In a program written in machine language, 
				each elementary computer operation 
				is represented by a numerical code, and 
each memory location is designated by an address. To program 
in machine language, therefore, programmers had to keep the entire 
organization of electronic circuits in mind.

A first step that made programming simpler was the invention 
of assembly languages. However, things really began to change with 
the introduction of high-level languages of which the first was Fortran, 
developed in the early 1950s by John Backus. In this type of language, 
instructions are geared to the nature of the problem rather than 
the operation of the computer.