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| The only languages understood by computers. While easily understood by computers, these are almost impossible for humans to use because they consist entirely of numbers. |
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| Have the same set of structures and set of commands as machine languages, but they enable a programmer to use names instead of numbers. Used when speed is essential or when they need to perform an operation that isn't possible in a high-level language. |
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| Enables a programmer to write programs that are more or less independent of a particular type of computer. They are closer to human languages and further from machine languages. |
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| A program that translates source code into object code. Derives its name from the way it works, looking at the entire piece of source code and collecting and reorganizing the instructions. |
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| A program that analyzes and executes each line of source code in succession, without looking at the entire program. |
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| Refers to the spelling and grammar of a programming language. Computers are inflexible machines that understand what you type only if you type it in the exact form that the computer expects. These are the rules that control which words the computer understands, which combinations of words are meaningful, and what punctuation in necessary. |
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| A request for information from a database. |
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| One of the three general methods for posing queries. In this method, the database system presents a list of parameters from which you may choose. This is perhaps the easiest way to pose a query because the menus guide you, but it is also the least flexible. |
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| One of the three general methods for posing queries. In this method, the system presents a blank record and lets you specify the fields and values that define the query. |
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| Many database systems require you to make requests for information in the form of a sylized query that must be written in this method. This is the most complex method because it forces you to learn a specialized language, but it is also the most powerful. |
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| Play an important role in programming because they enable programmers to write flexible programs. Rather than entering data directly into a program, a programmer can use these to represent the data. Then, when the program is executed, these are replaced with real data. |
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| The opposite of a variable,these are values that never change. Because of their inflexibility, these are used less often than variables in programming. |
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