Computing with software is algebra for all kinds of data , not just numbers. Nowadays, computer programs process representations of music, molecules, law cases, electrical diagrams, architectures of houses, and poems. Fortunately, we have learned to represent information with other forms of data than just numbers. Otherwise, computing and programming would become extremely tedious tasks. Above all, we shouldn't forget that computing means manipulating data through proper basic operations.
Some operations create new values.
Others extract values from values. Yet others modify values. Finally, there are also basic operations for determining to which class a piece of data belongs. Built-in operations and functions are of course just another class of data. When we define a function, we combine basic data operations.