Hardware - the "machinery" - computer equipment - the CPU, the monitor, the keyboard, the mouse, the external speakers, the scanner, the printer, etc.  The physical, touchable parts of a computer system.

Software - the program instructions that make the computer do some task, such as word process, manage databases, play games, etc.  Your C++ programs will be your software.

Program - a listing of instructions (code) for the computer to follow written in some programming language.  For this course, these instructions will be written in the language of C++.

Hard Copy - a paper printout of the program code or data displayed on the screen.

Soft Copy - copy of a program stored on a hard drive, diskette, or CD.  

Network - a hardware and software data communication system.  Usually a  group of computers that are linked to share memory and programs.

Control Unit - the unit inside of the CPU which "directs the traffic" - makes decisions.  It performs the functions of fetch, decode, execute, and store.

Machine Language - the lowest level of computer languages where instructions are given by numeric code.

High Level Language - a computer language which is easily read by humans - the code consists of English-like words where each statement corresponds to several machine language instructions.

Object Code - the machine code version of the source program (a program written by a programmer). 

Compiler - converts the source code of a program to machine language placing the result in an object code file.

Interpreter - converts a program one line at a time into machine language.  

Bit - the representation of a 1 or 0 designating power ON or power OFF.  A binary digit.

Byte - 8 bits.

Format/Initialize - to prepare a storage device (diskette or hard disk) for receiving information for a system.  The storage device is said to be formatted (into areas called sectors and tracks) when its space has been divided and organized into areas that can be quickly controlled by the system for storage and access.