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High-level language

A high-level programming language is a programming language that is designed to be easy for humans to read and write.

They create an abstraction over the low-level details of the computer’s hardware, so that programmers can focus on solving problems and building software, rather than worrying about the nitty-gritty details of how the CPU and memory work.

For example, instead of having to do this to print to the screen in assembly language:

MOV AX, 0x0E        ; BIOS teletype function
MOV BX, 0x0007      ; Page number and attribute
MOV CX, 1           ; Number of characters to write
MOV DX, OFFSET msg  ; Offset of the string to print
INT 0x10            ; Call BIOS interrupt

(not exactly, but you get the idea)

We can just do this in a high-level language like Python:

print("Hello, world!")

You can probably see how this saves a tonne of time, and also means you don’t need to make a rollercoaster tycoon in x86 assembly xD

Examples of high-level languages

Section titled “Examples of high-level languages”
  • Python
  • Java
  • C#
  • C
  • JavaScript (not a real programming language, change my mind)
  • Rust
  • …and almost infinite others

Uses of high-level languages

Section titled “Uses of high-level languages”

Almost all application software is written in high-level programming languages, including:

  • Web applications
  • Mobile apps
  • Desktop software
  • Games
  • Data analysis and machine learning
  • and much more!

Advantages of high-level languages

Section titled “Advantages of high-level languages”
  • Easy to learn and use
  • Fast development time
  • Portable across different hardware architectures
    • This is a big one. Most high-level languages can be compiled or interpreted on different architectures with little to no changes (thanks to projects like LLVM).
  • Large standard libraries and frameworks available
    • This means we don’t always have to reinvent the wheel - we can use existing libraries to speed up development.
  • Easier to read and maintain code

Disadvantages of high-level languages

Section titled “Disadvantages of high-level languages”
  • Less control over hardware
  • Potentially slower performance compared to low-level languages
  • May require a runtime or interpreter to execute
  • Less efficient memory usage
  • Abstraction can sometimes lead to making mistakes if the programmer doesn’t understand how the high-level constructs actually map to the low-level operations. This can also lead to performance issues if the programmer isn’t aware of the underlying costs of certain high-level operations.
  • Can be less suitable for system-level programming (like operating systems, device drivers, embedded systems, etc) where low-level control is often required.