Member-only story
Programming Basics
3 General Types of Programming Languages
Based on human and machine understandability
We need to use programming languages to communicate with computers just like we use natural languages to communicate with other people. Programs are written in programming languages. They are a set of instructions defined in a particular order.
Today, we use hundreds of programming languages for different purposes. All of them fall under 3 general categories:
- Machine languages
- Assembly languages
- High-level languages
The criterion for making these categories is the human and machine understandability of the programming languages.
This tutorial is for complete beginners who are new to the world of programming. However, experienced programmers can also read this to learn some important technical terms like machine-dependent, translator programs, assemblers, low-level language, source code, compilers, interpreters.
Machine languages
The machine language is the only language that computers can understand. In other words, computers can only execute instructions written in machine language. Every computer has its own machine language…
