Both of these are types of programming languages that provide a set of instructions to a system for performing certain tasks. Though both of these have specific purposes, They vary in various ways. In This Article, We will discuss the difference between high-level and low-level languages. But before that, Let us first know more about programming languages and their purpose.
Table of Contents
What are Low-Level Languages?
- They are also called machine-level languages.
- Machines can easily understand it.
- High-level languages are very machine-friendly.
- Debugging them is very difficult.
- They are not very easy to understand.
- All the languages come with complex maintenance.
- They are not portable.
- These languages depend on machines. Thus, One can run it on various platforms.
- They always require assemblers for translating instructions.
- Low-level languages do not have a very wide application in today’s times.
What are High-Level Languages?
- One can easily interpret and combine these languages as compared to the low-level languages.
- They are very easy to understand.
- Such languages are programmer-friendly.
- Debugging is not very difficult.
- They come with easy maintenance and are thus simple and manageable.
- One can easily run them on different platforms.
- They require a compiler/interpreter for translation into a machine code.
- A user can port them from one location to another.
- Such languages have a low efficiency of memory. So it consumes more memory than the low-level languages.
- They are very widely used and popular in today’s times.
- Java, C, C++, Python, etc., are a few examples of high-level languages.
The Most Common Programming Paradigms
Programming paradigms are different ways of writing and organizing code. They provide problem-solving guidelines and influence how a programmer thinks about software development. Let’s look at five common programming paradigms.
Imperative Programming
Imperative programming is a paradigm of computer programming where the program describes steps that change the state of the computer. Unlike declarative programming, which describes “what” a program should accomplish, imperative programming explicitly tells the computer “how” to accomplish it. Programs written this way often compile to binary executables that run more efficiently since all CPU instructions are themselves imperative statements.
To make programs simpler for a human to read and write, imperative statements can be grouped into sections known as code blocks. In the 1950s, the idea of grouping a program’s code into blocks was first implemented in the ALGOL programming language. They were originally called “compound statements,” but today these blocks of code are known as procedures. Once a procedure is defined, it can be used as a single imperative statement, abstracting the control flow of a program. The process allows the developer to express programming ideas more naturally. This type of imperative programming is called procedural programming, and it is a step towards higher-level abstractions such as declarative programming.
Object-oriented Programming (OOP)
OOP uses classes and objects to solve problems. Classes provide a blueprint to capture the data and behavior of an object. As a result, objects are instances of classes. OOP is ideal for modeling real-world objects and concepts. Common examples of languages that support OOP are Java, C++, and Python.
Procedural Programming
This approach breaks problems into smaller, more manageable parts that can be easily understood and modified. Code is often divided into blocks called procedures or subroutines, which are made up of smaller, well-defined tasks. Languages that support the procedural approach include C, Pascal, and FORTRAN.
Functional Programming
This paradigm uses pure functions to build a program, meaning that functions can be passed as arguments, returned as results, or assigned to variables. Common examples of functional languages include Haskell, Lisp, and F#. But this paradigm can also be adopted by languages like Python and JavaScript.
Logic Programming
This paradigm implements logical rules to derive conclusions. This means a program is defined by a set of facts and rules that a machine uses to solve a problem. Some examples of logic programming languages include Prolog and Mercury.