Computer Languages

Machine Language:

A microcomputer runs a program by executing the instructions one by one. But the computer can understand only the binary codes 0s and 1s.Therefore each instruction has a specific binary code designed by the manufacturer. The binary code is also called as the machine code. This machine code is arranged byte-wise so that it can be stored in a memory location. Some instructions require only one byte others require two or three memory locations. The binary form of the program is known as Machine language.

Assembly language:

Assembly languages use alphanumeric characters instead of 0s and 1s.Each instruction uses two, three, four or even five English letters to represent an instruction. The group of letters is called Mnemonic. Each Mnemonic is a shortened form of the English word that represents the operation performed. Programs written using mnemonic form of instructions are known as assembly language programs. An assembly language is specific to a given computer.

The Machine and Assembly languages of a computer are considered low-level languages. Programs written in these languages are not transferable to different types of machine. Low level Languages are machine dependent.

High level language:

Programming languages that are to be machine independent are called high level language. Programming Languages such as C, C++, FORTRAN, BASIC, and PASCAL. Instructions written in these languages are known as statements. Programs can be executed on a machine using compiler or an interpreter.

Compiler reads a program called source code and then translates the program into machine language, called object code.  An Interpreter translates one statement at a time from a source code to an object code.

Compilers and interpreter requires larger memory space whereas assembly language programs are compact and require less memory space. Assembly Language programs are

More efficient than high level language programs. An Advantage Of high level language is in trouble shooting programs, very easy to find errors.