I was always fascinated by how computers work and i know that its basically just a bunch of 1 and 0s called binary code hut how do you even get a computer to even understand that in the first place
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The BIOS. It defines bit strings for e.g. letters and numbers. When you type an A the keyboard sends 01100001. The computer understands it as an A because we build it to interpret that as an A. That’s it.
A byte is 8 bits. We decided a byte is 8 bits because that’s how many bits it takes to uniquely represent all the English letters, numbers, and symbols. With 8 bits you can represent 256 unique things. With 7, only 128 things. There are more than 128 English characters, and less than 256. So 8 bits it is.
The ASCII table defines what bit strings are assigned to what symbols. We just assigned them. No magic. A is 01100001.
This allows us to enter information into a computer, and it allows the computer to give information back to us. It allows us to tell the computer what to do. The first programs were very simple and super hard to write. Based on those tools we built more complex things more easily. Now we can build really complex things very easily. In the future the computers will build the complex things themselves.
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