Source code is a collection of statements and instructions that are written by a computer programmer using standard programming languages. Source codes are readable to humans, but must be translated into machine language, or object code, through a compiler.

Coding 101

Source codes are the basis for all computer programs. They contain statements, such as instructions and declarations, which instruct software programs on how to function. Some programs contain multiple source coding text files that are stored in the hard drive or in a database. Computer programmers add useful comments to their source code in order to help other developers understand it. While large programs thousands of files, small programs may only use just one code. However, a single file that contains all the program’s functions and variables may create problems because it’s sometimes hard to locate specific sections of code. If there are multiple source files, the program will be organized and structured into different sections. Although text that has been marked up in HTML is referred to as code, it is a markup language that describes the tasks to be performed by a computer, such as how to format and display text.

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Programming 101

Each programming language uses a unique syntax to represent the basic programming algorithm. This means that source codes will vary from language to language. Certain similar languages, such as C and C+, will share basic style and syntax elements. There are standard programming styles that regularly appear in most languages. For example, almost all languages include a system to add comments and a search function to view readable code. There are actually several comment styles that are used in popular programming languages. Before the code understand by the computer as an executable task, all source codes must be run through a compiler and converted into machine language. In certain cases, such as Python’s interactive mode, the compiler conversion creates an executable file that stores the machine language instructions for later use.

Software Languages

Software languages can create executable programs that do everything from display a simple console to print documents to create entire operating systems. They all greatly vary in terms of their levels of power, flexibility, complexity, user-friendliness. C is an old programming language that was originally designed to be a systems programming language, but it can be used for various things like games and business program. C++ is object-oriented, so it’s very popular for graph-based applications. Visual Basic (VB) was developed by Microsoft and is used for creating Windows applications. Java is a flexible and powerful that is used to create applets, which are programs that is executed within other programs. Java should not be confused with Javascript, which is a Web and HTML programming language.

Web Languages

Web languages are used for creating and editing Web pages. They are highly flexible and offer varying terms of power and complexity. HTML is the basic language of the World Wide Web that is used to define the web pages layout and structure through various tags and attributes. XML works like HTML, but allows the creation of customized tags that are defined by programmers. Javascript is used to create interactive and dynamic web page content such as animations, calculators and forms. The VBScript language is based on VB and is used to display dates, perform calculations and interact with the user.

Finally, a source code either uses object oriented programming, such as PHP and JAVA or procedure-oriented programming, such as C.