Word bank
Forgot what something means? It’s probably here. Come back any time.
- Boilerplate
- the same basic starter code you write again and again before the real work starts
- Syntax
- the spelling and grammar rules of a programming language
- Terminal
- a text window where you type commands to control the computer
- Git / GitHub
- a tool that saves every version of your code; GitHub stores it online
- Repo
- a project folder that Git keeps track of
- Framework
- a ready-made toolbox that does common work for you
- Frontend
- the part of an app you see and click, in the browser
- Backend
- the hidden part on a server that does the logic and stores data
- Server
- a computer that runs your app and answers users’ requests
- Full-stack
- able to build both the frontend and the backend
- API
- a way for two programs to talk and share data
- REST API
- a common, simple API style using normal web requests
- CRUD
- the four basic data actions: Create, Read, Update, Delete
- DOM
- the live structure of a web page that JavaScript can change
- Async
- code that can wait for slow things without freezing everything
- SQL
- the language used to ask a database for data
- ORM
- talk to a database using normal code instead of database commands
- Token / JWT
- a secure digital pass that proves a user is logged in
- Deploy
- to put your app on the internet so anyone can use it
- Big-O
- how much slower code gets as the data grows
- Recursion
- when a function calls itself to solve a smaller piece
- LLM
- a large AI model that reads and writes text, like ChatGPT or Claude
- Token
- the small chunks of text an LLM reads and writes — a bit like syllables
- Prompt
- the instruction you give to an AI
- Hallucinate
- when an AI confidently makes something up that isn’t true
- Neural network
- a brain-inspired system that learns from examples (the deep, later stuff)