Programming terms starting with C

127 terms

C Abbreviation for cytosine.
C preprocessor The typical C compiler's first pass, which processes lines beginning with # for conditional compilation and macro definition and does various…
call by reference An "argument"-passing mechanism in which the "formal arguments" refer directly to the "actual arguments", and the "subroutine" can change the actual…
call by value A semantics of passing an argument to a method in which a copy of the actual argument value is taken and placed in a separate memory location, represented…
callback A "handler" that you register with some other part of your program in the hope that the other part of your program will "trigger" your handler when some…
callback methods Component methods called by the container to notify the component of important events in its life cycle.
caller Same as caller principal.
caller principal The principal that identifies the invoker of the enterprise bean method.
canonical Reduced to a standard form to facilitate comparison.
capturing The use of parentheses around a "subpattern" in a "regular expression" to store the matched "substring" as a "backreference".
carriage return The \r character. Also used as a synonym for the `Return' or `Enter' key used to terminate a line of text.
cascade delete A deletion that triggers another deletion. A cascade delete can be specified for an entity bean that has container-managed persistence.
cascading if-else statement A form of if-else statement in which each else-part (except the last) consists of a further nested if-else statement.
CASE The last card of a certain rank in the deck. Example: "The flop came J-8-3; I've got pocket jacks, he's got pocket 8's, and then the case eight falls on…
case label The value used to select a particular case in a switch statement.
case sensitive A test that is sensitive to whether a character is upper-case (e.g., 'A') or lower-case (e.g., 'a').
CAST Commercial Acquisition Streamlining Team (USAF team name).
casting Explicit conversion from one data type to another.
Catch At a recreational fishery, refers to the number of fish captured, whether they are kept or released.
catch clause The part of a try statement responsible for handling a caught exception.
catching exceptions Exceptions are caught within the catch clause of a try statement. Catching an exception gives the program an opportunity to recover from the problem or…
CDATA A predefined XML tag for character data that means "don't interpret these characters," as opposed to parsed character data (PCDATA), in which the normal…
CDC (Connected Device Configuration) The Connected Device Configuration (CDC) is a specification for a Java ME configuration.
CDMA (Code-Division Multiple Access) Code-Division Multiple Access (CDMA) is a cellular technology widely used in North America.
CDMA One Also know as IS-95, CDMAOne is a 2nd generation wireless technology. Supports speeds from 14.4Kbps to 115K bps.
CDMA2000 Also known as IS-136, CDMA2000 is a 3rd generation wireless technology. Supports speeds ranging from 144Kbps to 2Mbps.
CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data) A data communication standard utilizing the unused capacity of cellular voice providers to transfer data.
Central Processing Unit The Central Processing Unit (CPU) is the heart of a computer as it is the part that contains the computer's ability to obey instructions.
certificate authority A trusted organization that issues public key certificates and provides identification to the bearer.
Char A byproduct of low-temperature carbonization of a solid fuel.
character See: trait.
character class A square-bracketed list of characters used in a "regular expression" to indicate that any character of the set may occur at a given point.
character property A predefined "character class" matchable by the \p "metasymbol". Many standard properties are defined for "Unicode".
character set encoding The set of values assigned to characters in a character set. Related characters are often grouped with consecutive values, such as the alphabetic…
checked exception An exception that must be caught locally in a try statement, or propagated via a throws clause defined in the method header. See unchecked exception.
cHTML (Compact HTML) Compact HTML (cHTML) is a subset of HTML which is designed for small devices. The major features of HTML that are excluded from cHTML are: JPEG image…
circumfix operator An "operator" that surrounds its "operand", like the angle operator, or parentheses, or a hug.
class Article I, section 3 of the Constitution requires the Senate to be divided into three classes for purposes of elections.
class body The body of a class definition. The body groups the definitions of a class's members - fields, methods and nested classes.
class constant A variable defined as both final and static.
class header The header of a class definition. The header gives a name to the class and defines its access.
class inheritance When a super class is extended by a sub class, a class inheritance relationship exists between them.
class method A synonym for static method.
class scope Private variables defined outside the methods within a class have class scope. They are accessible from all methods within the class, regardless of the…
class variable A synonym for static variable.
classpath The path searched by the compiler and interpreter for class definitions. The class path may be set by a command-line argument to either, or via an…
CLDC (Connected, Limited Device Configuration) The Connected, Limited Device Configuration (CLDC) is a specification for a Java ME configuration.
client Any computer system that requests a service of another computer system. A workstation requesting the contents of a file from a file server is a client of…
client-certificate authentication An authentication mechanism that uses HTTP over SSL, in which the server and, optionally, the client authenticate each other with a public key certificate…
cloister A "cluster" used to restrict the scope of a "regular expression modifier".
closure In transportation, the process of a unit arriving at a specified location. It begins with the arrival of the first element at a designated location and…
cluster Clusters are fixed length blocks of bytes that store data for Microsoft operating systems.
