How do you compare programming languages? You might dive right in and examine differences in syntax or idioms. You could compare target platforms or contrast their Hello World implementations. All of these can help paint a picture of how two programming languages might differ.
But these approaches are quite specific, and don't work as well for describing groups of related languages. That is where the concept of programming paradigms becomes quite useful. Programming paradigms provide a means of classifying programming languages by common features or patterns. They provide a broad, high-level classification mechanism with which we can quickly group and compare different programming languages.
Using programming paradigms to classify languages dates back over 40 years. Robert W Floyd is thought to have been the first to use the notion of a...
