GCSE Key Terms (Year 11) Flashcards
What is Abstraction?
process of seperating ideas from specific instances of those ideas at work.
leaves out details that matter in practice but are immaterial to the problem being solved
what is a sequence?
one the 3 basic programming constructs. instructions happening one after another
what is an iteration?
one of the 3 basic programming constructs. a selection of code which can be repeated either a set number or variable number (based on a boolean expression (condition controlld (while statement)))
what are the 3 basic programming constructs
sequence, iteration and branching/selection
what is branching/selection
one of the 3 basic programming constructs.
instruction which evaluates a boolean expression then branches the code to one or more alternatives
what is decomposition?
breaking a problem into smaller component parts until the solution is already known
what is an algorithm
a set of instructions that achieve a task
what is a task
a set of instructions
what is a high level language
a 3rd gen language, halfway between machine code and natural speech
what is a constant
a value that cannot be changed during runtime
what is a real/float value?
a number with a fractional quantity
what is modularisation?
decomposing the task into smaller more achievable tasks such as functions
what is maintainability?
making sure your programs are easy to edit at a later date
what is alpha testing?
testing that developers use during production
what is beta testing?
testing completed by volunteers, not employed by the software organisation
