Perl — page 5 of 5

498 terms

Perl terms

  1. source filter A special kind of "module" that does "preprocessing" on your script just before it gets to the "tokener".
  2. Stack A group of 20 roulette chips.
  3. Standard a statement that describes an acceptable level of performance, excellence, or attainment in that particular activity.
  4. standard error The standard error of an estimate is a measure of the sampling variability of the estimate.
  5. standard I/O A standard C library for doing buffered input and output to the "operating system".
  6. standard input The default input "stream" for your program, which if possible shouldn't care where its data is coming from.
  7. standard output The default output "stream" for your program, which if possible shouldn't care where its data is going.
  8. stat structure A special internal spot in which Perl keeps the information about the last "file" on which you requested information.
  9. Statement A summary of all transactions that occurred over the preceding month and could be associated with a deposit account or a credit card account.
  10. statement modifier A "conditional" or "loop" that you put after the "statement" instead of before, if you know what we mean.
  11. Static Unchanging over a length of time.
  12. static method A static method (also known as a class method) is one with the static reserved word in its header.
  13. static scoping No such thing. See "lexical scoping".
  14. static variable A static variable defined inside a class body. Such a variable belongs to the class as a whole, and is, therefore, shared by all objects of the class.
  15. Status The legal standing of a patent appplication or patent. MPEP 102.
  16. STDERR See "standard error".
  17. STDIN See "standard input".
  18. STDIO See "standard I/O".
  19. STDOUT See "standard output".
  20. stream A body of running water.
  21. string A series of alphanumeric characters of any length enclosed by quotes.
  22. string context The situation in which an expression is expected by its surroundings (the code calling it) to return a "string". See also "context" and "numeric context".
  23. stringification The process of producing a "string" representation of an abstract object.
  24. struct C keyword introducing a structure definition or name.
  25. Structure Changes in the shape of the bottom of lakes, rivers, or impoundments, especially those that influence fish behavior.
  26. subclass Each asset class - stock, bonds, and cash equivalents, for example - is made up of a number of different groups of investments called subclasses.
  27. subpattern A component of a "regular expression" pattern.
  28. subroutine A named or otherwise accessible piece of program that can be invoked from elsewhere in the program in order to accomplish some sub-goal of the program.
  29. subscript A "value" that indicates the position of a particular "array" "element" in an array.
  30. substitution Replacement of one nucleotide in a DNA sequence by another nucleotide or replacement of one amino acid in a protein by another amino acid.
  31. substring A portion of a "string", starting at a certain "character" position ("offset") and proceeding for a certain number of characters.
  32. superclass A class from which a particular class is derived, perhaps with one or more classes in between. See also subclass, subtype.
  33. superuser The person whom the "operating system" will let do almost anything. Typically your system administrator or someone pretending to be your system…
  34. SV Space Vehicle.
  35. switch A Java keyword used to evaluate a variable that can later be matched with a value specified by the case keyword in order to execute a group of statements.
  36. switch cluster The combination of multiple command-line switches (e.g., -a -b -c) into one switch (e.g., -abc).
  37. switch statement A selection statement in which the value of an arithmetic expression {expression!arithmetic} is compared for a match against different case labels.
  38. symbol A graphic pattern used to represent a feature. For example, line symbols represent arc features; marker symbols, points; shades symbols, polygons; and…
  39. symbol table Where a "compiler" remembers symbols. A program like Perl must somehow remember all the names of all the variables, filehandles, and subroutines you've…
  40. symbolic debugger A program that lets you step through the execution of your program, stopping or printing things out here and there to see whether anything has gone wrong…
  41. symbolic link An alternate filename that points to the real "filename", which in turn points to the real "file".
  42. symbolic reference A variable whose value is the name of another variable or subroutine. By dereferencing the first variable, you can get at the second one.
  43. synchronous Programming in which the orderly sequence of events can be determined; that is, when things happen one after the other, not at the same time.
  44. syntactic sugar An alternative way of writing something more easily; a shortcut.
  45. syntax From Greek, "with-arrangement". How things (particularly symbols) are put together with each other.
  46. syntax tree An internal representation of your program wherein lower-level constructs dangle off the higher-level constructs enclosing them.
  47. syscall A "function" call directly to the "operating system". Many of the important subroutines and functions you use aren't direct system calls, but are built up…
  48. tainted Said of data derived from the grubby hands of a user and thus unsafe for a secure program to rely on.
  49. TCP Transmission Control Protocol (Internet protocol).
  50. Term A term is the length of time between when a fixed-income security, such as a bond or note, is offered for sale and its maturity date.
