Skip to main content

Introduction to Programming Languages

 Introduction to Programming Languages

A program is a set of instructions that tells a computer what to do in order to come up with a solution to a particular problem. Programs are written using a programming language. A programming language is a formal language designed to communicate instructions to a computer. There are two major types of programming languages: low-level languages and high-level languages.

Low-Level Languages 

Low-level languages are referred to as 'low' because they are very close to how different hardware elements of a computer actually communicate with each other. Low-level languages are machine oriented and require extensive knowledge of computer hardware and its configuration. There are two categories of low-level languages: machine language and assembly language.

Machine language, or machine code, is the only language that is directly understood by the computer, and it does not need to be translated. All instructions use binary notation and are written as a string of 1s and 0s. A program instruction in machine language may look something like this:

However, binary notation is very difficult for humans to understand. This is where assembly languages come in.

 

An assembly language is the first step to improve programming structure and make machine language more readable by humans. An assembly language consists of a set of symbols and letters. A translator is required to translate the assembly language to machine language called the 'assembler.'

While easier than machine code, assembly languages are still pretty difficult to understand. This is why high-level languages have been developed.

High-Level Languages

A high-level language is a programming language that uses English and mathematical symbols, like +, -, % and many others, in its instructions. When using the term 'programming languages,' most people are actually referring to high-level languages. High-level languages are the languages most often used by programmers to write programs. Examples of highlevel languages are C++, Fortran, Java and Python.

Learning a high-level language is not unlike learning another human language - you need to learn vocabulary and grammar so you can make sentences. To learn a programming language, you need to learn commands, syntax and logic, which correspond closely to vocabulary and grammar.

The code of most high-level languages is portable and the same code can run on different hardware without modification. Both machine code and assembly languages are hardware specific which means that the machine code used to run a program on one specific computer needs to be modified to run on another computer.

specific which means that the machine code used to run a program on one specific computer needs to be modified to run on another computer. A high-level language cannot be understood directly by a computer, and it needs to be translated into machine code. There are two ways to do this, and they are related to how the program is executed: a high-level language can be compiled or interpreted.

Popular posts from this blog

Maximum Difference Between Even and Odd Frequency | LeetCode

We are given a string consisting of lowercase English letters. Our task is to find the maximum difference between the frequency of two characters in the string such that: One of the characters has an even frequency . The other character has an odd frequency . The difference is calculated as:  odd_frequency - even_frequency We need to return the maximum possible difference between the odd and even frequencies. Example Walkthrough Let's take a couple of examples to better understand the problem: Example 1: Input:  s = "aaaaabbc" Frequencies: 'a' → 5 (odd) 'b' → 2 (even) 'c' → 1 (odd) Here, the maximum odd frequency is 5 (for 'a') and the maximum even frequency is 2 (for 'b'). Therefore, the result is: maxOdd - maxEven = 5 - 2 = 3 Example 2: Input:  s = "abcabcab" Frequencies: 'a' → 3 (odd) 'b' → 2 (even) 'c' → 2 (even) The maximum odd frequency is 3 (for 'a') and the maximum even fr...
Read more

Maximize Amount After Two Days of Conversions | Leetcode Question

When tackling the problem of maximizing the amount of currency after two days of conversions, we encounter an interesting graph-based problem that involves working with exchange rates between various currencies. In this article, we will explore this problem in detail, starting with the brute force approach and refining it to an optimized solution. Problem Explanation You are given a string initialCurrency (the starting currency), along with four arrays: pairs1 and rates1 : Represent exchange rates between currency pairs on Day 1. pairs2 and rates2 : Represent exchange rates between currency pairs on Day 2. The task is to maximize the amount of initialCurrency you can have after performing any number of conversions on both days. You can make conversions using Day 1 rates and then further conversions using Day 2 rates. Key Insights: Conversion rates are valid (no contradictions). Each currency can be converted back to its counterpart at a reciprocal rate (e.g., if USD -> EUR = 2....
Read more

Final Prices With a Special Discount in a Shop – LeetCode Solution Explained

When tackling coding problems, it's important to understand the problem thoroughly and work through solutions step-by-step. In this blog, we will explore the LeetCode problem "1475 Final Prices With a Special Discount in a Shop" . We'll walk through the problem statement, approach it with a beginner-friendly brute force solution, and analyze its time and space complexity. Finally, we'll discuss any possible optimizations to improve efficiency. Problem Statement You are given an integer array prices where prices[i] represents the price of the i th item in a shop. There is a special discount rule: If you buy the i th item, you receive a discount equal to prices[j] , where j is the smallest index such that j > i and prices[j] <= prices[i] . If no such j exists, you get no discount for that item. Your task is to return a new array answer , where answer[i] is the final price you pay for the i th item after applying the discount. Examples Example 1: Input: p...
Read more