- Computer hardware is the physical parts or components of a computer, such as the monitor, mouse, keyboard, computer data storage, hard disk drive (HDD), graphic cards, sound cards, memory, motherboard, and so on, all of which are physical objects that are tangible.
- Computer software or simply software is any set of machine-readable instructions that directs a computer's processor to perform specific operations. Computer software contrasts with computer hardware, which is the physical component of computers.
- CPU (pronounced as separate letters) is the abbreviation for central processing unit. Sometimes referred to simply as the central processor, but more commonly called processor, the CPU is the brains of the computer where most calculations take place.
- Computer memory is any physical device capable of storing information temporarily or permanently. For example, Random Access Memory (RAM), is a volatile memory that stores information on an integrated circuit used by the operating system, software, and hardware.
- RAM (pronounced ramm) is an acronym for random access memory, a type of computer memory that can be accessed randomly; that is, any byte of memory can be accessed without touching the preceding bytes.
- An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources and provides common services for computer programs. The operating system is an essential component of the system software in a computer system.
- An integrated development environment (IDE) is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development. An IDE normally consists of a source code editor, build automation tools and a debugger.
- In computer science, a syntax error is an error in the syntax of a sequence of characters or tokens that is intended to be written in a particular programming language. For compiled languages syntax errors occur strictly at compile-time.