A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
High-Level Programming Language
A high-level programming language is a programming language
that is easier to program in, to some extent platform-independent,
and abstract from low-level computer processor operations such as memory accesses.
The term "high-level language" does not imply that the language is always superior
to low-level programming languages but rather refers to the higher level of abstraction
from machine language. Rather than dealing with registers, memory addresses and call stacks,
high-level languages deal with variables, arrays and complex arithmetic or boolean expressions.
Other features such as string handling routines,
object-oriented language features and file input/output may also be present.
In general, high-level languages make complex programming simpler, while low-level languages
tend to produce more efficient code.
Originally, assembly language was considered low-level and programming languages like COBOL and C
were considered high-level, as they allowed the abstractions of functions,
variables and expression evaluation.
Most high-level languages currently output object or machine code directly for a
target processor or operating system, but a few do not,
instead outputing an intermediate language only (often C) to submit to a compiler for
that intermediate language, which then outputs finished object or machine code.
This is usually done to gain portability or optimization.
Such intermediate languages fall in complexity between high-level languages and
low(er)-level languages.