•Execute – To execute the program means to “run” it. The two terms can be used
interchangeably.
•Source code – this is the code that the programmer writes in a high-level
language like Java, BASIC, or, in this case, C. A high-level language is one that
humans can easily read and understand.
•Terminal – A terminal is a combination of a screen and a keyboard where
the user of a program can type input into the program and receive
output back.
•Memory – Memory is where the computer stores the code text for a program,
the variables, the stack, and everything else that the program
needs.
•Hexadecimal – The decimal system uses a base of 10, where 2863 has a 2 in
the 1000’s place, an 8 in the 100’s place, a 6 in the 10’s place, and
a 3 in the 1’s place. Hexadecimal
uses 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F instead of just 0 through 9, where A =
10, B = 11 … F = 15. The base of
hexadecimal is 16, so it has a 1’s place, a 16’s place, a 256’s place, a 4096’s
place, etc. 0 through 255 can be
represented in hexadecimal as 0x00 through 0xFF. 0x?? is a common convention for
distinguishing hexadecimal numbers from decimal numbers.
•Compiled – A compiler takes the source code a programmer has written and
turns it into code text that a computer can easily execute. Code text is a sequence of
instructions.
•Instruction – An instruction tells the computer what to do, but it is very
low-level. Unlike source code, it
works at the computer level telling the
computer what elementary steps to take to execute the program.
•Program counter – The instructions are stored as a sequence of numbers in
the computer just like anything else.
The computer usually executes
one instruction after another unless it is told to jump somewhere
else. The program counter keeps track of what
instruction in memory is being executed at any given time.
•Jump – A jump occurs when the computer is told to start executing
instructions somewhere else besides the next instruction after the
current one being executed.
•Canary – A canary is put in memory and if it is overwritten then something
is wrong. It is analogous to the
canaries used in coal mines to
detect poisonous gas.
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