To write a computer program, a standard programming language is used.
A programming language is composed of a set of instructions in a language understandable to the programmer and recognizable by a computer.
Programming languages can be classified as high-level, middle-level, and low-level.
High-level languages such as BASIC, COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Programming Language), and FORTRAN (Formula Translation Language) are used to write application programs.
A middle-level language such as C is used for writing applications and system programs.
A low-level language such as the assembly language is mostly used to write system programs.
Low-level programming languages were the first category of programming languages to evolve. Gradually, high-level and middle-level programming languages were developed and put to use.
Following are the growth of computer languages
Low-level Languages :
- A low-level computer programming language is one that is closer to the native language of the computer, which is 1’s and 0’s
Machine language:-
- This is a sequence of instructions written in the form of binary numbers consisting of 1’s and 0’s to which the computer responds directly.
Assembly language:-
- When symbols such as letters, digits, or special characters are employed for the operation, operand, and other parts of the instruction code, the representation is called an assembly language instruction.
High-level Languages
- High-level programming languages such as COBOL, FORTRAN, and BASIC, Such languages have instructions that are similar to human languages and have a set of grammar that makes it easy for a programmer to write programs and identify and correct errors in them. To illustrate this point, a program written in BASIC, to obtain the sum of two numbers, is shown below.
Compiler and Interpreter
- For executing a program written in a high-level language, it must be first translated into a form the machine can understand. This is done by software called the compiler. The compiler takes the high-level language program as input and produces the machine language code as the output for the machine to execute the program.
- The compiler and interpreter have different approaches to translation.
Difference between Compiler and Interpreter
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