Second-generation programming language

Further information: Assembly language

Second-generation programming languages have the following properties:

Lines within a program correspond directly to processor commands, essentially acting as a mnemonic device overlaying a first generation 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.^[4]
The language is specific to a particular processor family and environment.^[2]

Second-generation languages are sometimes used for parts of kernels or device drivers, and are sometimes used in video games, graphics programs, and other intensive programs.^[1]

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 details must be manually managed which is often bug-prone.^[2]
Programs are machine-dependent, so different versions must be written for every target machine architecture.^[3]

The vast majority of programs are written in a third-generation programming language or a fourth-generation programming language. Assembly's main advantage, speed, has degraded by the fact that well written C code can often be as fast or even faster than hand written assembly^[2]^[6]

Second generation languages are perhaps most significant in their place in computing history. For a long time, Second generation assembly languages were the only good option for development for many machines, such as the NES or the Commodore 64.^[7]^[8] Second generation languages represented a massive step away from the tradition of programmers conforming to the needs of a machine, and the first step towards the machine accommodating for the programmer, a phenomenon that would be repeated in all subsequent programming language generations.^[2]^[3]

References

^ ^a ^b "Computer Hope, Generation languages"
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Brookshear, J. Glenn (2012). Computer science : an overview (11th ed.). Addison-Wesley. pp. 240–241. ISBN 978-0-13-256903-3.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Vass, Péter. "Programming Language generations and Programming Paradigms" (PDF).
^ ^a ^b "What Are Programming Language Generations?". wiseGEEK. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
^ "Top Computer Languages 2019 - StatisticsTimes.com". statisticstimes.com. Archived from the original on 2019-06-12. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
^ Walls, Colin. "Why C is faster than assembly". Mentor, a Sieman's Business. Mentor Inc. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
^ Commodore corporation. "C64 programmer's reference" (PDF). Commodore corporation. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
^ Wikibooks contributors. "NES assembly". Wikibooks: NES Assembly. Retrieved 11 June 2019. ((cite web)): |author1= has generic name (help)

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