What Is Computer Language?
Category: COMPUTER SCIENCE | 14th March 2024, Thursday
You Know That Software Is A Set Of Computer Programs. These Computer Programs Will Be Written In The Language What Computer Understands. If You Want To Get Something Done By A Person, You Will Tell Him What To Do In A Language That He Understands. Similarly, If You Want To Get Some Work Done By The Computer, You Have To Tell The Computer In A Language That The Computer Understands, I.e., Machine Language.
The Machine Language Consists Of Only Binary Digits, I.e. 0 And 1. It Was Felt Quite Difficult And Tedious For Human Beings To Think In Binary Numbers. For Communicating With The Computer, It Was Thought That It Is Advisable To Develop A Third Language, A Programming Language That Can Be Understood By Both Human Beings And The Computer.
Thus A Programming Language Is A Set Of Rules That Provides A Way Of Instructing The Computer To Perform Certain Operations. Programming Languages Are Said To Be Lower Or Higher, Depending On Whether They Are Closer To The Language The Computer Itself Uses (lower, Which Means 0s And 1s) Or To The Language That People Use (higher, Which Means More English Like).
The Languages In Which Programs Are Written Are Called Programming Languages. These Languages Can Be Classified Into Following Categories.
- Machine Language
- Assembly Language
- High Level Language
Machine Languages
Do You Know That Computer Can Understand 0’s And 1’s? Yes 0’s And 1’s Can Be Directly Understood By Computers. Programs That Have Only Binary Digits Are Called A Machine Language Programs. It Is Difficult To Write Or Understand Machine Language. Letters Of The Alphabet Are Also Represented In Binary Numbers. In One System, The Letter A Is Represented As 1000001. Commas, Semicolons And Other Special Characters Are Also Represented As Bunches Of 0s And 1s.
Assembly Languages
In The 1950s, To Reduce Programming Complexity And Provide Some Standardization, Assembly Languages Were Developed. Assembly Languages, Also Known As Symbolic Languages Use Abbreviations Or Memonic Code - Codes That Are More Easily Memorized To Replace The 0s And 1s Of Machine Languages.
Actually, Assembly Languages Do Not Replace Machine Languages. In Fact, For An Assembly Language Program To Be Executed, It Must Be Converted To Machine Code. The Assembly Language Program Is Referred To As A ‘source Program’ Whereas, The Machine Language Program Is An ‘object Program’.
Assembly Language Code Is Very Similar In The Form To Machine Language Code. In Fact, Assembly Languages Had A One-to-one Correspondence Which Means That 15 Assembly Statements, Would Be Translated Into 15 Machine Language Statements. This One-to-one Correspondence Was Still Laborious. However, Assembly Language
instructions (called Macro Instructions) Were Devised, Which Executed Batches Of One-to-one Instructions.
Assembly Languages Offer Several Advantages:
- They Are More Standardized And Easier To Use Than Machine Languages.
- They Operate Very Efficiently, Although Not As Efficient As The Machine Languages.
- They Are Easier To Debug.
However, There Are Still Some Disadvantages:
- Assembly Language Programs Are Usually Very Long And Difficult To Debug.
- Though Less Abstract Than Machine Languages, Assembly Language Programs Are Still Complex.
- Though More Standardized.
High Level Languages
High Level Languages Helped Programmers By Reducing Further The Number Of Computer Operations Details They Had To Specify, So That They Could Concentrate More On The Logic Needed To Solve The Problem.
Languages Are Often Referred To As Generations, The Idea Being That Machine Languages Were The First Generation And Assembly Languages Were The Second Generation. High-level Languages Are Sometimes Used To Refer All Languages Above The Assembly Level.
Here We Will Subdivide High-level Languages Into Three Generation.
- Procedural-oriented Or Third Generation
- Problem-oriented Or Fourth Generation
- Natural Or Fifth Generation
Procedural-oriented Languages
High-level Languages Are Often Classified According To Whether They Solve General Problems Or Specific Problems. General-purpose Programming Languages Are Called Procedural Languages Or Third Generation Languages. These Are Languages Such As Pascal, BASIC, COBOL, And FORTRAN, Which Are Designed To Express The Logic, The Procedure, Of A Problem. Because Of Their Flexibility, Procedural Languages Are Able To Solve A Variety Of Problems.
Procedural Languages Have Many Advantages Over Machine And Assembly Languages:
- The Program Statements Resemble English Language And Hence Are Easier To Work With.
- Because Of Their English-like Nature, Less Time Is Required To Develop A Program For A Given Problem.
- Once Coded, Programs Are Easier To Understand And Modify.
- The Procedural Languages Are Machine-independent.
However, Procedure-oriented Languages Still Have Some Disadvantages Compared To Machine And Assembly Languages:
- Programs Are Executed More Slowly.
- The Languages Use Computer Resources Less Efficiently.
Problem-oriented Languages And Application Generators
Third-generation Languages, Such As BASIC Or Pascal, Require You To Instruct The Computer In Step-by-step Fashion. Fourth-generation Languages, Also Known As Problem-oriented Languages, Are High-level Languages Designed To Solve Specific Problems Or Develop Specific Applications By Enabling You To Describe What You Want Rather Than Step-by-step Procedures For Getting There. Some Of The Major Difference Between Third-generation Languages (3GLs) And Fourth-generation Languages (4GLs).
Natural Languages
Natural Languages Are Still In The Developmental Stages, But They Promise To Have Profound Effect, Particularly In The Areas Of Artificial Intelligence And Expert Systems. Natural Languages Have Two Characteristics:
- They Are Designed To Make The Connections That Humans Have With Computers More Natural - More Human Like.
- They Are Designed To Allow The Computer To Become “smarter” - To Actually Simulate The Learning Process By Remembering And Improving Upon Earlier Information.
Two Popular Natural Languages Are LISP And PROLOG.
Tags:
Computer Language, What Is Computer Language
