Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
simple.and.to.the.point..No.engineering.degree.is.required..
So.carry.on.without.trepidation.
3.2 THE BASICS
The.irst.thing.to.understand.about.electronic.data.is.that.any-
thing. stored. in. a. digital. device. is. represented. by. ones. and.
zeros..Those.ones.and.zeros.are.created.by.electronic.pulses.
that.are.either.positive.or.negative..I.promised.not.to.get.too.
geeky,.so.we.do.not.get.into.the.engineering.any.further.than.
that,.but.this.is.important.to.understand,.so.you.realize.that.
everything.we.talk.about.later.is.based.on.nothing.more.than.
these. electronic. pulses. of. energy. that. are. translated. by. the.
computer's.processors.into.ones.and.zeros.
Each.one.or.zero.is.called.a.
bit
..If.you.put.eight.of.those.
bits. together. into. a. row,. they. are. called. a.
byte
.. For. some.
purposes.each.byte.is.divided.into.two.parts.of.four.bits.each.
that.are.called.
nibbles
..Are.you.noting.a.theme.here?.It.is.my.
theory.that.the.inventors.of.this.system.spent.way.too.much.
time.playing.with.electrical.pulses.and.forgot.to.order.out..In.
the.process.they.got.very.hungry.and.that.caused.them.to.be.
distracted.when.they.got.around.to.naming.these.parts.
Computer.data.is.coded.in.binary.language—meaning.sim-
ply.a.mathematical.language.that.only.uses.two.(thus.the.
bi
.in.
binary).symbols—you.guessed.it,.ones.and.zeros!.Each.nibble.
of. data. can. be. (and. they. usually. are). translated. into. hexa-
decimal.or.decimal.numbers.for.programming.purposes..The.
hexadecimal. mathematical. language. uses. 16. characters—
0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E,F—and. the. decimal. language.
or.code.is.the.one.we.are.used.to.which.runs.from.0.to.9.
Note,.however,.that.the.binary.code,.the.hexadecimal,.or.
the.decimal.do.not.ever.have.a.two-character.number.as.part.
of.their.basic.characters..That.makes.sense.if.you.think.about.
it.in.terms.of.the.mathematical.language.we.are.most.familiar.
with,.decimal.
Decimal.code.is.what.is.known.as.base-10..You.use.10.char-
acters,.starting.with.0.and.going.up.to.9..Then.to.increment.
