Introduction:

Programming languages have evolved tremendously since early 1950's and this evolution has resulted in
over hundreds of different languages being invented and used in the industry. This revolution is needed as
we can now instruct computers more easily and faster than ever before due to technological advancement
in hardware with fast processors. The increase in quantities and speed powerful computers are being
produced now, more capable of handling complex codes prompting the language designers to design
more efficient codes for various applications. There are five generations of computer languages. A brief
description of each language is as follows:

First-generation programming language

First generation of programming language refers to machine language. Machine language is lower level
language which uses object code (some times also known as machine code). Object code is the
combination of binary digits. These languages directly talk to hardware.
Example Code:
11100101
11110000
11001101

Second-generation programming language

Second generation of languages is also low level language which is known as assembly language.
Assembly languages are the interface between Machine level languages and High level languages.
Example Code:
calc: decL R5
pushL R5
calls #1, recfib
movL R0, R6
decL R5
pushL R5
calls #1, recfib
addL R6, R0
ret
.end

Third-generation programming language

A third-generation programming language (3GL) is a refinement of a second-generation programming
language. The second generation of programming languages brought logical structure to software. The
third generation brought refinements to make the languages more programmer-friendly. This includes
features like improved support for aggregate data types, and expressing concepts in a way that favours the
programmer, not the computer (e.g. no longer needing to state the length of multi-character (string)
literals in Fortran). A third generation language improves over a second generation language by having
the computer take care of non-essential details, not the programmer. High level language is a synonym for
third-generation programming language.
First introduced in the late 1950s, Fortran, ALGOL, and COBOL are early examples of this sort of
language.
Most popular general-purpose languages today, such as C, C++, C#, Java, Delphi, and Python, are also
third-generation languages.
Most 3GLs support structured programming.

Fourth-generation programming language

This is the set of current generation programming languages. These languages are similar or closer to
human languages.

General characteristics of 4GL are:

i.Closer to human languages

ii.Portable
iii.Database supportive
iv.simple and requires less effort than 3GL
v.Non procedural

Different types of 4 GL are:

a. Query Generator
b. Report generator
c. Form Generator
d. Application Generator
e. GUI Generator
f. Relational Database Manager

Example Code:
access admissions
set report device printer
set report device disc
set report name AD32
select if term = "961" and (app-status="AC" or app-status="PP")
sort on ad-source on name
report id name ad-source class hs-code entrance-code app-status
footing at ad-source skip 2 "Total for: " ad-source "=" count skip 3
final footing "Total enrollment " count
set report nolimit
go

Fifth-generation programming language

Languages used for writing programs for Artificial Intelligence, Neural Network, Plasma Computing etc.
come under 5GL. This is the future of programming language.