High/Low level languages, Compilers, Interpreters, IDES

• Low Level Languages are languages that sit close to a computer’s instruction set, providing basic instructions that the CPU will understand.
• Assembly Language is a language that allows programmers to focus on programming simple commands, which are converted into machine code.
• Machine code is at the hardware level and is written in binary (1’s and 0’s).
• Pros of using Low Level Languages include efficient code that occupies less memory and executes faster, and the ability to communicate directly with hardware.
• Cons of using Low Level Languages include being machine dependent and more prone to errors.
• High Level Languages are programming languages which use English-like statements that allow users to program with easy to use code, allow for clear debugging and once programs are created they become easier to maintain.
• High level languages were needed due to the development of processor speeds and memory capacity increasing.
• Examples of High Level Languages include Python, C#, Java etc.
• Pros of using High Level Languages include being easier to read and write, less likely to make mistakes, easier to debug, portable, and one line of code can perform multiple commands.
• Assembly Language is used by programmers to make use of specific hardware or parts of the hardware, ensure that too much space is not taken up in RAM, and ensure code can be completed much faster.
• Assembly languages allow programmers to program with mnemonics, for example, LDA Load adds a value to the accumulator, ADD Addition adds the value input or loaded from memory to the value in the accumulator, STO, Store stores the value in the accumulator in RAM.
• Programmers write program source code using high-level languages such as Python, Java, C# etc.
• Compilers & Interpreters are needed to convert program source code into machine code.
• An integrated development environment (IDE) is software that consolidates basic tools required to write and test software to make a programmer's journey effective and useful, this will ensure they have key features to improve programming code and ensure it does as instructed.
• Commenting code in an IDE allows sections of code to be commented out easily to stop it from being run or as comments on what the program is doing.
• Common errors in code can cause the computer to crash and not respond, it’s important to be aware that if there are errors the source code must be changed to compile again.
• A translator in an IDE can be a compiler or an interpreter.
• An interpreter translates each line of code individually, if an error occurs the program will stop and an error message will occur.
• A debugger in an IDE will identify and remedy errors within the source code.
• Identifying errors in an IDE can highlight particular areas of code or provide direct error messages where the error may have appeared e.g indentation errors etc.
• If there are errors in the code the compiler will not identify directly where the error lies, making it difficult to debug.
• Compilers optimise the code, this code will run quicker and take up less memory space.
• There are two types of translators - a compiler and an interpreter.
• Compiling may take time to be processed, however, this can be used over without needing to be recompiled every time, bearing in mind that the program contains no errors.
• Error reports are produced after a program has been translated.
• A run-time environment in an IDE allows the program to run and see its corresponding output.
• Once the error message is fixed, the program can carry on running from where the error occurred.
• A compiler translates a program into machine code.
• Coloured keywords in source code in an IDE can turn purple, if turns orange, making it easy to see keywords.
• Basic code formatting in an IDE can include changing the font, size of the font, making text bold etc.
• Compilers convert the source code in one go into an executable file ready for distribution.
• Code Editing in an IDE will allow users to write and manipulate source code, it includes features such as auto-completion and auto-correction of code, bracket matching, syntax checks etc.
• Assembly Language The code is written using mnemonics, abbreviated text commands such as LDA (Load), STO(Store) Using this language programmers can write human-readable programs that correspond almost exactly to machine code.
• Machine code – is at the hardware level and is written in binary (1’s and 0’s)
• The three main types of low level programming languages are Assembly Language, Machine Code and Binary Code
• Low Level Languages are languages that sit close to a computer’s instruction

  set. These are basic instructions that the CPU will understand
• High Level Languages are programming languages which use English-like statements which allow users to program with easy to use code, allow for clear debugging and once programs are created they become easier to maintain