Programming Languages

This chapter provides the fundamental concepts associated with programming languages. It discusses basic features of assembly and C language programming. Computers are typically programmed using semi-English-language statements. Computer programming languages can typically be divided into three main types: machine language, assembly language, and high-level language. At the most elementary level, a microcontroller program can be written using its instruction set in binary machine language. However, knowledge of programming the microcontrollers using assembly language is essential. Familiarization with assembly language may be helpful in understanding how to write microcontroller interrupt programs using C. Before writing an assembly language program for a specific operation, it is convenient to represent the program in a schematic form called a flowchart. The programmer finds it relatively more convenient to write programs in assembly or high-level language than in machine language.