Glossary Flashcards
(228 cards)
1
Q
What is meant by an
Accessible interface?
A
An interface is Accessible if its design does not prevent certain people from using the interface, (e.g. people with vision or hearing problems.
2
Q
What is an Actual Parameter?
A
A Parameter which is used when a procedure or function is called.
3
Q
What is the Address Bus?
A
The Address bus is used by the processor to identify a memory location for reading from or writing to.
4
Q
What is an Algorithm?
A
A detailed sequence of steps which, when followed, will accomplish a task.
5
Q
What is meant by Alpha Testing?
A
Alpha Testing is the testing of software within the development organisation. Can be performed even if the product is not complete.
6
Q
What is an Animation?
A
When images can appear to move.
7
Q
What is meant by Anti-Virus Software?
A
Software used to detect the presence of viruses or other malicious software on a computer system.
8
Q
What is the Arithmetic and Logic Unit?
A
Also known as the ALU, the Arithmetic and Logic Unit is the part of a CPU Where data is processed and manipulated.
9
Q
What is an Array?
A
An array is a way of storing a range of values of the same type in a single indexed structure.
10
Q
What is ASCII?
A
ASCII Stands for ‘American Standard Code for Information Interchange, and is an 8 bit system for storing text.
11
Q
What is an Attribute?
A
A property of characteristic of something.
12
Q
What is a Back Link?
A
A link within a website that leads back to the homepage of the website.
13
Q
What is meant by Bandwidth?
A
The rate that data can be transmitted through a connection, typically measures in bits per second.
14
Q
What is meant by beta testing?
A
Beta Testing is the testing of software outside of the development organisation, using clients or selected members of the public.
15
Q
What is a Bit?
A
A single unit of binary data.
16
Q
What is meant by Bitmap?
A
A representation of image data where each bit corresponds to an individual pixel on the screen.
17
Q
What is the Body of a web page?
A
The second section of a web page that contains all the data that is to be displayed.
18
Q
What is a Boolean variable?
A
A value which can only be true or false.
19
Q
What is meant by Bot-net?
A
Bot-net is a slang term for the computers that have become infected with malicious software and can then be used to launch a DDOS attack.
20
Q
What is a Break-point?
A
A marker set within the code of a program to halt program execution at a predefined spot. Used for debugging programs.
21
Q
What is a Calculated Field?
A
A field that obtains its value by carrying out calculations or operations on the contents of other fields.
22
Q
What is meant by Cardinality?
A
Cardinality is the type of relationship between tables in a relational database.
23
Q
What is meant by Cascading Style Sheet (CSS)?
A
The language used to construct style sheets for websites.
24
Q
What is a class library?
A
Collection of classes that can be used in software development, as building blocks for further class definitions.
25
What is meant by Client-Side?
When an operation is done at the 'client' end of a client/server connection.
26
What is meant by client side scripting?
The scripts for a website are executed on the clients computer, this allows the code to be viewed and copied.
27
What is meant by Cloud System?
Applications and services that are accessed remotely from a server.
28
What is a collision?
A Collision occurs when two devices attempt to transmit simultaneously on an Ethernet network.
29
What is meant by Colour Depth?
The number of colours that have been used to capture an image.
30
What is Compatibility?
Whether or not an information system will work on a particular device.
31
What is a Compiler?
A program that translates a complete high level language program (source code) into an independent machine code program.
32
What is meant by Compression?
Compression is used to reduce the size of files.
33
What is a Computational Construct?
A system of data representation and control structures used to solve problems using a computer through a programming language.
34
what is Concatenation?
Concatenation is when two strings are joined together to make a new string.
35
What is a Conditional Loop?
A control construct which allows a block of code to be repeated until a condition is met.
36
What is meant by connectivity?
How computers in a network are connected.
37
What are Control Characters?
Special non-printing characters in a character set, used for special purposes, e.g carriage return and end of file.
