These programming approaches have been passing through revolutionary phases just like computer hardware. Initially for designing small and simple programs, the machine language was used. Next came the Assembly Language which was used for designing larger programs. Both machine and Assembly languages are machine dependent. Next came Procedural Programming Approach which enabled us to write larger and hundred lines of code. Then in 1970, a new programming approach called Structured Programming Approach was developed for designing medium sized programs. In 1980's the size of programs kept increasing so a new approach known as OOP was invented. 

Monolithic Programming Approach: In this approach, the program consists of sequence of statements that modify data. All the statements of the program are Global throughout the whole program. The program control is achieved through the use of jumps i.e. goto statements. In this approach, code is duplicated each time because there is no support for the function. Data is not fully protected as it can be accessed from any portion of the program. So this approach is useful for designing small and simple programs. The programming languages like ASSEMBLY and BASIC follow this approach. 

Procedural Programming Approach: This approach is top down approach. In this approach, a program is divided into functions that perform a specific task. Data is global and all the functions can access the global data. Program flow control is achieved through function calls and goto statements. This approach avoids repetition of code which is the main drawback of Monolithic Approach. The basic drawback of Procedural Programming Approach is that data is not secured because data is global and can be accessed by any function. This approach is mainly used for medium sized applications. The programming languages: FORTRAN and COBOL follow this approach. 

Structured Programming Approach: The basic principal of structured programming approach is to divide a program in functions and modules. The use of modules and functions makes the program more comprehensible (understandable). It helps to write cleaner code and helps to maintain control over each function. This approach gives importance to functions rather than data. It focuses on the development of large software applications. The programming languages: PASCAL and C follow this approach. 

Object Oriented Programming Approach: The OOP approach came into existence to remove the drawback of conventional approaches. The basic principal of the OOP approach is to combine both data and functions so that both can operate into a single unit. Such a unit is called an Object. This approach secures data also. Now a days this approach is used mostly in applications. The programming languages: C++ and JAVA follow this approach. Using this approach we can write any lengthy code.