Glossary

A collection of common terms used in Java programming

Compiler

A program that takes a source code file (human readable format) and creates from it a new file in a format that can be run by a computer. A compiler is always specific to a programming language, so for compiling a Java source code file, you need a Java compiler. Additionally, a compiler will always check your source code for errors, i.e. if you mistyped something or forgot a necessary symbol like a bracket or a semicolon, and report back to you any error with some hints.

Console

A program to allowing text-based interaction with a computer. You can run commands, even your own written programs, and interact with them. Every operating system (Windows, Linux, MacOS) comes with a console, e.g. on Windows you can open a console by pressing the Start button and then typing in cmd

Command Line

Another word for Console

Source Code

The instructions you write that form your program. Source code is written in a human readable format, a programming language. In this class we write our source code in Java. A computer cannot directly execute a program written just in source code as it needs a machine readable format. In order to get to such an format from the source code, programming languages like Java make use of a compiler

Source Code File

This is a file in that you place your source code. For Java, it should have the file ending .java. There are some other rules you need to consider about how to name your source code file or where to place it

Terminal

Another word for Console

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