What is a Program and Programming Language
Program
A set of
instructions that tell a computer what to do is called program. A computer works according to the given instructions in the program. Computer programs are
written in programming languages. A person who develops a program is called
programmer.
Programming Languages
A set of words, symbols and codes
used to write programs is called programming language. Different programming
languages are available for writing different types of programs. With the help
of computer language, a programmer tells a computer what to do.
Explain different Types of Programming Languages.
There are two main types of computer
programming languages.
·
low-level languages
·
high-level languages.
Low Level Languages
These languages are near to computer hardware and far from human languages. Computer can understand these languages
easily. Following are two low-level languages:
• Machine Language
• Assembly Language
Machine Language
A computer
language in which instructions are written in binary form (0 and 1) is called
machine language. It is the only language that is directly understood by the
computer.
Advantages:
a) Very fast program
execution
Disadvantages:
a) difficult to
understand
b) difficult to learn
c) difficult to
modify
d) Requires deep
knowledge of hardware
e) Difficult to
remove errors
Machine language
is also known as first generation language.
Assembly Language
Assembly language
is a low-level language. In assembly language, symbols are used instead of
binary code. These symbols are easy to remember. For example Add instruction is
used to add two numbers.
Assembly language is also known as
second generation language
Advantages:
a) Fast execution
of programs
b) easier to
learn, understand and modify than machine language
Disadvantages:
a) machine dependent
b) Requires knowledge
of hardware
High Level Languages
A type of language
that is close to human languages is called high level language. High-level
languages are easy to understand. Instructions of these languages are written
in English-like words e.g. Print, Display, Write etc.
Advantages:
a) Easy to learn
and understand
b) Easy to modify
c) Easy to remove
errors
d) Machine
independent
e) Better
documentation
Disadvantages:
a) Less fast
program execution
b) Certain
operations can be performed
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