The Generations of Programming Languages | Computer Science History

Programming languages have progressed exponentially over the past half-century. The way you understand programming languages is split into high-level & low-level. But within that, there are five generations of programming languages. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th... pretty easy right? Whereas the 1st & 2nd being low-level languages. And the 3rd, 4th, 5th being high-level languages. You'll notice it progresses as it did through time, with machine language, assembly, Java, Python, and now with these visual tool programming languages.
0:00 Intro
0:57 1GL - Machine Language
2:36 2GL - Assembly Language
5:48 3GL - Our Favorite Languages
8:21 4GL - SQL/MATLAB/Octave
9:37 5GL - OPS5/Mercury/ICAD
11:16 Thanks for Watching!
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[@NeetCode]

this 13 min video would have saved me a semester of stress in college lol

[@Goku19881]

If you had programming courses, I'd sign up for an annual subscription. Your content always make so much sense. Thank you.

[@kaiisheng]

Dude, the production value of your videos are so freaking good!

[@powderriverfarrier]

Forrest demonstrates waaaaayyyyyyy too much common sense in his videos. Before you now it he's going to cause people to start thinking creatively. . Good video mate.

[@powderriverfarrier]

Thank you for posting valuable videos. Merry Christmas to you.

[@ScientistIzaak]

I’ve been researching this topic like crazy and finally found a video that encompasses it all! Great video man!

[@stove.d]

Love the style of these last two videos. Good stuff. As a low-level programmer I can't see why anyone would be writing in machine code, unless they're adding to an instruction set.

[@l1wzEqsWwy]

I really never would have guessed Jesus was a historian.

[@geckogeico2212]

haha funny every time haha

[@jacobl7451]

I mean he's seen everything since the year 0, of course he'd be one

[@gaming53wishmaster71]

hahaha nice yaa he looks a ton like him

[@anymorendlovu8383]

lol dont break my ribs

[@samuelachilike5040]

😂😂😂

[@jah808allday8]

I just took a class on assembly. Got a B+. Broke my brain

[@gefitrop3496]

Is this some sort of programmer joke I am too rookie to understand

[@gefitrop3496]

@Parker Sullins ?

[@keyboardwarrior6296]

@@gefitrop3496 Perhaps he barely understood the material.

[@KayOScode]

I also got a B+ in assembly which is weird because my current job focuses immensely on assembly. It was my lowest grade in my entire computer science degree

[@jedjedjedjedjedjed]

Cool as heck!! Been enjoying your vids for a couple years now, great job man :)

[@roni5245]

Hey, Forrest! Love your videos! They’re so informative and well made. I have a suggestion: please post programming tutorials. I have a feeling you’d be a great teacher :)

[@ComputerScienceSimplified]

Loved this video!!! Amazing job, keep up the great content 😊

[@maxx977]

Great video, you taught me a lot of things and merry X-mas everyone.

[@kitrodriguez992]

This video explained a big chunk of my 1st year in college.

[@timtudosa2519]

Great video on the history of programming languages. Please do more videos like this!

[@jacquesvanheerden5520]

sick videos dude, thanks for the history it really helps more than to read it from a book

[@theblackswan7128]

Intresting video thank you!

[@olitonottero7620]

Thank you for sharing this

[@zjankowski]

4GL and 5GL languages are truly misclassified. While transitioning from 1GL -> 2GL -> 3GL really feels like moving up the abstraction level, it's not the case for the remaining 2. In 3GL languages, you can just use a framework or a library to operate on a higher level of abstraction and you maintain the ability to change dataflows between your program components up to a single bit. The abilities you lose when using a 3GL language are always related to performance, data storage etc. so usually it simply just cuts you off from the irrelevant stuff, increases your productivity while maintaining the full potential to build any program you want. Those higher-level languages should just be called "special purpose languages".

[@harshendubhardwaj5283]

Great explanation!

[@OGBhyve]

Most drivers and firmware are written in C or C++. You may have found references to machine code but they would be referring to the use of an assembly language and an assembler.

[@retropaganda8442]

Don't you need to peek and poke at the registers/addresses of the hardware you're driving? That'd be direct machine coding. But of course, C/C++ can take the role of the assembler since it lets you abstract those raw numbers with named constants and even functions.

[@Lupinicus1664]

Good job, most current 'programmers' have little idea of what came before them (or even how computers actually work)

[@thechesslobster2768]

This type of content is a black hole in terms of CS content on youtube. Excellent video topic choice, hope this blows up.

[@joshuaesclamado1943]

The graphics of this video is great!

[@realchrishawkes]

Are you trying to move lower level?

