Questions about the objective meaning or common understanding of words and concepts that programmers encounter
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 ...
6
votes
2answers
182 views
Is there a difference between the terms “Open Source” and “Open Source Software”?
Until today, I have always used the terms open source and open source software interchangeably. But then I read Phil Haack's blog post in which he suggests that the two terms are not necessarily ...
6
votes
3answers
547 views
Did concept of ViewModel exist before MVVM?
Today I was having a discussion with a colleague that ViewModel is a general concept and existed before MVVM pattern.
I believe ViewModel term is used anytime you create a class with Model like ...
6
votes
4answers
803 views
Any difference between version control and/ or revision control?
Is there any difference between:
version control and revision control. I am particulary interested in knowing this specific to git and SVN.
Or is there no difference? I know it doesn't matter ...
6
votes
1answer
103 views
Collective term for shaking device and using accelerometer of a device
Does anyone know what the collective term for shaking a device to achieve something or using the accelerometer of a device to do something is? Is it haptic technology?
6
votes
1answer
236 views
Is there a well grounded theory on backward and forward compatibility of formats, languages, grammars and vocabularies?
I have a friend who has the specific problem of building a case against the use of a custom HTML <wrapper> tag in some site's markup. Now, intuitively we can answer that use of such a tag is ...
6
votes
1answer
387 views
Why is the code section called a text section?
The section of an executable that contains code is sometimes called the .text section. In segmented memory architectures, a segment mapped as code is sometimes called a text segment. The unix error ...
5
votes
10answers
326 views
What is the term that means “keeping the arguments for different API calls as similar as possible”?
There is a word which I can never remember... it expresses a design goal that API calls (or functions or methods or whatever) should be as similar as reasonably possible in their argument patterns. ...
5
votes
5answers
491 views
What is the difference between “recursion” and “self-reference”?
The wikipedia articles are too advanced for me to understand, could someone give me a simple explanation please?
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?
5
votes
7answers
482 views
Is there an opposite for the term “Backporting”?
As I understand, the term "Backporting" is used to describe a fix which is applied in a future version which is also ported to a previous version. Wikipedia definition is as follows:
Backporting ...
5
votes
3answers
390 views
Is there a phrase or word to describe an algorithim or program is complete in that given any value for its arguments there is a defined outcome?
Is there a phrase or word to describe an algorithim or programme is complete in that given any value for its arguments there is a defined outcome? i.e. all the ramifications have been considered ...
5
votes
5answers
366 views
How to talk about anonymous methods/lambdas
I realised the other day that I don't know how to talk about anonymous methods. It's easy enough to talk about named methods (The X method takes a Y1, Y2 and Y3) and classes (The X class has A, B and ...
5
votes
4answers
1k views
What is a Bootstrapper in programming?
I sometimes see the term "Bootstrapper". I saw it last when creating some learning exercises for Prism. I stumbled upon UnityBootstrapper class. My question is: when would you call a class a ...
5
votes
2answers
331 views
Why do they name a program “mogrify” in Imagemagick?
I am not a native English speaker. Is there some trick in this name? What does it mean or imply?
Thank you.
PS. I don't know whether this is the right SE site to post this question but if it is not ...
5
votes
4answers
2k views
What is language-agnosticism and why is it called that way?
When is something language agnostic? Why is it called that way?
5
votes
2answers
829 views
What does the term “Payload” mean in programming
I was going through the source code of an open source framework, where I saw a variable "payload" mentioned many times. Any ideas what "payload" stands for?
5
votes
2answers
644 views
Difference between DevOps and Software Configuration Management
What is the difference between Development Operations and Software Configuration Management?
For me it seems to be the same as long as both DevOps and Software Configuration Management are focused ...
5
votes
6answers
318 views
It's hard to judge your own product. Is there a name for this issue?
I was just talking to my partner about how hard it is to personally judge how good your product is after a while because you use it so often. You literally spend hours on your computer doing nothing ...
5
votes
3answers
318 views
Is there a specific term for an accessor method that returns a boolean value?
I seem to recall that there is a specific term for an accessor method that returns a Boolean value but it escapes me. For example: typical methods such as:
class Example {
bool isDirty();
...
5
votes
1answer
507 views
Origin of the programming language term “boxing”?
What was the first programming environment (probably language) to use the words "boxing" and "unboxing" to indicate encapsulating a primitive type in some kind of wrapper to allow it to be used in ...
5
votes
7answers
549 views
When is a loop “non-trivial”?
Is it correct to call a loop that you do not know the limit at compile time "non-trivial"?
If you know that you will be using a value from a class that will be in a range e.g. between 0-1000, is that ...
