2 GENERATIONS OF PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE Provides little or no abstraction from Computer’s microprocessor More abstract  easier to use  & more portable across platforms Low level PL High Level PL 1 GL Machine Language Eg: Binary code 2 GL Assembly Language 5 GL Visual programming Language / natural language Eg: Prolog  Mercury 4 GL Non-procedural Language Eg: SQL  NOMAD  FOCUS 3 GL Procedural Language Eg: PASCAL  FORTRAN  BASIC  COBOL  C++