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Term
Abstraction

Definition
Whatistherightlevelforthinkingaboutaparticularproblem, howtocommunicatecomplexideassimplyandhowto decomposeproblemslogically. Adescriptionofaprocessapartfromanyprogramming language. Asequenceofsteps,independentofanyprogramminglanguage thatsolvesomeproblem. Anorderedsetofdatavaluesofthesamedatatype,grouped togetherandreferredtobyasingleidentier.

Algorithm

Array

Assignment

Anoperationthatassignsavaluetoavariable.

Automation

Howtoautomateanalgorithm.

Binary

Anumbersystemthatusestwodigits,0and1.

Binaryle

Containsmostlyunprintablecharacters.

Bit

Abinarydigit(itcanbe0or1).

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Createdwhenthepixelsofanimagearemappedtopositionsin Bitmap memorythatstorebinarycodesrepresentingthecolourofeach pixel.

Black-box testing
(functionaltesting)

Itiscarriedoutwithoutlookingattheprogramcode.

Booleandata

Canbeoneoftwopossiblevalues,TrueorFalse.

Boolean expression

ReturnsTrueorFalse.

Boolean operators

NOT,AND,OR.

Boundaries (Dening boundaries) Boundaries (Lateral thinking)

Establishingthelimitsorrulesaboutwhatcanandcannotbe donewhensolvingaproblems.Theselimitsareatypeof constraint.

Usedtochallengeassumptions,establishfactsandrulesand denetheboundariesofproblemsolving.

Byte

Agroupof8bits.

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Character

Anyletter,numeralorsymbolinthegivencharacterset,suchas theASCIIcharacterset.

Colourdepth

Thenumberofbitsusedtorepresentthecolourofasinglepixel inabitmappedimage.

Compilation error

Whenaprogramdoesnotcompilebecauseofsyntaxerrorsor lexicalerrors.

Compiler

Aprogramthattranslatessourcecodeintoexecutableobject code.

Computability

Whatcanandcannotbecomputed.

Computing machine

Anymachinethatperformedtheworkofahumancomputer.

Console application

Aprogramthatrunsinatext-basedwindowintowhichtheuser typesandwhichdisplaystextoutputfromthecomputer.

Constant

Avaluethatdoesnotchangethroughouttheprogram.

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CSVle
(Comma-separated valuesle)

Atextlewithonerecordperlineandtheeldsofeachrecord separatedbycommas.

Data compression Data compression (Lossy compression) Data compression (Run-length encoding)

Squeezesdataintoasmallernumberofbytesthanthedata wouldoccupyifuncompressed.

Lossycompressionmethodsdiscardinformationwhichisnot consideredimportant.

Asimplecompressiontechniquethattakesaccountofthefact thatsomeimageshavelongrunsofpixelsofthesamecolour.

Decisiontable

Atablethatshowstheoutcomeforagivenlogicalcondition.

Denarynumber system

Anumbersystemthatusesthedigits0to9.

Dry-runtesting

Testanalgorithmorprogramcodewithouttheuseofa computer.

Enumerated type

Anorderedsetofvalues.

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Evidenceof testing

Somethingthatshowsthedataenteredandtheresultfromthe program(e.g.screenshot).

Exception handling

Exceptionhandlingisabletorecoverfromtheerrorwithout crashingtheprogram. (Trappingerrorsandhandlingit.)

Field

Avariablethatispartofarecord.

Finitestate machine

Amachinethatconsistsofaxedsetofpossiblestateswitha setofallowableinputsthatchangethestateandasetof possibleinputs.

Flowchart

Adiagramthatshowsthesequenceofoperationstosolvea problem.

Function

Aroutinethatiscalledaspartofanexpressionandreturnsa value.

GIGO
(garbageingarbage out)

Theprogramcannotpossiblyproducethecorrectresultsifthe inputisinvalid.

Globalvariable

Avariabledeclaredatthebeginningoftheprogramand accessiblefromanywhereintheprogram.

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Handtrace,desk Acarefulstep-by-stepsimulationonpaperofhowanalgorithm checkordryrun wouldbeexecutedbyacomputer.

Hexadecimal numbersystem

Anumbersystemthatusesthedigit0to9andthelettersAto F.

