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