General-purpose programming language

Early programming languages were designed either for scientific computing (numerical calculations) or commercial data processing, as was computer hardware. Scientific languages such as Fortran and Algol supported floating-point calculations and multidimensional arrays, while business languages such as COBOL supported fixed-field file formats and data records. Much less widely used were specialized languages such as IPL-V and LISP for symbolic list processing; COMIT for string manipulation; APT for numerically controlled machines. Systems programming requiring pointer manipulation was typically done in assembly language, though JOVIAL was used for some military applications.[1]

IBM's System/360, announced in 1964, was designed as a unified hardware architecture supporting both scientific and commercial applications, and IBM developed PL/I for it as a single, general-purpose language that supported scientific, commercial, and systems programming. Indeed, PL/I was used as the standard systems programming language for the Multics operating system.

Since PL/I, the distinction between scientific and commercial programming languages has diminished, with most languages supporting the basic features required by both, and much of the special file format handling delegated to specialized database management systems.

Many specialized languages were also developed starting in the 1960s: GPSS and Simula for discrete event simulation; MAD, BASIC, Logo, and Pascal for teaching programming; C for systems programming; JOSS and APL\360 for interactive programming.[1]

A domain-specific programming language is designed to be used within a specific application domain. Examples include page description languages and database query languages.

The following are some general-purpose programming languages:

• General-purpose markup language
• General-purpose modeling language