I started to learn principle of programming lately. There are some concepts that are abstract to me at the moment. I would like to know what a "machine" is in terms of compiling. Or an example of machine would also be good for me to understand that. How to understand the machine is "it is itself the foundation that other things must stand on"?
In this context, a machine is anything which executes code in the broadest sense of the word. This prominently includes physical computing hardware (from microcontrollers to smartphones to desktop computers to supercomputers), but also software which performs the same function, such as virtual machines/emulators/interpreters/what-have-you.