformed into machine code using a conventional compiler. It is worth noting that he succeeded.
The Pascal procedural programming paradigm is based on the following principles:
- Structural programming. In this case, routines, independent data structures are used. The programmer manages to create easily readable code, an understandable program structure, and simplifies testing and debugging.
- Top-down programming. The task is divided into simple tasks to be solved, and on the basis of the constructed subtasks, the final solution of the general problem is already being constructed.
Language C
Procedural programming C was developed in the Bell laboratory for implementing the UNIX OS, it was not considered at first as mass. The developers had plans to simply replace Assembler, but just a separate C language appeared. It is unique in that it has the capabilities of high-level programming languages and at the same time it has the means to access functional relationships. In C there is no concept of a procedure, the syntax is quite simple, there is no strict typing of data, the ability to express a couple of actions at once is included. This language immediately attracted the attention of programmers, giving them additional opportunities for creating interesting programs. Today, the C language is quite popular, it is widely used by professionals in programming. Now it is implemented in many computer platforms.
What is the feature of procedural languages?
There are only a few, because each is worth talking about. It:
- Module. A piece of the program that is saved in a separate file. The module provides a set of options that are associated with certain variables, constants or objects.
- Function. This is a complete, independent piece of code that solves a specific problem.
- Data type. This concept speaks of a certain mass of information, which is determined to one type.
Differences between Procedural and Object Oriented Programming
Many programmers know that when creating software or web applications, procedural and object-oriented programming languages are used in practice. What is the difference? Everything is simple, procedural and object-oriented programming are applied everywhere in practice, however, there are some distinctive points. During work, the programmer, setting himself a specific task, breaks it into small ones, selects certain language constructs for implementation (loops, functions, branches, structural operators). This means that the specialist is guided by procedural programming.
OOP includes the concept of "object", otherwise they are also called instances of the class, since a lot of it is inherited from the class. Inheritance is another of the distinctive principles of OOP.
Procedural and functional languages
Is procedural and functional programming the same thing or not? Functional programming is aimed at solving problems in discrete mathematics, while procedural programming is a slightly broader concept and includes a lot of programming languages for solving certain types of problems.
What to choose for yourself?
Many languages in procedural programming are already outdated. Yes, some of them are still improving, but still it is worth paying attention to only a part of them. For example, in the C language. It is distributed today in the world, many modern platforms are built specifically in the C language, so if you want to develop in the field of programming, then you should take a closer look at the C language. However, you can choose for yourself something another, not necessarily related to procedural programming languages.