Perl terms starting with M

21 terms

  1. magic Technically speaking, any extra semantics attached to a variable such as $!, $0, %ENV, or %SIG, or to any tied variable.
  2. magical increment An "increment" operator that knows how to bump up alphabetics as well as numbers.
  3. magical variables Special variables that have side effects when you access them or assign to them.
  4. Makefile A file that controls the compilation of a program. Perl programs don't usually need a "Makefile" because the Perl compiler has plenty of self-control.
  5. MAN The Unix program that displays online documentation (manual pages) for you.
  6. manpage A "page" from the manuals, typically accessed via the man(1) command. A manpage contains a SYNOPSIS, a DESCRIPTION, a list of BUGS, and so on, and is…
  7. Matching See "pattern matching".
  8. member data See "instance variable".
  9. memory Data storage in the form of chips, or the actual chips used to hold data; storage is used to describe memory that exists on tapes or discs.
  10. metacharacter A "character" that is not supposed to be treated normally. Which characters are to be treated specially as metacharacters varies greatly from context to…
  11. metasymbol Something we'd call a "metacharacter" except that it's a sequence of more than one character.
  12. method the course of action or technique followed in conducting a specific analysis or comparison leading to an analytical result.
  13. minimalism The belief that "small is beautiful." Paradoxically, if you say something in a small language, it turns out big, and if you say it in a big language, it…
  14. mode In a frequency distribution, the class having the greatest frequency.
  15. modifier See "statement modifier", "regular expression modifier", and "lvalue modifier", not necessarily in that order.
  16. module The smallest self-contained, environmentally protected structure housing interconnected photovoltaic cells and providing a single dc electrical output…
  17. modulus An integer divisor when you're interested in the remainder instead of the quotient.
  18. monger Short for Perl Monger, a purveyor of Perl.
  19. mortal A temporary value scheduled to die when the current statement finishes.
  20. multidimensional array An array with multiple subscripts for finding a single element. Perl implements these using references--see perllol and perldsc.
  21. multiple inheritance The ability of a class or interface to extend more than one class or interface.