[@fknight]

No. I’ll stick with Java haha

[@Hym-un7ss]

you save my life by making this video.

[@Catrix_ML]

thanks man❤

[@kvelez]

11:19 Good video, thank you.

[@bluesbasscovers]

Fully agree with you - Python and the others mentioned are 3GL

[@Parulminu]

Hey man, when we're arrays invented? And we're they invented for the purposes of programming first? I found some link saying it was a guy named Daniel but I couldn't find any other sources for the same info.

[@dwightguevara4637]

HI! I'm trying to decide on which BS in CS school to apply for, and wanted to know if the Old Dominion University CS program is regionally accredited in case I decide to pursue a Masters.

[@groveavenue]

Good presentation. You did not include COBOL and its volcanic part in the development of programming languages. :)

[@anandkalyanji]

Huge thanks 😊

[@daniellombardi3670]

Why do you consider python 3GL? didnt mention it in the vid, just threw it out there

[@mattstyles4283]

I'm learning Java at university- what frameworks, libraries, APIs etc. would you recommend learning to *eventually* become a Full Stack Developer?

[@andreffrosa]

Whatever you like the most. They are all different shells to do the same thing

[@mecowhy2201]

theory... a code theory... xD amazing, it made me laugh a lot

[@KahfiSoobhanZulkifli]

used prolog to create a game for my final coursework in computational logic.

[@skinnyboystudios9722]

whats good is that every logician who has never programmed before could turn her ideas into software using prolog.

[@loganbrutondakota940]

Where did you get all of your research for this video?

[@ahmaddynugroho]

6GL: LISP

[@sumabich721]

Dey taking our jobs!!

[@fauzanahladzikri]

lol i never expected aragorn would teach me regarding history of programming language

[@RogerJustinYau]

Thanks!

[@fknight]

Thank you!

[@CallousCoder]

ML isn't probably used for drivers, that is assembly (although clever assembly can rely on machine code for self modifying code). ML is however used for egg drops in buffer overflow exploits, you start with x90h NOP sled and create a exec system call to call a /bin/sh which should preferably be a (more) privileged shell.

[@lifeinanotherworldalice1281]

Can you please explain what youve said so that a laymen like me could understand :thanks much appreciated.

[@albirtarsha5370]

The database wars of the 80s were comical. Companies advertised their database language as "4GL". And so to make a marketing point some companies began advertising as "True 4GL". Eventually Oracle and SQL wiped that mess out.

[@jesustyronechrist2330]

It's crazy to think that programming really is just automation on top of automation, scripts running scripts.

[@alsayehsoft]

Please would talk about programming paradigms

[@pavelbaidurov228]

We can create AI for direct coding in binary/ It can boost existing cpomputers by 30-50% or we can create CPU for ML coding in binary and it will be several times faster per watt

[@hansvetter8653]

I see the future of Software development wirh Go, WASM/WASI and WebGPU.

[@leooz8071]

Thank you James Franco

[@seymour_videos]

Yeah they for sure still use binary to code things like conveyors and other machines that run logics through a PLC.

[@BytebroUK]

There was a package sold in the early eighties, I think calld _The Last One_ on the basis that this would be the last program you ever bought because it would create all your future programs. It was awful. Oh, BTW, could we maybe do a little dig into Perl one day? Larry Wall is very funny,[1] the language is wonderful, and because it still exists I can still get a job at age 63 :) 1. I refer you to _Programming Perl_ (4th edition from preference).

[@keithmiddlehurst4036]

I thought I saw somewhere there was sixth generation languages? Based on interfacing software . I thought third generation was lines of code fourth generation procedural fifth automation sixths interfacing software, saw this someplace cant find it now. 🙄Was thinking with user interfaces to program education or employment schemes build your own Ph.D degree by compilation, refer to Word on line of Code at a time.

[@freeassange5667]

This is a comment to help with the algorithm.

[@Shdnfncidjen]

Ineraction!

[@hanseo1010]

I subscribed.

[@felixthehuman]

What are APL/J/K/Q ?

[@anicaeztelze7917]

How does 3GL works?

[@0xlol64]

I agree that scripting languages are 4GL

[@stevensommer8326]

In class I have to do a presentation on Julia. The professor wants to know what generation it is. I don't know if it's 3gl or 4gl. I ask chatgpt. It said Julia doesn't have a generation because it's too new. Bard said it's 5gl.

[@ryanolson6794]

So that means everything designed now using 3GL /4GL is being made with technology from the 70s?

[@andreffrosa]

Start counting at 1 in computer science?!

[@gauravbharadwaj6184]

i am so happy that i am studying cs

[@mohammadfardinchowdhury177]

you didn't mention plankalkul; the first programming language in the world

[@monkeyrobotsinc.9875]

4gl is blueprints and bolt.

