What should a novice programmer do if he has nothing at hand to create code? Well, or almost nothing, because the computer itself with the operating system installed on it is not taken into account. You will be told that Notepad (Notepad.exe) will help here. Let’s talk how to write a program using something else.
Now, to program in any language, it is customary to use special programming environments. Any such environment includes a convenient editor in which code is written, debugging tools and a compiler, as well as some utilities. But at the dawn of the computer age, things were not so. It’s already hard to imagine that in DOS you can write a text file without using Notepad. Also, without the help of Notepad, it was possible to create a program and even make “on the fly” changes to the codes of executable processes.
Then, with the advent of the latest versions of DOS and the first Windows, they began to use a notepad program. To write a program in Pascal or any other popular language of the time. There is still an opinion that real programmers write code in Notepad. Well, if you know how to write a program in a particular language, Notepad will be enough, but specialized tools are still better. Work in them is more comfortable and faster.
For example, modern Notepad ++, or notepad for programmers, is able to highlight commands for code in more than 50 languages. The program is very convenient to use if you need to save a file with a specific encoding. UTF-8 without BOM, for example, can be difficult to set in Microsoft's regular Notepad. Notepad ++ is convenient for writing web scripts or text in HTML, although any other text editor would have done it here .
Programming environments are good because the written code can be immediately traced (to start step-by-step execution) in the debugger. This allows you to quickly find errors. Well, you can’t do without a compiler. Code with commands is the same text if the machine does not understand it. Unless you know how to write a program in machine code. The compiler is needed just to translate the program from a programming language that is understandable to people, into a language that is understandable to a computer.
But you should not forget Notepad. True, you are unlikely to write a serious and long program in it (it is easy to admit and it is difficult to find a mistake). But on the Internet now you can find many recipes on how to write a program in Notepad, and save it with the extensions BAT and VBS. These are not really programs; in the language of the operating system, these files are called executable. And before you write a program, you need to learn the commands for control from the Windows console and the Visual Basic language. Otherwise, you have to use ready-made recipes.
And do not believe that in Notepad you can write a full-fledged virus. The creations of modern hackers have thousands of lines, a considerable share of which is occupied by encryption, protection and hiding algorithms of executable code. A small joke program will not go through the filters of most antiviruses. And if you protect her, she will turn into a big one. And here again you will have to learn how to do it, and not look for ready-made recipes.
In general, you can really make a program “out of nothing”. But if you have never tried, you will not succeed quickly.