Questions about the objective meaning or common understanding of words and concepts that programmers encounter
0
votes
0answers
65 views
What is the legal definition of “development version”? [closed]
I'm writing user licence agreements, one distinction that has to be made is the difference between a version of software used for software development, and a version used for production. Typically ...
-1
votes
2answers
225 views
What is the name of a grammar which can change it's tokenizer in mid parse?
I was creating a language and discovered that my language tokenizer would have to change depending where in the parse it is.
I.e. abc[1] would be parsed as 4 tokens (abc, [, 1, ]), where as { abc[1] ...
0
votes
1answer
136 views
how do you call the “number of seconds since epoch” format [closed]
I wanted to gives a good name for a variable date_in_(number of seconds since epoch format)
I googled it and couldnt find anywhere the term to use.
Any ideas?
3
votes
1answer
136 views
Jargon to describe unnecessary running of code?
A code works but it runs unnecessary fraction of code in many cases, still required sometimes. Things such as better preprocessing, simple stoppers and some conditional checkers would save enormous ...
3
votes
2answers
145 views
Is there a name for the school of thought behind writing tests? [closed]
Essentially it is a branch of software engineering but SE itself is too large an umbrella. I was curious if there was a title for the knowledge base that encompasses TDD, BDD, mocks/stubs/spys, unit ...
7
votes
0answers
309 views
Synonym for 'GUI' for non-technical people? [migrated]
Does anyone know a good synonym for 'GUI' that non-technical people will understand? Or a simple sentence explaining it that still won't scare them off?
Edit: Thanks for the answers :-) But I meant ...
1
vote
1answer
99 views
What's the meaning of term context in programming
I was looking through some Objective C docs.. and got this :
UIGraphicsBeginImageContext : Creates a bitmap-based graphics context
and makes it the current context.
Also, the same term is ...
3
votes
2answers
155 views
How did the term “hypervisor” come into use?
I've read about the "hypervisor" in hardware virtualization. VMs are not my area, so I can't quite see where the term came from.
THe wikipedia article talks about how "the hardware's supervisor ...
5
votes
5answers
462 views
Is there any difference between pointers and references? [duplicate]
References and pointers do the same thing as I know. Is there any difference between them?
If there is no difference, why we call them reference not pointer?
0
votes
4answers
225 views
What does it mean to perform an operation “In Place” for Interpreted Languages?
Programming question:
Reverse words in a string (words are separated by one or more spaces).
Now do it in-place.
What does "in-place" mean in the above context for an interpreted language ...
0
votes
1answer
132 views
What is it called when you're developing a web application where every url has its own php file
What is it called when you aren't using an MVC framework and each URL has it's own file associated with it. I want to say it's model 0 or class 0 but I haven't been able to find anything useful via ...
20
votes
6answers
1k views
How can I say that programming language compiles to other languages?
How can I say in english, that programming language can be compiled to other programming languages?
The example can be Haxe. On the website the language is decribed as "Multiplatform":
...
0
votes
2answers
81 views
Proper name for a project supports 2 different release
Is there a technical name for a software project where the current and prior stable releases are both maintained?
0
votes
0answers
25 views
What is the formal name of the 'KeyTips' on ribbon framework and 'link-hints' mode in vimium? What are the algorithms used in it?
What is the formal name of the KeyTips on ribbon framework and link-hints mode in vimium?
I sometimes assume that the key sequences are generated using some sort of brute-force algorithm.
Are there ...
1
vote
2answers
151 views
Why is SIT called SIT when it serves for system testing?
I should define a testing strategy and environments and I have encountered rather terminology issue (but might well be my fault) so I hope someone will correct me here.
We are using INT environment ...
1
vote
0answers
104 views
Lookup tables, code keys, or slowly moving dimensions [closed]
I am looking for a concise notion or term for the concept of "lookup tables". Under this concept I understand a data structure where detailed and mostly stable information is stored under a unique ...
4
votes
4answers
523 views
Term for accidental features
Despite the best intentions of programmers; oftentimes, in the real world, software systems contain "accidental features" that are accepted as part of a working system.
