Eli5: What is the difference between various programming languages? Dont they all do the same thing?
In: 33
Consider all these things that fall under the heading of “programming”:
* Writing the parts of the operating system that read and write files from disk
* Simulating the flow of air in the atmosphere as part of weather forecasting
* Building the data storage/reading layer for a website to host discussion forums (e.g. Reddit)
* Building the _user interface_ for a website to host discussion forums (e.g. Reddit)
* Building the parts of a game that put graphics on screen
* Building the parts of a game that describe skills and quests and such things.
Now, all those different types of programming have different requirements, with relatively little overlap. Some care deeply about what you mean by “number”, others not so much. Some need to know how, precisely, bits and bytes are laid out in memory, others don’t care about such details.
Different languages make different decisions about what stuff they’ll do for you and what things they’ll let you control directly, and they’ll make different decsions about how you do those things. That means you can choose a language that’s good at the thing you’re trying to do; the alternative, a language that’s good at all the things, is also such a complicated beast that it’s not good at any of the things (because nobody can actually understand it)
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