Programming Languages
You have seen that a program consists fundamentally of a series of steps (instructions) to the CPU on how to manipulate working memory and other resources to produce some useful output, based on some kind of input from the user or other programs.
The programmer provides these instructions to the CPU in a format that it understands. As you already learned, this format is known as machine code (also known as machine language). The first programs written were indeed written in machine code. However, this code is not easy to use or read, and it is even harder to maintain over time (especially if there are changes to the set of instructions the CPU supports). The next step in the evolution of programming languages is the assembly ...
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