When you buy software, the source code usually is not made public, but doesn’t your computer still have to run the code to use the software? How can it run the code without allowing the user to see the code?

Question

When you buy software, the source code usually is not made public, but doesn’t your computer still have to run the code to use the software? How can it run the code without allowing the user to see the code?

In: Technology

Answer 1

The computer runs object code i.e. code that has been converted from a human friendly programming language to machine friendly binary code. It’s possible to decompile this code so object code isn’t a complete black box to us humans

Answer 2

Do you know how your cell phone works? No, but you know how to push buttons in it and make it do things without ever knowing what is going on under the case. The cell phone is your software. Computer doesn’t need to know what is happening inside to pass it inputs like keyboard commands and mouse clicks and process the outputs.