How does code you can read become something a chip can run? | Programming Languages · Ep 2

Here's a complete piece of a program, three lines long. It takes two numbers, a and b, and hands back their sum. You can read it. But the processor in your laptop can't read a single word of it, because a processor only runs instructions stored as numbers. So how does code you can read become something a chip can run? Episode 2 of Programming Languages from Aussie Science Clips: The languages, frameworks and tools behind every app and website, one question at a time: what each one is, why it exists, and why people argue about it. Full transcript, sources and every episode: https://aussiescience.com/programming... CHAPTERS 0:00 The question 0:28 What the chip actually reads 1:03 Hand-to-hand combat 1:36 Thirty-two bits 2:17 Same code, different chip 2:46 Names instead of numbers 3:26 The assembler 3:53 Let the computer write it 4:29 Was it a compiler? 5:13 Formula translation 5:48 What a compiler does 6:28 The interpreter came first 6:53 Reading as you go 7:28 Python's middle path 8:02 The price of flexibility 8:37 JavaScript changes course 9:09 Just in time 9:43 A bet that can be lost 10:15 An old idea, in tiers 10:53 Every road ends in machine code NEXT: Is HTML a programming language? SOURCES 1. This episode's own check, `calc.py` (run 2026-10-07 on an Apple silicon Mac: Apple… 2. Intel, MCS-4 Micro Computer Set data sheet, November 1971 (fetch–decode–execute; via… — http://www.bitsavers.org/components/i... 3. R. Nystrom, *Crafting Interpreters*, ch. 2 "A Map of the Territory" (compilers,… — https://craftinginterpreters.com/a-ma... 4. Wikipedia, "Assembly language" (1:1 statements; Booth and Britten 1947 *Coding for… — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembl... 5. J. W. Backus, "The History of FORTRAN I, II, and III", ACM SIGPLAN Notices 13(8),… — https://www.softwarepreservation.org/... 6. IBM, "Fortran" (IBM History) — https://www.ibm.com/history/fortran 7. Apple Developer, "Addressing architectural differences in your macOS code" (Apple… — https://developer.apple.com/documenta... 8. Arm A64 instruction set reference, "ADD (shifted register)" (encoding diagram and… — https://www.scs.stanford.edu/~zyedidi... 9. Arm, Procedure Call Standard for the Arm 64-bit Architecture (AAPCS64) (r0…r7… — https://github.com/ARM-software/abi-a... 10. T. R. Kuphaldt, *Lessons In Electric Circuits*, Vol. IV (Digital), ch. 9… — https://www.ibiblio.org/kuphaldt/elec... 11. Wikipedia, "x86-64" ("also known as AMD64, x86_64, x64 and, rarely, Intel 64"; a… — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64 12. F. Cloutier, x86 instruction reference: "LEA: Load Effective Address" (8D /r) and "RET… — https://www.felixcloutier.com/x86/lea 13. Wikipedia, "x86 calling conventions" (System V AMD64 ABI: RDI, RSI, RDX, RCX, R8, R9) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86_cal... 14. Wikipedia, "Kathleen Booth" (Birkbeck; ARC; "co-wrote the first assembly language") — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathlee... 15. *The Telegraph*, "Kathleen Booth, computer pioneer who made a major breakthrough in… — https://web.archive.org/web/202210311... 16. A. D. Booth & K. H. V. Britten, *Coding for A.R.C.*, Institute for Advanced Study,… — https://albert.ias.edu/bitstream/hand... 17. IEEE Computer Society, "David Wheeler" (Computer Pioneer Award 1985; "initial orders"… — https://www.computer.org/profiles/dav... 18. Wikipedia, "A-0 System" (UNIVAC I; "more as a loader or linker than the modern notion… — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-0_System 19. D. E. Knuth & L. Trabb Pardo, *The Early Development of Programming Languages*,… — http://bitsavers.org/pdf/stanford/cs_... 20. IEEE / ETHW, "Milestones: A-0 Compiler and Initial Development of Automatic… — https://ethw.org/Milestones:A-0_Compi... …full list of all 32 sources in the pinned comment. HOW THIS WAS MADE Researched and scripted with AI assistance, then fact-checked claim by claim against the sources above by a separate AI pass. Narration is two synthetic Inworld voices. Diagrams are drawn in code (Manim); atmospheric images are AI-generated (FLUX) and are illustrations, not footage. No real person is depicted. Spotted an error? Tell us in the comments and we'll correct it.