Eli5: What is the difference between various programming languages? Dont they all do the same thing?
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Eventually, yes. Any programming language can achieve the same thing as another programming language (as long as they’re Turing-complete, but that’s beyond ELI5).
The difference isn’t about their capabilities, the difference is about their features. For example, take Python – it’s not a compiled language, but an interpreted one. In practical terms it means it’s slower, so what are the advantages? Well, it’s easier to read and easier to write for humans. Take C/C++ – it’s compiled, it’s way faster than Python, but you need to have some serious knowledge to write very efficiently in it. Or take MATLAB – it’s not even really designed for programmers, it’s meant for mathematicians/physicists.
Each programming language has some features that it excels at but at the cost of other features. It’s impossible to write a language that’s super-fast, super-easy to learn, super-fun to write in and has all the super-features programmers love, so programming languages compromise.
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