1.2 Below your program

• Instructions, which are collections of bits that the computer understand, can be thought of as numbers
• Assembler translates a symbolic version of an instruction (ie. assembly language) into the binary version
• Compiler translates a higher level notation (high-level programming languages) down to assembly language
• High-level programming languages offers following benefits:
• Allow programmer to think in a more natural language 
• Improve programmer productivity - Conciseness
• Allow programs to be independent of computer
• Operating systems are supervising programs that manage resources of a computer
• Systems software are software that provides services (OS, assembler, compiler)
• Application software are software that aims at computer users