How many programming languages for computers are currently in use?
There are literally thousands of programming languages available. Many are obscure (and a few are meant as jokes – like the COW language: http://www.bigzaphod.org/cow/ ) There’s a smaller number of popular languages that are commonly used. They can be grouped in a number of ways. Multi-purpose languages are the heavy lifters. There’s a few very prominent players here. C is a highly influential language. Although it has fallen from favor a bit, many other languages are based on it, and share their essential syntax with C. C++ is an improvement on C which added object-oriented programming and a simplified syntax. Java is another enhancement of C with a much stricter design than C++, a very complete object library, and enforcement of object-oriented principles. C# is Microsoft’s attempt to improve on the C++ and Java designs. It simplifies these languages without losing any power. The Microsoft version works only on MS platforms,
