this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2025
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What on earth is source code anyway
Source code is the (nerd) human readable form of software. To run it you put it through a thing called a compiler that translates it into the ones and zeros the computer processor can actually process, and those raw ones and zeros are how proprietary software is generally distributed.
Having the source code means it's easy (for nerds) to change the software or to run it on other kinds of processors.
Hm ok. So one writes source code in a coding language, it gets turned into 1s and 0s. Why can't you go back? Source code gets compiled into a specific order of 1s and 0s, but the same set of 1s and 0s could be made from different types of source code?
To add on to what the others have said, the compiler will also optimise your code (which is why professional coders write in common patterns as much as possible, so the compiler can recognise them and optimise).
So many times, you literally won't even have the same program.
Also machine understandable code (assembly or 1s and 0s) is different depending on the processor used. You could give me machine code made for a risc-v processor and I could reconstruct a c program that made it. But if I had the same program compiled for an x86 processor ...