High-Level Language – The source code is easy for humans to write, but computers need to translate it into machine code before they can read and run it
Low-Level Language – Hard for humans to understand to read and write but easier for a computer to run
| High Level Language | Low Level Language |
| One instruction of high level code represents many instructions of machine code | One instruction of assembly code usually only represents one instruction of machine code |
| The same code will work for many different machines and processors | Usually written for one type of machine or processor. Won’t work on any others |
| The programmer can easily store data in lots of different structures, for example arrays | The programmers needs to know the internal structure of the CPU and how it manages memory |
| Code is easy to read, understand and modify | Code is very difficult to read, understand and modify |
| Must be translated into machine code | Commands in machine code can be executed directly without the need for a translator |
| You don’t have much control what the CPU actually does so programs will be less memory efficient and slower | You control exactly what the CPU does and how it uses memory so programs will be more memory efficient and faster. |
| Compiler | Interpreter |
| Translates all of the source at the same time and creates one executable file | Translate and runs the source doe one instruction at a time, but doesn’t create an executable file |
| Only needed once to create a executable file | Needed every time you want to run the program |
| Returns a list of errors for the entire program once compiling its complete | The interpreter will return the first error it finds and then stop – the is useful for debugging |
| Once compiled, the program runs quickly, but compiling can take a long time | Programs will run more slowly because the code is being translated as the program is running |
Integrated Development Environment: (IDE) a piece of software that provides features to help a programmer to develop their programs.
Integrated Development Environmental Features:
- Code editor: This is where the code is written.
- Run-time environment: This allows the code to be run quickly.
- Explorer window: This is used to navigate through the program
- Output window: – This shows the output of the program when ran
- Line number & character number
- Error Diagnostics and debugging tools: This helps to find and fix errors.
- Auto-indentation – This is where the program will automatically indent the user’s code.
