MATLAB FINANCIAL DERIVATIVES TOOLBOX Manuel d'utilisateur télécharger pdf (Page 7)

1.2 Basic Definitions

Before moving to the introduction of issues specific to Matlab, some very

basic definitions on computers and programming should be set forth. These

include:

General [1]

• bit (short for binary digit) is the smallest unit of information on a

computer. A single bit can hold only one of two values: 0 or 1. More

meaningful information is obtained by combining consecutive bits

into larger units, such as byte.

• byte consists a unit of 8 bits and is capable to hold a single character.

Large amounts of memory are indicated in terms of kilobytes (1024

bytes), megabytes (1024 kilobytes), and gigabytes (1024 megabytes).

• data is information represented with symbols such as numbers,

words, images, etc.

• command is a collection of programming words that instruct the

computer to do a specific task.

• algorithm is a set of commands that aim to solve a predetermined

problem.

• program is the implementation of the algorithm suitable for

execution by a computer.

• variable is a container that can hold a value. For example, in the

expression: z+a, both z and a are variables. Variables can hold both

numerical data (e.g. 10, 98.5) and characters or strings (e.g. 'd' or

'pba').

• constant is a value that never changes. It can be a numeric, a

character or a string.

• bug is an error in a program, causing the program to stop running,

not to run at all or to provide wrong results. Some bugs can be very

subtle and hard to find. The process of finding and removing the bugs

is called debugging.

Matlab Specific [2]

• workspace is the memory allocated to Matlab and is used to

temporarily store variables.

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MATLAB FINANCIAL DERIVATIVES TOOLBOX Manuel d'utilisateur Page 7