38
What is meant by Control Structures?
A programming language structure which determines the flow of execution though the code.
39
What is a Control Unit?
Include timing/control logic and an instruction decoder. It sends signals to other parts of the computer to direct the fetch and execution of machine instructions.
40
What are Cookies?
Cookies are small text files saved by a browser that can be accessed and read by websites visited. Often used to save personal preferences, but can be used to track user for advertising purposes.
41
What is a Database?
A Collection of information stored in a structured format that can be quickly searched or sorted.
42
What is a Database-driven Website?
A Database-driven Website is one that collects its content from a connected database.
43
What is a Data bus?
Used to transfer data to and from the processor.
44
What is a Data Dictionary?
A detailed list of data structures and relationships in a programming project.
45
What is a Data-flow Diagram?
A diagram that shows how data flows between different modules in a piece of software.
46
What is DCT?
DCT stands for Discrete Cosine Transform and is a lossy compression system used by the JPEG compression algorithm.
47
What is a DOS attack?
A Denial of Service Attack attempts to disrupt a network by overloading it with requests for information.
48
What is a differential backup?
Only changes made since the last full backup are saved.
49
What is a Digital Certificate?
An electronic document that is used to confirm the identity of an individual or an organisation.
50
What is a Digital Signature?
An electronic signature that is used to authenticate the identity of the sender.
51
What is Disk Mirroring?
A constant backup is made every time any changes are made.
52
What is a DDOS Attack?
A Distributed Denial of Service attack is when a group of computers infected with malicious software bombards a website to force it offline.
53
What is a Domain?
The permitted values of an attribute, for example a type of data.
54
What is a Domain Name?
A text-based address that is registered with a Domain Name Server (DNS) and ties your web server to your IP address.
55
What is meant by Domain Name Server (DNS)?
DNS is a network service which converts the user friendly name of a web resource to its IP address so that your browser can access it.
56
What is a Dynamic Web page?
A Web page that's contents are subject to change every time it is loaded.
57
What is Encapsulation?
A characteristic of objects in object-oriented programming which means that objects are closed systems which cannot be altered from outside.
58
What is meant by Encryption?
Apply a code to data before it is transmitted electronically. It prevents information from being understood if it is intercepted.
59
What is an Entity?
Something that exists as a particular and discrete form.
60
What is an Entity Set?
A collection of entities of similar form represented in a database as a table.
61
What is Ethernet?
A popular local area network protocol commonly using either a UTP cable with transmission rates of up to 1000 Mbps or wireless with transmission rates of up to 300 Mbps.
62
What is an execution error?
An error which only manifests itself when a program is run rather than when its source code is translated.
63
What is an Expert System?
A system consisting of a database of facts and rules, an inference engine and a user interface used to help people make decisions.
64
What is an Exponent?
The Exponent represents the range of a floating point number.
65
What is the Fetch-Execute Cycle?
The repeated process of fetching instructions from main memory, decoding the instructions and executing them.
66
What is a field?
One piece of information in a record.
67
What is a Firewall?
A Firewall is a software that monitors network traffic, blocking activity as described by Firewall settings.
68
What is a Fixed Loop?
A loop which repeats a set number of times.
69
What is meant by FLAC?
Free Lossless Audio Codec is a lossless compression algorithm which has been specifically designed to take advantage of the characteristics of audio files.
70
What is Floating Point notation?
A method of representing an approximation of a real number in a way that can support a wide range of values.
71
What is a Foreign Key?
The primary key of a separate table that is included in a table.
72
What is a Form?
A graphical user interface in a database, can only display one record at a time.
73
What is a Formal Parameter?
The parameter in in the definition of a procedure or function.
74
What is a Frame?
Frame is the name for the blocks of data being transmitted between machines in an Ethernet network.
75
What is meant by Frame Rate?
How many still images are played per second to give the impression that they are moving.
76
What is a Full Backup?
