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What is a Program?

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Microcontrollers are programmable devices. They do exactly what they are told to do by the program, and nothing else! A program is a list of instructions, along with any data needed to carry them out.

Unfortunately, microcontrollers do not understand English. The only thing they understand is numbers. There's a problem! We don't speak in numbers, and they don't understand English!

There are two solutions, and both need some form of translator. We can write the program in English, or something close to it, and then have something translate the result into numbers. Alternatively, we can think in English, translate it ourselves into a language that is similar to numbers, known as 'assembler'. From there, it is a swift and simple step to convert into the numerical code that the microcontroller understands.

These two extremes are known as programming in a high-level language (something close to English) or in a low-level language (assembler). The first method is usually quicker and easier for the programmer, but it takes longer to run the program, because of the need to translate it for the microcontroller. The second method is much slower for the programmer, but ends up running very quickly on the microprocessor.

You might think that this sounds very complicated. You are right it is. But don't worry: Flowcode works using flowcharts: the easiest, and highest level, of programming.

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