What Is the Purpose of Procedural
Programming Languages?
In a procedural language, or third-generation
language (3GL), a programmer writes instructions
that tell a computer what to accomplish and how to
do it. Programmers use English-like words to write
instructions, which simplifies the program
development process. A compiler or an interpreter
translates the 3GL source program into machine
language object code that a computer can
execute. Standard procedural languages include
BASIC (a simple, interactive problem-solving
language), COBOL (a language designed for
business applications), and C (a powerful
language that requires professional programming
skills).