6.2 - Classification of Programming Languages

• Low-level programming languages
  • machine code
    • language consisting of bit patterns/binary codes
    • referred to as executable binary codes
    • machine code instruction = operation which machine capable of carrying out
    • higher level operations with no direct machine counterpart must be broken down into a sequence of machine code instructions
    • machine code program = program consisting of executable binary codes
  • assembly language
    • symbolic name assigned to each operation/instruction code in machine language
    • called mnemonic (or memory jogger)
    • one-to-one mapping between assembly code and machine code
    • translated with assembler
• High-level programming languages
  • closer to English than to machine language
  • programmers can focus more on problem, leave translating to machine code to the computer
  • one-to-many mapping