Fifth-generation programming language

A fifth-generation programming language (abbreviated 5GL) is a programming language based around solving problems using constraints given to the program, rather than using an algorithm written by a programmer. Most constraint-based and logic programming languages and some declarative languages are fifth-generation languages.

While fourth-generation programming languages are designed to build specific programs, fifth-generation languages are designed to make the computer solve the problem for you. This way, the programmer only needs to worry about what problems need to be solved and what conditions need to be met, without worrying about how to implement a routine or algorithm to solve them. Fifth-generation languages are used mainly in artificial intelligence research. Prolog, OPS5, and Mercury programming language are the best known fifth-generation languages.

In the 1990s, fifth-generation languages were considered to be the wave of the future, and some predicted that they would replace all other languages for system development, with the exception of low-level languages. Most notably, Japan put much research and money into their fifth-generation computer systems project, hoping to design a massive computer network of machines using these tools.

=See also=

*first-generation programming language *second-generation programming language *third-generation programming language *fourth-generation programming language