What makes a computer language? Why do computers have them? Why are there so many different computer languages?
It isn't necessary to understand the answer to these questions to do basic programming, just like understanding how an engine works isn't necessary to drive a car. However to progress to an advanced level it is. This chapter provides a brief explanation to get started with.
Computers are electronic, and they are digital. To a computer everything is in terms of no voltage potential along a wire, or some voltage available. No voltage means a zero to the computer, and some voltage means a one. Computers can't actually count higher than that without combining multiple ones and zeros.
In the early days, switches were used to load ones or zeros into
computer memory. Figure fig.altair, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons,
shows an Altair 8800. The front panel switches were used to load
in the program. The lights showed the output. There was no monitor.
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