All data is backed up, regardless of when it was last backed up.
77
What is a Function?
A Function is a sub-program which returns a value.
78
What is meant by GIF?
A lossless data compression format for graphics.
79
What is a Global Variable?
A Global Variable is a variable that has scope throughout the entire program where it occurs.
80
What is the Head of a Web page?
The top section of a web page that contains the metadata and title tag.
81
What is meant by Hexadecimal?
A number system which uses base 16 instead of 10.
82
What does Hierarchical mean?
Pages can be accessed in a random order. But there is still structure to it.
83
What is meant by a High Level Language?
English-like programming language which has to be translated into machine code before computers can understand it.
84
What is meant by House Style?
A set of rules for writing readable code imposed by a software development company on their programmers.
85
What is a Hub?
A Hub is a piece of network hardware in an Ethernet network. A hub transmits every frame it receives to all the machines connected to it.
86
What is Identity Theft?
Identity Theft is when your personal details are obtained by others for the purposes of committing fraud.
87
What does Increment mean?
Incrementing a variable means to increase its value by a fixed amount.
88
What is an Incremental Backup?
Only the changes made since any form of backup are saved.
89
What is an Index?
An integer value which identifies the position of an item in an Array.
90
What is inheritance?
Used in object-oriented programming, the sharing of characteristics between a class of objects and a newly created sub-class.
91
What is an instance?
And occurrence or example of an Entity.
92
What is meant by Instance Variable?
Sometimes known as Attribute, in object oriented programming, this refers to the data associated with an object.
93
What is an Interactive Web page?
A page that encourages users to interact with it.
94
What is the purpose of an Interface?
To compensate for the differences between computer systems and peripheral devices.
95
What is Inter-frame Compression?
Inter-frame compression is when video frames are compressed in blocks in the hope that repeated sequences are more likely to occur.
96
What is meant by The Internet of Things?
The interconnectedness of network embedded everyday devices such as light bulbs, domestic appliances, enabling them to be monitored and controlled by both users and other machines.
97
What is an Interpreter?
A program that translates a high level program line by line, which it then tries to execute.
98
What is Intra-frame Compression?
Intra-frame Compression is when every frame in a video is compressed individually.
99
What is meant by ISP?
ISP stands for Internet Service Provider. A company providing access to the internet to an individual or business, usually through a phone line or wireless signal.
100
What is an Iterative Process?
An Iterative Process is one that incorporates feedback and involves an element of repetition.
101
What is a JPEG?
JPEG is a lossy compression format for graphics used for photographic images.
102
What is a Database Key?
In a database, a Key is one or more attributes that is selected to identify a record and used when searching and sorting.
103
What is meant by Key-logging?
Using hardware or software to record every keystroke made by a user.
104
What is a Keyword?
What a user types into a search engine to look for a website.
105
What is Keyword Stuffing?
Including a lot of keywords in the meta tags so that the website ranks higher in search engines.
106
What is Level 1 Cache?
The fastest form of cache memory, located on the processor itself.
107
What is a linear website structure?
Pages are accessed one after another, in order.
108
What is a Local Variable?
A Local Variable only has scope within the sub-procedure it has been declared in.
109
What is Lossless Compression?
A type of compression that reduces the size of a file but doesn't remove any information.
110
What is Lossy Compression?
A type of compression that reduces the size of a file by removing part of the information.
111
What is meant by Low Level Language?
A machine code language which computers use.
112
What is LZW Compression?
LZW stands for Lempel-Ziv-Welch Compression and uses a lookup table to store recurring sequences of bits as short codes.
113
What is a MAC Address?
Short for Media Access Control. The unique 6 byte number allocated to every network interface card.
114
What is a Macro?
Used to automate a repetitive or complicated process, or to add functionality to a program.
115
What does Mantissa mean?
A non-zero value used to represent the precision of a floating point number.
116
What are Messages in an object-oriented program?
