Glossary

Problem solving: The process of formulating a problem, finding a solution, and expressing the solution.

High-level language: A programming language like Python that is designed to be easy for humans to read and write.

Low-level language: A programming language that is designed to be easy for a computer to execute; also called machine language or assembly language.

Portability: A property of a program that can run on more than one kind of computer.

Interpret: To execute a program in a high-level language by translating it one line at a time.

Compile: To translate a program written in a high-level language into a low-level language all at once, in preparation for later execution.

Source code: A program in a high-level language before being compiled.

Object code: The output of the compiler after it translates the program.

Executable: Another name for object code that is ready to be executed.

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

Script: A program stored in a file (usually one that will be interpreted).

Interactive mode: A way of using the Python interpreter by typing commands and expressions at the prompt.

Script mode: A way of using the Python interpreter to read and execute statements in a script.

Program: A set of instructions that specifies a computation.

Algorithm: A general process for solving a category of problems.

Bug: An error in a program.

Debugging: The process of finding and removing any of the three kinds of programming errors.

Syntax: The structure of a program.

Syntax error: An error in a program that makes it impossible to parse (and therefore impossible to interpret).

Exception: An error that is detected while the program is running.

Semantics: The meaning of a program.

Semantic error: An error in a program that makes it do something other than what the programmer intended.

Natural language: Any one of the languages that people speak that evolved naturally.

Formal language: Any one of the languages that people have designed for specific purposes, such as representing mathematical ideas or computer programs; all programming languages are formal languages.

Token: One of the basic elements of the syntactic structure of a program, analogous to a word in a natural language.

Parse: To examine a program and analyze the syntactic structure.

Print statement: An instruction that causes the Python interpreter to display a value on the screen.