High-level programming language

AlanguagethathasEnglish-likekeywordsandcommandsto expressbasicconstructsofsequence,selection(decision)and repetition(iteration).

Identier

Auniquenamegiventoavariable,aprocedure,afunction,etc.

Integer

Awholenumber.

Integerdivision

Returnsonlythewholenumberpartofadivision.

Linearsearch

Findingaparticularelementinanunorderedlist. Scanningeachelementofthelistinasequentialmanner.

Localvariables

Avariabledeclaredinaprogramblockandaccessibleonlywithin theprogramblock.

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Logicerror

Whentheprogrammerhasmadeamistakeandtheprogram outputisincorrect.

Manualsystem

Asystemthatdoesnotinvolvecomputers.

Denesanorderedsetofvaluessuchasinteger,character, Ordinaltype Booleanandenumeratedtypes. (Realnumbersarenotofordinaltype.)

Pixel

Thesmallestaddressableareaorsmallestsolidblockofcolourin animage.

Problem

Asituationwhereitisnotimmediatelyobvioushowtoreachthe goal.

Problem(Given) Aninitialsituation.

Problem(Goal)

Adesiredoutcome(targetsituation).

Problem (Resources)

Thingscanbeusedtoreachthegoalandimposeconstraints.

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Aroutinethatmayormaynotreturnavalue. Procedure Aprocedurecallisastatementinitsownright,notpartofan expression.

Program

Adescriptioninaprogramminglanguageofaprocessthat achievessomeresultthatisuseful.

Codethatresemblesaprogramminglanguagebutthatuseless Pseudocode strictsyntaxtoexpressanalgorithm. Itisindependentofanyrealprogramminglanguage.

Realnumber

Anumberwithadecimalpointandafractionalpart.

Record

Adatastructurethatgroupsanumberofvariables.

Repetitionor iteration

Asteporsequenceofstepsthatarerepeateduntilsome conditionissatisedorwhilesomeconditionissatised.

Resolutionofa VDUscreen

Aquantityexpressedasthenumberofpixelsperrowbythe numberofpixelspercolumn.

Resolutionofan image

Aquantityexpressedasthenumberofdots/inch/centimetre.

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Requirements specication

Asetofsystemobjectives.

Run-timeerror

Whentheprogramcrashesorgetsstuckinaloop.

Selection

Adecision-makingstep.

Sequence

Consecutivestepsorgroupsofstepsprocessedoneafter anotherintheorderthattheyarise.

Set

Acollectionofvaluesofthesameordinaltypewithnoassociated order.

Software maintenance

Updatingaprogramtocorrectfaultsorimprovefeatures.

Solution (Module)

Aself-containedentitythatresultswhenaproblemisdivided intosubproblems.Eachmodulecorrespondstoasubproblem.

Solution (Stepwise renement)

Theprocessofbreakingaproblemdownthroughsuccessive stepsintosmallerproblems.

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(Conqueror functional decomposition))

Breaksaproblemintosmallerproblemsthatareeasiertowork on.

Sound (ADC)

Analogue-to-digitalconvertor Convertsananaloguesignalintoanequivalentdigitalsignal.

Sound (Analogue signal) Anelectricalsignalthatvariesinacontinuousmanner.

Sound (DAC)

Digtal-to-anlogueconvertor. Convertsadigitalsignalintoanequivalentsignal.

Sound (Digitaldata)

Datathattakestheformofdiscretevalues.

Sound (MIDI)

MusicalInformationDigitalInterface. Awayofrepresentingthesoundsmadebyaninstrument.

Sound (Nyquist's theorem)

Sampleatafrequencyatleasttwicetherateofthehighest frequencyinthesampledsignal.

Sound (PCM)

PulseCodeModulation. Aprocessforcodingsampledanaloguesignalsbyrecordingthe heightofeachsampleinabinaryelectricalequivalent.

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Sound modulation) Sound (Quantisation noise) Sound (Synthesise sound)

Aprocessthatsamplesanaloguesignalsatregulartimeintervals originalsignal'samplitudeattheinstantofsampling.

(Pulseamplitude andproduceselectricalpulsesofheightproportionaltothe

Thedierencebetweentheoriginalamplitudeanditssampled value.

