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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 of language brought refinements to make the languages more programmer-friendly. This includes features like good support for aggregate data types, and expressing concepts in a way that favors 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.
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 good support for aggregate data types, and expressing concepts in a way that favors 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.
First introduced in the late 1950s, [[Fortran]], [[ALGOL]] and [[COBOL]] are early examples of this sort of language.

Revision as of 17:56, 9 December 2009

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 good support for aggregate data types, and expressing concepts in a way that favors 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 "modern" languages (BASIC, C, C++, C#, Pascal, and Java) are also third-generation languages.

Most 3GLs support structured programming.

See also