Components of Program
Before you read: If you are a learner looking to just skip to the main part of writing a program, then maybe you should try elsewhere. This will teach you the intricacies behind programming.
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To understand the logic and working of a program, first you need to understand the following components:
- Language
- Compilers and Interpreters
- Console
I will keep it brief.
Language
Computer does not understand our language, It follows what we tell him in its own language which is known as “Binary language” or “Machine language”. This language consists of 0’s and 1’s and surely humans do not understand this language (unless someone is crazy enough to learn it :P), hence we invented Programming language. There are categories to it, but it is enough for now.
Compilers and Interpreters
These are translators which translate our program into machine language so that the computer understands our intention.
Compiler translates the whole program in one go, while Interpreter translates the program line by line. There is more to them, we will go into the details a bit later (program here is written in programming language).
Console
Think of it as a chalkboard where you interact with your maths teacher in the class. The teacher writes some statement, and you understand and react to it, then you write something to which the teacher reacts.
Console is the same, It helps you interact with the computer. It is also known as shell.
Next: Interacting with Console