Thread: C/C++, low or high level?

  1. #1
    For Narnia! Sentral's Avatar
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    C/C++, low or high level?

    I'm getting mixed information on this topic. Some people say C/C++ is a high level language, while others say it's low level. But to me, it really depends on what your comparing it to. If you compare C++ to, say, Machine Language or ASM, then yes, I would think of C++ as high level. But if you compare C++ to Python, then I would consider C++ low-level. Many sites say different things, and I've seen that they are different because of how they are compared. I think it's low-level, but I don't know to much. What do you think?
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    The Right Honourable psychopath's Avatar
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    I always thougt it was low-level. But that's because I compare it to languages like C#.
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    (?<!re)tired Mario F.'s Avatar
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    You are right in assuming the term is best used when compared to other programming languages. However, there's a somewhat accepted notion that high-level languages are languages that stay away from the machine language. The more the stay away from it and the closer they are to natural language (or the easier they are to get into), the more high-level they are.

    I think it's correct to assume C++ as an high level language. It stays clear from machine language, does not offer many options for direct access into the machine internals, it's highly portable, and it's syntax is very english-like.
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    {Jaxom,Imriel,Liam}'s Dad Kennedy's Avatar
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    The list that I was taught was (low to high):

    Object Code (written with a HEX editor, Debug, or some type of interpreter)
    Assembly

    (Rather large step)

    C
    Fortran

    (short step, but fairly far)

    C++
    Ada

    From here, it gets rather hairy, but it would be something like VC++, VB, Java, there was no C# back in my school days.

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    l'Anziano DavidP's Avatar
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    Many people refer to C (and especially C++) as "Middle Level" Languages, because that gap exists which has been mentioned in all the previous posts.
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