Introduction to Programming Languages

An overview of high-level programming languages

A high-level programming language is close to human language. It is more or less machine independent. Java fits into this puzzle because it satisfies every condition of a high-level language. Java Virtual Machine (JVM) makes it machine-independent. When Java was created, it’s slogan was – code once, run everywhere. A beginner might find this difficult to understand; we will talk about this feature of Java later in detail.

As we go further down the language tree, we will find assembly language just below any high-level language. On the bottom, there is machine language, which is similar to hardware.

Machine language is a language only the computer understands. It is a collection of binary digits or bits that only the computer can understand. The computer can read and interpret the 0s and 1s. Therefore, every high-level language should be translated into machine language so that it can talk to the hardware.

Being able to talk to the hardware is the final target every high-level language aims for.

Starting with Fortran, C, Pascal, and C++ we can name many more popular high-level languages besides Java, like PHP, Python, Dart, etc.