source code
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Source code is a collection of instructions written in a language that humans can read and understand, which tells a computer what to do. It matters because programmers use it to create all the software and applications we use, and it can be examined and modified to fix problems or add new features.
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Simple C source code for a "Hello world" program. Taken from the seminal book The C Programming Language, it originates from Brian Kernighan in the Bell Laboratories in 1974.
In computing, source code, or simply code or source, is human readable plain text that can eventually result in controlling the behavior of a computer. In order to control a computer, it must be processed by a computer program – either executed directly via an interpreter or translated into a more computer-consumable form such as via a compiler. Sometimes, code is compiled directly to machine code so that it can be run in the native language of the computer without further processing. Many modern environments, though, involve compiling to an intermediate representation such as bytecode that can either run via an interpreter or be compiled on-demand to machine code via just-in-time compilation.