Difference Between High-Level And Low-Level Languages
Language is the simplest way of communication and connection between humans. Similarly, programming languages are the mean of communication between humans and computers. We command the computer and it interprets the command in form of a machine language and generates a response.
There are thousands of programming languages in today’s world, although a few ranks higher than others. All languages can be classified into two groups: high-level and low-level. The major difference is in the orientation of these two languages. A high-level language is called a user-orientated language while a low-level language is considered a machine-oriented language.
Let us discuss in detail the difference between high-level and low-level languages.
Side-to-Side Comparison
| Features | High-Level Language | Low-Level Language |
| Basics | A high-level language is a user-friendly language and cannot be understood by the machine easily. | A low-level language is a machine-friendly language and cannot be understood by humans easily. |
| Abstraction | A high-level language provides strong abstractions from the details of the computer. | A low-level language provides little or no abstraction from the computer’s instructions set architecture. |
| Feasibility | It is easy to understand and use by programmers. | It is difficult to understand and use by programmers. |
| Debugging | High-level language can be easily debugged. | It is difficult to debug a low-level language. |
| Memory- efficient | A high-level language is not memory efficient. It consumes more memory than a low-level language. | Low-level language is memory efficient. It consumes less memory than high-level language. |
| Maintenance | It can be easily maintained. | It is difficult to maintain. |
| Portability | It is a portable language means it can run on different computers with no modification. | It is a non-portable language means it cannot run on different computers unless rewritten. |
| Speed of execution | This language is slower because it requires a translation program to be converted. | This language has more speed of execution as it does not require a translation program to convert. |
| Hardware knowledge | It does not require any hardware knowledge for developing programs. It is independent of computer architecture. | It requires hardware knowledge to develop the programs. Low-level language is hence described as ‘close to the hardware’ |
| Use | Due to ease, high-level language is widely used and many people have shifted from low-level to high-level language. | It is not used commonly now due to its difficult features. |
| Translation | A compiler is needed to convert the high-level language program to machine language. | An assembler is required to convert the low-level language program to the machine code. |
| Language | It contains English statements and mnemonics. | This language consists of binary words and a few mnemonics, making it difficult to understand. |
| Structure | A high-level language is highly structured and organized. | A low-level language is not well structured. |
| Examples | Common examples of high-level languages are Java, Pascal, Perl, Ruby, Python, Visual Basic, C, C++, C#, BASIC, COBOL, and Delphi | Examples include Machine Language and Assembly language. |
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Advantages and Disadvantages of High-Level Language
High-level language has takeover the programming world in the twenty-first century. Due to its easy-to-use features, it is widely used and popular among programmers. Although it was introduced in the 1950s, it has remained close to humans.
Advantages
You should prefer a high-level language due to the following advantages:
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Disadvantages
However, you should take into view the following disadvantages before using a high-level language:
Advantages and Disadvantages of Low-Level Language
The low-level language that was developed in the late 1940s and is considered to be closer to computers has a set of advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages
Disadvantages
Frequently Asked Questions
Which language can the computer understand?
A computer can understand machine language (low-level language) which is the form of binary numbers. A programmer codes in English-languages (a high-level language) which is then covered in machine language.
Is high-level language better than low-level language?
Programmers tend to prefer high-level language because it is easy to learn, understand, maintain and debug. A high-level language usually increases programming productivity.
Why is low-level language faster than high-level language?
Low-level language is faster than high level because it does not require translation. Low-level language is in the binary form that is understandable by the computer. While high-level language includes English phrases that need to be converted first.
Conclusion
It is clear that high-level and low-level languages serve completely different purposes. High-level language meets the level of the user by providing accessible programming techniques and services. While low-level programming language matches the level of machine, serving machine language.
In a nutshell, a programmer uses a high-level language (Java, C++, Python) to write programs which are then converted into a machine language (also called low language) by an interpreter, compiler, or assembler.
