Human-Computer Interaction

Humans speak many different languages. Each of those language have their own unique representation when writing on paper. Each language has a character set, which can help them construct any word they speak and help write it on paper. When this paper is passed on to someone who speaks and reads the same language, they can understand well what that text means.

If that text is passed on the someone who does not understand the language, there is no way that text is going to make sense to them.

Computers read and write in binary language.

To make computers understand what humans speak, and vice versa, character encoding exists. Humans use a dictionary to encoded their language to binary when storing text in the computer, and decode the text stored back, in their language, using the same dictionary, to understand what was stored.

This communication wouldn't be possible without this dictionary. If someone speaks multiple languages, they'll need to know which dictionary to use, to be able to encode and decode the communication.

Example: ASCII

c ---> 67 ---> 1000011

This dictionary that humans use is what is called the Character Set.