Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Glossary
machine code
- The language that the computer's CPU understands. Machine code
instructions are series of ones and zeros, and is generally unreadable by humans.
Interpreters (such as the Python interpreter) translate a higher-level language into machine
code.
methods
- Functions that are associated with values of a data type. For example, the
string method
upper()
would be invoked on a string like this:
'Hello'.upper()
module
- A separate Python program that can be included in your programs so that you
can make use of the functions in the module.
modulus operator
- The "remainder" operator that is represented with a % percent
sign. For example, while 20 / 7 is 6 with a remainder of 2,
20 % 7
would evaluate to
2
.
mutable sequence
- A container data type that is ordered and can have values added
or removed from it. Lists are a mutable sequence data type in Python.
negative numbers
- All numbers less than 0. Negative numbers have a minus sign in
front of them to differentiate them from positive numbers, for example, -42 or -10.
nested loops
- Loops that exist inside other loops.
None
- The only value in the NoneType data type. "None" is often used to represent the
lack of a value.
operating system
- A large program that runs other software programs (called
applications) the same way on different hardware. Windows, Mac OS, and Linux are
examples of operating systems.
operators
- Operators connect values in expressions. Operators include
+
,
-
,
*
,
/
,
and
, and
or
ordinal
- In ASCII, the number that represents an ASCII character. For example, the
ASCII character "A" has the ordinal 65.
origin
- In cartesian coordinate systems, the point at the coordinates 0, 0.
OS
- see, operating system
output
- The text that a program produces for the user. For example,
print
statements
produce output.
overwrite
- To replace a value stored in a variable with a new value.
parameter
- A variable that is specified to have a value passed in a function call. For
example, the statement
def spam(eggs, cheese)
defines a function with two