Objects in closed systems and communicate by passing messages between them.
117
What is Metadata?
Information about the web page; who created it, creation date, meta tags, content information.
118
What are Meta Tags?
Entries in the head section of a web page describing the content of the page to enable search engines to index them accurately.
119
What is a Method in object-oriented programming?
A method is a function or procedure that is defined inside a class.
120
What is meant by MIDI?
Short for Musical Instrument Digital Interface which is a file format that provides a standardised way of storing musical sequences.
121
What is a Modular Design?
When a large complex program in organised into smaller parts coded as separate modules.
122
What does it mean if a program is described as Modular?
A program is said to be Modular if it is composed of sub-programs which can be tested independently.
123
What is a Module Library?
A set of self contained pre-written and pre-tested blocks of code which can be re-used in other programs.
124
What is a Multi-core Processor?
A Processor which has several CPU's on a single chip.
125
What is meant by Multi-user Access?
When data is stored in a manner that allows many users to access it simultaneously.
126
What is meant by Networking?
Two or more computers connected together.
127
What is an NIC?
NIC stand for Network Interface Card and is an interface fitted inside a personal computer or network terminal which allows it to communicate with other machines over a network.
128
What is Object Code?
The machine code produced by a compiler, ready for execution by a processor.
129
What is a Packet?
The name for the blocks of data transmitted between machines in a network using the TCP/IP protocol.
130
What is meant by Parity Bit?
An additional bit that is transmitted as part of a byte to make the total number of ones odd or even. It's a way of checking number for errors in transmission.
131
What is meant by Client/Server?
The operating systems on a network allow you to assign one machine as a 'server' to manage services for the other machines.
132
What is meant by a Peer-Peer Network?
All computers have equal access. User must use the same computer each time to be able to access data.
133
What is Perceptual Coding?
A technique used by lossy compression algorithms to reduce the size of an audio file by removing sounds that are redundant or which the human ear cannot hear.
134
What is Phishing?
The name given to fraudulently extracting credit card and other financial details from individuals using emails and fake company websites.
135
What does Pixelated mean?
When the quality of an image is reduced so that individual pixels can be seen.
136
What is meant by Platform?
A term used to describe the hardware and OS combination that makes up a working computer system.
137
What does it mean if a program is Portable?
The ability of a program to run on different machine architectures with different operating systems.
138
What is meant by Portable Network Graphics?
A lossless data compression format for graphics created as an improvement on the GIF file format.
139
What is a Primary Key?
Is a Key that uniquely identifies each record in a table and is used to access that record.
140
What is meant by Problem Oriented?
A programming language where the focus is on the problem and how it is to be solved rather than on the hardware on which the program will run.
141
What is meant by Procedural Language?
A programming language which follows a specific set of steps.
142
What is a Procedure?
A Sub-program which can be called from within its main program.
143
What is a program listing?
The text version of the object code created by the programmer before translation.
144
What is a Protocol?
A communications protocol is an agreed set of rules to govern how machines communicate over a network.
145
What is Prototyping?
The process of creating partly working models of a system in order to test feasibility or to get customer feedback.
146
What is Pseudocode?
Is an informal high-level description of how a computer program functions.
147
What is a Public Key when talking about Encryption?
A form of encryption that uses a pair of keys; a public key to encrypt information and a private key to decrypt the information.
148
What is a Query?
Performing a complex search or sort on a database.
149
What is Ransomware?
Software transmitted using a virus or other malware which encrypts the data on your computer. The key to decrypt the data can only be obtained from the criminals who infected your machine.
150
What does it mean when code is Readable?
High level language code is said to be Readable when it is made easy to understand using meaningful variable names an internal documentation.
151
What is a Record?
A Record is a structured data type which can contain values of different types in a single indexed structure.
152
What is Recursion?
A common declarative programming technique where code repeatedly calls itself until a simple base fact is identified.
153
What is Reference Language?
