---
title: ASM language level comparison
description: 1.1.2 Assembly Language Table 1-1
---
| Type of Application | High-Level Languages | Assembly Language |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Commercial or scientific application, written for single platform, medium to large size. | Formal structures make it easy to organize and maintain large sections of code. | Minimal formal structure, so one must be imposed by programmers who have varying levels of experience. This leads to difficulties maintaining existing code. |
| Hardware device driver. | The language may not provide for direct hardware access. Even if it does, awkward coding techniques may be required, resulting in maintenance difficulties | |
| Commercial or scientific application written for multiple platforms (different operating systems). | Usually portable. Th source code an be recompiled on each target operating system with minimal changes. | |
| Embedded systems and computer games requiring direct hardware access. | May produce large executable files that exceed the memory capacity of the device. | |