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You will need to
be familiar with the following definitions/descriptions
associated with computer programming. The
descriptions stated here are "intuitive" statements and are not
intended to be definitive definitions for these terms. |
Hardware -
the
"machinery" - computer equipment - the CPU, the monitor, the
keyboard, the mouse, the external speakers, the scanner, the
printer, etc. The physical, touchable parts of a computer
system.
Software
- the
program instructions that make the computer do something, such as
word processing, database management, games, etc. Your Java programs
will be your software.
Program
- a
listing of instructions (code) for the computer to follow written in
some programming language. For this course, these instructions will
be written in the language of Java.
Hard Copy
-
a paper
printout of the program code or data displayed on the screen.
Soft Copy
- copy
of a program stored on a hard drive, diskette, or CD.
Network
- a
hardware and software data communication system. Usually a group
of computers that are linked to share memory and programs.
Control
Unit -
the unit
inside of the CPU which "directs the traffic" - makes decisions. It
performs the functions of fetch, decode, execute, and store.
Machine
Language -
the
lowest level of computer languages where instructions are given by
numeric code.
High Level
Language -
a
computer language which is easily read by humans - the code consists
of English-like words where each statement corresponds to several
machine language instructions.
Object Code
-
the machine code version of the source program (a program written by
a programmer).
Compiler
-
converts the source code of a program to machine language placing
the result in an object code file.
Interpreter
-
converts a program one line at a time into machine language.
Bit -
the
representation of a 1 or 0 designating power ON or power OFF. A
binary digit.
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Byte -
8 bits.
Kilobyte
-
approximately 1000 bytes (1024 bytes).
Megabyte
-
approximately 1,000,000 bytes (1,048,576 bytes).
Gigabyte
-
approximately a billion bytes (1,073,741,824 bytes).
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Why are the actual number of
bytes "more" than what we expect them to be?
We are thinking
"kilo" in base 10 while the computer is thinking
"kilo" in base 2. |
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Format/Initialize -
to
prepare a storage device (diskette or hard disk) for receiving
information for a system. The storage device is said to be
formatted (into areas called sectors and tracks) when
its space has been divided and organized into areas that can
be quickly controlled by the system for storage and access.
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