  51. terminator 1. A DNA sequence just downstream of the coding segment of a gene, which is recognized by RNA polymerase as a signal to stop synthesizing mRNA. 2.
  52. ternary An "operator" taking three operands. Sometimes pronounced "trinary".
  53. text A "string" or "file" containing primarily printable characters.
  54. thread A series of postings on a particular topic. Threads can be a series of bulletin board messages (for example, when someone posts a question and others…
  55. TIE this is where neither the house nor the player wins.
  56. TMTOWTDI There's More Than One Way To Do It, the Perl Motto. The notion that there can be more than one valid path to solving a programming problem in context.
  57. Token See definition for: access token
  58. tokener A module that breaks a program text into a sequence of tokens for later analysis by a parser.
  59. tokenizing Splitting up a program text into tokens. Also known as "lexing", in which case you get "lexemes" instead of tokens.
  60. toolbox approach The notion that, with a complete set of simple tools that work well together, you can build almost anything you want.
  61. transliterate To turn one string representation into another by mapping each character of the source string to its corresponding character in the result string.
  62. trigger (TRIH-ger) In medicine, a specific event that starts a process or that causes a particular outcome.
  63. trinary Not a stellar system with three stars, but an "operator" taking three operands. Sometimes pronounced "ternary".
  64. troff A venerable typesetting language from which Perl derives the name of its 0 variable and which is secretly used in the production of Camel books.
  65. true Any scalar value that doesn't evaluate to 0 or "".
  66. truncating Emptying a file of existing contents, either automatically when opening a file for writing or explicitly via the truncate function.
  67. type A class or interface.
  68. type casting Converting data from one type to another. C permits this. Perl does not need it. Nor want it.
  69. typed lexical A "lexical variable" that is declared with a "class" type: my Pony $bill.
  70. typedef A type definition in the C language.
  71. typeglob Use of a single identifier, prefixed with *. For example, *name stands for any or all of $name, @name, %name, &name, or just name.
  72. typemap A description of how C types may be transformed to and from Perl types within an "extension" module written in "XS".
  73. UDP User Datagram Protocol, the typical way to send datagrams over the Internet.
  74. UID A user ID. Often used in the context of "file" or "process" ownership.
  75. umask A mask of those "permission bits" that should be forced off when creating files or directories, in order to establish a policy of whom you'll ordinarily…
  76. unary operator An operator taking a single operand. Java's unary operators are -, +, !, !, ++ and --.
  77. Unicode A 16-bit character set designed to make it easier to exchange and display information that makes use of a wide range of different languages and symbols.
  78. UNIX A software operating system.
  79. v-string A "version" or "vector" "string" specified with a v followed by a series of decimal integers in dot notation, for instance, v1.20.300.4000.
  80. Value In determining the monetary equivalent for assets and gifts, value is a good faith estimate of the fair market value if the exact value is neither known…
  81. variable An item of data named by an identifier. Each variable has a type, such as int or Object, and a scope.
  82. variable interpolation The "interpolation" of a scalar or array variable into a string.
  83. variadic Said of a "function" that happily receives an indeterminate number of "actual arguments".
  84. vector any living creature that transmits an infectious agent to humans.
  85. virtual Is a process by which multiple operating systems (servers) run on a single piece of hardware or physical server
  86. void context A form of "scalar context" in which an "expression" is not expected to return any "value" at all and is evaluated for its "side effects" alone.
  87. Warning The fourth of five Early Warning System components consisting of the processes (including the media) and equipment necessary to make the public aware of…
  88. watch expression An expression which, when its value changes, causes a breakpoint in the Perl debugger.
  89. whitespace A "character" that moves your cursor but doesn't otherwise put anything on your screen.
  90. word In normal "computerese", the piece of data of the size most efficiently handled by your computer, typically 32 bits or so, give or take a few powers of 2.
  91. working directory Your current "directory", from which relative pathnames are interpreted by the "operating system".
  92. wrapper An object that encapsulates and delegates to another object to alter its interface or behavior in some way.
  93. WYSIWYG What You See Is What You Get Display and software technology which shows on the computer screen exactly what will print.
  94. XS An extraordinarily exported, expeditiously excellent, expressly eXternal Subroutine, executed in existing C or C++ or in an exciting new extension…
  95. XSUB An external "subroutine" defined in "XS".
  96. yacc Yet Another Compiler Compiler. A parser generator without which Perl probably would not have existed. See the file perly.y in the Perl source distribution.
  97. zero width A subpattern "assertion" matching the "null string" between characters.
  98. Zombie The classic version is a mindless, frequently violent, product of supernatural magic or pharmacology while the modern incarnation is a reanimated human…

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