Chapter 1 Flashcards
Language
a means for expressing and recording thoughts
Machine language
very rudimentary computer language
binary language (0s and 1s)
it is the language that computers understand at their core
Natural language
languages that develop organically, naturally
human language
What makes a language?
alphabet
lexis
syntax
semantics
alphabet
a set of symbols used to build words of a certain language
lexis
a set of words the language offers its users
a dictionary
syntax
a set of rules used to determine if a certain string of words forms a vali sentence
semantics
a set of rules determining if a certain phrase makes sense
instruction list
complete list of known commands for a computer
alphabet of a machine language
is the Instruction List - the computer’s mother tongue
these are sets of symbols that we use to give commands to a computer (through a high-level language like Python)
High level programming language
java, python, javascript, c#, etc.
source code
a program written in a high-level programming language
source file
the file containing the source code
compilation
the source program is translated to machine language
This action must be repeated each time you modify the source code
This means the program can be distributed as an executable file to be run on other computers
interpretation
the source code is read into machine code each time the program is run
the downside is that whoever is running the program must have the interpreter installed to run it
