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Software Engineering vocabulary · Programming Concepts

Source code

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

nounCore term

In software engineering, source code means: The human-readable instructions that programmers write in a programming language, before they are turned into a program the computer can run.

In Turkish: kaynak kod, kaynak kodu

How it is used

Often just 'the source' or 'the code'. Typical phrases: 'the source code is on GitHub', 'read the source', 'the source code is available'. Companies protect their source code, while open-source projects publish it.

Example sentences

  1. When the docs weren't clear, I read the library's source code to see what it actually does.

  2. Contractors must not copy our source code to their personal laptops.

Common collocations

  • read the source code
  • access to the source code
  • publish the source code
  • source code repository
  • codebaseAll the source code that makes up a project or product, seen as one whole, including its structure, style and history.
  • repositoryA storage place for a project's code and its full history of changes, usually managed with Git and often hosted online.
  • open sourceDescribes software whose source code is public, so anyone can read, use, change and share it under the terms of its license.
  • compileTo turn source code written by people into code that a computer can run, using a program called a compiler.

More terms: Programming Concepts

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