Programming terms starting with M

63 terms

magic Technically speaking, any extra semantics attached to a variable such as $!, $0, %ENV, or %SIG, or to any tied variable.
magic number A constant value with a significance within a particular context. For instance, the value 12 could mean many different things - the number of hours you…
magical increment An "increment" operator that knows how to bump up alphabetics as well as numbers.
magical variables Special variables that have side effects when you access them or assign to them.
main method The starting point for program execution public static void main(String[] args)
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.
MAN The Unix program that displays online documentation (manual pages) for you.
managed bean creation facility A mechanism for defining the characteristics of JavaBeans components used in a JavaServer Faces application.
manifest file A file held in a Java Archive (JAR) file, detailing the contents of the archive.
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…
marking interface An interface with no methods.
Matching See "pattern matching".
member Member means any person who has been admitted to membership in the Connecticut credit union in accordance with state law.
member data See "instance variable".
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.
memory leak A situation in which memory that is no longer being used has not been returned to the pool of free memory.
message In the Java Message Service, an asynchronous request, report, or event that is created, sent, and consumed by an enterprise application and not by a human.
message consumer An object created by a JMS session that is used for receiving messages sent to a destination.
message passing We characterize object interactions as message passing. A client object sends a message to a server object by invoking a method from the server's class.
message producer An object created by a JMS session that is used for sending messages to a destination.
message-driven bean An enterprise bean that is an asynchronous message consumer. A message-driven bean has no state for a specific client, but its instance variables can…
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…
metasymbol Something we'd call a "metacharacter" except that it's a sequence of more than one character.
method the course of action or technique followed in conducting a specific analysis or comparison leading to an analytical result.
method body The body of a method: everything inside the outermost block of a method.
method header The header of a method, consisting of the method name, its result type, formal arguments and any exceptions thrown. Also known as a method signature.
method overloading Two or more methods with the same name defined within a class are said to be overloaded. This applies to both constructors and other methods.
method overriding A method defined in a super class may be overridden by a method of the same name defined in a sub class.
method permission An authorization rule that determines who is permitted to execute one or more enterprise bean methods.
method result The value returned from a method via a return statement. The type of the expression in the return statement must match the return type declared in the…
method signature A synonym for method header.
method variable See local variable.
method-binding expression A JavaServer Faces EL expression that refers to a method of a backing bean. This method performs either event handling, validation, or navigation…
MExE (Mobile Execution Environment) The Mobile Execution Environment (MExE) is a specification created by the 3GPP which details an applicatio n environment for next generation mobile…
micro-chip A small electronic device used to build computers and other electronic equipment.
MIDlet A MIDlet is an application written for MIDP. MIDlet applications are subclasses of the javax.microedition.midlet.MIDlet class that is defined by MIDP.
MIDlet suite MIDlets are packaged and distributed as MIDlet suites. A MIDlet suite can contain one or more MIDlets.
MIDP (Mobile Information Device Profile) The Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP) is a specification for a Java ME profile.
MIDP-NG (Next Generation MIDP specification) The Next Generation MIDP specification is currently under development by the Java Community Process.
MIME Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension.
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…
mixed-content model A DTD specification that defines an element as containing a mixture of text and one more other elements.
Mobitex Mobitex is a packet-switched, narrowband PCS network, designed for wide-area wireless data communications.
modal A dialog is modal if its parent application is blocked from further activity until the dialog has completed. See non-modal.
mode In a frequency distribution, the class having the greatest frequency.
model-view pattern A pattern in which the representation of data (the model) is kept separate from its visualization (the view).
Modem A device that allows a computer system to transmit data over telephone or cable lines.
modifier See "statement modifier", "regular expression modifier", and "lvalue modifier", not necessarily in that order.
Modulation Modulation is the method by which a high-frequency digital signal is grafted onto a lower-frequency analog wave, so that digital packets are able to ride…
module The smallest self-contained, environmentally protected structure housing interconnected photovoltaic cells and providing a single dc electrical output…
modulus An integer divisor when you're interested in the remainder instead of the quotient.
monger Short for Perl Monger, a purveyor of Perl.
monitor (MAH-nih-ter) In medicine, to regularly watch and check a person or condition to see if there is any change.
mortal A temporary value scheduled to die when the current statement finishes.
MSC (Mobile Switching Center) A Mobile Switching Center (MSC) is a unit within a cellular phone network that automatically coordinates and switches calls in a given cell.
multidimensional array An array with multiple subscripts for finding a single element. Perl implements these using references--see perllol and perldsc.
multiple inheritance The ability of a class or interface to extend more than one class or interface.
multiple-boot options The hardware configurations of some computers are able to run different operating system and window manager combinations.
multiprogramming system An operating system that is able to run multiple programs concurrently.
multithreaded Describes a program that is designed to have parts of its code execute concurrently. See also thread.
mutator method A method specifically designed to allow controlled modification of a private attribute of a class.
Mutual Authentication An authentication mechanism employed by two parties for the purpose of proving each other's identity to one another.
mutual recursion Recursion that results from two methods calling each other recursively.