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1 - General Intro
How to Think Like a Computer Scientist
Term | Definition |
---|---|
activecode | a unique interpreter that allows Python to be executed from within a web browser |
algorithm | a general step by step process for solving a problem |
bug | an error in a program |
byte code | an intermediate language between source code and object code, typically interpreted by a virtual machine |
codelens | an interactive environment that allows the user to control the step by step execution of a Python program |
comment | information in a program that is meant for other programmers and has no effect on the execution of the program |
compile | to translate a program written in a high-level language into a low-level language all at once, in preparation for later execution |
debugging | the process of finding and removing any of the three kinds of programming errors |
exception | a runtime error |
executable | object code that has been compiled |
formal language | any one of the languages that people have designed for specific purposes; all programming languages |
high-level language | a programming language like Python that is designed to be easy for humans to read and write |
interpret | to execute a program in a high-level language by translating it one line at a time. |
low-level language | a programming language that is designed to be easy for a computer to execute; machine language or assembly language |
natural language | any one of the languages that people speak that evolved naturally |
object code | the output of the compile after it translates a program |
parse | to examine a program and analyze the syntactic structure |
portability | a property of a program that can run on more than one kind of computer |
print function | used by a program or script that causes the Python interpreter to display a value on its output device |
problem solving | process of formulating a problem, finding a solution, and expressing the solution |
program | sequence of instructions that specify to a computer actions and computations to be performed |
programming language | formal notation for representing solutions |
Python shell | interactive user interface to the Python interpreter |
runtime error | error that does not occur until the program has started to execute but that prevents the program from continuing |
semantic error | error in a program that makes it do something other than what the programmer intended; logic error |
semantics | meaning of a program |
shell mode | style of using Python where we type expressions at the command prompt, and the results are shown immediately. |
source code | program, stored in a file, in a high-level language before being compiled or interpreted. |
syntax | the structure of a program |
syntax error | error in a program that makes impossible to parse - and therefore impossible to interpret |
token | one of the basic elements of the syntactic structure of a program, analogous to a word in a natural language |