Editing Programming language (section)

==Classifications==
{{details|Categorical list of programming languages}}
Programming languages are often placed into four main categories: [[Imperative programming|imperative]], [[functional programming|functional]], [[logic programming|logic]], and [[object oriented]].{{sfn|Sebesta|2012|p=21}}
*Imperative languages are designed to implement an algorithm in a specified order; they include [[visual programming languages]] such as [[.NET]] for generating [[graphical user interface]]s. [[Scripting languages]], which are partly or fully [[Interpreter (computing)|interpreted]] rather than [[compiler|compiled]], are sometimes considered a separate category but meet the definition of imperative languages.{{sfn|Sebesta|2012|pp=21–22}}
*Functional programming languages work by successively applying functions to the given parameters. Although appreciated by many researchers for their simplicity and elegance, problems with efficiency have prevented them from being widely adopted.{{sfn|Sebesta|2012|p=12}}
*Logic languages are designed so that the software, rather than the programmer, decides what order in which the instructions are executed.{{sfn|Sebesta|2012|p=22}}
*Object-oriented programming—whose characteristic features are [[data abstraction]], [[Inheritance (object-oriented programming)|inheritance]], and [[dynamic dispatch]]—is supported by most popular imperative languages and some functional languages.{{sfn|Sebesta|2012|pp=21–22}}
Although [[markup languages]] are not programming languages, some have extensions that support limited programming. Additionally, there are special-purpose languages that are not easily compared to other programming languages.{{sfn|Sebesta|2012|pp=22–23}}