Question

20. Describe the steps that transform a program written in a high-level language such as C into a representation that is directly executed by a computer processor.

Answer 1

Answer:

The C code is sent to the preprocessor which converts the C preprocessors to its corresponding values which results in an expanded file. The file is sent to the compiler which converts the expanded file to assembly code and the assembly code, with the help of the assembler, is converted to object code. The linker links the code to the header files and are converted to executable code, that would be loaded, executed and printed on screen.

Explanation:

There are three levels of programming language, they are low, mid and high. Low level programming languages are machine code used by the computer as instructions. The mid-level language like assembly are primitive and are difficult for humans to read. High-level languages are English-like, human readable codes that must be interpreted or compiled to machine code.