Types of programming languages, translators and IDEs

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 • Enables the programmer to write programs
which are independent of the type of
computer.
• Closer to human languages.

High level
• Programs are easier to understand and are
written in a shorter time.
• A high-level programming language is a

languages
programming language with strong
abstraction from the details of the
computer. 
• Common high level languages
include: Python, Java, C++, C#, Ruby, Perl.
 • A low-level language is a programming
language that provides little or no
abstraction of programming concepts.
• Low-level languages relate to the specific

Low level architecture and hardware of a particular

type of computer. 
• It is very close to writing actual machine

languages instructions. 
• Two examples of low-level languages are
assembly and machine code.
 Types of low level languages

Assembly language Machine code

An assembly language is a type of low- • It is read by the computer's
level programming language that is intended to
communicate directly with a computer’s hardware.  central processing unit (CPU).
• It is composed of digital binary
numbers and looks like a very
Assembly languages are designed to be readable by
human long sequence of zeros and
ones.
Assembly language are a necessary bridge between
• Difficult to write and debug.
the underlying hardware of a computer and the
higher-level programming languages
Translators 
• A translator is a programming language
processor that converts a computer
program from one language to another.
• It translates a high-level language
program into a machine language
program that the computer can
understand.
• It also detects errors in the program.
• Compiler, interpreter and assembler are
the three types of translators.
 Compiler 
• A compiler is a translator used to convert high-level programming language to low-
level programming language.
• It converts the whole program in one session and reports errors detected after the
conversion. 
• Translates the code without changing the meaning of the code.
• It converts the whole program in one session and reports errors detected after the
conversion. 
 • It is a translator used to convert high-level
programming language to low-level
programming language.
• With this, it is easier to detect errors than
in a compiler.

Interpreters  • It is often used as a debugging tool for

software development as it can execute a
single line of code at a time. 
• An interpreter is faster than a compiler as
it immediately executes the code upon
reading the code.
 • An assembler is a translator used to translate
assembly language to machine language.  
• It is like a compiler for the assembly language
but interactive like an interpreter.  
• An assembler translates a low-level language,
an assembly language to an even lower-level
language, which is the machine code.  
Assembler  • The machine code can be directly understood
by the CPU.
• Since each assembly language is designed for a
specific processor, assembling a program is
performed using a simple one-to-one mapping
from assembly code to machine code. 
Integrated
• An integrated development environment (IDE) is software for
building applications that combines common developer tools
into a single graphical user interface (GUI).
Development • Common features include: 

Environment » code editors

» a translator
(IDE) » a runtime environment with a debugger 
» error diagnostics 
» auto-completion 
» auto-correction 
» an auto-documenter and pretty printing.
 IDE features
• A Code Editor is a special text editor program designed to write and edit source code and computer programs.
• The interpreter is often used for developing the program and the compiler to produce the final version of the program to be
used.
• The runtime environment is the environment in which a program or application is executed. A debugger is a program that
runs the program under development
• Information that is presented following the detection of some error condition and is mainly intended to assist in identifying
the cause of the error. 
• A feature found in many computer programs that attempts to predict and automatically complete the current word or
phrase as it is being entered by the program's user.
• A type of software program that identifies misspelled words, uses algorithms to identify the words most likely to have been
intended, and edits the text accordingly.
• Pretty printing is the process of converting and presenting source code or other objects in a legible and attractive way.