A Comparative Study of Programming Languages: APL, BASIC, COBOL, FORTRAN

Computer science is very much an art in its own right. It is an art in the sense that no programmers are alike and thus, in turn, will write different programs for the same given task. This paper contains elements of four programming languages; fundamental similarity and dissimilarity are discussed. It is quite impossible to bring out every little detail for discussion and thus carefully chosen elements are brought out for study here. For readers who are not familiar with languages other than Fortran, there are brief descriptions of APL, Basic and Cobol in the appendix. These descriptions are by no means manuals of any sort, but merely a brief description to enable the reader to understand some of the elements discussed in each respective language. If further knowledge of any particular language is desired, the reader should refer to text-books that teach the said language or refer to the Sigma-9 manual of his choice. The normal terminals at Marquette university are not equipped for APL hence conversion of symbols is required. The conversion list is included in the appendix. Standard symbols are used throughout this eassay except in APL computer examples