This page gathers the 841 dictionary entries belonging to the domain “Programming”, as labelled by Wiktionary. Each word leads to its full entry: definitions, etymology, pronunciation, examples. Page 6 of 9: from “NOP sled” to “readtable”.
- NOP sled noun A series of identical values in memory that instruct the CPU to take no action and proceed to the next instruction, used in shellcode etc.…
- null-terminated adj Stored in memory followed by a null character, so that its length can be detected without having to be explicitly stored.
- nullary adj Taking no arguments.
- numeric promotion noun The conversion of a numeric data type into one that can hold more information. For example, the conversion of a long into a double.
- object pool pattern noun A creational design pattern that uses a set of initialised objects kept ready to use, rather than allocating and destroying them on demand.
- object-based programming noun A programming paradigm that encapsulates states and operations inside "objects" to design applications and computer programs.
- object-oriented language noun Any programming language that encapsulates the state and operations inside objects that support inheritance.
- object-oriented programming noun A programming paradigm that uses hierarchies of objects, instantiated from templates called classes, to design applications and computer…
- off-by-one error noun A logic error where a value, typically the number of iterations of a loop, is specified incorrectly, being either 1 less or 1 more than it…
- offset noun The difference between a target memory address and a base address.
- offside rule noun In some programming languages, the convention by which the indentation of a line of source code affects its meaning.
- one shot noun A programmable interval timer.
- oop verb To use object-oriented programming for a task.
- optimization noun The reduction of a program or algorithm to its most efficient form, as during compilation, by removing unused portions of code and…
- optimize out verb To omit (some portion of program logic) through optimization, when it is found to be unused or unnecessary.
- optional noun In various programming languages, a kind of variable that is assigned a specific data type but may or may not hold an actual value.
- out-of-band adj Of a value returned by a function: not in its natural range of return values, but rather signaling an exception.
- outcase noun A condition that allows code to break out of a recursive routine.
- overindex verb To attempt to access an element beyond the bounds of (an array).
- overlay noun A block of program code that is loaded over something previously loaded, so as to replace the functionality.
- overload noun An overloaded version of a function.
- oversubscribe verb To use the oversubscription technique in multithreading.
- oversubscription noun A multithreading technique involving an extra thread that runs tasks when all other threads are blocked.
- p-code noun A very low-level code that is machine-independent and enables a compiled file to be run on different processor types.
- pair programming noun A software development technique, part of extreme programming, in which two programmers work together at a single keyboard, one coding…
- parallelize verb To make to execute in parallel.
- parameter noun An input variable of a function definition, that gets an actual value (argument) at execution time.
- parameterize verb To rewrite (a database query, etc.) as a template into which parameters can be inserted.
- parametric polymorphism noun A way to make a computer language more expressive, while maintaining full static type safety, by allowing a function or a data type to be…
- parent verb To provide a parent object for one or more other objects, which become the children.
- partial noun A fragment of a template containing markup.
- pessimization noun A change to program code that makes it less efficient, the opposite of an optimization.
- pickle verb To serialize.
- pickler noun (in the Python programming language) A program or algorithm that performs serialization.
- picture noun A format string in the COBOL programming language.
- pin verb To fix (an array in memory, a security certificate, etc.) so that it cannot be modified.
- pivot noun An element of a set to be sorted that is chosen as a midpoint, so as to divide the other elements into two groups to be dealt with…
- playground noun A sandbox for testing calls to an application programming interface.
- plumbing noun The set of Git commands, such as and , which control the low-level state of the repository, typically not intended to be used in ordinary…
- point-free adj Employing or relating to tacit programming.
- pointcut noun In aspect-oriented programming, a set of join points specifying when advice should run during execution.
- pointer noun A variable that holds the address of a memory location where a value can be stored.
- pointerlike adj Like a pointer (variable holding a memory address).
- pointless adj Point-free; employing the tacit programming paradigm.
- pointy adj In the Raku programming language: being a block or subroutine that acts as a closure accepting a list of parameters (denoted by the pointed…
- polyglot noun A program written to be valid in multiple programming languages.
- polymorphic adj Having or relating to the ability to take multiple data types for a single parameter.
- polymorphic iteration noun The use of an iterator class or interface to enable traversal over the members of any type of collection for which there is a corresponding…
- porcelain noun The set of Git commands, such as or , which control the high-level state of the repository, each typically combining the behaviour of…
- positional adj An argument that is passed to a subroutine according to its position in the invocation code, rather than on its name; compare with named.
