Computer Science Unit 1

Software Engineer

a person who designs, develops, and tests software for home, school, and business use

Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

an environment designed to assist programmers in creating, editing, and managing code efficiently

Class Header

consists of the class keyword and the name of the class

Source Code

a collection of programming commands

Syntax

the rules for how a programmer must write code for a computer to understand

Comment

a text note that is ignored by the compiler to explain or annotate the code

Syntax Error

a mistake in the code that does not follow a programming language’s syntax

Compiler

translates human-friendly program code into machine language that is required by computers. Checks program code for errors

Object-Oriented Programming

an approach to creating and using models of physical or imagined objects

Class

a programmer-defined blueprint from which objects are created

Object

an intance of a class

Attribute

a characteristic of an object

Behavior

an action that an object can perform

Constructor

a block of code that has the same name as the class and tells the computer how to create a new object

Instantiate

to call the constructor to create an object

Method

a named set of instructions to perform a task

Procedural Abstraction

provides a name for a process and allows a method to be used only knowing what it does, not how it does it

Dot Operator

used to call a method in a class

Logic Error

a mistake that causes a program to behave incorrectly or unexpectedly

Parameter

defines the type of value to receive when a method or constructor is called

Argument

the specific value provided when a method or constructor is called

String Literal

a sequence of characters enclosed in quotation marks (“ “)

Algorithm

a finite set of instructions that accomplish a task

Iteration Statement

a control structure that repeatedly executes a block of code

Condition

determines whether or not execute a block of code

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

a technology that mimics human intelligence, performing tasks such as understanding language, recognizing patterns, and making decisions

Large Language Model (LLM)

a general purpose form of AI that is trained on a very, very large body of knowledge

Inheritance

an object-oriented programming principle where a subclass inherits the attributes and behaviors of a superclass

Superclass

a class that can be extended to create subclasses

Subclass

a class that extends a superclass and inherits its attributes and behaviors

Tester Class

the class that contains the main method and from where the program starts running

Method Signature

consists of a name and parameter list

Return Type

the value returned before a method completes its execution and exits

Return

to exit a method and go back to the point in the program that called it with the requested value or information

Void

specifies that a method should not have a return value

Programming Style

a set of guidelines and best practices for formatting program code

Documentation

written descriptions of the purpose and functionality of code

Commit

an operation which saves the latest changes of the code and represents a snapshot of a project

Code Review

the process of examining code and providing feedback to improve the quality and functionality of the program

Selection Statement

a statement that only executes when a condition is true

Variable

a container that stores a value in memory

Data Type

the format of the data that can be stored in a variable

Declaration

giving a name and data type to a variable

Two-Way Selection Statement

specifies a block of code to execute when the condition is true and a block of code to execute when the condition is false

Logical Operator

an operator that returns a Boolean value