Unit I: Introduction

Lecture I: Types of Programming Languages

 Types of Programming
Languages
1. Low Level Language
• Machine Language
• Assembly Language

2. High Level Language

• Procedural-Oriented Language
• Problem-Oriented Language
• Natural Language
Unit I - Lesson 1 - Types of Programming Languages - Author: Prof. Jeo Joy A, Kristu Jayanti College (Autonomous) Bengaluru 2
 Low Level Language
• This language is the most understandable language used by computer to perform its operations.
• Machine language consists of strings of binary numbers (i.e. 0s and 1s) and it is the only one language, the processor directly

Machine
understands.
• Merits:
• It is directly understood by the processor so has faster execution time since the programs written in this language need not to be
translated.
• It does not need larger memory space

Language
• Demerits:
• It is very difficult to program since all the instructions are to be represented by 0’s and 1’s.
• Use of this language makes programming time consuming
• It is difficult to find error and to debug
• It can be used by experts only

• This language uses mnemonics code (symbolic operation code like ‘ADD’ for addition) in place of 0s and 1s. The program is converted
into machine code by assembler. The resulting program is referred to as an object code.
• Merits:

Assembly
• It is makes programming easier than Machine Language since it uses mnemonics code for programming. Eg: ADD for addition, SUB for
subtraction, DIV for division, etc.
• It makes programming process faster than that using Machine Language
• Error can be identified much easily compared to Machine Language coding
• It is easier to debug than machine language

Language
• Demerits:
• Programs written in this language is not directly understandable by computer so translators(assembler) should be used
• It is hardware dependent language so programmers are forced to think in terms of computer’s architecture rather than to the problem
being solved
• Being machine dependent language, programs written in this language are very less or not portable
• Programmers must know its mnemonics codes to perform any task

Unit I - Lesson 1 - Types of Programming Languages - Author: Prof. Jeo Joy A, Kristu
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Jayanti College (Autonomous) Bengaluru
 High Level Language
Instructions of this language closely resembles to human language or English like words. It uses mathematical
notations to perform the task. The high level language is easier to learn. It requires less time to write and is easier
to maintain the errors. The high level language is converted into machine language by one of the two different
languages translator programs; interpreter or compiler.
High level language can be further categorized as:

Procedural- • Procedural Programming is a methodology for modeling the problem being solved, by determining the
steps and the order of those steps that must be followed in order to reach a desired outcome or

Oriented Language
specific program state. These languages are designed to express the logic and the procedure of a
problem to be solved. It includes languages such as Pascal, COBOL, C, FORTAN, etc.

Problem-Oriented • It allows the users to specify what the output should be, without describing all the details of how the
data should be manipulated to produce the result. These are result oriented and include database
query language.
Language • Eg: Visual Basic, C#, PHP, etc.

Natural Language
• Natural languages are in developing stage where we could write statements that would look like
normal sentences.

Unit I - Lesson 1 - Types of Programming Languages - Author: P 4

rof. Jeo Joy A, Kristu Jayanti College (Autonomous) Bengaluru
 Procedural- • Procedural Programming is a methodology for modeling the problem being solved, by determining the
steps and the order of those steps that must be followed in order to reach a desired outcome or
specific program state. These languages are designed to express the logic and the procedure of a
Oriented language problem to be solved. It includes languages such as Pascal, COBOL, C, FORTAN, etc.

• Because of their flexibility, procedural languages are able to solve a

Merits
variety of problems
• Programmer does not need to think in term of computer architecture
which makes them focused on the problem
• Programs written in this language are portable

Demerits • It is easier but needs higher processor and larger memory

• It needs to be translated therefore its execution time is more

Unit I - Lesson 1 - Types of Programming Languages - Author: P 5

rof. Jeo Joy A, Kristu Jayanti College (Autonomous) Bengaluru
Problem-Oriented • It allows the users to specify what the output should be, without describing all the details of how the
data should be maniupulated to produce the result. This is one step ahead from 3GL. These are result
oriented and include database query language.
language • Eg: Visual Basic, C#, PHP, etc.

• Increase the speed of developing programs

Objectives • Minimize user’s effort to obtain information from computer

• Reduce errors while writing programs

Merits • Programmer need not to think about the procedure of the program. So,
programming is much easier

Demerits • It is easier but needs higher processor and larger memory

• It needs to be translated therefore its execution time is more

Unit I - Lesson 1 - Types of Programming Languages - Author: P 6

rof. Jeo Joy A, Kristu Jayanti College (Autonomous) Bengaluru
 • Natural languages are the latest developmental higher level programming languages where we could
Natural Language write statements that would look like normal sentences. These can be implemented using languages
like Python, Java, R, Matlab

• Easy to program

Merits
• Since, the program uses normal sentences, they are easy to understand
• The programs would be much more interactive and interesting
• Uses Artificial Intelligence

Demerits
• It is slower than previous generation language as it should be completely
translated into binary code which is a tedious task
• Highly advanced and expensive electronic devices are required to run programs
developed in natural language. Therefore, it is an expensive approach.

Unit I - Lesson 1 - Types of Programming Languages - Author:

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Prof. Jeo Joy A, Kristu Jayanti College (Autonomous) Bengaluru
 C Language – Example for Middle Level Language

•Reason: C Language has both

a) High Level (Procedural Oriented Language) language features and
b) Low Level language features (Assembly Language Programming)

Unit I - Lesson 1 - Types of Programming Languages - Author:

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Prof. Jeo Joy A, Kristu Jayanti College (Autonomous) Bengaluru