On the possibilities of using the Global language in teaching programming

There are various methods for teaching software development. Each of them involves the use of various tools. The article distinguishes two groups of languages used for teaching programming: educational and general-purpose. Educational languages are languages that were specially developed for educational purposes, for example, Prolog-D. They have a simple and clear syntax, but are limited in capabilities, and subsequent transition to practical development may require additional skills. At the same time, learning general-purpose languages, such as Java, initially provides all the necessary applied skills but may be too difficult for beginners. The article provides a comparative analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of using languages from these groups when mastering the fundamentals of software development. The article briefly describes the idea of a Global programming language, which serves as an intermediate link in translating program text between different languages. The possibility of using a Global language as an entry point for teaching programming is demonstrated. The advantages of this approach are discussed, including: the Global language has a simple and concise syntax due to the specifics of its purpose; a method for visually comparing algorithm implementations in different programming paradigms is provided; it is possible to insert program text in different languages, i. e., to seamlessly transition to the required general-purpose language; and it is possible to run the resulting program on various devices by converting its text to a supported target language. The article provides an example of the problem of determining whether a point belongs to a polygon, the solution code for which is automatically translated from the Global Language into Prolog, C, and Java using the method of universal extended syntax trees. The advantages of using the Global Language as the initial named language are discussed, despite the fact that it can only be used for translating program texts, while another language can be selected as the initial language. Specifically, the Global Language is specifically designed with a laconic and generalized syntax. Such knowledge will help in the future to fully understand the operation of the method of universal extended syntax trees, which will allow, for example, when creating a custom language, to implement translation into the Global Language and vice versa, thereby enabling its rapid integration with various software products. For example, it will be possible to immediately connect and use any ready-made libraries.

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