5
votes
1answer
227 views
What term is used to describe running frequent batch jobs to emulate near real time
Suppose users of application A want to see the data updated by application B as frequently as possible. Unfortunately app A or app B cannot use message queues, and they cannot share a database. So ...
5
votes
6answers
399 views
What is the *correct* term for a program that makes use of multiple hardware processor cores?
I want to say that my program is capable of splitting some work across multiple CPU cores on a single system. What is the simple term for this? It's not multi-threaded, because that doesn't ...
5
votes
2answers
503 views
What does 'opinionated software' really mean?
I've seen a lot of other framework/library developers throw the phrase 'we write opinionated software' around, but in practical terms, what does that really mean? Does it mean that the author of the ...
5
votes
3answers
152 views
In dependency injection, is there a simple name for the counterpart of the injected object?
In tutorials and books, I have never seen a single word describing the object that the injected object is injected into. Instead, other terms are used, like "injection point" which don't denote the ...
5
votes
4answers
314 views
Does profiling without benchmarking lead to micro-optimization?
Read first: For a definition of the two terms ("profiling" and "benchmarking") and the need for distinguishing them, please read this answer to a previous question.
I have to admit that until I saw ...
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, ...
5
votes
1answer
269 views
Problem with understanding “seam” word
I'm reading "Dependency Injection in .NET" of Mark Seemann (it's fantastic, and must have) and author often uses word "SEAM", but I can't understand what does it means?
Here is an example of using ...
5
votes
2answers
183 views
What defines an encapsulation properly?
I find the encapsulation concept a bit confusing. So far I have read that the members of the class should be private and any access to private members must be through getter and setter methods, which ...
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 ...
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 ...
5
votes
1answer
553 views
What are algorithmic paradigms?
We generally talk about paradigms of programming as functional, procedural, object oriented, imperative etc but what should I reply when I am asked the paradigms of algorithms?
For example are ...
5
votes
3answers
138 views
Proper terminology for a small set of tightly coupled classes?
What is the proper terminology for a small (2-4) set of tightly coupled classes? These classes can't work independently.
I was thinking system, but after googling for a bit, I've determined that the ...
5
votes
5answers
353 views
terminology: Memory leak
When I hear the term memory leak by that I mean a bug in a program that doesn't cause any problems except that it doesn't free memory resource and if it continuously does that it can eat a lot of ...
5
votes
1answer
170 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 ...
5
votes
4answers
321 views
Is there tool agnostic terminology for source control activities?
My team is entering into some discussions on source control (process and possibly tools) and we would like a tool agnostic terminology for the various activities. The environment does have multiple ...
5
votes
1answer
284 views
What is the industry term for those “earn credit by affiliates” programs in iPhone/Android/etc games?
In iPhone, Android, and other gaming platforms you can sometimes earn credit by installing other games, going to someones website, even signing up for a credit card.
For iPhone, for example, there ...
4
votes
8answers
728 views
What is the term that describe objects representing both logic and data?
The reason I am asking this question is I want to know how to properly call an architecture where classes have either data or logic but not both. I know this goes against object orientation and ...
4
votes
4answers
567 views
What is the equivalent word for “compile” in an interpreted language?
(I was encouraged to ask this question here.)
In C, we say:
GCC compiles foo.c.
For interpreters (such as Lua), what is the equivalent verb?
The Lua interpreter ____ foo.lua.
When I ...
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 ...
4
votes
4answers
275 views
what is the term for the class in the bottom of a class hierarchy?
You have a class hierarchy:
D extends C which extends B which extends A, for example.
A would be the top class, but how about D?
I am looking for a short and concise way of describing the position ...
4
votes
7answers
2k views
What's the difference between the terms “protocol” and “standard”?
I find the term "protocol" confusing (in the terms of computer science that is). If the protocol is just a set of rules, wouldn't it be easier if we used the term "standard" instead (like in "HTTP ...
4
votes
5answers
347 views
What do you call “X <= $foo <= Y” comparison?
While writing a Perl statement like if ( $foo >= X && $foo <= Y ) yet again, I wondered why many programming languages do not support the more comfortable form if ( X <= $foo <= Y ...
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?
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 ...
4
votes
2answers
599 views
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
3answers
449 views
Where does the term “Front End” come from?
Where does the term "front-end" come from? Is there a particular presentation/talk/job-posting which is regarded as the first use of the term? Is someone credited with coining the term?
The ...
4
votes
4answers
4k views
What does “S” stands for in OOPS?
I have searched for the full form of "OOPS" in Google, but unfortunately, there are many ambiguous answers. Some say it's "Systems", and some say it's "Structure", and some have even mentioned it as ...
