Programming languages are the languages with which a programmer implements a piece of software to run on a computer. The earliest programming languages were assembly languages, not far removed from the binary-encoded instructions directly executed by the computer. By the mid-1950s, programmers began to use higher-level languages. Two of the first higher-level languages were FORTRAN (Formula Translator) and ALGOL (Algorithmic Language), which allowed programmers to write algebraic expressions and solve scientific computing problems. As learning to program became increasingly important in the 1960s, a stripped-down version of FORTRAN called BASIC (Beginner’s All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) was developed at Dartmouth College. ...(100 of 11972 words)