Computer has become one of the basic necessities for us. For all big and small work like to store photographs and to make assignments, we move to computers or laptops. But have you ever thought about how you and computer communicate? How is the process of sending commands and receiving outflows works? Well, it happens with the help of computer language as we all need a language to communicate, so the computer needs it too to interact with human.
Here we will discuss what is a computer language and why it is a must for us to learn it.
What is Computer Language?
The computer understands only binary numbers 0 and 1. So when you give some command to a computer, it decodes the command in binary numbers and starts further processing. The programmers have developed many languages for the first generation to the fourth generation of computers. Computer language is a set of instructions that communicate with computers. Different types of languages have been developed by the developers to instruct the computer to perform various tasks.
Computer language can be categorized in the following two categories; Low Level Language and High Level Language. Further in this article, we will know in detail about these computer languages.
1] Low Level Languages
The primary computer instructions are known as low level language. It is commonly known as machine code. Low language is easy to understand by the computer. Programs written in low language are quick in execution. Low Level Language is also referred to as the computer’s native language. This type of language deals with hardware components and the constraints of computers. It helps in syncing the hardware and system components. Low Level Language is closest to the computer, so it also handles all the instructions set architecture of a computer.
Low Level language is further divided into machine language and assembly language. Let’s take a look at these:
a. Machine Language
The most basic version of Low Level Language is machine language. This language is written in binary code, which comprises only two digits; 1 and 0. This language was developed to interact with the first generation of computers. Most of the software developers never look at the machine level language. Only those developers need to work with this language who work on the operating system.
b. Assembly Language
The second generation programming language is known as assembly language. Its necessary coding made this language a type of Low Level Language. It is a second generation programming language. It’s a bit advanced than the machine language as in this language, instead of binary codes, English words are used. In this language, English words and symbols are also used. It is also the most basic computer language required for any processor.
2] High Level Language
Now let’s talk about the High Level Language. We have mentioned above that the low level languages are closer to the computer. The High Level Languages are just opposite to it as they are closer to the human being. HLL is easy to compile, and they have easy to read syntax. All the modern languages like PASCAL, FORTRAN, C++, etc. fall in the category of HLL. As it’s tough for us to understand to learn the Machine Level Language, so it’s tough for the computer to follow to High Level Language. To execute the command written in HLL, the computer has to convert it to machine language.
Wrapping Up
We hope that by now you know what is Low level and High level computer language and where are they used. Computer is a basic need of human life, thus it becomes important for us to know basics about computer and its working. Stay tuned to sharpen your computer knowledge with us. Leave your queries in the comment section below.
