Computer Abilities¶

In this book, we are going to talk about what a computer can do in terms of the programming language Python. We are not going to cover all of Python. We are going to describe the four abilities of a computer, the four abilities that cover everything that a computer can do.

• Computers can receive data as input.
• Computers can store data.
• Computers can process data (by computing with it).
• Computers can send data as output.

This input, storage, processing, output describes the basic functions of all computers.

Computers store all data, numbers, words, images, turtle instructions, etc., as a sequence of bits, which are interpreted by the computer in different ways depending on the type of data.