A-B

absolute address

A synonym for physical address.

absolutization

The process that replaces relative addresses of the form ( segment , offset ) - or just plain offset for a single segment - by the actual addresses.

activation (of a function)

An execution of the function.

activation frame

A data structure to save all data relevant for running of a function (procedure), including the storage for all local objects and input parameters.

activation record

A synonym for activation frame.

address operator &

An operator for calculating the logical address of a variable in compile time.

address reference

Referring to an item by its address.

allocation from arena

Technique of allocating an arena first and then managing the allocation/deallocation within the arena by the program itself (rather then by the process memory manager); used for compaction and serialization of complex data structures and objects, or for managing memory in safety-critical and/or fault-tolerant systems.

ANSI-C standard

Standardization of the programming language C by the American National Standards Institute.

argument(of a function)

An input to the function; can be viewed as a named "slot" (sometimes referred to as dummy variable ) that is filled with a value just prior to a call to the function, and during execution the function works with the argument as if it were a regular variable.

argument passing

Parameter passing to functions.

array index range checking

Checking whether an index used to access an array item is within the correct range.

assignment method

A synonym for operator= .

auto(C/C++ keyword)

Storage class automatic.

auto_ptr<X>

The template-based C++ Standard Library definition of smart pointers.

backtracking algorithm

A class of algorithms that systematically generate or traverse a space of solutions. The name alludes to their main feature: when they are stuck, they "backtrack" to the previous position from which they can once again start generating or traversing.

base class

If a class A is an extension of a class B, then B is called the base class of A; a synonym for superclass .

big endian byte order

A byte order for numbers of at least 2 bytes in which the more significant byte is placed to the left of a less significant byte; most UNIX boxes use big endian byte order.

binary code

A sequence of bits (customarily depicted as 0s and 1s) representing a particular value. In C/C++ there are three fundamental binary codes employed - coding for characters, coding for integers, and coding for real numbers. Some might recognize only two since the coding for characters and integers is the same, but we ought to make a conceptual distinction between them.

binary heap

A labeled binary tree in which every node has a label that is strictly bigger than the labels of all its descendants.

binary search tree

A binary tree with nodes storing values; the tree is organized so that a parent node has a value strictly larger (resp., smaller) than the left (resp., right) child node. This arrangement allows access to nodes in no worse than O ( n ) time with average O (log n ) access time.

binary tree

Linked data structure consisting of nodes; each node (parent) is at most linked to two other nodes (its children), and no node is linked to its predecessor node. (In the terminology of graph theory, this is an acyclic graph.)

blanked memory

Memory in which each of its bits is cleared (set to 0).

blocking/nonblocking system call

A system call dealing with some I/O devices; for instance, read on a pipe may either wait until some data arrives (so-called blocking call) or, if there is no data waiting to be had, it returns (so-called nonblocking call).

buffer

A common term referring to a contiguous segment of memory used for storing binary data.

byte code

A special code to which Java programs are "compiled" in order to speed their interpretation by the Java virtual machine.