IDEs & Languages

Keywords

• IDE (Intergrated Development Environment)

  • Breakpoint

  • Syntax highlighter

  • Auto completion

  • Auto intentation

  • Highlighting variable/command words

  • Stepping/step through

  • Variable watch

• Algorithm

• Variable vs Constant

• Assignment

• Arithmetic Operators

• MOD & DIV

IDE (Integrated Development Environment)

An IDE is a text editor that programmers use to write, edit, run and debug their code. An IDE offers many features that assist a programmer in these tasks and that's why they are used over tools such as Notepad. Some features include:

• Breakpoints: Code will stop at selected points to allow the programmer to run commands, execute code and view variable values.

• Syntax Highlighting: Highlights all common keywords and symbols so that you can check your code is correct at a glance.

• Auto-Completion: Automatically suggests methods, variables, etc. to the programmer when they start writing. For example, a programmer may write "pr" and it will get suggested and completed with "print()".

• Auto-Indentation: Automatically places the required tabs/spaces to put code inside the code blocks such as functions or if statements.

• Highlighting variables/command words: Allows you to quickly see where your variables are being used without having to properly read through your code.

• Stepping/Step Through: Runs the code one line at a time to allow the programmer to see whats going on in the code, they can run commands and check variable names too. This is useful for checking for logic errors.

• Variable Watch: Notes all the changes in the value of a variable to allow the programmer to spot logic errors within their program.

Algorithm

An algorithm is a set of instructions that are used to complete a task or to solve a problem.

Variable & Constants

A variable is a location in memory where a data is stored. A variables data can change at runtime, whereas with a constant it can’t be changed at runtime.

Assignment

Assignment is where you set a variables value. Typically in python this is done with a SINGLE equals (=), rather than a doubble equals since thats for comparrison.

Arithmetic Operators

Arithmetic operators are used to transform numbers. There are four main arithmetic operators, being + (addition), - (subtraction), * (multiplication), / (division). These are all used with 2 numbers to produce another number. There are more than 4 operators, with other such as ** (exponents/to the power of.).

MOD & DIV

Both Modulus and Integer/Floor division use forms of division, they return different things. Integer division/DIV returns the integer value that you get for dividing 2 numbers, for example 5DIV2 is 2. Modulus/MOD returns the remainder from a division, so for example 5MOD2 would be 1.

Syntax Error

A syntax error is an error caused by not following the rules of the progrmaming language. In the case of a syntax error, the rules are like grammer. For example after an if statement in python needing a ":" or after every line in java needing a ";", if that's not done then the code will stop running or wont compile and will throw a Syntax Error.

Logic Error

A logic error that doesn't stop the program but will produces an output that is unexpected and not what the programmer intended. This could be something like working out the volume in meters and multiplying the cm by 10 instead of 100.

Variable Naming Conventions

Variables need to be named intuitively so that their purpose can be understood at a glance. For example, "width" is a better name than "w". There are rules on how to name variables. A variable can't be named in ALL CAPS as that would indicate a constant, a variable name can't start wth a number but it can contain numbers. A variable can only contain A-Z, 0-9 and the symbols - and _. You can't have any other symbols as thats an invalid variable name. These symbols are typically used to form 3 cases:

camelCase: theCatSatOnTheMat

snake_case: the_cat_sat_on_the_mat

kebab-case: the-cat-sat-on-the-mat