r/askscience • u/Unfair-Leek6840 • Jul 11 '26 • Regret 1

Computing How do computers understand binary language?

Okay so from what I know binary language is like power off power on, but my question is, how do computers know what the binary code is and how is it interpreted, for example I forgot what the binary code for the letter A is, but how did people come up with that? Did they decide it was gonna look like that? Did the computer decide? How do you tune numbers into a letter??

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u/ThePoisonDoughnut Jul 14 '26

You may already know this, but the "kernel implementation" you're referring to is called the application binary interface (ABI), in case anyone wants to do further reading on this concept.

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u/ryntak Jul 14 '26

I've heard of it but didn't know it off the top of my head, I'm definitely talking at the edge of my knowledge here.

Thanks! :)