What Is Source Code?

Date First Published: 6th February 2024

Topic: Web Design & Development

Subtopic: Web Development

Article Type: Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty Level: 5/10

Learn about what source code is in this article.

Source code is a set of instructions, functions, and other statements written in a programming language used to make a website, app, or computer program work as intended. Everything, including how the website, app, or computer program works, functions, and behaves is partially determined by the source code. Source code files are both human and machine readable and developers often follow common conventions when writing source code to make complex code easier to understand and edit.

The amount of source code depends on the size and complexity of the program. Some programs only need a few lines of source code, whilst others require thousands of lines.

Creating Source Code

Source code may be kept in a single file or distributed across multiple files. To help understand the purpose of the program, most developers decide to break source code into several files.

Most developers use an integrated development environment (IDE) to help write source code. An IDE includes features that are useful for developers, including a code editor, a version control system, code hints, code highlighting, a runtime environment, a debugger, a compiler, and more. A source code file containing instructions in a programming language is almost always a plain text file, so the file is almost universal in programming.

Structure

Source code is structured into the following:

• Variables - Used to contain information that varies each time. All programming languages support variables.
• Statements - Instructions used to run a process or carry out a command.
• Comparisons - Characters used to make comparisons between two different variables.
• Comments - These provide hints to developers to what different blocks of code do or how to use them. They are not run by a program and only visible when viewing the source code.

Licensing

Source code can be open or proprietary. With open source code, the source code can be downloaded and modified to suit different needs. It is designed with the idea that the source code should be made available to enable developers to collaborate with each other to enhance the software.

With proprietary source code, the source code is closed and not shared with other users. This means that the user only has access to the compiled executables, associated library files, and executable files of the software to call the program functions. This prevents users from making changes to the source code in a way that might make the program more vulnerable to security risks.

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