What are high level programming languages?

Answer 1

A '''high level language''' is a computer language that is more easily understood by a human being than a computer. As opposed to low and intermediate languages (like assembler or binary) a high level language has to be translated or compiled into a format that can be understood by the processor. Examples of high level languages are BASIC, ForTran and CoBOL.
The term high-level language is merely an indication of the level of abstraction between the programming language and the architecture.

Machine code (a specific sequence of 1s and 0s) is the native language of the computer, and is specific to each architecture (PC, Mac, mobile phone, tablet, PIC, etc). Before there were any computer languages, all computer programs were input as a sequence of machine code, which was prone to error and extremely difficult to debug.

Assembly language was, arguably, the first computer language, and is extremely low level. Every architecture requires its own assembler, where every CPU instruction is mapped to an easy to remember mnemonic. This made programs easier to read and therefore maintain. Since there was no abstraction between the symbolic language and the resulting machine code, assembly is considered to be a low-level language.

After the introduction of assembly instructions, high-level languages began to appear. These added another level of abstraction between the language and the architecture, such that a single symbolic instruction could easily produce dozens of assembly instructions. This simplified programming making it all the more easier to read and maintain.

Although all symbolic languages apart from assembly are considered to be high-level languages, there are differences in the degree of abstraction. C/C++ and its variants have a relatively low degree of abstraction because they have low-level features such as direct memory access and can access the specific architectural features of the CPU. They also compile to native machine code which can be further tweaked with assembly to produce highly-efficient machine code specific to the intended architecture. By contrast, Java has a high degree of abstraction because it compiles to byte code which must be translated by the Java virtual machine (JVM) within which the byte code executes. Although this makes Java code highly-portable (code will run on any platform with a JVM, without the need for any code changes), the need for the JVM itself adds an extra level of abstraction, which means there is very little interaction between the original code and the architecture itself. In other words, a Java program cannot compete with C++ for performance.

Answer 2

All high-level languages have a high level of abstraction between the source code and the machine code produced by the language's compiler and/or interpreter. Conversely, a low-level language has very little abstraction; instructions typically map 1:1 with the machine code produced by the language's assembler. That is, low-level source code is written at the machine level and is therefore non-portable between platforms, whereas high-level source has very little dependence upon the machine and is generally written in a portable manner.

Answer 3

A high-level computer programming language is a programming language which delivers an abstraction from the details of how the computer works. It is is easier for a human to describe what they want the program to do when using a high-level language but the corollary is that the program may not be as efficient in terms of computer resources as it could have been if designed and written in a low-level computer language.

Answer 4

Scripting languages are high level languages used for systematic development. They are high-level because you can easily manipulate other programs with them. They have build-in memory management, pattern matching, etc.

Answer 5

High level language needs compiler to convert source code into nearly equivalent machine code & then loader makes it a fully executable machine code.High level these are not machine dependent.

low level languages are machine dependent, specific to microprocessor(like 8086). It requires assembler translator to translate Assembly lang. code into executable code.

The low level code is based on Instruction Code & instruction Format of any microprocessor. These may vary from one machine to another machine.

Answer 6

High-level languages are one of two major types of programming languages. They are similar to English and easier for humans to understand; as opposed to low-level languages which are similar to machine language.

Answer 7

A few of the High-level programs are Ada, Algol, BASIC, COBOL, BCPL, C, C++, Smalltalk, Simula, Java, PL/1, PL/M. FORTRAN, LISP, Pascal, Modula-2, Occam, IAL, Jovial, CMS-2 and also Prolog.

Answer 8

A high-level language is a programming language that is readable and understandable by human beings who are not necessarily programmer-language-literate.

Answer 9

A compiler or an interpreter.