Programming In Binary

[hellbringer87]

Would it actually be possible to program in binary?
and if it was how long do you think it would be to make a simple program... say a small text editor?

[mrleachy]

well i dont see why you shouldn't be able to, if you program in c, vb or something the code eventually has to be converted to binary doesnt it?

at least thats what they say at uni here in oz to us, the first computers would have been programmed using raw binary so i dont think there would be anything stopping you, but if binary isnt possible you could always use assembly code i guess and compile that into binary or something to that effect.

as for the text editor, ive never tried to make any programs like that myself so i wouldnt really know, but anything in binary would take a long time and a hell of a lot of patience too :-)

[ammo]

Well you see, just above binary is assembly. But each assembly instruction is a binary word.
So if you wanted to code in binary, yes you could. You'd need a reference book for you processor's instruction set (cuz NO ONE knows those by hart!) and it would be very much like writing assembly only you write it directly in binary...

Ammo

[Guus]

Well, like the others before me said, in theory, it's possible, but it would be very time consuming (as in, hundreds of hours of coding). We touched this topic back in college, and I dug up an old book which you might find interesting: Look for this book: Hamacher, Vranesic & Zaky, Computer Organization, fourth edition, (c) McGraw-Hill Book Co. (1996). ISBN 0-07-114323-8. It describes the operations within a computer, and architecture of a computer, on the most primairy level.

[Wickdgin]

Early computer systems were infact programmed in binary- it was quite tedious. Programmers used to keep a list of the binary words with a breif literal description next to it to assist the programmer in remebering the binary representation. Eventually someone realized that you could program the computer to translate these descriptions (what became the three letter mnuemonic code) into binary, and assembly was born.

Programming in binary is just not practicle, and anything but a basic couple instruction program would be extremely tedious and error prone.

However if you really wished to program in binary- you should be able to do it with a good hex editor (that could represent in binary) or write it on a text editor, convert it to hex and then use a hex editor to write to file. Lol, there is probably an easier way but this was the only thing that came to mind.

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