CODE See: genetic code
code generator A system that writes code for you in a low-level language, such as code to implement the backend of a compiler. See "program generator".
code subpattern A "regular expression" subpattern whose real purpose is to execute some Perl code, for example, the (?{...}) and (??{...}) subpatterns.
codebase Works together with the code attribute in the <APPLET> tag to give a complete specification of where to find the main applet class file: code specifies…
Cohesion The mutual attraction of soil particles due to molecular and capillary forces in the presence of water.
collating sequence The order into which characters sort. This is used by "string" comparison routines to decide, for example, where in this glossary to put "collating…
command For command-oriented functions, the authorization required to perform command operations. 55
command buffering A mechanism in Perl that lets you store up the output of each Perl "command" and then flush it out as a single request to the "operating system".
command name The name of the program currently executing, as typed on the command line. In C, the "command" name is passed to the program as the first command-line…
command-line argument Arguments passed to a program when it is run. A Java program receives these in the single formal argument to its main method public static void…
command-line arguments The values you supply along with a program name when you tell a "shell" to execute a "command". These values are passed to a Perl program through @ARGV.
comment A piece of text intended for the human reader of a program. Compilers ignore their contents.
commit To send a person to prison, asylum or reformatory by a court order.
Common Gateway Interface The Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is a standard that allows Web clients to interact with programs on a Web server.
compilation The process of translating a programming language. This often involves translating a high level programming language into a low level programming…
compilation unit The smallest unit of source code that can be compiled. In the current implementation of the Java platform, the compilation unit is a file.
compile phase Any time before Perl starts running your main program. See also "run phase". Compile phase is mostly spent in "compile time", but may also be spent in…
compile time The time when Perl is trying to make sense of your code, as opposed to when it thinks it knows what your code means and is merely trying to do what it…
compiler A program which performs a process of compilation on a program written in a high level programming language.
complement operator The complement operator, ~, is used to invert the value of each bit in a binary pattern. For instance, the complement of 1010010 is 0101101.
component Subsystem, assembly, or subassembly of logically grouped hardware and software, that performs interacting tasks to provide BMDS capability at a functional…
component (JavaServer Faces technology) See JavaServer Faces UI component.
component contract The contract between a J2EE component and its container. The contract includes life-cycle management of the component, a context interface that the…
component-managed sign-on A mechanism whereby security information needed for signing on to a resource is provided by an application component.
composer A "constructor" for a "referent" that isn't really an "object", like an anonymous array or a hash (or a sonata, for that matter).
compositing The process of superimposing one image on another to create a single image.
concatenation The process of gluing one cat's nose to another cat's tail. Also, a similar operation on two strings.
concurrency Part of an acquisition strategy which combines or overlaps two or more phases of the acquisition process, or combines development T&E with operational T&E.
condition A health problem with certain characteristics or symptoms.
conditional Something "iffy". See "Boolean context".
conditional operator A symbol or keyword specifying how to compare values. Conditional operators are used to query a database.
Configuration The number, shape, organization and relationship of panes (lights) of glass, sash, frame, muntins or tracery.
connection The physical connection (e.g. transmission lines, transformers, switch gear, etc.
connection factory See resource manager connection factory.
connection handshake An exchange of messages between two processes in an attempt to establish a connection between them.
connector A hold'em starting hand in which the two cards are one apart in rank. Examples: KQs, 76.
Connector architecture An architecture for integration of J2EE products with enterprise information systems.
const A reserved Java keyword not used by current versions of the Java programming language.
constant A variable whose value may not be changed. In Java, these are implemented by final variables.
construct An engineered chimeric DNA designed to be transferred into a cell or tissue. Typically, the construct comprises the gene or genes of interest, a marker…
constructor A constructor is automatically called when an instance of its class is created.
Container In the Exchange Administrator program, an object that contains other objects. For example, the Recipients container is composed of recipient objects.
container-managed persistence The mechanism whereby data transfer between an entity bean's variables and a resource manager is managed by the entity bean's container.
container-managed sign-on The mechanism whereby security information needed for signing on to a resource is supplied by the container.
container-managed transaction A transaction whose boundaries are defined by an EJB container. An entity bean must use container-managed transactions.
content In an XML document, the part that occurs after the prolog, including the root element and everything it contains.
context The surroundings, or environment. The context given by the surrounding code determines what kind of data a particular "expression" is expected to return.
context attribute An object bound into the context associated with a servlet.