Editing Source code (section)

{{Short description|Human-readable instructions a computer can execute}} 
{{About|the software concept|the film|Source Code}}{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2016}}
[[File:Hello world c.svg|thumb|Simple [[C (programming language)|C-language]] source code example, a [[procedural programming language]]. The resulting program prints "hello, world" on the computer screen. This first known "[["Hello, World!" program|Hello world]]" [[Snippet (programming)|snippet]] from the seminal book ''[[The C Programming Language]]'' originates from [[Brian Kernighan]] in the [[Bell Labs|Bell Laboratories]] in 1974.<ref name="ctutorial">{{cite web| url = http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/ctut.pdf| title = Programming in C: A Tutorial |first1=Brian W. |last1=Kernighan |publisher=Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, N. J. | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150223025837/http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/ctut.pdf| archive-date = 23 February 2015| url-status = dead}}</ref><!-- See http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/ctut.pdf for original.-->]]
{{Program execution}}

In [[computing]], '''source code''', or simply '''code''' or '''source''', is a [[plain text]] [[computer program]] written in a [[programming language]]. A [[programmer]] writes the [[human readable]] source code to control the behavior of a [[computer]].

Since a computer, at base, only understands [[machine code]], source code must be [[Translator (computing)|translated]] before a computer can [[Execution (computing)|execute]] it. The translation process can be implemented three ways. Source code can be converted into machine code by a [[compiler]] or an [[assembler (computing)|assembler]]. The resulting [[executable]] is machine code ready for the computer. Alternatively, source code can be executed without conversion via an [[interpreter (computing)|interpreter]]. An interpreter loads the source code into memory. It simultaneously translates and executes each [[statement (computer science)|statement]]. A method that combines compilation and interpretation is to first produce [[bytecode]]. Bytecode is an intermediate representation of source code that is quickly interpreted.