Q4 Software Development Vocabulary

software development

Writing a program

object-oriented program

Uses interacting objects

program specification

Description of a task

program design

A written plan, an overview of the solution

program implementation

The code

test data

Input to test the program

program maintenance

Keeping the program working and up to date

top-down development

Implement main classes first, subsidiary classes later

independent class

Doesn’t use other classes of the program in its code

bottom-up development

Implement lowest level, independent classes first

driver class

Used to test other classes; contains main method

inheritance relationship

is-a relationship between classes

composition relationship

has-a relationship between classes

inheritance hierarchy

Inheritance relationship shown in a tree-like diagram

UML diagram

Tree-like representation of a relationship between classes

data structure

Java construct for storing a data field (e.g., array)

data encapsulation

Hiding data fields and methods in a class

stepwise refinement

Breaking methods into smaller methods

procedural abstraction

Using separate methods to encapsulate each task

algorithm

Step-by-step process that solves a problem

stub method

Dummy method called by another method being tested

debugging

Fixing errors

robust program

Screens out bad input

compile-time error

Usually a syntax error; prevents program from compiling

syntax error

Bad language usage (e.g., missing brace)

run-time error

Occurs during execution (e.g., int division by 0)

exception

Run-time error thrown by Java method

logic error

Program runs but does the wrong thing