Electrical computing originally came down to shifting electronic switches in order to, based an intial digital input, create a computed output. This is according to the same principle as according to which their mechanical predecessors worked. Gradually, however, the results developers produced became ever more wondrous and the way to create those ever more complex. It became impossible to write programs at the level of switching switches, because the few electronic switches of yesteryear had, in the mean while, turned into the millions.
The need for practical daily operation drove developers to create set groupings of switch combinations, a kind of pre-made command-sets, that programmers could then combine together to prepare executable programs. After being insterted, the program would then be re-translated by the computer via an application created one level of translation lower. This process of making programming ever more practical resulted in translations, translations of translations, and translations of translations of translations, etc. The levels that thus became apparent are called layers of abstraction due to the fact that pre-set programming language sets became linguistically ever more abstract, and more similar to human language.
Back to Cave