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segelnhoch3 t1_j6iu3t1 wrote

That is a question so broad, you can fill multiple college classes with it.

On a (very) high level: Information is stored as a string of 0s and 1s, which is sent to the CPU, which then performs different actions on this string, like "add the value on position 1234 with the value on position 1212" or "write 10 to position 12345" or "repeat until the value in position 123 equals 0", etc.

These instructions come as a string of 0 and 1 as well, and once they are finished, the end product is then written back into memory or passed on to other parts of the computer, like display, external memory, WiFi connectors, ...

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[deleted] t1_j6it91z wrote

[removed]

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explainlikeimfive-ModTeam t1_j6itdfm wrote

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Flair_Helper t1_j6iw4cz wrote

Please read this entire message

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GalFisk t1_j6iw71e wrote

With software which speaks to hardware. Let's say your program says PRINT "a" The program will send the ASCII code for "a" to the operating system, saying this is to be printed. The operating system will look up the pattern of pixels for "a" in a font file, and send it to the video card. The video card will store it in the frame buffer, which is then repeatedly read and sent to the screen, which will decode the pixel data to decide which dots of red, green and blue should be illuminated.

This is a bit simplified, because i don't actually know any of this in detail, but it shows the principle.

The great thing is that all the links in the chain only need to understand its immediate neighbors. The screen doesn't need to understand a frame buffer, or an OS, it just needs to translate a video signal to a screen image. And the programmer doesn't need to know anything about how the screen works, just how to tell the computer to display something. This divides the immense complexity of modern computers into components that a team of engineers can comprehend.

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worldisashitplace OP t1_j6ixgg5 wrote

Thank you! It makes sense to not be bothered about everything. Guess I was doing that, lol. I was trying to understand everything from the code translation to execution and my brain was getting stuck.

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