An informal high-level description of how a computer program functions.
154
What is a Reference Parameter?
A Reference or variable parameter in a sub program definition is one whose value is changed by that function or procedure.
155
What are Registers?
Internal memory locations which the processor uses to store data temporarily during the fetch execute cycle.
156
What is a Relational Database?
A database which contains more than one linked table.
157
What does it mean if a program is Reliable?
A program is Reliable if it runs well and is never brought to a halt by a design flaw.
158
What is a Report?
Used to print out databases in a format which is easier to read.
159
What is meant by Resolution?
The total number of pixels in the width and height of and image determines the amount of detail represented in an image.
160
What does it mean if a program is Reverse Engineered?
The program was created by looking at a finished product and trying to work out how it was programmed.
161
What is meant by RFID?
RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification. These chips are very small and do not require a local power source. They can store information which can be read from nearby using radio waves.
162
What is RLE?
Run Length Encoding is a lossless compression system using the fact that frequently occurring sequences can be stored as a single sequence along with the number of times it occurs.
163
What does it mean if a program is Robust?
A program is Robust if it can cope with problems that come from outside and are not of its own making. Robust systems should not crash.
164
What is a Router?
A computer with several network cards which is responsible for routing data from one network to another.
165
What is Sampling Depth?
The number of bits used to stored each sample of sound.
166
What is Sampling Frequency?
The number of times per second that a sample of sound is taken and stored.
167
What is the Scope of a variable?
The Scope of a variable is the range of sub-programs where it has value.
168
What is a Screen Reader?
A software used by users who are blind or have impaired vision which reads the text on a web page or the user interface of a program.
169
What is Scripting Language?
Scripting Language is used to write macros or to add extra functionality to a web page.
170
What is Search Engine Optimisation?
Manipulating a search engine to rank your website higher so it has a better chance of being visited.
171
What is a Selector?
The name for the CSS rule that determines what the rule will be applied to in the HTML document.
172
What is a Semantic Error?
A logical Error in a program where the code is grammatically correct, but does not do what it is intended to do.
173
What is a Server?
A computer used to provide requests to clients.
174
What is meant by Server-side?
When an operation is done at the 'Server' end of a Client/Server connection.
175
What is Server-side Scripting?
The code for a website is executed on the server. This does not allow the code to be viewed or copied.
176
What is a Simple Data Type?
A programming language Data Type which is not made up of any other Data Types.
177
What is Software Specification?
A legally binding document which describes exactly what a program will be able to do.
178
What is Source Code?
The Code that was used to write a program.
179
What is Spyware?
A general term for any piece of software that tracks what you are doing on the computer. Can be used for advertising purposes, gathering data or watching for specific actions or events.
180
What is SQL?
Structured Query Language, used to edit queries in a database.
181
What is a Stack?
A dynamic data structure much used by software applications and the computer for storing temporary data. Data can only be accessed via the top of the stack.
182
What is meant by Standard File Formats.
A way to save files so that they can be displayed correctly on other platforms.
183
What is a Static Web Page?
A Web Page that does not change every time it is loaded.
184
What is meant by streaming?
Where files are transmitted over the internet and viewed on a computer as they arrive. Large files do not need to be completely downloaded before they can be viewed.
185
What is a Structured Data Type?
A programming language Data Type which is created using a collection of items, which are simple data types.
186
What is a Structure Diagram?
A Diagrammatic method of designing a solution to solve a software problem.
187
What is Structured Listing?
Structured Listing is documented source code.
188
What is a Style Sheet?
A separate file that contains all the formatting information for a web page.
189
What is a Surrogate Key?
A unique Key generated by a database system to ensure that every record is unique. Usually sequential numbers.
190
What is a Switch in an Ethernet network?
A device to divide up an Ethernet network into separate collision domains. It makes sure that data only goes to the desired machine.
191
What is a Symmetric Key?
A form of encryption that uses the same key to encrypt and decrypt the data.
