Intro to Programming Logic Vocab(1-4)

Hardware

physical components of the computer.

Software

set of machine instructions or interpreted code that execute on
the hardware.

Algorithm

a set of steps designed to solve a particular problem.

Pseudo-code

informal English-like code that implements an algorithm.

Flowchart

graphical version of pseudo-code.

Source code

high-level programming language code (can be compiled or
interpreted).

Compiled (binary or machine) code

binary instructions that can execute directly on a hardware (or emulated) processor.

Sequences

programming language statements executed sequentially (one after another).

Selections

programming language statements used to make a decision.

Loops

programming language statements used to repeatedly execute a section of code.

Declarations

-Reserves an area of memory to hold computer data
-Area of memory is referenced by name (variable name)
-May require type of data to be stored – example: String vs. Number

Assignment statements

-Stores a value in a variable
-Value may be a constant – example: 1, 2.7, -12, “Hello”

- Value may be the result of a calculation (an expression)

Flowgorithm

a programming environment for creating and running code using an executable flowchart-like language.

Comments

-Not part of the sequence (not executable)
-Note added by programmer to explain program
-Pseudocode example: # This program calculates the area of a triangle

Strongly-typed programming languages

-Must indicate variable type in declaration

-Variable only stores the type of date declared
-Can NOT store different type data in the variable (programming error)
-Examples: Flowgorithm, C, C++, C#, Java

Weakly-typed programming languages

-Must declare variable, but type not required
-Variable can store different types of data
-Examples: Python, JavaScript, PHP

Expressions

-Calculation used on right-hand side of assignment statement
-May consist of constant or operators and operands

Operands

literals (constants), variables, built-in constants (ex. PI)

Operators

-Unary minus
-Addition
-Subtraction
-Multiplication
-Division
-String concatenation
-And possibly more (modulo, exponentiation, etc.)

operator precedence

The order in which operators are evaluated.

Output Statements

These types of statements display information to users or store information into a file, database, or other long-term storage.

Input Statements

These types of statements get information from a user or from stored information on the computer (file or database).

Program

A set of instructions designed to perform some task.

Application Program

An application (app) designed to perform a task
for a user.

System Program

A program that runs(often long-term or indefinitely) and manage other programs or are used to build other programs.

Operating Systems

A system program used to run a computer and manage application programs on the computer. Examples: Windows, MacOS, Linux, iOS, Android.

Compiled Language

-A programming language where the program is converted to machine code
-The machine code is then directly executed by the processor
-The program that converts the source (original) code to machine code is called a
“compiler”

Interpreted Language

-A special program called an interpreter reads the source code and executes the
source program line by line.

-Examples: Python, Flowgorithm

Bit

a single binary digit of information (zero or one).

Byte

Eight bits; can represent the numbers 0 to 255 or one letter in a Western European character set. Other character sets (ex. Japanese Kanji) require two bytes to represent a character.

Word

Either four bytes (32-bit processor) or eight bytes (64-bit processor) representing one machine instruction. A machine instruction is an instruction that can be executed by a CPU to compare or manipulate data. A set of machine instructions comprise
a program.

Dynamic Random Access Memory(DRAM)

-Holds instructions and data for programs being executed by CPU
-Memory locations are numbered (starting with zero) – a specific
numbered location is called a memory address

-It requires power to keep information in memory. When the
computers power is turned off – information in it is lost.

CPU(Processor)

-The “brains” of the computer
-Executes “machine instructions” to process data
-Groups of machine instructions comprise a “program”
-Consists of billions of transistors on a silicon wafer chip
-A single chip may contain multiple processors (cores) which execute
in parallel

-Manufacturers: Intel, AMD, Nvidia, ARM, Apple, Qualcomm, & others