Source code

computer programming, source code is (generally speaking) a text file version of a computer program or software that contains instruc. Say can read and change. A large program may contain many e code into assembly language or machine language which is much faster and easier for the computer to read, but hard for a human to read. Another very common way is to interpret the code, without needing a compilation step, while that's not usually slower.

A computer program may be open source, which means the shared with anyone who wants to look at it and change it. Many programs are however closed source, which means only the executable code is distributed and people are not allowed to look at, learn from, print out or even and change the code. Many open source programs are also compiled to such code, that may or may not be allowed to be inspected, while to change it is mosturce code that came with it, or possibly can be downloaded.

Example of C source code

#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
      printf("Hello world!\n");
      return(0);
}

When compiled by a C compiler and executed, this will print "Hello world!" on the computer screen and then finish.