Programming Glossary

General Computing

Program

A list of instructions for a computer to run. e.g., word, Linux, visual studio code.

Computer

A machine that takes an input, processes it and outputs something. e.g., A PC, a phone, whatever you’re watching this on.

Software

A non-physical command or program which controls hardware. e.g., word, Linux, visual studio code.

Hardware

Physical parts of a computer e.g., CPU, Memory, storage, power supply.

Terminal

A program which allows a user to control the operating system. e.g., CMD, powershell, bash

Directory

Folder which contains other files and folders. E.g., C:/users/thoma

Drive

A physical storage device used to store data long term.

CPU

The hardware which takes commands and processes them.

Motherboard

The board which connects all hardware devices and allows them to interact.

Memory

A temporary storage that is closer to the CPU than drives which stores currently active programs.

RAM

Random Access memory – a type of memory.

ROM

Read – only memory – a type of memory which can only be written to by wiping the entire memory.

GPU

Graphics processing unit, a separate motherboard, CPU and memory for the graphics card.

Driver

A piece of software which allows the operating system to interact with hardware.

Operating system

A piece of software that allows the user to interact with hardware. e.g., Windows, IOS, Linux, Android, ChromeOS, Playstation

General Programming

IDE

Integrated Development Environment, software used to make programming easier. e.g., VSCode, Notepad++, IntelliJ

Arguments

Values that can be given to a function or program. e.g., -o, programName.c

Flag

A type of argument that is Boolean (if it is stated then it is true, otherwise it is assumed false). e.g., -o

Command

An individual operation for the command to do. e.g., clang, printf, declaring a variable.

Translator

A program which converts written code into binary to be ran by a computer. e.g., g++, clang, nodeJS, Java Virtual Machine

Compiler

A translator which converts an entire program in 1 run of the compiler e.g., clang, g++

Interpreter

A translator which converts individual lines of a program as they are called to run. e.g., python interpreter. Visual Studio IDE Interpreter

Nesting

A process of putting an operation inside another operation of the same type. e.g., The for loops are nested here:

Condition

A check to see whether something is true or false. e.g., a <= b

Variables

Variable

A location in memory that is reserved for data by a program and can be read from and written to. e.g., int var1 = 0;

Constant

A location in memory that is reserved for memory and can be written to on declaration then only be read from. e.g., const int var1 = 0

Write

To put data into a location. e.g., writing on a piece of paper.

Read

To extract data from a location without removing it from said location. e.g., reading from a piece of paper.

Declare

To create a variable. e.g., int var1;

Identifier

The name of the variable. e.g., int var1; var1 is the identifier.

Data type

The way that the computer should interpret the number stored at the variable. e.g., int var1; integer is the data type.

Register

A part of memory that is extremely close to the processor and therefore much faster although much smaller (around 20 bytes).

Scope

The block of code in which a variable can be accessed.

Block

A section or part of code.

Input

Data that is passed into a computer.

Output

Data that is passed from a computer.

Assign

To store data in a variable e.g., v1 = 5

Functions

Function

A block of code that can be called multiple times at different points in the code. e.g., printf, fflush, sizeof

Parameters

A value that is passed to a function. e.g., in the parameter is value.

Passing

Giving a value to a function. This value is stored in a variable that is local to the function. e.g., in a value will be passed into the function and stored locally to the function in value.

Travelling Salesman Problem

An algorithm that attempts to work out the quickest way to travel around to each city in the world without going to the same city twice.

A method of searching by sorting a list then going to the middle item, checking if it is higher or lower than the requested item, then removing the half of the list which is the opposite of the result (if the result is higher then remove the lower part)

To bully Kiera

Excursion

A trip or adventure