ulillillia

Any text that makes up a program (that a compiler compiles into an executable form) is called "source code". What I'm asking is why is it called "source code" instead of just "source"? Why is it often called just "code"?

@nthony

Well, it can also often just be called "source" (i.e. "sourceForge" or "can I see the source for that?"). Technically though, "source" can refer to any original resource of the application, such as code, text, documentation, images, object files etc. Usually, when specifying "code" in the context of an application, it is understood that you are most likely referring to the code of that application (i.e. "source" code) and so the "source" might be ommitted. Most of the time the word "source" will be included to signify the totality of the context (i.e. not just a specific module or routine, but the entire application). But all nomenclature and semantics aside, many times the word "source" is just included for the coolness factor as in Valve's "Source" engine.

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ulillillia

My question is why is it called "code"?

indigo0086

Looking at the formal definition of code, it makes sense.

Dave_Sinkula

Have you ever seen an advertisement for an "automated ATM machine"?

The English language, especially the American variant, is screwy.

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ulillillia

Thanks. That's all I wanted to know. The English language is quite screwy. There's a set of "standard" rules but some words don't follow them or break them.

@nthony

If you wanted to know why the word "code" is used (instead of why "source" is often redundantly included), then it is actually *not* the result of any malformed English, but in fact is quite proper English. You see, when you create a "program" for a computer you are communicating with it. More specifically you are giving it instructions to accomplish some abstract task. Conceptually, it is no different than communicating with any other entity (such as a human) except that your encoding of the information differs. When communicating with a human, we encode information into that person's language. When we communicate with a computer, we encode information into a language understood by the compiler (a subset of English in the case of C) which is inturn encoded into assembly language understood by the assembler which is inturn encoded into binary, which is understood by the computer. From this, and the defintion of code:
you can see how it has easily adopted a definition for use in the context of computing: quite literally, "code" means the system of symbols, letters, and words that we use to communicate with the computer (or rather its corrispondent, the compiler). So "code" turns out to be a very apt term for the collection of these symbols that constitutes the information that is our "program".

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