Source: UISDC (Youshe)
1. Programming language
Human languages split into Chinese, English, French and so on; computer languages likewise split into Java, PHP, HTML and more. These are programming languages. Different programmers speak different languages, and each language needs separate study.
2. Program
A program is the task list you give a computer or phone in a programming language, telling it what we want done.
3. Data type
Data types are the markers programming languages use to distinguish data formats: recording a number and recording Chinese characters require different types. Integer: int. Floating point (decimals): float, double. String (words, sentences): string. Boolean: only the two values yes and no.
4. Variable
A variable is a quantity without a fixed value. Define a variable X for a picture book’s title, and X might be I Don’t Like Crying or Mother Crocodile. That is, a word stands for one property of a thing, like the title above.
5. Interface
A computer needs to fetch information inside a phone, so you connect the two with a data cable; the sockets the cable plugs into on computer and phone are the legendary API interfaces, the channels for fetching data or functions. In the pro mini program, to display articles on the front end, after defining the title’s font size and colour, the designer needs an interface to fetch the article text; the much-mentioned API simply means interface.
6. Client (front end) and backend
The client is the software interface users see; the backend is the controller governing the front end’s content and functions, generally used by the developers.
7. Hardcoded versus delivered from the backend
Hardcoded means the programmer writes the actual text directly in the HTML code; changing it means changing the code. Delivered from the backend means the HTML holds a variable instead of text, and the variable’s content can be changed in the backend. For example, software managing branch offices across cities needs a dropdown to switch cities. Technically two routes exist: put the city data on a server and let the front end fetch and display it through an interface, or write all city names straight into the front end, that is, hardcode them. The first is flexible: when city data changes, a new branch opens in a new city, you add it in the backend and touch nothing in the front end, at the cost of developing the interface. The second is faster and spares that work. Which to use depends on the scenario: ad-banner images do not suit hardcoding and need an interface for flexible backend swapping, while the page title text in the middle of the nav bar rarely changes and can be hardcoded.
8. Server
A machine that provides services. WeChat’s servers provide chatting, file transfer, video, Moments and other services; after users connect (log in), the server processes the data and information and returns results, rather than processing on the user’s own computer or phone.
9. Database
The place that stores user information and software content, the warehouse holding all data. The news column articles on XZS Tech’s official website are stored in our own database; the last time articles would not open, the database was at fault. Link-style articles are stored on WeChat’s servers: we link to them and WeChat serves the reading. A database is part of a server.
10. Class, object, abstraction and instance
Abstraction, in technical terms, means distilling a general template and then making concrete implementations from it. In the real world, people are classified as men, women, the elderly and children; abstract those categories and you get human being. Human is an abstracted category, a class in technical terms. In the programming world, describing real things through program language uses exactly this abstraction, turning a class of things into a class. With a class, you can instantiate it: from the human class you can instance the elderly and children; such concrete beings are instances.
11. What programmers mean by print
Debugging and testing constantly produce the word print. Programmers do not mean printing text or images on paper: they mean outputting results, not to real-world paper but to their computer screen, to check whether the program runs correctly. Outputting the running results to the screen is called printing.
12. Architecture and framework
Architecture and framework are two technical concepts programmers often mention; the workplace even has the architect position. Take building a house: the chief designer draws the overall blueprint and plan, which is the architect’s work. Once the architecture is set, construction begins: you can design the interior scheme entirely yourself, or apply existing mature decoration templates. Those templates are the framework. A framework uses existing mature technical structures to simplify development, lower complexity and reduce workload. Much software today is built on mature development frameworks instead of pure ground-up coding, for efficiency.
13. Controls and components
Any web page or app is assembled from large numbers of input boxes, buttons and image-text frames; these smallest elements of a page are controls. A button is a control; so is an input box. A component is an upgraded control with fuller functions, best understood as a combination of several controls: a tab bar is a component, composed of icons, text and buttons.
14. Processes and threads
Programmers often discuss processes and threads; facing some complex function they may say several threads are already running in parallel. Again by example: you tap an app’s icon, the phone’s operating system allocates it running resources (CPU and memory), and the app begins to run. That running app is a process; every running app is a process. Open WeChat and Taobao at once and two processes coexist. When the phone’s CPU or memory runs short, the system closes processes not currently in use; the process terminates and its app closes. A thread is a smaller unit of program execution than a process. One app can contain many threads, such as a thread for sending chat messages and one for network connections. An app manages many functions at once precisely because of its multiple threads, which keep system resources allocated and used sensibly.
15. Script
The word script also comes up often; programmers sometimes say let’s write a script to handle this uniformly. A script is also a computer program, generally replacing repetitive manual operations: importing picture book information into a database through a fixed-format table is done with a script. Scripts usually have no graphical interface and are used through code commands, generally by programmers.
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