High-Level Language Definition
A high-order language or HLL is a programming language designed to be closer to human languages and farther from machine code. In comparison with the low-level languages, high-level languages are higher levels of abstractions from the hardware and boast much friendlier syntax. This set of languages allows developers to write programs without considering hardware-specific details such as memory allocation; one would use assembly code or machine code for that.
High-level languages are far from the development of the new high-level language back in 1957, which was FORTRAN. Today, they include substantial usage in Python, Java, C++, many more applied in web development, data science, game development-just but a few.
Language with a High-Level Approach to Programming
A high-level language is defined by its high-level approach, which abstracts the complexities of computer hardware and provides tools to programmers that enable them to focus their work on logic and algorithms. Abstraction here means that commands in high-level languages are similar in appearance to human languages and mathematical notation; thus, they are easier to learn and to use.
For instance, languages like Python (released in 1991) can do simple functions-like printing a statement on the screen-with just one line of code: print(“Hello, World!”).
Now imagine you are comparing such writing to assembly language, where you write several lines of complex code just to talk directly with the hardware.
Languages such as Java and C#, developed during the 1990s, integrated into their respective language features that automatically managed memory, relieving the developer from explicitly having to allocate or deallocate memory. These languages have gained wide acceptance today because they strike a healthy balance between performance and productivity for the developer.
High-level languages are, in general, translated-compiled or interpreted-into machine code. This addition of translation layer, while easing the coding task, sometimes involves some performance costs compared with low-level languages. These performance hits are often compensated for by advances in compilation technology and especially optimizations in high-level languages.
High-Level Languages for Modern Software Development
Flexible, portable, and easy to use, high-order programming languages have become an indispensable tool in software development. In the dawn of computing, still during the early years of computing, developers used low-level languages-like Assembly and machine code-because this necessitated proficiency in hardware architecture. However, with the increase in computing power, high-order languages like C-termed, developed in the 1970s-started to take precedence in simplifying the task of programming.
Now, most areas are dominated by Python, JavaScript, and Ruby in web development, data science, and machine learning. For example, Python has become the main language used in AI and data analysis due to its syntax simplicity and the presence of powerful libraries like NumPy and Pandas. On the other hand, JavaScript is used to give life to websites and web applications, with frameworks like React and Node.js supporting front-end and back-end, respectively.
Equally versatile, high-level languages apply to cloud computing and serverless architecture. Thus, using languages like Python or JavaScript, developers can create scalable applications that run in the cloud with no management of the underlying hardware. This really picked up in the 2010s, and today, services such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure support most high-order languages out of the box, making it really easy for developers to deploy their applications onto cloud environments.
If you need a detailed look into the programming languages that are generally used in development today, you might refer to Redgate’s guide on the evolution of programming languages.
Conclusion
Since their invention in the 1950s, high-level languages have dominated the software development landscape-from early languages such as FORTRAN to more recent ones, including Python. High-level programming has eased the task of writing complex applications for developers without having to worry about the nitty-gritty details of computer hardware.
Continuous development and evolution of high-level languages have revolutionized software development and maintenance. AI, ML, and cloud-native applications ensure advanced languages keep on being key tools in the technology sector. Since the field is going to further evolve, more abstraction and automation are likely to be done in the high-level programming languages in times to come, so that further democratization of software development is assured to turn out smooth processes for millions of developers around the world.
This TechRepublic resource on programming languages in cloud-native development is a good place to dive deeper into how High-Level Languages are used in the cloud.