Characteristics of high-level languages

• High-level languages are programming languages that are designed to allow humans to write computer programs and interact with a computer system without having to have specific knowledge of the processor or hardware that the program will run on.
• High-level languages use command words and Syntax which reflects everyday language, which makes them easier to learn and use. High-level languages also offer the programmer development tools such as libraries and built-in functions.
• Before high-level programs existed, programmers coded one instruction at a time directly in binary or hexadecimal. This was incredibly inefficient and also led to lots of errors.
• Computer scientists wanted to develop more efficient ways to interact with computers to increase their capability. In order to do this, they needed to develop ways for humans to communicate and control computers more easily. In 1949 John Mauchly developed short code which used commands to represent machine instructions.
• As machines developed, programmers needed more powerful instruction sets and the first high-level languages were developed.
• In 1957, FORTRAN became the first computer language standard; a language with an agreed set of rules and guidelines regarding syntax and best practice. FORTRAN is the oldest high-level general purpose compiled language and was designed to solve mathematical and scientific problems.
• One of the main reasons high-level languages were developed was due to the need for portability — being able to use the same program on multiple devices. In 1959, Dr Grace Hopper was a main contributor to the development of COBOL an acronym for "common business-oriented language". It was developed as part of project by the US Department of Defence to create a portable programming language for data processing. COBOL is still widely-used today.
• A high-level programming language is written in language that is designed to be easily understood by humans. It uses syntax that is similar to human language to form instructions. For example in Python the command print is used to output data.
• High-level code must be translated into machine code before it can be run. This process is called compilation.
• High-level programming languages are problem-oriented rather than machine-oriented. This means that high-level languages are typically designed to handle a particular problem, whereas low-level languages are designed to run on particular devices. In a high-level programming language, each line of code or command accomplishes multiple things. In a low-level language this would take multiple lines of code to achieve.
• High-level languages have high levels of abstraction from the details of the computer. This means high-level languages make programming much more convenient and allow the programmer to write shorter, cleaner code. An example of this would be via built-in functions or libraries.
• Characteristics of high-level programming languages:

  • Syntax that is easy for humans to understand.
  • Syntax that uses command words similar to natural human language.
  • A single line of code can accomplish multiple tasks.
  • Allow the programmer to focus on what the program is trying to achieve rather than how the computer or specific hardware operates.
  • Source code is translated into machine code for the computer to process.