Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
In computer programming, assembly language (alternatively assembler language [1] or symbolic machine code), [2] [3] [4] often referred to simply as assembly and commonly abbreviated as ASM or asm, is any low-level programming language with a very strong correspondence between the instructions in the language and the architecture's machine code instructions. [5]
High-Level Assembly (HLA) is a language developed by Randall Hyde that allows the use of higher-level language constructs to aid both beginners and advanced assembly developers. It supports advanced data types and object-oriented programming .
x86 assembly language is a family of low-level programming languages that are used to produce object code for the x86 class of processors. These languages provide backward compatibility with CPUs dating back to the Intel 8008 microprocessor, introduced in April 1972.
Reflective programming languages let programs examine and possibly modify their high-level structure at runtime or compile-time. This is most common in high-level virtual machine programming languages like Smalltalk, and less common in lower-level programming languages like C. Languages and platforms supporting reflection:
A program written in a low-level language can be made to run very quickly, with a small memory footprint. An equivalent program in a high-level language can be less efficient and use more memory. Low-level languages are simple, but considered difficult to use, due to numerous technical details that the programmer must remember.
Therefore, programs are rarely written directly in machine code. However, an existing machine code program may be edited if the assembly source code is not available. The majority of programs today are written in a high-level language. A high-level program may be translated into machine code by a compiler.
Another reason to use assembler is that not all operating system functions can be accessed in high level languages. The application program interfaces of IBM's mainframe operating systems is defined as a set of assembly language "macro" instructions, that typically invoke Supervisor Call (SVC) [e.g., on z/OS] or Diagnose (DIAG) [on, e.g., z/VM ...
In modern programs, second generation assembly languages are rarely used. [5] Programming in second generation languages may yield speed benefits, but several disadvantages have led to its decline: Programming is expressed in terms of individual processor instructions, rather than higher level logic. [2] [3] Low-level memory and hardware ...