What is a program written in a high-level programming language called?

A program written in a high-level programming language is called a "source program", and the source program cannot be run directly. The source program is relative to the target code and executable code; the source program is a code program written in assembly language and high-level language, and is a series of human-readable computer language instructions.

A program written in a high-level programming language is called a source program, and the source program cannot be run directly. To use a high-level language on a computer, the language's compiler or interpreter must first be loaded into the computer's memory before the high-level language can be used.

Source program (also called source code) refers to an uncompiled text file written in accordance with certain programming language specifications. It is a series of human-readable computer language instructions. In modern programming languages, source code can appear in the form of books or tapes, but the most commonly used format is a text file. The purpose of this typical format is to compile a computer program. The ultimate goal of computer source code is to translate human-readable text into binary instructions that the computer can execute. This process is called compilation and is completed through a compiler.

Program Usage

The source program is generally a software written in a programming language with many lines of English that can be opened with Notepad.

The source program can only be run after being compiled into a target program. The general target program cannot be modified anymore.

The software installed on our computers are all target programs. Except for script language source programs, other source programs cannot be run directly.

People who advocate open source software believe that source programs should be provided to users so that they can modify them themselves, which is conducive to the development of the software industry. Opponents feel that this is not conducive to protecting copyright.

If you don’t know programming, you can ignore the source program. Does not affect normal use.

Source code, as a special part of the software, may be included in one or more files. A program does not have to be written in the same format as source code. For example, if a program is supported by a C language library, it can be written in C language; while another part can be written in assembly language in order to achieve higher operating efficiency.

For more complex software, the number of source program files can reach thousands. In order to reduce complexity, a system must be introduced that can describe the relationship between various source codes and how to compile them correctly. In this context, the revision control system (RCS) was born and became one of the necessary tools for developers to revise code.

There is another combination: the writing and compilation of source code are implemented on different platforms respectively. The professional term is called software transplantation.

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