[The Future]

As a relative novice in the field of software design, I have noticed a lot of struggling done by similar amateurs when it comes to understanding what all the programming languages are and what they're used for. We'll frequently hear about a programmer that knows Visual Basic, Java, ASP, XML, SQL, and a never-ending string of acronyms and archaic names.

My idea for this thread is that we all use our knowledge to chip in and say a couple words about one or two languages, and then in the end we'll have a nice reference for beginners to come to. Corrections are welcome for those experts that notice factual inconsistencies, and if you guys think this is a bad idea, don't participate, haha. I'd just like to see if this would work, because I know it would help me a lot, to have a sort of big picture.

So anyways, I'll begin:

Visual Basic - This VB programming language is a development of Microsoft. The developer uses an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) to design a user interface for an application, then writes the code for certain events. For example, there could be code written to display a message box everytime the user clicks a certain button. Because of this, VB is an event-driven programming language. It's biggest asset is that it is capable of rapid application development, but it is hindered by its relatively low speed, as well as virtually no cross-platforming from the Windows OS. VB is most often used for applications where a Graphical User Interface (GUI) is important, and clearly displaying output is prime among the program's objectives.

[Ken11235]

Great Idea

PHP- Stands for Hypertext Pre-Processor. PHP is a web scripting language. Many websites, such as this TF, use PHP to generate dynamic content (content that changes under different cercumstances). PHP works well with an Apache web server and HTML. It is called a "pre-processor" because, instead of compiling the code into machine language, the php engine interprets the code at runtime. This language is a great starting point for anyone interested in web programming.

[ganelon]

Good idea, here are some of the basic acronyms

XML
Stands for eXtensible Markup Language, a condensed form of SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language). XML lets Web developers and designers create customized tags that offer greater flexibility in organizing and presenting information than is possible with the older HTML document coding system. XML is defined as a language standard published by the W3C and supported by the industry.


BIOS
Acronym for basic input/output system. On PC-compatible computers, the set of essential software routines that tests hardware at startup, starts the operating system, and supports the transfer of data among hardware devices, including the date and time. The operating system date is initialized from the BIOS or Real Time Clock date when the machine is booted. Many older PCs, particularly those dating before 1997, have BIOSs that store only 2-digit years and thus may have suffered from Year 2000 problems. The BIOS is stored in read-only memory (ROM) so that it can be executed when the computer is turned on. Although critical to performance, the BIOS is usually invisible to computer users.


ASP
Stands for Active Server Pages. Web-oriented technology developed by Microsoft that is designed to enable server-side (as opposed to client-side) scripting. Active Server Pages are text files that can contain not only text and HTML tags as in standard Web documents, but also commands written in a scripting language (such as VBScript or JavaScript) that can be carried out on the server. This server-side work enables a Web author to add interactivity to a document or to customize the viewing or delivery of information to the client without worrying about the platform the client is running. All Active Server Pages are saved with an .asp extension and can be accessed like standard URLs through a Web browser, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. When an Active Server Page is requested by a browser, the server carries out any script commands embedded in the page, generates an HTML document, and sends the document back to the browser for display on the requesting (client) computer. Active Server Pages can also be enhanced and extended with ActiveX components.