# First-generation programming language

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/First-generation_programming_language
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/First-generation_programming_language.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-generation_programming_language
> Source revision: 1332404417
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

Machine-level programming language

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "First-generation programming language" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

A **first-generation programming language** (**1GL**) is a [machine-level](/source/Machine_code) [programming language](/source/Programming_language) and belongs to the [low-level programming languages](/source/Low-level_programming_language).[1]

The first-[generation programming languages](/source/Programming_language_generations) (1GL) are a grouping of programming languages that are machine-level languages used to program [first-generation computers](/source/First-generation_computer). Originally, no [translator](/source/Translator) was used to [compile](/source/Compiler) or [assemble](/source/Assembly_language) a first-generation language. The first-generation programming instructions were entered through the [front panel](/source/Front_panel) switches of the computer system.

The instructions in a 1GL are made of [binary numbers](/source/Binary_number), represented by 1s and 0s. This makes the language suitable for the understanding of the machine but far more difficult to interpret and learn by the human programmer.

The main advantage of programming in 1GL is that the code can run very fast and very efficiently, precisely because the instructions are executed directly by the [central processing unit](/source/Central_processing_unit) (CPU). One of the main disadvantages of programming in a [low-level language](/source/Low-level_programming_language) is that, when an error occurs, the code is not as easy to fix.

First-generation languages are very much adapted to a specific computer and CPU, and code portability is therefore significantly reduced in comparison to [higher-level languages](/source/High-level_programming_language). Modern tools such as native-code compilers are used to produce machine-level code from a higher-level language.

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Computer_Hope_1-0)** ["Computer Hope, Generation languages"](http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/num/1gl.htm)

### General

1. Nwankwogu S.E (2016). Programming Languages and their history.

v t e Types of programming languages Level Machine Assembly Compiled Interpreted Low-level High-level Very high-level Esoteric Generation First Second Third Fourth Fifth

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [First-generation programming language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-generation_programming_language) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-generation_programming_language?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.