Second-generation programming language is a generational way to categorize assembly languages. See the terminology section below for information regarding inconsistent use of the terms assembly and assembler The term was coined to provide a distinction from higher level third-generation programming languages (3GL) such as COBOL and earlier machine code languages. A third-generation language ( 3GL) is a Programming language designed to be easier for a human to understand including things like named variables abstract data types COBOL (ˈkoʊbɒl is one of the oldest programming languages still in active use A first-generation Programming language is a machine-level programming language The code can be read and written by a programmer. To run on a computer it must be converted into a machine readable form, a process called assembly. [1] This conversion process is a simple one-to-one mapping of the assembly language mnemonics into binary machine code consisting of opcodes and operands. Machine code or machine language is a system of instructions and data executed directly by a Computer 's Central processing unit. In computer technology an opcode ( op eration code) is the portion of a Machine language instruction that specifies the operation to be performed In Mathematics, an operand is one of the inputs (arguments of an Operator. The language is specific to a particular processor family and environment. Since it is a one-to-one mapping to the native language of the target processor it has significant speed advantages but requires more programming effort than 3GLs. [2]
Second-generation languages are sometimes used in kernels and device drivers (though C is generally employed for this in modern kernels), but more often find use in extremely intensive processing such as games, video editing, graphic manipulation/rendering, emulation/virtualization, simulation, encryption and compression. tags please moot on the talk page first! --> In Computing, C is a general-purpose cross-platform block structured An emulator duplicates (provides an emulation of the functions of one System using a different system so that the second system behaves like (and appears to
Often, the "skeleton" of such programs is constructed in a higher-level language and individual functions are implemented in lower-level language. These functions typically exist at the core of the tightest loops, being executed many times per second. This assures the greatest gain from the painstaking hand optimization process, as every bit of time shaved off is multiplied.
One method for creating such code is by allowing a compiler to generate a machine-optimized assembly language version of a particular function. This code is then hand-tuned, gaining both the brute-force insight of the machine optimizing algorithm and the intuitive abilities of the human optimizer.