Author: Khutso Nkadimeng
26 Feb 2020
What is a browser? Before I attempt to answer this question, I will do what elementary school maths taught me, start with what you know. I have been learning how to code for the past two years, I completed projects in different programming languages, C++, C#, MATLAB and Python. All these languages are what is referred to as high-level languages. They were designed to be understood by humans, I mean the difference between these languages and your language is like the difference between Mathematics and English. But computers cannot understand them, computers use Machine Language, ones and zeros, they need an interpreter. That’s where a Compiler comes in.
A compiler is a computer program transforms source code written in a programming language into executable machine language code. I never appreciated the compiler until I had to write code in Assembly language, suddenly I had to think about the underlying hardware architecture and how it is all wired. How many registers? How many bits? What is the frequency of the program counter? How much memory and where is located? Now for every line I write I must consider a hundred other things. How is all this relevant to a browser? In my opinion, a browser is to us what a compiler is to a machine. Servers, computers and humans communicate in different languages and a browser is there to simplify that process.
A browser is computer application that runs on an internet connected computer and allows users to view and navigate Web pages, images, videos and other media such as games. Browsers uses HyperText Transfer Protocol (http or https for secure connections) to display HyperTect Markup Language files which are connected through hyperlinks and located with Uniform Resource Locator.
When you enter the URL https://www.shepherdmodisha.com/myblog.html in the address line, the browser breaks it into segments:
https: the secure internet protocol.
www. shepherdmodisha.com : The location or server where the file will be found. The browser converts this into an IP address and determines which port to connect to before it can connect to the server
myblog.html: The name of the file you’re trying to open. Once the communication between the server and browser is established, a page which is written in HTML is opened
Browsers are designed to simplify web navigation, so even if you just type in shepherdmodisha.com, it will still know the protocol and find the type of file on the home page of the address. Before the invention of World Wide Web, HTTP(S) and URLs, finding what you are looking for on the internet was a pain, basically you had to be a genius who understood what those string of numbers senseless letters meant. What server? What port? What type of file? I imagine people who experienced that appreciate the browser like I appreciate compilers and high-level programming languages.