For example, there may be ...
26
votes
9answers
1k views
What is the difference between “Syntax” and “Syntactic Sugar”
Background
The Wikipedia page on Syntactic Sugar states:
In computer science, syntactic sugar is syntax within a programming language that is designed to make things easier to read or to express. ...
18
votes
5answers
1k views
What's the word for an operation that can be applied multiple times and never change state beyond the initial application?
I'm trying to remember a word, I think it's related to computational or database theory. The closest synonym is atomic but that's not exactly it. Basically it's a kind of computation that should ...
8
votes
3answers
415 views
What is the difference between a stock-hardware and a micro-coded machine in “A Critique of Common Lisp”?
I was reading this article: A Critique of Common Lisp and finding it hard to make out the precise definition of "stock-hardware machine" and its difference with "micro-coded" machines. I tried to ...
6
votes
1answer
259 views
Term for a Class with Multiple Interfaces
Say I have a class that implements multiple interfaces. I pass the same instance around using a different interface, depending on what the consumer is interested in.
I am trying to remember what this ...
4
votes
2answers
273 views
Object-Oriented Programming: Why “Oriented”?
I am most of the way through my games programming degree. This is not a computer science degree, so a lot of the theory is eschewed in favour of practical portfolio building and what I see as JIT ...
1
vote
0answers
129 views
Is there a name for this kind of database constraint? “Functional foreign key”? And is it a good idea?
Say we want to enforce that a table represents a tree. I have found this method for doing so:
create table tree (
id integer[] primary key,
parent integer[] references tree (id),
item text not ...
8
votes
4answers
572 views
The difference between “concurrent” and “parallel” execution?
What is the difference between the terms concurrent and parallel execution? I've never quite been able to grasp the distinction.
The tag defines concurrency as a manner of running two processes ...
0
votes
1answer
174 views
Why is black box called functional testing when it tests also non functional?
This has been bothering me for a while. Security, performance tests etc. are all done typically using the black box approach. But these are nonfunctional,while black box is called functional testing.
...
5
votes
4answers
268 views
Umbrella term for classes that all serve another class
I'm looking for an umbrella term for classes which are separated from a main class in order to achieve necessary encapsulation and keep main class reasonably sized.
E.g. each blog post is an ...
8
votes
3answers
240 views
Is the term 'Front-End' synonymous with 'Client-Side'? If so, is this always the case?
As a relatively new (self-taught) web developer, I've heard the terms front-end, client-side, back-end, and server-side quite often. To me, front-end and back-end were always synonymous with ...
2
votes
1answer
118 views
Terminology for class
I am integrating with a Financial Management System (FMS). I have a class that prepares a set of objects (each of these objects is called a TransactionEntity). These are then passed to the FMS.
I give ...
0
votes
6answers
319 views
Does it make sense and is it to acceptable to say “.NET code”? [closed]
There is C# code, VB.NET code... Can I also say ".NET code" as an umbrella term that covers all the languages you can use with the .NET framework?
I've seen people using it as well as people saying ...
0
votes
3answers
204 views
Is there an accepted name for a fake object injected via a preprocessor seam?
I am dealing with some old, sloppy C++ code in which there is a structure with a lot of data members and functions. I want to test a class that I have implemented which uses the struct, but this ...
4
votes
2answers
289 views
What is 'code skew'?
In the O'Reilly book on Scala, I read that copy-pasting of code creates:
... creates issues of code-bloat, maintainability and skew,
I can't see any obvious definitions of the word skew in ...
4
votes
1answer
145 views
Is it called an instance in Javascript?
Say I have a function.
function foo(){
//do stuff
}
And then I create an object of that function.
var fooObj = new foo();
What is fooObj called? An instance, An object instance, or something ...
5
votes
1answer
169 views
Terminology: Really Delete vs set IsDeleted (“soft delete”) flag
I have a site where a regular user can delete records, where what happens is that an IsDeleted flag gets set. On administrative pages, a privileged user can delete records where an actual SQL DELETE ...
