A programming language is a means of communication for the user to communicate with the computer system.
The programming language is a set of instructions which tells the computer what to do.
This is a language which is understood by both man and machine. There are a number of programming languages.
However all these languages are designed to perform at least certain basic instructions and operations;
These instructions and operations are :
Input/output operations,
Arithmetic operations – mathematical operations like addition, subtraction,
Logical operations – Comparison for equality, inequality etc.
Movement of instructions and data to and from the CPU.
Types of programming languages
Machine Language
Assembly Language
High Level Language
Low Level Language
Machine Language:
This is the only language which is understood by the computer.
This is the language nearest to the machine. In this language the programs are written in binary code i.e. the instructions are made only by a combination of binary digits 0 and 1.
Machine language may vary from machine to machine depending upon the computer architecture.
Machine language is difficult to read and write, since it does not resemble conventional mathematical notation or human language, and its codes vary from computer to computer.
Assembly Language
Assembly language is one level above machine language.
It uses short mnemonic codes for instructions and allows the programmer to introduce names for blocks of memory that hold data.
One might thus write “add pay, total” instead of “0110101100101000” for an instruction that adds two numbers.
Assembly language is designed to be easily translated into machine language.
The program written in assembly language has to be converted into machine language for use by the computer.
This is achieved with the help of the assembler. The assembler is a system program which is supplied by the manufacturer.
It converts the assembly program into a machine readable program and the resulting program is called the object program.
Thus the input to the assembler is the source program and the output of the assembler is the object program.
The assembler translates each assembly language instruction into a corresponding machine code.
High Level Language
Higher level languages make use of English like words and statements and mathematical symbols for instructions.
The first high-level languages were introduced in the 1950’s.
Higher level languages make programming easier, since they are relatively easy to learn. Less time is required to write programs in high level languages.
The programmer is not required to know the detailed working of the computer system in order to program in a high level language.
Today, high-level languages are in widespread use. These include BASIC, C, C++, Cobol, FORTRAN, Java, Pascal, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, and Visual Basic.
Low Level Language
Low-level languages are designed to operate and handle the entire hardware and instructions set architecture of a computer directly.
Low-level languages are considered to be closer to computers.
In other words, their prime function is to operate, manage and manipulate the computing hardware and components.
Programs and applications written in a low-level language are directly executable on the computing hardware without any interpretation or translation.
