A language used to write a program that the computer can execute. Almost 200 programming languages exist. An example is the popular C language, which is well suited to a variety of computing tasks. With C, programmers can write anything from a device driver, to an application, to an operating system.
Certain kinds of tasks, particularly those involving artificial intelligence (LISP or Prolog), process control (Forth), or highly mathematical applications (Fortran and APL), can benefit from a more specific language.
Programming languages are also divided into low-level languages, such as assembly language, and high-level languages, such as C, C++, and Java.
See also assembly language; compiler; interpreter; machine language.