Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
260 lines (191 loc) · 11.5 KB

glossary.md

File metadata and controls

260 lines (191 loc) · 11.5 KB
Raw

Glossary

Programming Concepts

  • Argument: A value that is sent as input to a function.

  • Assign: A statement that sets the value of a variable name.

  • Call: Code that tells the computer to run (execute) the code within a previously defined function.

  • Comment: Parts in a source-code file which are ignored when the program is run. In Python add a # to the beginning a line to indicate that it is a comment. You can also comment out only part of a line by adding # followed by the comment text to the end of an expression. It is recommended to follow the # by a single space before the text of the comment.

  • Conditional: A valid piece of code that, when evaluated, results in boolean value (True or False).

  • Define: The code that specifies the data or code block that an identifier refers to. A variable is defined when it is assigned. A function is defined by the statements that form the body of the function. In Python a function definition starts with the keyword def.

  • Docstring: Similar to a comment parts of code that are not executed but are used to document a segment of code. In Python it is surrounded by tripple double-quotes """ and appears at the first expression in a file, module, class, or function.

  • Escaping: How to indicate to the computer that an operator inside of a string should not be interpreted but instead be treated be treated as part of the string. For example, you would need to escape a single-quote in a string surrounded by single-quotes, a double-quote in a string surrounded by double-quotes, and the escape character in any sring. In Python (and many other languages) the escape character is a backslash (\).

  • Expression: A valid piece of code that, when evaluated, results in a value.

  • Function: (elsewhere: subroutine, method, procedure) A named block of reusable code. A function may or may not take arguments, and may or may not return a value. In Python it is recommended to use the lower_case_with_underscores for function names.

  • Identifier: The name that refers to a some programming element. In Python a variable, class, function or module.

  • Iterate: To repeat over a unit of code, usually within a loop. Each repetition is called an iteration.

  • Key: A value used to retrieve another value from an array (list) or associative array (dictionary).

  • Keyword: Reserved words that have special meanings in a programming language so that they cannot be used as an identifier. Some examples of keywords in python are for, if, and def.

  • Module: A kind of reusable code that can be imported into other programs.

  • Namespace: The group that a variable or function is part of. print() is part of the global namespace whereas randint() is part of the random module, and therefore part of the random namespace.

  • Operator: A symbol with special meaning that tells the computer to do something (for example =, +, or ==).

  • Parameters: The named variables that appear in a function definition to specify what arguments it can accept.

  • Statement: A line of code that can be executed. Different from an expression because it does not result in a value.

  • String Concatenation: Joining two (or more) strings together.

  • Syntax: A set of rules that determine how a programming language is understood by the computer. Grammar, but for code. In Python for example, that strings are surrounded by quotes, that code blocks are determined by indentation level, and that boolean values must be capitalized.

  • Suite, Block, Code Block: A set of statements grouped together to form a contextual unit. For example, a block of code that is part of an if-statement, a while-loop, or a function. In Python, blocks are called suites and are indicated by indentation level.

  • Type (Data Type): The classification of a value which tells the computer how it will be used and what operations can be performed on it. Some examples include, strings, integers, lists, dictionaries, and programmer-defined classes.

  • Value: A piece of data which can be numbers, strings, and more.

  • Variable: A name given to a value. It is recommended to use the lower_case_with_underscores style for local variables.

  • Loop: A block of code that will repeat until a specified condition is reached. An infinite-loop occurs if there is no condition or the condition can never be met. In Python there are for-loops and while-loops.

  • Immutable: A value that cannot be changed. In Python these include numbers, strings and tuples.

  • Mutable: A value that can be changed.

Types

  • Boolean (bool): True or False values. In Python they must be capitalized and not surrounded by single or double quotes.

  • Dictionary (dict, associative-array, hash): A collection of key-value pairs.

  • Floating-Point Number (float, double): Fractions or numbers with decimal points.

  • Integers (int): Whole numbers values.

  • List (array): A collection of values. In Python lists are mutable and they are defined by surrounding the comma-seperated values with square-bracket ([]).

  • Strings (str): Text values. They are surrounded by single or double quotes. In Python, there is no difference between using single or double quotes, except which characters you have to escape. It is recommended to pick one and stick to it. I choose to use double-quotes (") unless the string contains a double-quote or for hash keys.

  • None: (elsewhere: null, nil) A special value that indicates nothingness which is different from the value zero or an empty string. In Python it is referred to as None without quotes.

