A computer program is nothing more than a set of instructions that a computer follows to accomplish a specific task. A
programming
language such a Visual Basic is used to translate instructions as we humans understand them into the steps that the computer can comprehend and follow. When you get down to a computer’s most basic level, the microprocessor that is at the core of the computer’s functionality doesn’t
understands anything other then numeric instructions. To make matters worse, the only instructions that the processor can understand are incredibly simplistic commands, most of which have to do with moving numbers around between memory locations. These commands that the processor understands are known as machine language or the most basic language that the machine (the PC) can use. Machine language is known as a low-level language, because it’s all the way down at the processor’s level of understanding. As you might imagine, writing programs in machine language is an incredibly daunting task. Fortunately, you don’t have to get down to that level to create computer programs. These
programming language allow programmers to write instruction in something resembling English; the instructions are then converted into a program containing machine-language instructions that the processor can understands. Some examples of programming languages that have developed over the years include Fortran and Cobol, which are generally used with mainframe computers, as well as BASIC, Pascal, C, and C++ which are commonly used to write programs at the personal computer level