24 Computer -- Programming Concepts and Logics

What are Programming languages? List the types and explain each of them.

What are Programming languages? List the types and explain each of them.

A programming language is the language used by programmers to develop software programs, scripts, or other sets of instructions for computers to execute.


A programming language can be divided into 2 types:

  1. Low-level language
  2. High-level language




1) Low-Level Languages (LLL)

low-level programming language is a programming language that provides little or no abstraction from a computer's instruction set architecture—commands or functions in the language map that are structurally similar to processor's instructions.

Low-level language can be divided into two types:

  • Machine language (1GL)
  • Assembly language (2GL)



I. Machine language:
The language that is called the language of CPU and is written in binary code (composed of 0 and 1) is called Machine language. In this language, a computer can understand every instructions given only in the form of 0 and 1. All the valid computer operations are performed in terms of binary operation.

II. Assembly language:
The language in which a program is written in shortcodes like ADD, MUL or SUB instead of writing instruction in a binary number (0 and 1) is called Assembly language. An assembler converts the assembly language to the machine language to make it understandable by computer hardware because a computer can understand the instruction written only in binary form.
Assembly language is not a user-friendly language. This language is also very processor dependent language. A program written for one processor does not work in another processor. Computer viruses are mostly written in this language.

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2) High-Level Languages (HLL)


The languages which are quite similar to written English and are therefore very easier to use in compared to machine language and assembly language are called High-level languages. Programs written in high-level languages are translated into machine language by a language translator called a compiler or an interpreter.
The 1st high-level language was developed by John Backus, in IBM Laboratory, in 1956. Further developed during the 60s, high-level languages were developed to make the programming easier and to overcome the limitations of low-level languages. High-level languages are of 3 types. They are:

  • Procedural oriented language (3GL)
  • Problem-oriented (4th generation language (4GL))
  • Natural (5th generation language (5GL))

  1. Procedural oriented language:
    Procedural Oriented Languages are the general purpose programming language. It is also known as the 3rd generation languages (3GL). These are designed to express the logic and the procedure of a problem. Procedural languages are very flexible because they are able to solve a variety of problems. Examples are: Pascal, C, BASIC, etc.


  2. Problem-oriented language:
    These languages are non-procedural languages which allows the users to specify what the output should be. Problem-oriented languages are one step ahead of 3GL and they don’t describe all the details of how the data are manipulated to produce the result. These are result oriented and needs a translator like an interpreter or a compiler. Examples are: C#, PHP, Visual Basic, etc.


  3. Natural language:
    Also known as 5th generation languages (5GL), these are still in the developing stage. In completion, we could write statements that would look like normal sentences. Natural languages such as English, Nepali and other languages would be used in the computer making them more intelligent and user-friendly.

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