master_vocab.md

Master Vocabulary List

Unit 1 - Introduction to Python

Word	Definition
IDE	An Integrated Development Environment is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development. An IDE normally consists of at least a source code editor, build automation tools and a debugger.
Python	A high-level general-purpose programming language.
Interpreter	A software application that can analyze and execute a program line by line.
String	A built-in data type that stores text.
Integer	A built-in data type that stores integers.
Float	A built-in data type that stores decimals.
Value	In computer science, a value is the representation of some entity that can be manipulated by a program. The members of a type are the values of that type.
Syntax Error	Python can only execute a program if the program is syntactically correct; otherwise, the process fails and returns an error message. Syntax refers to the structure of a program and the rules about that structure. For example, in English, a sentence must begin with a capital letter and end with a period. this sentence contains a syntax error.
console	A program designed to be used via a text-only computer interface, such as a text terminal, the command line interface of some operating systems (Unix, DOS, etc.)
Expression	A combination of one or more constants, variables, operators, and functions that the programming language interprets (according to its particular rules of precedence) and computes to produce another value.
Script	The syntax of the program.
print()	The syntax used to display information to the console when the program is executed.
Run	Is the commend used to begin the execution of an application or program.
output	What appears in the console after the program has executed.
Variable	A storage location (identified by a memory address) paired with an associated symbolic name, which contains some known or unknown quantity of information referred to as a value.
Comments	Syntax not executed by the interpreter
Mutability	The existing value can be changed.
Input	Data given to the application by the user.
Debugging	The routine process of locating and removing computer program bugs, errors or abnormalities, which is methodically handled by software programmers via debugging tools.

Unit 2 - Data Types, Arguments, Lists and Loops

Word	Definition
casting	Changing an entity from one data type to another.
Boolean	Any data type of true or false value, yes or no value, or on or off (1 or 0) value.
Composition	A way to combine objects or data types into more complex ones.
Conditionals	A conditional statement is a set of rules performed if a certain condition is met.
If	a programming conditional statement that, if proved true, performs a function or displays information. Below is a general example of an if statement, not specific to any particular programming language. if (X < 10) { print "Hello John"; }
Else	A high-level programming language statement that compares two or more sets of data and tests the results.
Elif	A statement that allows you to check multiple expressions for TRUE and execute a block of code as soon as one of the conditions evaluates to TRUE.
Flow of control	Control flow (or flow of control) is the order in which individual statements, instructions or function calls of an imperative program are executed or evaluated.
List	a list is an abstract data type that represents a countable number of ordered values, where the same value may occur more than once.
Index	Used to specify the elements of an array of numbers.
Slice	Obtaining a sub-string from the given string by slicing it respectively from start to end.
Append	To add a value at the end of a list.
Pop	To remove a value from the end of a list.
Remove	Removes one item from the list.
While Loop	A repeated operation while a specified condition is met.

Unit 3 - Functions

Word	Definition
Function	A function is a block of organized, reusable code that is used to perform a single, related action.
Arguments	A value that is passed between programs, subroutines or functions.
Calling Functions	Telling the computer to run (or execute) that set of actions.
Importing	To use data produced by another application.
Returning	A statement that instructs a program to leave the subroutine and go back to the return address.
Abstraction	The process of separating ideas from specific instances of those ideas at work.
Scope	Variables can only reach the area in which they are defined. Think of it as the area of code where variables can be used. Python supports global variables (usable in the entire program) and local variables.
aliasing	One variable's value is assigned to another variable.
stack trace	A valuable piece of information that you can use to debug your code.

Unit 4 - For Loops and Nesting

Word	Definition
For Loop	A for loop is used for iterating over a sequence (that is either a list, a tuple, a dictionary, a set, or a string). This is less like the for keyword in other programming language, and works more like an iterator method as found in other object-orientated programming languages.
Iteration	A sequence of instructions that is continually repeated.
range()	The range() function returns a sequence of numbers, starting from 0 by default, and increments by 1 (by default), and stops before a specified number.
Nested For Loops	a loop that occurs within another loop, structurally similar to nested if statements.
Nested List	A list can contain any sort object, even another list (sub-list), which in turn can contain sub-lists themselves, and so on.

Unit 5 - Music Programming

Word	Definition
Digital Audio Workstation	An electronic device or application software used for recording, editing and producing audio files.
Sound tab	Where you can browse and search a collection of short pre-made audio clips for you to use in your music.
fitMedia()	A python function in Earsketch that passes the file, track, start and end parameters.
setTempo()	A python function in Earsketch that passes the beats per minute (BPM) parameter.
Modulo	In computing, the modulo operation returns the remainder or signed remainder of a division, after one number is divided by another (called the modulus of the operation).
Section	Refers to several measures of music (often 2, 4, 8, or 16 measures) that sound like a single musical unit.
A-B-A form	The most common musical form is A-B-A where each section is four measures in length, and the A sections sound different from the B section.

Unit 6 - Dictionaries

Word	Definition
Dictionary	an unordered collection of data values, used to store data values like a map, which unlike other Data Types that hold only single value as an element, Dictionary holds key:value pair.
keys()	The keys() method returns a view object. The view object contains the keys of the dictionary, as a list.
items()	The items() method returns a view object. The view object contains the key-value pairs of the dictionary,
Update()	The update() method inserts the specified items to the dictionary. The specified items can be a dictionary, or an iterable object with key value pairs.

Unit 7 - Introduction to Object Oriented Programming

Word	Definition
Class	A class is written by a programmer in a defined structure to create an object (computer science) in an object oriented programming language. It defines a set of properties and methods that are common to all objects of one type.
Method	A programmed procedure that is defined as part of a class and included in any object of that class.
Object	An object can be a variable, a data structure, a function, or a method, and as such, is a value in memory referenced by an identifier.
Instance	An object belonging to a particular class may also be described as an instance.
Attributes	A specification that defines a property of an object.
Self	syntax used to represent the instance of the class. With this keyword, you can access the attributes and methods of the class in python. It binds the attributes with the given arguments. The reason why we use self is that Python does not use the ‘@’ syntax to refer to instance attributes.
__Init__	A reserved method in python classes. It is known as a constructor in object oriented concepts. This method is called when an object is created from the class and it allow the class to initialize the attributes of a class.
__str__	A built-in function in python, used for string representation of object. A printable string representing that object.
__Add__	A built-in function in python, used for addition operations. when you add two numbers using the + operator, internally, the __add__() method will be called.
Operator overloading	When you define a method for an operator.
Inheritance	Defining a new class with little or no modification to an existing class. The new class is called derived (or child) class and the one from which it inherits is called the base (or parent) class.
Parent Class	the class being inherited from, also called base class.
Child Class	The class that inherits from another class, also called derived class.
Class Design	Planning out relations between classes, outside of the editor.