Summary
Understanding the inner workings of your computer is a prerequisite for becoming a master programmer. Only after learning about what is under the hood can your programming skills blossom. Computer programming has come a long way since the early days of wiring panels and switches. High-level languages such as COBOL and FORTRAN offered a much easier approach to making computers do what you wanted them to do.
Memory is little more than on and off switches.
The pattern of bits that corresponds to a specific character is determined by the ASCII table.
Once keyboards were attached to computers, many advances began. The earliest non-binary programming language was called assembler language. The assembler translates assembler coded mnemonics into ...
Get Absolute Beginner's Guide to Programming, Third Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
