Low-level programming language

In computer science, a 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 closely to processor instructions).

Description

Generally this refers to either machine code or assembly language.

The word "low" refers to the small or nonexistent amount of abstraction between the language and machine language; because of this, low-level languages are sometimes described as being "close to the hardware." Because of the close relationship between the language and the hardware architecture programs written in low-level languages tend to be relatively non-portable.

Conversion to machine code

Low-level languages can convert to machine code without a compiler or interpreter -- second generation programming languages use a simpler processor called an assembler -- and the resulting code runs directly on the processor.

Efficiency

A program written in a low-level language is efficient: itcan be made to run very quickly, with a small memory footprint.

An equivalent program in a high-level language can be less efficient and use more memory.

Simple, but difficult to use

Low-level languages are simple, but considered difficult to use, due to numerous technical details that the programmer must remember.

First generation, second generation

Low-level programming languages are sometimes divided into two categories: first generation, and second generation.

High-level programming languages

High-level programming languages isolate execution semantics of a computer architecture from the specification of the program, which simplifies development.

See also

• Compiler
• Computer science
• High-level programming language
• Interpreter (computing)
• Programming language

External links

• Low-level programming language @ Wikipedia