Appendix J — Glossary of Programming Jargon

“Jargon” means words which have a very specific meaning within a given discipline. All disciplines have their own jargon, sometimes called slang. These words can be repurposed real words like script or can be made up like truthiness.

A very useful resource is available here

The following table attempts to collect and explain the most common jargon used in Python and programming in general.

Table J.1: A list of jargon or slang words used in computer programming and what they mean

Word	Meaning
script	A file containing a set of instructions which should be run in order. For
	instance we could use F5 in Spyder to run the whole thing. This is
	usually placed in a .py file.
code	Another word for the written program. The acting of programming is
	sometimes called coding.
linter	A linter is a program which analyzes the formatting of code, like
	indentation and spacing, and reports errors.
library	A collection of functions offered together under an overarching namespace.
	The math library from the standard library. Libraries are sometimes
	calledpackages.
package	A collection of functions offered together under an overarching namespace.
	The math library from the standard library. Libraries are sometimes
	called libraries.
module	The functions contained within a given library or package are often
	categorized under different sub-headings, like json.codecs, which contains
	a suite of functions. We would say that the json library (or package)
	has a codecs module.
terminal
console
command prompt
shell
parser	A program that analyzes inputted code in accordance with the rules of a
	defined formal grammar (i.e. syntax).