32
votes
3answers
1k views
Why are actual parameters called “arguments”?
Where does the word "argument" (in the programming sense) come from?
i.e. Why are actual parameters called "arguments"?
The meanings don't seem related, and I haven't found any explanation of it ...
40
votes
3answers
2k views
IPv4 to IPv6. where is IPv5?
As all of us know that after IPv4 it came IPv6. How this transition happened?
I just want to know was there any IPv5 also? or there is any other logic in naming this version of IP as IPv6?
2
votes
1answer
215 views
Name for a bug that disappears when someone else looks at it [closed]
Does anyone know of an existing name for a bug that disappears the moment you call someone over to look at it? It's a funny phenomenon, but it has happened from time to time that I'm working on a bug ...
5
votes
2answers
106 views
Formal term to web-ify a piece of existing software or program or a module?
There is a software we run as a windows service. Its currently not designed to take a huge load. So we kind of need this service to be hosted over http so that multiple clients can make use of it. Its ...
-2
votes
3answers
120 views
terms for the html/css/javascript model?
Are there any words for the design model implemented by HTML + CSS + JavaScript, either for that specific set of technologies or any abstract pattern that they follow?
38
votes
9answers
3k views
Why is Today() an example of an impure function?
It seems like, when reading something like this Wikipedia article about "pure functions", they list Today() as an example of an impure function but it seems pretty pure to me. Is it because there is ...
0
votes
2answers
114 views
Client-side oriented website approach name (less server-side code, more client-side code)
I have a terminology question.
I was searching about tips to design a website that is using less server-side code and more client-side code, and realized I don't really know which exact term to ...
2
votes
1answer
322 views
Where did the T in wchar_t come from?
In many native types, a common suffix (and sometimes prefix) of t or _t is used to denote platform-independent types (such as wchar_t, int32_t, etc.)
What was the logic behind the letter t as opposed ...
1
vote
2answers
509 views
What's the difference between fault, error and defect? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Difference between defect and bug in testing
In computer science technical writing, especially in software engineering, what's the difference between fault, error and ...
0
votes
1answer
67 views
terminology for upward devolution from modules to framework
Is there a word for the problem of a framework becoming married to the software modules it supports, for example adding methods to a base class that may apply only to certain subclasses or use cases? ...
11
votes
2answers
514 views
Where does the the term “feature creep” come from?
There is a decent Wikipedia article on the "Feature Creep", but it doesn't state an origin. A Google search only leads to some vague article claiming "Earl Rich" coined the term, but there isn't much ...
4
votes
3answers
184 views
Name for sanitizing at the right time?
Recently we had an issue on our site where someone attempted SQL injection via a cookie (we'll call it lastID). NOC was in a frenzy and angry about how the cookie as an attack vector could be ...
7
votes
5answers
1k views
Relationship between user story, feature, and epic?
As someone whose still new to agile, I'm not sure I completely understand the relationship or difference between a user story, feature, and epic.
According to this question, a feature is a collection ...
1
vote
2answers
167 views
Are there differences between Functionality and Functional Requirements
I'm writing some documentation in a project in a tool. In this tool of mine, and write in specific area, I have here use Case, Business Rule, N-Diagram Types, and Functionality and Functional ...
-3
votes
3answers
371 views
what is the name for opposite of functional decomposition antipattern ? what is the pattern that conflict with functional decomposition? [closed]
I want to know what is the opposite of the functional decomposition antipattern? I mean what is the pattern that conflict with functional decomposition?
I need the name of the software design pattern ...
5
votes
3answers
157 views
How can I create and manage permissions more dynamically?
I want to implement a security system into my web-based Intranet application which allows security administrators to 'fine-tune' exactly what type of access a user/role has to an object. For example, ...
4
votes
3answers
268 views
Is “frontend” generic term or it is used only in web design?
When I read about frontends, it always mentiones webpages. Can it be used in different contexts, e.g. desktop applications?
