A computer language is a formal language for humans to communicate with a computer, not a natural language. In earlier days of computing (before the 1980s), the term was used interchangeably with programming language, but today, used primarily for taxonomy, is a broader term that encompasses languages that are not programming in nature. Sub-categories (with possibly contended hierarchical relationships) include:
- Construction
- Programming – for controlling computer behavior
- Command – for controlling the tasks of a computer, such as starting programs
- Query – for querying databases and information systems
- Transformation – for transforming the text of a formal language into text that meets a specific goal
- Structural
- Configuration – for writing configuration files
- Data exchange – examples: JSON, XML
- Markup – for annotating a document in a way that is syntactically distinguishable from the text, such as HTML
- Page description – for describing the appearance of a printed page in a higher level than an actual output bitmap
- Style sheet – for expressing the presentation of structured documents, such as CSS
- Programming – for controlling computer behavior
- Modeling – for designing systems
- Architecture description – for describing and representing system architecture
- Hardware description – for modeling integrated circuits
- Simulation – for simulating
- Specification – for describing what a system should do
