What is the difference between high level language and low level language(computer languages)?

Yah, well, I'm older'n dirt & still think of C as the epitome of high-level languages, which means that now I'm computer illiterate. The principles still hold, though. High level languages are easier to read and program in, but require much more memory due to the generality necessitated in their compilers. Low level languages are more difficult to read and program, but are much more compact Low level programs also tend to run faster. Neither of these considerations is as important as they once were. When you have giga Hz switching speeds and gigabytes of RAM, programming ease outweighs compactness and execution time.

typically, in low level languages, you write 1 instruction, and it generates 1 machine instruction. low level languages are typically assembly languages, which are 1 step removed from machine language. in high level languages, you write 1 instruction, and it generates a series of machine instructions. in a high level language, you think about the problem, and write instructions to solve it. in a low level language, you think of the problem, and you have to write the instructions to have the computer solve your problem. both are cool, and useful. however, in general, it requires more skill to be able to do the same problem in a low level language than in a high level language. AND, if there is a problem with a program, it's usually far more easy to fix a high level language program than a low level language program. so, with any language, you need to determine how to solve a particular problem. with a low level language, you also need to know the specific computer instructions that will allow you to accomplish your logic.

A processor operates using binary codes, which are difficult for programmers to use in programming. Therefore, a low level language, such as assembly, is one where the text instructions are essentially translated 1:1 into binary. In a high level language, like C or Pascal, each instruction represents several assembly instructions and must be translated into assembly and the assembly then is translated into binary.

As the level increases, the ease of coding increases in a language. Programs written in high level languages are more likely to be understood by the human brain as they use keywords like for eg. for "this" to be "true" do "this" or on "this" = "this" goto "this" While the low level language is more close to machine and in many cases is hardware specific.

Machine language is about as low a language as you can get. To write in machine language you need to know a lot about how the hardware works. You will be writing code using hexadecimal (or binary) numbers. Assembly is a little higher, C is higher again, but these are still low-level languages relatively speaking. Each higher level is easier to program because much functionality is written for you in subroutines in functions. Scripting languages such as those used by web servers are higher level. Examples are; Java, Javascript, Visual Basic, C++ and C#. Flash's Actionscript exposes lots of drawing and animation functions and client/server accessability through simple scripting. Writing something similar in a low level language would take a tremendous amount of work. The interpretter for Actionscript would be written in a fairly high-level language itself, such as C++.