MERC- KING SCHOLARS’ ACADEMY

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LESSON PLAN
Week:8 Term: Second Session: 2023/2024
Subject: ICT Topic: PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE i
Class: SS1 Date: / Ref Books:
2024 i. Model computer/ict for sss, book 1 by Dinehin Victoria.
ii. computer studies for sss, book 1-3 by Hiit Plc
III. Internet

Lesson Period: 2

Learning Objectives Previous learning:

At the end of the lesson, Students have seen a computer system
Students should be able to,
1. Define programming language
2. Mention the Levels of programming language
3. Mention features of each level
4. Give examples of programming languages
5. comparison of levels of programming
languages.

Learning Activities in Steps Learning Skills

Critical thinking, Creative thinking, Problem solving,
Step1: The Topic will be introduced to the Communicating and Collaborating
students Evaluative Questions
Step 2: Students would be taken through the 1. State two features of Low level language.
detailed explanation of the lesson 2. List two advantages of high level language.
Step 3: Students would be allowed to write 3. Define programming language.
down notes 4. Mention two major classes of programming language.
Step4: Students would be evaluated based on Assignments:
the behavioral objectives 1. State two disadvantages of high level language.
2. Give three disadvantages of machine language.
3. Differentiate between the HLL, LLL, and ML.
4. List four types of programming language known to you.

Content PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE

DEFINITION OF PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE

A program is a set of instructions that tells the computer what to do. Sometimes the instruction it has to
perform depends on what happened when it performed a previous instruction.
A Programming Language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine,
particularly to a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the
behaviour of a machine and/or to express algorithm precisely.

LEVELS OF PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE

There are three major levels of programming language:
1. Machine Language (ML),
2. Low Level Language (LLL) &
3. High Level Language (HLL).
1. Machine Language (ML)
The first generation of programming language, or 1GL, is machine code. It is the only language a
microprocessor can process directly without a previous transformation.
Machine code or machine language is a set of instructions executed directly by a computer's central
processing unit (CPU). Each instruction performs a very specific task, such as a load, a jump, or
an ALU operation on a unit of data in a CPU register or memory. Every program directly executed by a CPU is
made up of a series of such instructions.
Numerical machine code (i.e. not assembly code) may be regarded as the lowest-level representation of
a compiled and/or assembled computer program or as a primitive and hardware-dependent programming
language. While it is possible to write programs directly in numerical machine code, it is tedious and error
prone to manage individual bits and calculate numerical addresses and constants manually. It is therefore
rarely done today, except for situations that require rather extreme optimization or debugging.

Low Level Language (LLL)

Low-level languages have the advantage that they can be written to take advantage of any peculiarities in the
architecture of the central processing unit (CPU) which is the "brain" of any computer. Thus, a program
written in a low-level language can be extremely efficient, making optimum use of both computer memory
and processing time. However, to write a low-level program takes a substantial amount of time, as well as a
clear understanding of the inner workings of the processor itself. Therefore, low-level programming is
typically used only for very small programs, or for segments of code that are highly critical and must run as
efficiently as possible.
Low level languages are divided into two categories: Machine and Assembly languages.

Assembly language is nothing more than a symbolic representation of machine code, which also allows
symbolic designation of memory locations. Thus, an instruction to add the contents of a memory location
to an internal CPU register called the accumulator might be add a number instead of a string of binary
digits (bits).
No matter how close assembly language is to machine code, the computer still cannot understand it. The
assembly-language program must be translated into machine code by a separate program called an
assembler. The assembler program recognizes the character strings that make up the symbolic names of
the various machine operations, and substitutes the required machine code for each instruction. At the
same time, it also calculates the required address in memory for each symbolic name of a memory
location, and substitutes those addresses for the names. The final result is a machine-language program
that can run on its own at any time; the assembler and the assembly-language program are no longer
needed. To help distinguish between the "before" and "after" versions of the program, the original
assembly-language program is also known as the source code, while the final machine-language program is
designated the object code.
If an assembly-language program needs to be changed or corrected, it is necessary to make the changes to
the source code and then re-assemble it to create a new object program.
Machine language is described above.
HIGH LEVEL LANGUAGE (HLL)
A high-level programming language is a programming language with strong abstraction from the details of
the computer. In comparison to low-level programming languages, it may use natural language elements, be
easier to use, or may automate (or even hide entirely) significant areas of computing systems (e.g. memory
management), making the process of developing a program simpler and more understandable relative to a
lower-level language. The amount of abstraction provided defines how "high-level" a programming language
is. Examples of high-level programming languages include FOCUS, Lisp, Perl, Python, and SAS.
Types of high level language
There are five types of high level language. They are:
1. Scientific language
2. Multi-purpose language
3. Commercial language
4. Command language for operating system
5. Special purpose programming language.

1. Scientific Language
This is the language that is used for scientific and engineering purposes. Examples include FORTRAN –
Formula Translator, BASIC – Beginner All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Codes. It combines the features of the
extensive arithmetic computational ability and the ability to handle mathematical expression.
2. Multi-Purpose
This type of high level programming language can cope with a number of different types of application areas.
Examples of multi-purpose language are Visual BASIC, PL/I, C++, Java etc.
3. Commercial Language
This type of program was first developed by the American Government Defensive Department to create a
common administrative language for internal and external use. The prominent language is COBOL (Common
Business Oriented Language).
4. Command for Operating System
This programming language is used to control the operating system. An example is DOS Commands (Disk
Operating System commands.)
5. Special Purpose Language
This programming language is designed for a specific assignment. It is tailored towards a particular problem.
E.g Structured Query Language.

FEATURES OF MACHINE LANGUAGE

1. It is the machine language or machine dependent
2. Consumes less space by computer memory unlike high level language
3. It is written in 0’s and 1’s.
4. It is very difficult to write and modify.

FEATURES OF LOW LEVEL LANGUAGE

1. Machine dependent.
2. Synthetic code is used e.g. HLT for HALT
3. Mnemonic codes are used in place of actual machine.

FEATURES OF HIGH LEVEL LANGUAGE

1. It is machine independent
2. It consists of series of instruction codes.
3. You must adhere to some rules while writing the high-level languages.
4. It is easy to read and understand.
5. They are problem oriented.

Examples Of Programming Languages

BASIC, COBOL, FORTRAN, PASCAL, C++, JAVA, ORACLE, JAVA etc.
COMPARISON OF LEVELS OF PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES

S/N MACHINE LANG. LOW LEVEL LANG. HIGH LEVEL LANG.

1. Machine dependent Machine dependent Machine independent
2. It is written in 0’s & 1’s Mnemonic code is used. It consist series of instruction
code.
3. Difficult to write and Less difficult to write and Easy to write, read and
modify. modify. modify.
4. Consumes much memory Consumes less memory space Does not consume memory
space. compared with machine space.
language.