Fundamental concepts and principles embodied in modern and promising programming languages ​ ​ are considered. Different programming styles are presented (operational, situational, functional, relational, parallel, object-oriented). Basic concepts and principles are considered from five different positions (technological, author's, mathematical, semiotic and implementative) and are illustrated by examples from languages ​ ​ such as Pascal, Simula-67, Smoltok, Refal, Ada, Modula-2, Oberon, Occam-2, Turbo Pascal, C++, etc. Complexity is highlighted as a fundamental programming problem, and abstraction-concretization and prediction-control as the main orthogonal methods for dealing with complexity.