What is the clearest explanation of what computer scientists mean by "the naive implementation"? I need a good clear example which will illustrate -- ideally, even to non-technical people -- that the naive implementation may technically be a functioning solution to the problem, but practically be utterly unusable. ...
I'm doing some FK analysis of our tables by making a directed graph representing FK dependencies and then traversing the graph. In my code, I name everything using directed graph terminology, but I'd like to have something a bit more "user friendly" in the report. In this scenario: create table t1(a varchar2(20)); alter table t1 add c...
What does "type-safe" mean? ...
I always believed that when it came to software for a platform the parties were referred to as such: First-party: The owner/creator of the platform Second-party: The user of the platform Third-party: A developer who is not the first-party. Now second-party seems to be used to refer to a developer owned/contracted by ...
I've seen the word "spike" used in relation to source-control. For example, a project I'm working with has three top-level folders: trunk, branches and spikes. What's the meaning of this term? ...
I just can't remember the terminology used for this and other related properties. EDIT - Maybe such a concept doesn't exist but I remember reading something in Effective C++ (or More Effective C++) where he advocated using swaps to commit changes last in the function because the vector swap functions were guaranteed not to throw an exce...
Title says it mostly. I want to add a simple extension method to the base Dictionary class in C#. At first I was going to name it Pop(TKey key), kind of like the Stack method, but it accepts a key to use for lookup. Then I was going to do Take(TKey key), but it coincides with the LINQ method of the same name...and although C# 3.0 lets y...
I looked it up in Wikipedia, and there is only one line there. Anyone have a more detail description for it. Ubuntu releases their OS with this notation, but I was unable to find a detailed descripton over what it means/includes. I've already read the Ubuntu notation but need a more general description, not how Ubuntu has implemented it....
From using a number of programming languages and libraries I have noticed various terms used for the total number of elements in a collection. The most common seem to be length, count, and size. eg. array.length vector.size() collection.count Is there any preferred term to be used? Does it depend on what type of collection it is? ie...
Is there accepted terminology for the process of logging in? As a verb, would you say "Go to the website and log in", or "Go to the website and login"? As an adjective, would you say "Click on the Log in form", or "Click on the Login form"? Does the same apply to logging out? eg: logout? ...
More detail to my question: HTML and JavaScript are called "client-side code". C# and VB in the code behind files are termed "server-side code". So what is inline-asp, and 'runat=server' code blocks called? <!-- This is called "client-side" --> <p>Hello World</p> <script>alert("Hello World");</script> ... // This is called "server...
I'm refactoring some client-server code and it uses the terms Response, Result & Reply for the same thing (an answer from the server). And although its not really that important it's become hard to guess which word to use while writing new code, so I'd like to unify the three terms into one and do the appropriate refactoring, but I'm not...
I have always thought that the terms "internationalization" and "localization" (and their funny abbreviations i18n and l10n) were universally accepted and used for talking about software which is aware of language and cultural differences. But I recently read a question on SO about these subjects which referred to something called "globa...
As the BigCo I worked for got serious about software development, they encouraged more formal terminology. Instead of bugs, which might randomly just happen, they preferred the term defect which could be prevented. Tongue firmly in cheek, I developed the following guideline: Levels of Unexpected Software Events (USE) An Unverified Fe...
What is an adjective to describe someone who is interested in computers and programming? I hate how the typical adjective to describe such a person is "nerd" or "geek"...because of their negative connotations. What are some adjectives (describing ppl interested in computers/programming) with positive connotations? ...
I am crafting an application and cannot decide whether to use the terms Login/out or Logon/off. Is there a more correct option between these two? Should I use something else entirely (like "Sign on/off"). In terms of usability, as long as I am consistent it probably doesn't matter which terms I choose, but I did wonder about the origins...
Does "zero-day" or "0-day" (in context of software vulnerabilities and exploits) refer to the software release, or a particular type of exploit? [I did not find an answer to this on SO. Though it is answered elsewhere on the Internet, my understanding of SO is that it's okay to ask/answer basic questions] ...
I've looked at other definitions and explanations and none of them satisfy me. I want to see if anybody can define polymorphism in at most two sentences without using any code or examples. I don't want to hear 'So you have a person/car/can opener...' or how the word is derived (nobody is impressed that you know what poly and morph means)...
I am writing an academic paper and I need to refer to a feature that exists in most IDEs for OO languages, where you type an objects name in the source code, add the dot, and something pops up and lets you pick members. I am looking for a general (not IDE specific term, though I am also interested in knowing those), and that refers spec...
Can anybody explain why the name "Decorator" was chosen for the functionality conveyed by the Decorator design pattern? I've always found that name fairly misleading, because decorator and marking interface sound very similar to me in their purpose. However, whereas a marker does not really "do anything", decorators certainly do. But t...