ACC_GATech | 01.01.01.

01H_ver2__1_

Fortunately, effectively all of computing has a common foundation, programming. Programming is the act of
creating instructions for a computer to carry out. Those instructions might be things like add 5 and 3, or fetch

google.com, or save my document. Chains of these commands create the behaviors of every single computing
device that you see from your thermostat to the space station. That's what programming is, writing the commands

called code for a computer to perform.

So let's take a simple example of this. You're browsing the internet and you see a link you'd like to follow, so you

click it. There are lines of code that translate where you click to figure out what was under your mouse when you

clicked. There are lines of code that take the fact that you click the link and use it to send out a request to the
internet to retrieve that document.

There are lines of code that monitor that retrieval, making sure that the document that you requested exists and
organizing it as it comes in. And there are also lines of code that take the document that you received and

translate it into pixels on-screen so you can actually read it. Every stage of that process is governed by some
code.