- pragma noun A compiler directive; data embedded in source code by programmers to indicate some intention to a compiler.
- pre-hook noun A section of code that runs immediately before a hook call.
- precedence rule noun A set of rules specifying the order in which parts of an expression are parsed, especially when parentheses are not present.
- predeclare verb To declare some source code element (such as a class) in advance of its full description, so that other preceding parts of the code can…
- predicate noun An operator, expression, or function that returns either true or false.
- prefab noun A reusable object in a video game world.
- prelude noun A standard module or library of subroutines and functions to be imported, generally by default, into a program.
- premature optimization noun The act of wasting resources on optimising source code that does not represent a significant bottleneck.
- prettify verb Synonym of pretty-print.
- pretty adj Matching commonly accepted principles of formatting and syntax, for the sake of readability.
- pretty-print verb To display code in a pretty fashion, matching commonly accepted principles of formatting and syntax, for the sake of readability.
- primitive noun A data type that is built into the programming language, as opposed to more complex structures.
- proc noun Abbreviation of procedure.
- process-oriented adj Of or pertaining to a programming paradigm that separates the concerns of data structures and the concurrent processes that act upon them.
- prod noun Clipping of production (“the live environment”).
- production noun The environment where finished code runs, as opposed to staging or development.
- program slicer noun A software analysis tool that displays data links and related characteristics to enable a programmer to track the effects of proposed…
- programmatically adv Through program code, rather than through a user interface.
- programming language noun A code of reserved words and symbols used in computer programs, which give instructions to the computer on how to accomplish certain…
- programming style noun The conventions and patterns used in writing source code, resulting in a consistent and readable codebase.
- promise noun A placeholder object representing the eventual result of an asynchronous operation.
- promote verb To treat (a value) as a more capable data type or as having higher priority.
- protected adj Having the protected access modifier, indicating that a program element is accessible to subclasses but not to the program in general.
- prototype pattern noun A creational design pattern that determines the type of objects to create by a prototypical instance, which is cloned to produce new…
- prototype-based programming noun A programming style, where inheritance is achieved by using existing objects by means of delegation that act as prototypes.
- prototype-based scripting language noun A programming language that uses prototypes to allow objects to inherit properties and methods from other objects.
- prototype-oriented adj Of or pertaining to a style of object-oriented programming that uses existing objects as prototypes to reuse behavior.
- prototype-oriented programming noun A programming paradigm that encapsulates states and operations inside "prototypes" to design applications and computer programs.
- pseudocode noun A description of a computer programming algorithm that uses the structural conventions of programming languages but omits detailed…
- pseudohandle noun A special value that can be treated as a handle (e.g. to identify a process) but is not a true handle.
- pseudoinstruction noun A command that resembles, but is not in fact, a machine instruction, such as a special directive or a command that is mapped to a sequence…
- pseudostatement noun A construct resembling a statement that is not a true statement.
- publish verb To make (information such as an event) available to components that wish to be notified (subscribers).
- publisher noun A system or component that allows other components (subscribers) to receive notifications of something, such as an event.
- pumpking noun A Perl user working on shared source code who has been temporarily designated as the only person who is allowed to make changes.
- pure adj Having no side effects.
- pyramid of doom noun The presence of many levels of nested indentation in source code, making it difficult for a person to read.
- pythonic adj Using the idioms of the Python programming language.
- qualifier noun A marker that qualifies or modifies another code element.
- query language noun Any of several generalized computer languages in which users may extract data from selected records in a database.
- racy adj Involving a data race or a race condition.
- raise verb To instantiate and transmit (an exception, by throwing it, or an event).
- rand noun A random number.
- range noun A sequential list of values specified by an iterator.
- ravel verb In the APL programming language: to reshape (a variable) into a vector.
- ravelled adj Of a variable in the APL programming language: which has been reshaped into a vector.
- ravelling noun In the APL programming language: the act of reshaping a variable into a vector.
- ravioli code noun Overly structured program source code, with many small sections, functions, etc. that should be combined.
- reactive programming noun A declarative programming paradigm where changes to values are automatically propagated, without the need for explicit reassignment.
- readtable noun In Lisp and related languages, a data structure specifying how text characters are to be interpreted syntactically.