I would like to get a feel of how computers originally worked. I know initially with computers such as ENIAC, they physically had to plug in wires in the correct order to make their programs execute. They later used punch cards and finally then came up with assembly language(s). It just build upward from there with FORTRAN, COBOL, etc. Is there any way I am compile 0s and 1s on my computer. If I open textedit, and type in a specific sequence of zeroes and ones, then is how can I make that a binary file and not a text with a sequence of ASCII characters? I am open to any method. (Disclaimer: I know doing things in binary takes forever, I just want to learn how to very basic things.)
The easiest way to do this is to start with an assembler of your choice, in an IDE if you like. Use some sort of debugger (such as an IDE) so you can see the effect of your code without also having to write to console or file.
Rather than writing only binary as text digits, write a complete assembler source using data elements instead of instructions.
So, instead of
.code
main proc
mov eax,5
add eax,6
main endp
end main
you could write:
main proc
db 10111000b, 00000101b, 00000000b, 00000000b, 00000000b
db 10000011b, 11000000b, 00000110b
main endp
end main
db means define byte and the b suffix means binary.
And, with this, you'd be all set up to cheat, but I won't tell you how until you ask so I don't spoil the fun for you.
Here is a good tutorial for getting started on Windows with MASM and Visual Studio 2015.