The computer (or more accurately the compiler) doesn't really
care at all what number base you use in your source code. Most
commonly used programming languages support bases 8 (octal), 10
(decimal) and 16 (hexadecimal) directly. Some also sport direct
support for base 2 (binary) numbers. Specialized languages may
support other number bases as well. (By "directly support", I
mean that they allow entry of numerals in that base without
resorting to mathematical tricks such as bitshifting,
multiplication, division etc. in the source code itself. For
example, C directly supports base-16 with its 0x number prefix
and the regular hexadecimal digit set of 0123456789ABCDEF. Now,
such tricks may be useful to make the number easier to
understand in context, but as long as you can express the same
number without them, doing so - or not - is only a convenience.)
In the end, however, that is inconsequential. Let's say you have
a statement like this following: int n = 10; The intent is to
create an integer variable and ini