Computer languages

Computer languages

1. Low-level languages

   • Machine language
     • must use an interpreter, compiler or translator to convert human understandable program into a computer readable language called machine code.
   • Advantages
     • If a programmer writes code in a low-level language it does not require translation.
     • A low-level language does not need a compiler or interpreter to run, the processor for which the language was written is able to run the code without using these to translate the code into something they understand

2. High-level languages

   • much closer to human language
   • Advantages
     • Debugging is easier
     • Techniques are applicable everywhere even where computational resources are limited.
     • Make complex programming simpler
     • Create fewer errors
     • The length of the program is small
     • Easier for humans to read, write and maintain

3. Assembly language

   • Telling the processor what to do
   • does not need a compiler or interpreter to run the program
   • have the same structure and set of commands as machine languages, but they enable a programmer to use names instead of numbers.
   • uses mnemonic codes for instructions and allows the programmer to introduce names for blocks of memory that hold data
   • is designed to be easily translated into machine language.

4. Machine Language

   • the lowest-level programming language.
   • a set of instructions in binary that is used to represent operations and data in a machine
   • a collection of binary digits, or bits, that the computer reads and interprets
   • directly executable by a computer without the need for translation by a compiler or an assembler
   • the native language of the computer

5. Conversion for high-level language to low-level language

   • just computer programs which accept a program written in high-level or low-level language and produce an equivalent machine level program as output
   • is a computer program that translates one programming language instruction into another programming language instruction
   • Three types of translater
     • Assembler
       • An assembler converts assembly language’s source code into machine language. I
       • t is a program that takes a higher-level language and converts it into a pattern of bits (0s and 1s) that the computer runs to produce results.
     • Compiler
       • a program that compiles source code into executable instructions that a computer can understand, it compiles code and produces it in a new format before it runs.
     • interpreter
       • a program that executes programming code directly
       • can convert a source code using a step-by-step, line-by-line and unit-by-unit basis into machine code