What about binary?

[darangal]

Where does binary factor into computers as far as receiving commands from their operators and communication between devices?


Do computers translate all languages they have accumulated in their system into binary?


How do these machines process information in regards to communication between humans, computers, and the entirety of networks. One prominent example of a network is the one we all use, the internet.


Does my question make sense?


If not explain why so I can learn a little bit more about this branch of technology, and pick up some technical jargon on my way back from retard land.

[Code.Illusionist]

Where does binary factor into computers as far as receiving commands from their operators and communication between devices?


Do computers translate all languages they have accumulated in their system into binary?


How do these machines process information in regards to communication between humans, computers, and the entirety of networks. One prominent example of a network is the one we all use, the internet.

http://homepage.cs.uri.edu/faculty/wolfe/book/Readings/Reading04.htm

[proxx]

Where does binary factor into computers as far as receiving commands from their operators and communication between devices?


Do computers translate all languages they have accumulated in their system into binary?


How do these machines process information in regards to communication between humans, computers, and the entirety of networks. One prominent example of a network is the one we all use, the internet.


Does my question make sense?


If not explain why so I can learn a little bit more about this branch of technology, and pick up some technical jargon on my way back from retard land.

Let me comment on the networking part.
Read about TCP/IP and low level networking.

Plain example:
http://aschauf.landshut.org/fh/linux/udp_vs_raw/ch01s03.html

Its basically flipping switches on and off in a predefined form what we call ethernet/IP/TCP/UDP and a whole bunch of others.
Ofcourse that goes for other protocols.

[TheWormKill]

If I understood your question right, you are asking wether every piece of information, data, code, whatever stored in the computers memory, as well as network communication is represented as binary numbers / binary strings? Yes it is, since all things mentioned above are encoded via electronic signals, see the answers above.

[Daemon]

OP, I would recommend learning a bit about electricity and electronics. There is a book called CODE that shows you how computers work on a logical hardware level, stuff like binary and logic gates, which i would highly recommend reading (not sure if it's in the e-book section or not)

However, quick breakdown:
Machines work by having electrical signals sent through the parts, if a part is on it is a Binary 1 and if it's off then it's a Binary 0. So yes, every machine breaks down to 1s and 0s. Though technically, it breaks down to each individual bit(gate/whatever) inside of the machine being on or off.

[TheWormKill]

I'd probably add that the binary representation of (no) current, as every code / language, is merely an abstraction more or less suitable for humans.

[darangal]

Binary is a digital language whereas all computer codes are virtually analog, I find that digital albeit more limiting in the short term is far more efficient after a certain degree of mastery has been achieved.


If you learn the one language all computers know you don't really have to learn another one, perhaps downloading code dictionaries could help in translating for certain systems that don't take raw binary, but overall (keep in mind this is not yet proven fact and my personal opinion) it seems a smarter idea to learn the basis for technological communication as opposed to the interface(s) most users utilize.

[darangal]

All computers DO NOT "speak" one language. Just because they use the same "alphabet" (1's and 0's) means fuck all. Thats like saying French and English (and others...) are the same languages because they use the same a-z letters. (well, french has some additional characters/modifiers as well, but thats besides the point.)

Computers may all use the same "alphabet", but different processors accept/expect different instructions ("words"). Shoving an instruction that works on an RISC processor onto a CISC processor wont do much. Even instructions designed for an Intel x64 probably wont run on earlier Intel processors. They just have different languages.

Wrong terminology on my part in addition to improper conceptual comprehension, I apologize; how many variations would you say there are to the languages?


I mean language as opposed to dialects i.e. big variations as opposed to little ones (not saying the little variations aren't important only that getting down the fundamentals of communication is slightly more important when starting out then acquiring a bunch of specialized skills, and consequentially makes it easier to acquire such skills later on in the game)

[TheWormKill]

Binary is not a language!
It's a code, a different representation of some kind of data or instructions.
If you want to understand how a computer works, study electronics, if you want to understand how programming works on the most basic level for a certain architecture, learn assembly. But it seems you don't know what your goal is. As long as you don't know that, it's hard to help you or explain your question.

[TheWormKill]

not really, since this includes (direct) translating etc.

[proxx]

It may not be a language, but language is still a pretty good analogy for it.

I agree, conceptual it fits.

[chapp]

It may not be a language, but language is still a pretty good analogy for it.

No. Binary is a way to represent data, but without a definition of the structure it does not mean anything.

Saying that binary representation is a language is like saying that any random string of characters is a language. In a computer the binary representation is instructions to the CPU. Assembly is not a language either it's an instruction set, which can be of different variants (i836, amd64, alpha, powerpc etc.).

[TheWormKill]

No. Binary is a way to represent data, but without a definition of the structure it does not mean anything.

Saying that binary representation is a language is like saying that any random string of characters is a language. In a computer the binary representation is instructions to the CPU. Assembly is not a language either it's an instruction set, which can be of different variants (i836, amd64, alpha, powerpc etc.).

I completely agree on the first part, that's what I wanted to express.
But assembly is a language, as long as you define the instruction set. Altough one should point out that Macros etc. implemented by say, MASM, complicate things a bit.

[chapp]

What is language? Language is a way to represent and communicate abstract thought. Without a definition of the structure it means nothing.

I agree, but not sure about the definition is correct.

Binary has structure - as does language. Putting a random string of 1's and 0's would equate to a random string of characters. A random string of alpabetical characters does not equal a language either. If there is meaning behind a string of binary and there is a structure that is communicating a clear instruction or concept or whatever - then it is no different than a language.

Putting a random string of 1's and 0's would not equate a string of characters, without first agreeing on what represents a character. Are we strictly speaking ASCII and expect the binary dataset to be byte sized? If so we are making assumptions of certain structural requirements are met.

The only difference is the character set. Binary uses 1/0, English uses a-z, chinese uses... whatever.

No. The English language can be represented as data via a-z as we have agreed upon the meaning of this data. a-z can be represented as decimal values by the definition of ascii value as well and these decimal values can be represented in any base. This does not make a-z characters a language, but  by arranging them using certain structure and rules they can be arranged to represent the English language. So binary data can represent a language by certain rules, so can any data representation as long as this is commonly agreed upon.

If i decide that the characters tyurgh that conceptually means "add" and other people in my community agree as such, this is language representing a specific concept.

If we decide that 0100 = "add" and tell the computer how to use this concept to further our goals - it is still language.

But if thats not enough - I'll also point out that binary does not merely represent data. It represents instructions as well. Instructions by definition are a form of communication. Communication requires language.

Given this binary string:
0b01000001010000010100000101000001
We interpret this as many different things neither of which are correct, just different interpretations based on defined rules.
"0x41414141"
"AAAA"
"inc ecx inc ecx inc ecx inc ecx"
"65 65 65 65"
1 99 0 0 1 99 1 99 0 0 1 99 1 99 0 0 1 99 1 99 0 0 1 99.

Yes the last one if one I made up, but it isn't incorrect. Binary is a way of representing data in a very pure form, but that does not make it a language.

[darangal]

Alright, please sway away from discussing whether or not an analogy used to refer to binary was appropriate.

Do you not understand what I am trying to accomplish?

To put it simply getting a good grasp on the fundamentals of computer language, not debating over the semantics of english............

Binary is an alphabet i.e. a set of letters or characters displayed in different configurations to convey specific information & ideas

Languages are the ideas correlated to the configurations

Binary is a tool and language is a system. All computers use binary but do not interpret the same string of numbers the same way. Is that correct?