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Foundations

What is Code?

Understanding how computers follow instructions

Written by 10 min read1 activity
Sprout, your presenter

Sprout presents

Code is just text, which delighted me far more than it should have. Three steps turn your instructions into action. I counted twice.Code is just text, which delighted me far more than it should have. Three steps turn your instructions into action. I counted twice.

Sprout holds a cream recipe card whose handwritten squiggles peel off into floating coloured code bars and curly braces
Code is a recipe the computer follows step by step

Code is a set of instructions that tells a computer what to do. That's the whole scary thing. Think of it like a recipe... a recipe tells you how to bake a cake, and code tells a computer how to do a task.

Why Learn About Code?#

Even if you never write any yourself, knowing what code is helps you out.

  • Talk to developers without just nodding along
  • Make smarter decisions about the tech you use
  • Understand how the apps and websites you use actually work

For the record, I'm not a developer either. I came up through SEO and local marketing, picked up Claude Code having never used it, and shipped 17 projects in under a month.

Code is Just Text#

Here's the thing... code is just TEXT, written in a specific format that computers can understand. Here's a simple example.

console.log("Hello, World!");

That single line tells the computer to show the message "Hello, World!" on the screen.

Programming Languages#

Humans have different languages (English, Spanish, Japanese), and computers have programming languages. You'll hear these a lot.

  • JavaScript - Powers websites and web apps
  • Python - Great for data science and automation
  • TypeScript - JavaScript with some extra safety features baked in
  • SQL - What you use to work with databases

How Code Becomes Action#

Sprout feeds a squiggly note into a wooden machine with brass gears that lights up an amber lamp
Instructions are read, translated, then turned into action

So how does code actually do anything? It goes through a lil process.

Step 1. Write the Code#

You (or more likely Claude Code) write the instructions in a programming language.

Step 2. Computer Reads It#

The computer reads your code and translates it into something it can run.

Step 3. Action Happens#

The computer follows your instructions, like showing text, saving data, or whatever else you asked it to do.

Real World Example#

When you visit a website like Google, here's what's happening behind the curtain.

  1. Your browser asks for the website
  2. Google's servers run code to find your search results
  3. More code turns those results into a webpage
  4. Your browser runs code to display it nicely

All of that happens in milliseconds, with millions of lines of code working together (kinda wild when you think about it).

TL;DR#

  • Code is just instructions for computers, written as text
  • There are lots of programming languages, each good at different things
  • You don't need to write code yourself - AI tools like Claude Code can do it for you
  • Knowing the basics makes you better at working with those tools

What's Next?#

Next lesson we're gonna look at how the internet works, the foundation that makes web apps possible...

This lesson ends with a short activity.