Usedigitalmeanstogenerateaudiosignalsresembling instrumentsoundsorthehumanvoice.

Sound (Analoguedata)

Datathatvariesinacontinuousmanner.

Sound (Digitalsignal)

Anelectricalsignalwithvoltagechangesthatareabruptorin discretesteps. AwayofdescribinganFSMgraphically.

Statetransition Eachstateisrepresentedbyacircleandeachtransitionbyan diagram arrowlabelledwiththeinputthatcausesthetransitionplusany outputresultingfromthetransition. Statetransition ShowstheeectonthecurrentstateofanFSMofparticular table inputsandanycorrespondingoutput.

String

Asequenceofzeroormorecharacters.

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Structurechart

Ahierarchychartwithinterfacesandcontrolinformation.

Structuretable

Anindented,numberedlistofstepsproducedbystepwise renement.

Structured English

AveryrestrictedsubsetoftheEnglishlanguage.

System

Awholecomposedofpartsinorderlyarrangement.

Systemsanalysis Thestudyofacomplexprocessinordertoimproveitseciency.

Testdata (Erroneousdata)

Valuewhichisnotabletopassthevalidationcheck.

Testdata

Aboundaryvalueisavaluewheretheprocessingisdierentfor

(Boundarydata) valuesbelowandabovethisvalue.

Testdata (Normaldata)

Largenumberofvaluesexceptboundaryanderroneousdata.

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Testplan

Alistofplannedtestswiththeirdataorreferringtoasetoftest data.

Textle

Itconsistsofasequenceofprintablecharactersorganisedinto lines,eachofwhichisterminatedbyanend-of-linemarker.

Two's complement

Asystemforrepresentingnegativenumbers.

Validationcheck

Acheckmadebyaprogramtoseethatthedataenteredis reasonable.

Validationcheck Acheckdigitiscalculatedfromtheotherdigitsandappendedto (Checkdigits) thecode.

Validationcheck (Formatcheck)

Aformatcheckcanensurethecodeconformstocertainrules.

Validationcheck Whenprocessingstringsyoucancheckwhetherthestring (Lengthcheck) lengthisasexpected.

Validationcheck Userisexpectedtoinputoneofalistofvalueswhichthe (Lookupcheck) programcouldlookupthisvalueinalistordatabase.

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Validationcheck (Presence checks) Thepresencecheckensuresthatallrequiredvaluesareentered.

Validationcheck (Rangecheck)

Thevalueenteredmustbewithinacertainrange.

Validationcheck (Typecheck)

Ensuretheuserisenteringtheexpectedtypeofdata.

Variable

Alocationinmemorythatcontainsoneormoredatavalues.

VariableRole (Fixedvalue)

Avariableinitialisedwithoutanycalculationandnotchanged thereafter.

VariableRole (Follower)

Avariablethatgetsitsnewvaluefromtheoldvalueofsome otherdataitem.

VariableRole (Gatherer)

Avariableaccumulatingtheeectofindividualvalues.

VariableRole (Mostrecent holder)

Avariableholdingthelatestvalueencounteredwhenprocessing asuccessionofunpredictablevalues. Simplythelatestvalueobtainedasinput.

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VariableRole (Mostwanted holder)

Avariableholdingthemostappropriatevalueencounteredso far.

VariableRole (Stepper)

Avariablesteppingthroughasystematic,predictablesuccession ofvalues.

VariableRole (Temporary)

Avariableholdingsomevalueforashorttimeonly.

VariableRole

Avariablethatalwaysgetitsnewvaluefromaxedcalculation

(Transformation) ofvaluesofothervariables.

Vectorgraphic

Recordsgeometricandotherinformationabouttheobjectsthat makeupanimage.

Vectorgraphic (Drawinglist)

Thelistofdrawingcommandsthatrecreateavectorgraphic.

Vectorgraphic (Object)

Acomponentofavectorgraphic(suchasaline,arectangleora circle).

Vectorgraphic (Property)

Propertyofavectorgraphicobjectdescribesthingssuchasthe size,direction,thickness,shading,fontsizeortypeface.

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White-box testing
(structuraltesting)

Testsaredevisedtocheckeachpossiblepaththroughthe programcode.

Word

Agroupofbytes.

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