[1] Examples of common and historical third-generation programming languages are ALGOL, BASIC, C, COBOL, Fortran, Java, and Pascal.
This includes features like improved support for aggregate data types, and expressing concepts in a way that favors the programmer, not the computer.
First introduced in the late 1950s, Fortran, ALGOL, and COBOL are examples of early 3GLs.
A 3GL enables a programmer to write programs that are more or less independent from a particular type of computer.
In contrast, machine languages are considered low-level because they are designed for and executed by physical hardware without further translation required.