The representation of hello.c illustrates a fundamental idea:

the representation of hello.c illustrates a fundamental idea:

the representation of hello.c illustrates a fundamental idea:
the representation of hello.c illustrates a fundamental idea:

All information in a system—

—is represented as a bunch of bits.

all information in a system is represented as a bunch of bits.

all information in a system is represented as a bunch of bits.

all information in a system is represented as a bunch of bits.

all information in a system is represented as a bunch of bits.

including disk files, programs stored in memory, user data stored in memory, and data transferred across a network
including disk files, programs stored in memory, user date stored in memory, and data transferred across a network.

including disk files, programs stored in memory, user date stored in memory, and date transferred across a network.

including disk files, programs stored in memory, user date stored in memory, and date transferred across a network.

including disk files, programs stored in memory, user date stored in memory, and date transterred across a network.

including disk files, programs stored in memory, user date stored in memory, and date transterred across a network.

The only thing that distinguishes different data objects is the context in which we view them.

the only thing that distinguishes different data objects is the context in which we view them.

the only thing that distinguishes different data objects is the context in which we view them.

For example, in different contexts, the same sequence of bytes might represent an integer, floating point number, character string, or machine instruction.

This idea is explored in detail in
Chapter 2.