[OFF-TOPIC] It is true that is impossible write in binary code, the lowest level of programming that you can write is in hex code?

[Chris Angelico]

On Thu, Nov 6, 2014 at 2:05 AM, Grant Edwards <invalid at invalid.invalid> wrote:
> On 2014-11-05, Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>
>>  "machine code" typically implies an instruction set specific
>> to that machine... ALL computers operate in BINARY logic (a bit only
>> holds 0 or 1). How you get those bits into the computer is
>> irrelevant.
>
> Just to muddy the water...
>
> _Most_ parts of most computers operate in binary.  Portions of some
> parts (e.g. some NAND flash) use ternary, quaternary, or octal.  IIRC,
> four-state transistor cells are pretty common at the moment, but some
> vendor(s) are working with 8-state cells.

Dragging this back to some semblance of reality: Whenever you write
code, you're writing code for some kind of executor. No level of
abstraction higher or lower truly matters; you just write to the level
you're aiming at, and everything else is of educational curiosity
only. I might write code for a Python executor one day, and for a C
executor another, and then another day maybe I'm writing LaTeX code -
that's a language, too, of a sort. If I build my own framework layer
above the base executor, that's just added another type of executor to
the pool, and now I can target that. Everything's abstractions around
something, and *it doesn't matter*, because anyone can fiddle with any
layer without disturbing the others. Those eight-state cells can be
dropped in without breaking my Python code - that's the whole point of
abstractions. They're doing their job.

ChrisA