CSC 160 - Chapter 1 Quick Reference

Chapter 1 "Introduction to Computers and Programming"

This chapter is chockful of terms and some of the basic concepts in computer hardware and software.

Terms

hardware	software	Central Processing Unit (CPU)	Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)
main memory	secondary storage	Random-Access Memory (RAM)	byte
volatile/non-volatile	input device	output device	Operating Systems software
application software	algorithm	machine language	source code
object code	preprocessor	compiler	linker
executable	Integrated Development Environment (IDE)	portability	keywords
operators	syntax	variable	pseudo-code
hierarchy chart	software engineering

Concepts

Important concepts covered include:

The organization of a typical computer system [diagram on p. 3]
Single-tasking v. multi-tasking operating system (OS)
Single-user v. multi-user OS
High-level v. low-level programming languages
The process of creating an executable file [diagram on p. 10]
Three basic programming activities: input, processing, output
The 13-step process of creating a program [list on p. 17]

Disclaimer: The goal of this "cheat sheet" is to review the more important concepts in the chapter. The exclusion of any material in the chapter from this "cheat sheet" does not mean that you are not responsible for that material.