Computer Science Terms

Computer Science Terms:

Composite structure: the size of a typical software system implies that it must be broken down into manageable pieces of this

Composition: the process of building a system using simpler parts or components

Abstraction: the process of ignoring details irrelevant to the problem at hand and emphasizing essential ones. To abstract is to disregard certain differentiating details

Data: the info the program deals with

Functionality: what the program does with the data, the responsibility of the object to do

Object: the most abstract description of a basic component of an object oriented system

Values: a fundamental piece of info that can be manipulated by the program

Types: a set of related values along with the operations that can be preformed with them

Object: fundamental abstractions from which systems are built

Classes: a set of objects having the same features and properties

State of an object: the set of data maintained by an object at any given time

Reference values: a value that denotes an object

Data descriptions: properties of the object (name, date, etc)

Associated value: a property an object has at any given time

Variable: a portion of memory reserved to hold a single value

Instance variables: a variable that is a permanent part of an object: memory space for the variable is allocated when the object is created

Immutable: an object that’s state cannot be changed

Mutable: and object that’s state can be changed

*An object is characterized by the features it offers*

1. Query: a request for data

2. Command: a request to change state

Float & Double: sets of real rational numbers (i.e. 170000 or 1.4e12)

Char: set of values representing Unicode characters

Boolean: true or false values

Int value: contains a single integer

String: and immutable object that contains a sequence of characters

Identifier: a sequence of characters that can be used as a name in a Java program

Literal: a sequence of characters that denotes a particular value in a Java program

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