That's why virtually no one programs in machine language. Instead, programming languages introduce different layers of abstraction into the process. This abstraction is necessary so programmers can more easily understand the commands they are giving the computer. The computer cannot understand this command directly. As you will learn in Chapter 2, intermediate programs convert this Assembly language statement into machine language, which the CPU can understand directly.
Assembly language is an example of a low-level language.
This term simply means that there is a very close correlation between the commands used in the language and what those commands are translated into when they become machine language. In low-level languages, accomplishing tasks of any significance takes quite a few programming instructions. High-level languages are much more abstract in their use of programming instructions. The commands used in high-level languages are closer to human language than they are to the machine language understood by computers. You already know that many different programming languages are available.