Low-level languages

In short: Low-level languages are programming languages that work close to the hardware. They give the programmer a lot of control over processor and memory.

In more detail: The prime example is assembly. Machine code (pure zeros and ones) counts too. C is often called “mid level”.

In Depth

• Aimed directly at the hardware: instructions correspond almost one to one to the processor’s instructions.
• Extremely fast: hardly any detours, hardly any overhead from the language itself.
• Hard to read and write: many details, little abstraction, error-prone. The code is tied to a processor family and not easily portable.
• Use: operating systems, drivers, embedded systems, particularly fast parts of programs (systems programming).
• Counterpart: high-level languages.

See also: compiler, bits