When the first set of electronic computers were developed, programs written in binary codes or machine language. These days, computer programs can be written in language which how much easier to learn and write than machine codes. Programs written in these later languages may then be translated into machine code for being executed by the computer system.
LANGUAGES
There four main groups of computer programming language. They include: MACHINE language, LOW LEVEL language, HIGH LEVEL language, and ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE language. Each of the groups will be discussed in some details in the following paragraphs.
Machine Languages
Machine code/ machine language is a group of instruction and data executed directly by a computer central processing unit. Machine code may be regarded as a primitive and chromosome programming language what has the lowest level representation of a complied and/or assembled computer program. Every processor or processor family has its own machine code instruction sets, which importance of bits that are designed to correspond to different commands, given to the computer machine. The instruction set is thus specific to a class of processors using the same computer architecture. Computer System may also defer in other details, such as memory arrangements, operating systems, or peripheral devices; because you program normally relies on such factors. However, different systems will typically not to run the same machine code, even when the same type of processor is used.
A machine code instruction set may have all instructions of the same length, or it may have variable length instructions. However, the patterns are organised, which very strongly with the particular computer architecture and often also the type of instruction used. Most instructions have one or more opcode fields which specifies the basic instruction type and the actual operation and other fields that may give the type of operands, the addressing mode, the addressing offsets or index, or the actual value itself.
The main advantage of machine language is that they execute instructions much faster than any other programming languages because, no form of translation is needed to execute the machine instructions. Machine language has a lot disadvantages associated with it. The first disadvantages is that it takes long time to write and debug a Machine program, copied with the hardship on the programmer having to memorize the opcodes and memory address of the particular Computer machine.
Low - Level Languages
A low level language is a Machine - oriented language, using mnemonics and symbols, in which each instructions corresponds to or resembles a machine instructions. Mnemonics are used in place of binary coded OPCODES while symbolic addresses are used instead of actual machine address. Before a machine execute a low level language instructions, it must translate the instructions into Machine language. The translation is done with a system program called an ASSEMBLER. The low level language is there called an ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE.
An assembly Language is a low level programming language for computers, microprocessors, microcontrollers, and other integrated Circuits. It implements a symbolic representation of the binary Machine codes and other constants needed to a program a given CPU architecture. This representation is usually defined by the hardware manufacturer, and is based on mnemonics that symbolizes processing steps, processors registers, memory location, and other languages features.
An assembler is a utility program used to translate assemby language statements into the target computer's machine code. The assembler performs a more or less isomorphic translation from mnemonics statement into machine instructions and data.
High - Level Languages
In high-level languages, instructions that we clean statements that are similar to sentences of human languages, thereby overcoming the problem of mnemonics. The first high level programming languages were designed in the 1950s and in addition, they are procedures oriented Languages and are therefore expected to be machine independent. The following are the benefits of all High - Level Languages.
(I) Each instruction statements may be translated into many machine instructions before being executed. The translator in this case is a system program called a compiler.
(II) High level Languages are endowed with more variety of symbols, vocabulary of words and different types of sentences than other languages.
(III) The computer users can write programs in high-level language which can run in different machines without extensive modifications. This is sequel to the procedure oriented nature of high-level languages.
(IV) They provide more facilities than assembly languages, for the user to incorporate subroutines and macros into a computer system.
(V) Since the instructions of program statement of high-level language is resemble natural language, they have a cooler rules that must be obeyed when your program is being written.
Any high-level language written must have compiler that would enable it to be implemented on a particular language. While some large computer systems can support almost all the languages, small computer system can support one or two.
High-level languages which are in current use, can be grouped into scientific oriented languages, business-oriented languages, special purpose languages, and multi-purpose languages. A programming language such as C, FORTRAN, or PASCAL that enables a programmer to write programs that are more or less independent of a particular type of computer. such languages are considered high level because they are closer to human languages and far from machine languages. scientific oriented language is especially geared towards scientific and engineering applications. In general, they have very powerful mathematical function facilities, extensive arithmetic computational ability, capability to handle mathematical procedures and expression, an extensive facilities for the handling of arrays. The most popular and most widely used scientific oriented language is FORTRAN FORmula Translation. Others include ALGOL - ALGOrithmic - oriented language, and BASIC - Beginners All - Purpose Symbolic Instructions Code.
Business oriented Languages are specially geared towards business applications. Mathematics notations are reduced to the minimum, while extensively file handling facilities are provided. They all tend to be specially suited for structuring and handling layouts for tabulated outputs and reports.
Special purpose languages are high level Languages specially suited for some particular types of problems. A typical example is the CSL - Computer Simulation Language, specially developed for simulation.
Multi purpose Languages are high level Languages which are expected to cope with both scientific and Business Applications.
Artificial Intelligence Languages
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the intelligence machine and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. The Field was founded on the claim that a central property of humans, intelligence called the sapience of Homo sapiens, can be so precisely described that it can be simulated by a Machine. This raises philosophical issues about the nature of the mind and the ethics of creating artificial beings, issues which have been addressed by myths, fiction and philosophy since antiquity. Artificial Intelligence has been the subject of optimism, but has also suffered setbacks and, today, has become an essential part of the technology industry, provided the heavy lifting for many of computer science.