Hardware, Software Development & Algorithms

Question 1

What is the purpose of a computer program?

Answer 1

tells computer the sequence of steps needed to complete a specific task

Question 2

What does a computer program consist of?

Answer 2

vast number of primitive (simple) instructions

Question 3

What is programming?

Answer 3

act of designing, implementing, and testing computer programs

Question 4

Why can computers carry out so many tasks?

Answer 4

computers can execute DIFFERENT programs that are designed to specify tasks for the computer

Question 5

What is hardware?

Answer 5

physical elements of a computer system

Question 6

What are some examples of hardware?

Answer 6

monitor, mouse, external storage, keyboards (peripherals)

Question 7

What is the CPU?

Answer 7

central processing unit;
- performs program control and data processing

Question 8

What are storage devices?

Answer 8

memory (RAM) and secondary storage

Question 9

What are examples of secondary storage?

Answer 9

magnetic drive: (hard disk drive HDD, or hard drive - HD, floppy disk, tape drive)
flashdrives (SD, MMC, jump drive, USB drive, SSHD)
optical drive (CD/DVD drives, blue ray drive)

Question 10

What is the purpose of input/output devices?

Answer 10

allow user to interact with computer

Question 11

What are some examples of input/output devices?

Answer 11

mouse, keyboard, printer, screen

Question 12

What are the two parts of CPU?

Answer 12

control unit and arithmetic logic unit

Question 13

What is the role of the control unit of the CPU?

Answer 13

DIRECTS OPERATION OF PROCESSOR
- manages all computer resources
- controls communication and coordination between input/output devices
- reads/interprets instructions
- determines the sequence for processing the data
- provides timing and control signals

Question 14

What is the role of the arithmetic logic unit?

Answer 14

• contains circuitry to perform calculations and make comparisons (does precisely what the control unit tells it to do - workhorse)

Question 15

How can you make the CPU run faster?

Answer 15

increase cycle speed (Hz, MHz, GHz)

Question 16

What are the two types of storage?

Answer 16

• Primary/main
• secondary

Question 17

What is primary storage?

Answer 17

composed of memory chips: electronic circuits that can store data as long as it has electric power

Question 18

what is secondary storage?

Answer 18

external memory/storage provides a slower, less expensive storage that is persistent without electrical power

Question 19

What are the two things computers store? What happens to them?

Answer 19

data and programs in secondary storage and loaded into memory when the program is executed

Question 20

How is secondary storage different from primary storage?

Answer 20

not directly accessible by the CPU

Question 21

What are some characteristics of secondary storage?

Answer 21

• cheap
• permanent

Question 22

What occurrs prior to data being processed by CPU?

Answer 22

data is copied to primary storage

Question 23

What is memory analogous to?

Answer 23

a table of cells all the same size containing a unique address beginning with 0

Question 24

How much does a typical computer’s main memory store?

Answer 24

4 to 32 GB

Question 25

How many bits in a byte?

Answer 25

8

Question 26

What are bits? How are they represented as bytes?

Answer 26

0 or 1
bytes are 8 0s or 1s in varying orders

Question 27

What is the purpose memory cell addresses?

Answer 27

uniquely identifies one cell in the computer’s main memory

Question 28

What are the memory cell addresses represented by?

Answer 28

numbers assigned consecutively starting at zero, creating a specific order of memory cells

Question 29

How large is a kilobyte?

Answer 29

1024 bytes (approx 1000)

Question 30

How large is a megabyte?

Answer 30

1048576 bytes (approx 1 million)

Question 31

How large is a gigabyte?

Answer 31

1073741824 (approx 1 billion)

Question 32

How are program instructions and data stored?

Answer 32

digital format

Question 33

What are the steps of executing a program?

Answer 33

1. program instructions and data (text, number, audio, video) are stored in digital format
2. when the program is started, it is brought to memory where CPU can read it
3. CPU runs the program one instruction at a time and the program may react to user input
4. instructions and user input guide the program execution
5. CPU reads data, including user input, modifies it, and rites in Bach to memory, the screen or secondary storage

Question 34

What is software?

Answer 34

a sequence of instructions and decisions implemented in some language and translated to a form that can be executed or run on the computer

Question 35

What is an example of software?

Answer 35

typically an application program (OS, Word)

Question 36

How can computers perform complex tasks?

Answer 36

computers execute very basic instructions in rapid succession that are grouped to perform complex tasks

Question 37

What is an algorithm?

Answer 37

sequence of actions (detailed plan) to accomplish a given task (order mattering)

recipe

Question 38

What are the characteristics of an algorithm?

Answer 38

unambiguous
- no assumptions required to execute and precise instructions

executable
- can be carried out in practice

terminating
- algorithm will eventually come to an end or halt

Question 39

What is pseudocode?

Answer 39

half-way between a natural language and programming language
- informal description of a sequence of steps for solving a problem

Question 40

What do we need to start writing Python code?

Answer 40

• hardware (desktop or laptop)
• software (OS)
• Python interpreter
• Text editors and IDE

Question 41

What is IDE?

Answer 41

Integrated Development Environment
- code editor that helps by listing numbers of code, colour lines of code (comments and text) and auto-indent source code
- output window
- debugger

Question 42

What is the difference between IDE and interpreter?

Answer 42

python is interpreter and Vscode or PyCharm is IDE

Question 43

What does the Python program’s statements look like?

Answer 43

1st line is a comment (statement about the program for the programmers)

2nd line contains a statement that prints a line of text onscreen

my first Python program
Print (“Hello World!)

Question 44

What is the “Print” python syntax?

Answer 44

collection of programming instructions that carries out a particular task

print()

Question 45

How can you use/call a function in Python?

Answer 45

1. specify the name of the function
2. any values/arguments needed by the function to carry out its task
3. arguments are in parentheses and multiple arguments are separated by commas

Question 46

What is a string?

Answer 46

a sequence of characters enclosed in quotation marks

Question 47

What are the two types of errors?

Answer 47

1. compile-time (syntax) errors
2. run-time (logic) errors

Question 48

What are syntax errors?

Answer 48

• spelling capitalization, punctuation
• ordering of statements, matching of parenthesis, quotes
• no executable program is created by the compiler

Question 49

How can you fix syntax errors?

Answer 49

correct the 1st error listed and compile again. repeat until all errors are fixed

Question 50

What are logic errors?

Answer 50

program runs but produces UNINTENDED RESULTS and program may crash
- misspell or invalid expression

Question 51

Why was Python created?

Answer 51

to make it easier to learn and simplify other programming languages

Question 52

is python case-sensitive?

Answer 52

yes!

Question 53

How does python code?

Answer 53

python compiler translates source code into byte code instruction executed by the virtual machine

Question 54

what is a compile-time error?

Answer 54

violation of the programming language rules that is detected by the compiler

Question 55

what is a run time error?

Answer 55

causes a program to take an action that the programmer did not intend