Computers have become an integral part of our daily lives, and it is almost impossible to imagine a world without them.
But computers are useless without the code that dictates what they do.
In this article, we will learn what code is and how programmers use it to ensure that all tasks are executed with ease and smoothness.
We will also learn about the World Wide Web, and two coding languages.
What is meant by code?
Code is a set of rules and instructions written in a particular programming language that help us talk to machines. Just as people speak different languages, so do machines.
There are hundreds of programming languages, each suitable for different tasks. Programmers are people who understand and work with these languages every day.
Well, what does a programmer do? Programmers are the architects and builders of the digital world.
They use code to create programs that run on most machines you see and use every day: laptops, phones, televisions, cars, refrigerators, and more.
In fact, the device you are using now to listen to this content contains complex software that ensures that the screen, speakers, microchip, and “you” work together in unison.
To create these programs, programmers write small sequences of tasks they want the machines to perform.
These sequences are known as "algorithms". For example, cars have computer programs that manage all of their systems.
An algorithm within the car software could be as follows: If a specific button on the car's dashboard is pressed, the engine status will appear on the display.
Code size can range from just a thousand lines, which it takes to run a simple mobile game, to more than two billion lines, like the code that runs Google.
See: What is The Healthy Use of Technology
What does the code look like?
Now let's focus on one of the code applications that changed the world: the World Wide Web. Did you know that the internet and the web are really different?
In fact, the World Wide Web or “the Web” is just an application built using the Internet. Let's explain in more detail:
1. The Internet:
It is a global network of communications between computers that allows them to transmit information between each other.
We use the Internet to send email, make calls, watch videos, and access websites through browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer.
2. The web:
is a collection of billions of pages of information created using code. Perhaps two of the most popular programming languages on the web are HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
Imagine the Internet as a city of roads and cables that connect everything and everyone together.
And the buildings within this city are the web. Some of these buildings might be libraries that store information, for example, some are movie theaters, but they are all made of markup languages.
Where can you find it on the Internet
So how do programmers use these languages? When you click on a link or type a web address, you are actually asking another computer to send you an HTML file.
This file contains the information your browser needs to display the web page.
It is true that the page may appear complete to you immediately, but in reality your browser receives hundreds of lines of HTML code that specify exactly the content and location of text, images, videos, and areas to be displayed.
CSS is another markup language concerned with the visual style of a web page.
If HTML specifies "what" to display, CSS specifies "how" to display. They are responsible for ensuring that colors, fonts, and other style options are applied to a web page before it is displayed. This is useful when dealing with a large number of HTML pages.
Instead of coding the visual style of each page, you can create just one master CSS file and link each page to it.