Programming code tells the computer to do something, but what makes the code actually mean anything to the computer?

Question

Programming code tells the computer to do something, but what makes the code actually mean anything to the computer?

In: Engineering

Answer 1

Computer’s processor (CPU) has a built in instruction set. It performs relatively simple things like “add two numbers together” or “reserve x amount of space in memory”. A programming language allows to input something closer to human language, though still quite cryptic to the uninitiated, and a compiler then takes this input and converts it into instruction sets, written in binary (0s and 1s) that the CPU can understand.

Programs then operate on data held in memory to make things happen.