Glossary

A

abstract (keyword)

An abstract method has no body. It may not be instantiated. If a class contains any abstract methods, the class itself must be declared abstract.

access modifiers

Keywords that set the access level of classes, data, and methods.

accessors

A method that supports data hiding. It has an empty argument list and returns a data value. By common convention, the name of an accessor method begins with get, followed by the property to be retrieved.

additive primary colors

The primary colors of video screens (red, green, and blue). They combine to form yellow, cyan, and magenta.

allocation

Assigning memory for use as objects or arrays.

analog circuit

Non-digital circuit, where precise voltage values are significant.

application

A Java program that’s executed in a Java Virtual Machine, consisting of one or more classes.

array

A cluster of variables (components) that are all of the same type. The array has a name, but its individual components do not.

ASCII

An abbreviation for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. ASCII encodes all the characters in American English, plus punctuation marks, into the range 0-127. The range 128-255 encodes symbols such as accented vowels, which are used in western European languages, as well as some Greek characters, line-drawing symbols, and some others.

assembler

Any program that translates assembly code into base-2 instructions.

assembly language

The language of programming with op-codes. Typically, one line of assembly language code corresponds to a single computer instruction.