Abstract: The report is devoted to the analysis of the method of comparison of programming languages, convenient for assessing the expressive power of languages and the complexity of the programming systems. The method is adapted to substantiate practical, objective criteria of program decomposition, which can be considered as an approach to solving the problem of factorization of very complicated definitions of programming languages and their support systems. The article presents the results of the analysis of the most well-known programming paradigms and outlines an approach to navigation in the modern expanding space of programming languages, based on the classification of paradigms on the peculiarities of problem statements and semantic characteristics of programming languages and systems with an emphasis on the criteria for the quality of programs and priorities in decision-making in their implementation.