Software Development Concepts

  • Code Editor: A text editing program specifically for code with features like syntax highlighting and code formatting. Some examples include VS Code, Atom, Sublime and Vim.

  • Command Line: In casual use, people usually mean accessing the operating system's shell, usually with a terminal emulator. See also, Console, Terminal.

  • Compile: The process by which the computer translates source code from one programming language to a lower-level language to create an executable program. A language that must be compiled is called a compiled language and the program that does this for a particular programming language is called a compiler. Python is an interpreted language, so it does not need to be compiled. Some compiled langauges include C/C++, Java and Go.

  • Console, System console: Comes from a time when early text-based computer systems with a keyboard and monitor interface were used to interact with servers or mainframes. In modern usage people usually mean accessing the operating system's shell, usually with a terminal emulator. In repl.it, the right-most pane is referred to as the console.

  • IDE, Integrated Development Environment: A program dedicated to software development usually including a code editor, debugger, version control management, and build/execution features. Examples include repl.it, Eclipse, Thonny, and Pycharm.

  • Interpret: The process by which the computer directly executes source code without that code needing to be compiled first. The program that does this for a particluar programming language is called an intrepreter. A programming language that does not need to be compiled is called an interpreted language or sometimes a scripting language. Python is an interpreted language and Python code is executed by the Python Interprter. Some other interpreted languages include Ruby, PHP and Perl.

  • Prompt: Characters displayed by the interpreter to indicate that it is ready to take input from the user.

  • REPL (Read-Evaluate-Print-Loop): An interactive tool or environment that takes code input, evaluates (executes) it, and displays the results to the user. Shells are a subset of REPLs. More advanced REPL tools and systems are comprised of an input or editor pane, and an output or results pane. Many online REPLs exist such as play.golang.org for Go, pythonfiddle.com for Python, try.ruby-lang.org for Ruby and of course the multi-language platform repl.it.

  • Shell, Interactive Shell, Command Line Interpreter: A text-based interface that runs code or command input. Operating systems have shells for system administration and operation such as Bash or Zsh in Unix-like systems or Powershell or the DOS Command Prompt in Windows. Some languages provide shells that execute code such as the Python Interactive Shell or the Interactive Ruby Shell (IRB).

  • Terminal, Terminal emulator: In modern computing, an application that provides a text-based interface to the operating system's shell. Some examples include konsole and the Gnome Terminal in Unix-like systems, Terminal and iTerm2 on MacOs, and PuTTY, Cygwin mintty, the Windows Console, and the Windows Terminal for Windows.

    The term "console" and "terminal" are often used interchangaby, both historically to refer to a hardware server interface as well as the more modern colloqual meaning of accessing the operating system's shell.

Version Control

  • branch -- a container that has a name and stores set of commits. Every repository is created with a default branch named master.

  • Codebase: A set source code files that make up a software system, application, component or project.

  • commit, revsion or change log is a set of changes recorded in version control.

  • distributed version control. As opposed to Centralized Version Control Systems that have one central repository that all other repositories were required to communicate with in order to commit changes. In distributed version control , every repo is self contained. Not only that, but any repo send changes to or receive changes from any other compatable repository.

  • HEAD -- a reference to the current commit on the current branch. A reference is like a bookmark to a commit. Since we're not doing anything fancy, HEAD will point to the most recent commit on the master branch for the forseeable future.

  • the index -- a snapshot of your files at the time of the HEAD commit plus the changes you've staged for commit.

  • master: the default branch

  • object database -- the history of all commits and the relationships between them.

  • origin: the default remote repository

  • a patch -- the file detailing the exact changes that were made in a format that git and other programs understand. It's very similar to the output of git diff.

  • reference: pointer to a specific commit

  • remote repository or upstream repo -- a repository that you send changes to

  • Repository (aka repo): The container for version-control information for a set of files.

  • a SHA or hash -- a 40-character unique identifier that points to a the rest of the data related to the commit. Basically, a commit ID. Here's an example: d16085b3b913e5bc5e351c0a7461051e9973629a

  • tree -- a snapshot of your files at the time of the HEAD commit.

  • Version Control (Source Control, Revision Control): A method for keeping track of and managing changes to a set of files.

  • Version Control System (VCS), Revision Control System, Source Control Management System (SCM): A tool or set of tools for version control. The most popular today is Git, but some other examples include Git, Mercurial, Subversion, CVS and Perforce.