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Chapter 2: Introduction to Programming Languages
To be able to write a computer program, we need a programming language. However, we don't have just one or two to pick from; there are thousands of different languages available at our disposal. In this chapter, we will talk about what a programming language is, why there are so many languages available, how all of these languages are related, and how a computer can understand the code that we write. Toward the end, we will talk about the grammar of a programming language, also known as its syntax.
By the end of this chapter, you will be able to do the following:
- Understand why we have programming languages
- Understand how programming languages evolved from one language to another
- Understand how programming languages are related
- Understand the difference between interpreted and compiled languages
- Understand the concepts of syntax, keywords, and reserved words in a programming language