[@bhashuvbr]

sixth generation and seventh generation and 8th generation and 9th generation and finally X generation is the way to go.

[@ZapOKill]

... and there is Haskell and Lisp

[@swapnilchand338]

Do you know who is considered the first programmer ever? Ada Lovelace And yes she's a women. And I'm not simping either. Sir,can u please make videos more videos like these? These are amazing!!!😁 Maybe you could make videos on the analytical engine,abacus,Pascal,eniac, and others, etc......well just an idea. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I really love your videos. And I think I will start a channel too. I just began university.

[@vk8a8]

I misread your name as ForeskinKnight

[@kamertonaudiophileplayer847]

Do not forget Kotlin. First I was wondering: where is a switch in this f--ing language? When..what? A-a-a... now I do use nothing than when.

[@kgoblin5084]

My hot take here: While factually correct in the particulars, the whole idea of breaking programming language history into these generations is stupid & useless. It's the wrong way to go about the process, and ends up causing more ignorance than it solves. Machine code & assembly language are really just the native data format ANY program needs to be in in order to be executable by a machine. Of COURSE we are still using them... that's like asking if metallurgists still use iron atoms. Thinking of them as initial 'generations' towards the perfect way to create software is, to be frank, asinine. They're essential tools to work with the raw materials of the craft. Regarding the 3GLs: 90+% of every programming language ever created fall into this ridiculously broad category, the defining characteristic of which is 'not a 1-to-1 mapping to machine code'. Saying something is 3GL answers zero of the interesting questions about a language: is it interpreted, compiled, or some hybrid between? is it strongly/weakly & statically/dynamically typed? What paradigms does the language support natively? None of those are answered by the reply 'its 3GL!'... and again, modeling the history of language development this way obscures what is really going on. A MUCH better way to go about it is to group languages into families based on either features, or parent/inspiration languages. For example, Java, C++, & Javascript all belong to the ALGOL family, JS also took a lot of ideas from Scheme/Lisp, which is why it's semantics aren't quite in line with it's cousins. Another great example is the Python/Ruby thing... both belong to the scripting language family, & descend from Perl (albeit in very different ways, with Python basically rejecting some of Perl's design principles outright). Scripting languages had a strong focus on programmer productivity over machine efficiency, as well as strong in-built text processing features... which more elegantly describes how they are sometimes considered ' sort of 4GL'. As for 4GLs & 5GLs, the defining features of those are that they abstract away decisions from the programmer on how the computation actually happens, and generally to do that what you are really creating is a domain-specific tool that takes instructions. Eg. SQL is a language for manipulating data... so you tell it queries, inserts, & updates, not loops with indexes to read data from a tree/flat-file/whatever. ICAD is a design tool... you draw/sculpt a part schematic in it's GUI and it works out the physical tolerances for you. The thing is, that kind of means users of those languages really aren't often programming at all... assuming the language has an expertise worth talking about it isn't programming. Queue the 'Data Scientist' job title. The interest to programmers for these tools is mostly in how the tools themselves are built, rather than using them.

[@Yusuf0sow]

You know that you look like James Franco

[@praatyush2615]

Ok

[@milekrizman]

I studied computer science. Then I got a job as a computer science teacher in school. Now I am currently unemployed. Thinking to switch my career in programming. I am learning Javascript now.

[@sonofaput]

Can you tell me what materials you are using such as books and websites if any? Thanks

[@fknight]

This is an automated comment to display likes & dislikes for the video you're currently watching, since KZbin decided to disable the dislike count on videos. Views: 33266 Likes: 1820 Dislikes: 17 Ratio: 99.1% Last Updated: Dec-29-2021 KZbin, please don't ban or shadowban me. I learned how to do this from your own docs. Lol thanks.

[@terrencebrooksjr.429]

You probably get this all the time, but has anyone ever told you that you look like Tame Impala?

[@mugen5101]

.

[@whenthethebeansstrikeback6728]

5GL = 5th Generation Language 5G Language Karens: *I want to speak with your manager*

[@simplet3306]

Why Your KZbin profile is Jesus🤔

[@andreffrosa]

SQL is not a programing language.

[@guygamer732]

Does this Jesus look like a lizard to you?

[@developerethan4593]

He does look like Jesus in most of the pics I’ve seen...

[@s.s.scriptties]

Everytime I see one of Ur videos there's always one Jesus joke in the comments.

[@retropaganda8442]

Thumb down because you inserted an insane amount of ads on your video.

[@sammygamer5733]

This guy is just reading wikipedia 😂😂