Characteristics of high level and low level programming languages.

Characteristics of high level and low level programming languages.

1. High level programming

   • IDE
   • Editor
     • Keywords are shown in colour
   • Debugger
     • Shows the user where the error in the program has occured and why
   • Instructions are written in words
   • Designed to be understood by humans
   • Has syntax rules
   • Portable and can be used on different machines
   • Python, C++

2. Low level programming

   • Assembly code
     • Instructions are written in binary
     • Specific for each machine - not portable
     • Designed to be understood by the computer system
   • Mnemonic
     • Machine code is stored as binary for instructions whereas the mnemonic code is much easier to remember and understand as it's shorter and shows an abbreviated command.
   • Opcode
     • Instruction
   • Operand
     • Stores the data (amount) / register
   • Machine code
     • Instructions are written in binary
     • Executable file
     • Designed to be understood by the computer system
     • Specific for each machine - not portable

3. Translator

   • This converts high-level programming languages into machine code.
   • Turns the file into .exe (executable)
   • One line at a time

4. Compiler

   • When fully developed and tested, this is used to compile a source code directly into an executable, machine code file.

5. Interpreter

   • A program is translated every time it is run.
   • This translates a source code program into an executable, machine code.
   • It executes each translated instruction before moving on to the next.