Without variables, programming languages are next to useless. Fortunately, JavaScript’s variable system is incredibly powerful and versatile.

Adding a Decimal in Visual Basic. Microsoft's Visual Basic programming language has variable types for three different kinds of numbers: integer, floating-point and decimal.

Functional programming seeks to take advantage of language support in using functions as variables, arguments, and return values to create elegant code.

This is why I’ve long argued that BASIC is the most consequential language in the history of computing. It’s a language for noobs, sure, but back then most everyone was a noob.

BASIC Beginnings Sooner or later, it was inevitable that someone would come up with a programming language aimed at beginners.

Many complex applications, for example those running on the Web or in conjunction with other technologies such as databases, use multiple programming languages.

60 years ago, the inventors of the BASIC programming language actually achieved what they had hoped for: simple programming that is accessible to everyone.

At its WWDC developer event today, Apple surprised all of the developers in the audience by launching a new programming language called Swift. This new language seems to be poised to replace ...