- In computer jargon, what’s the difference between a statement and a comment?
- A comment isn’t part of the “instructions” but rather a note inserted into the code to leave reminders for yourself, explanations to others who might go through your code, and more. A statement is a line of code that gives actual instructions to the computer on what to do in sequential order. Comments may be inserted before or after a statement to explain what the statement does, or possibly to provide a key for naming structures.
- What does it mean to say that a program is portable?
- This means the program can run on more than one kind of computer. For example things written in Java could run on a computer or android, but not iOS (unless a library is used to convert the code into Swift).
- In common English, what does the word compile mean?
- Compiling turns your high-level language code into low-level languages so the computer can execute the tasks.
- What is an executable? Why is that word used as a noun?
- The executable (used as a noun because it’s the nickname we’ve given it) is code in a low-level language that we’ve compiled. It’s called executable because it’s now in a state where the computer can read and execute the commands.