192
What is Syntax?
The grammatical rules of a language.
193
What is a Syntax Error?
An error in a program where the code is grammatically incorrect and cannot be translated into machine code.
194
What is a Systems Analyst?
A member of a software development team who specialises in modelling existing systems or finding out about new ones through investigation and helps to develop a possible software-based solution to a problem.
195
What is a Table?
In a relational database, a Table organises the information about a single topic into rows and columns.
196
What is a Target Audience?
Who the intended users of the information system are.
197
What is TCP/IP?
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol is responsible for verifying the correct delivery of data from client to server.
198
In relation to TCP/IP, what does TCP do?
TCP adds support to detect errors or lost data and to trigger re-transmission until the data is correctly and completely received.
199
In relation to TCP/IP, what is IP responsible for?
IP is responsible for moving packets of data from node to node. IP forwards each packet based on a four byte destination address (the IP address)
200
What is a Title of a web page?
The name of the web page and what will appear in the web page Title bar.
201
What is a Topology?
In a network, its Topology is how the machines are connected together. Usually in a star or tree configuration.
202
What is Transparency?
Part of an image can be made transparent so that objects placed behind can still be viewed.
203
What is a Trojan?
A Trojan, is a piece of software which when installed on a users machine allows someone else to access data on that machine or to take control of it.
204
What is True Colour?
When 24 Bits are used to store the colours in an image. This is the best quality that humans can recognise.
205
What is Two's Complement?
A system for storing positive and negative integers where the most significant bit has a negative value.
206
What is Unicode?
A symbol representation system for storing text which uses more bits than ASCII in order to represent character sets from around the world.
207
What does URL mean?
Uniform Resource Locator. The unique address of a web page or other piece of media.
208
What is Usability?
A subjective assessment of how a user finds their experience of using the information system.
209
What is a User Interface?
What the user sees and interacts with.
210
What is Validation?
Checking that information has been entered where required.
211
What is a Value Parameter?
A Value Parameter in a function or procedure definition is one which does not change. It is a copy of the value being passed into the sub-program.
212
What is meant by Variable Declaration?
When a variable is defined for the first time giving it a name and a data type.
213
What is Vector Graphics?
A method of storing a graphical object as a description which can be used to recreate it on an output device. It stores objects as calculations.
214
What is Version Management Software?
Software which keeps track of versions of a program during development, allowing changes to be tracked and members of the programming team informed of their implications.
215
What is VHS?
Video Home System was an analogue video recording system using magnetic tape video cassettes.
216
What is a Virtual Machine?
An emulation of a complete computer system running within an operating system which can be used to run alternative operating systems, or several copies of a single OS.
217
What is a Virus?
A piece of malicious software which has been inserted into a host program in order to cause damage or to gain control over a computer system.
218
What is meant by Watch in programming?
Where the programmer identifies a variable whose value can be displayed in a separate window while a program is running in order to help with debugging.
219
What is the Waterfall Method of design?
The traditional iterative model of software development.
220
What are the stages in the Waterfall Method?
```
Analysis
Design
Implementation
Testing
Documentation
Evaluation
Maintenance.
```
221
What is Web Hosting?
Providing space on a server for web pages so that they can be accessed over the Internet.
222
What is Website Optimisation?
Techniques involving changing the code, structure and media items to improve the loading performance of your web page(s).
223
What is a Wire-frame?
A Wire-frame is a pictorial representation of the design of a website or piece of software.
224
What us Word Size?
The word size of a processor is the maximum length of instruction which it can read in any one operation.
225
What is a Worm?
A malicious program which replicates itself over a network in order to cause damage or to gain control over computer systems.
226
What is Information?
Data which has been collected, processed and organised in such a way as to give it meaning.
227
What is knowledge?
Knowledge is using information received, in order to answer questions and solve problems.
228
What is Data?
Data is the term used to describe facts and figures without clear context.
