Chapter 1: Introduction

Question 1

computer program

Answer 1

A sequence of instructions that is executed by a computer.

Question 2

hardware

Answer 2

The physical equipment for a computer or another device.

Question 3

software

Answer 3

The intangible instructions and data that are necessary for operating a computer or another device.

Question 4

programming

Answer 4

The act of designing and implementing computer programs.

Question 5

central processing unit (CPU)

Answer 5

The part of a computer that executes the machine instructions.

Question 6

Secondary storage

Answer 6

Storage that persists without electricity, e.g., a hard disk.

Question 7

hard disk

Answer 7

A device that stores information on rotating platters with magnetic coating.

Question 8

networks

Answer 8

An interconnected system of computers and other devices.

Question 9

high-level programming languages

Answer 9

A programming language that provides an abstract view of a computer and allows programmers to focus on their problem domain.

Question 10

compiler

Answer 10

A program that translates code in a high-level language (such as Java) to machine instructions (such as bytecode for the Java virtual machine).

Question 11

machine code

Answer 11

Instructions that can be executed directly by the CPU.

Question 12

applets

Answer 12

A graphical Java program that executes inside a web browser or applet viewer.

Question 13

library

Answer 13

A set of precompiled classes that can be included in programs.

Question 14

virtual machine

Answer 14

A program that simulates a CPU that can be implemented efficiently on a variety of actual machines. A given program in Java bytecode can be executed by any Java virtual machine, regardless of which CPU is used to run the virtual machine itself.

Question 15

editor

Answer 15

A program for writing and modifying text files.

Question 16

case sensitive

Answer 16

Distinguishing upper- and lowercase characters.

Question 17

source files

Answer 17

A file containing instructions in a programming language such as Java.

Question 18

source code

Answer 18

Instructions in a programming language that need to be translated before execution on a computer.

Question 19

files

Answer 19

A sequence of bytes that is stored on disk.

Question 20

folders (directory)

Answer 20

A structure on a disk that can hold files or other directories; also called a folder.

Question 21

class

Answer 21

A programmer-defined data type.

Question 22

method

Answer 22

A sequence of statements that has a name, may have parameter variables, and may return a value. A method can be invoked any number of times, with different values for its parameter variables.

Question 23

main method

Answer 23

The method that is first called when a Java application executes.

Question 24

statements

Answer 24

A syntactical unit in a program. In Java a statement is either a simple statement,
a compound statement, or a block.

Question 25

argument

Answer 25

A value supplied in a method call, or one of the values combined by an operator.

Question 26

string

Answer 26

A sequence of characters.

Question 27

compile-time error

Answer 27

An error that is detected when a program is compiled.

Question 28

syntax errors

Answer 28

An instruction that does not follow the programming language rules and is rejected by the compiler. (A form of compile-time error.)

Question 29

run-time error

Answer 29

An error in a syntactically correct program that causes it to act differently from its specification.

Question 30

logic errors

Answer 30

An error in a syntactically correct program that causes it to act differently from its specification. (A form of run-time error.)

Question 31

exception

Answer 31

A class that signals a condition that prevents the program from continuing normally. When such a condition occurs, an object of the exception class is thrown.

Question 32

algorithm

Answer 32

An unambiguous, executable, and terminating specification of a way to solve a problem.