In this article you will get to know what is Assembly Language, what is Assembler, what are the characteristics of Assembly Languages, what are the advantages and disadvantages of Assembly Languages and what is the difference between Assembly Languages and Machine Languages. If you want to get all the above information about Assembly Language then you will have to read this article till the end.
What is assembly language?
Assembly Language is a low-level programming language that was developed to overcome the difficulties faced in Machine Language. What is the difference between machine language and assembly language, as you must be aware, computers are able to understand only Machine Language in which binary codes (0 and 1) are used. It was very difficult for us humans to remember so many numbers. Assembly Languages was created to overcome this problem. In Assembly Languages, instead of numbers, mnemonic codes are used, which are written in English language or symbols. Due to this, it was easy for humans to remember these commands. But computers can understand only Machine Language, hence Assembly languages are translated into Machine Language through assembler software.
Assembly language is a second-generation language. The first-generation language of a computer is Machine Language, then the second is Assembly Language and the third-generation language is high level programming language like C++, Java, HTML, etc.
Features of assembly language
The main feature of Assembly Languages is that its codes are very easy to understand, remember, and write because letters are completely used in their construction. Its complete structure is based on mnemonic codes, which makes it easy and simple. Errors in its codes can be easily selected and appropriate corrections can be made. It takes less time to prepare their programming codes because fewer letters are required to prepare their codes. It is a middle-class language.
The following are the features of Assembly Language –
- Mnemonic code is used in assembly language.
- The assembler is required to translate assembly language into machine language.
- Assembly language is a low-level programming language.
- Errors in assembly language can be detected quite easily.
What is an assembler?
Assembler is a software program that translates Assembly Language into Machine Language. You can think of an assembler as a language translator. Just as the program in Machine Language is called binary code, similarly the program (source code) written in Assembly Language is called Mnemonic Code.
Advantages of Assembly
Some major advantages of Assembly Language are as follows –
- Assembly language allows complex tasks to be run in a simple way.
- Execution of assembly language is fast. This is a fast language.
- Results can be achieved with fewer instructions in assembly language.
- Assembly language is used to perform important tasks.
- Using assembly language reduces the chances of errors in instructions.
- Errors in assembly language can be easily detected.
Disadvantages of assembly languages
Assembly language also has some disadvantages which are as follows –
- It is very difficult to understand the syntax of Assembly Languages.
- Assembly language is complex, it is not so easy to understand.
- Assembly language is not portable, assembly language is also different for different computers.
- Running long programs in Assembly Language requires more computer memory.
Where are assembly languages used?
Currently, assembly languages are commonly used for hardware manipulation and accessing stored databases. Microprocessors are also usually programmed using assembly language. Assembly language is also used to generate programming code and create different types of software. These are used to make changes to the way computers work.