High Level Language Primitives
A high-level programming language (HLL) program is composed of discrete statements and primitive data types that may also be perceived to perform a single operation or represent a single data item, but at a more abstract level than those provided by the machine. Copying a data item from one location to another may actually involve many machine instructions that, for instance,
- calculate the address of both operands in memory, based on their positions within a data structure,
- convert from one data type to another
before finally
- performing the final store operation to the target destination.
Some HLL statements, particularly those involving loops, can generate thousands or even millions of primitives in a low level language - which comprise the genuine instruction path length the processor has to execute at the lowest level. This perception has been referred to as the "Abstraction penalty"
Read more about this topic: Language Primitive
Famous quotes containing the words high, level and/or language:
“Nature never rhymes her children, nor makes two men alike. When we see a great man, we fancy a resemblance to some historical person, and predict the sequel of his character and fortune, a result which he is sure to disappoint. None will ever solve the problem of his character according to our prejudice, but only in his high unprecedented way.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Insurrection:... insurrection as soon as circumstances allow: insurrection, strenuous, ubiquitous: the insurrection of the masses: the holy war of the oppressed: the republic to make republicans: the people in action to initiate progress. Let the insurrection announce with its awful voice the decrees of God: let it clear and level the ground on which its own immortal structure shall be raised. Let it, like the Nile, flood all the country that it is destined to make fertile.”
—Giuseppe Mazzini (1805–1872)
“From a hasty glance through the various tests I figure it out that I would be classified in Group B, indicating “Low Average Ability,” reserved usually for those just learning to speak the English Language and preparing for a career of holding a spike while another man hits it.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)