Questions about computers, programming and IT.
21
votes
8answers
997 views
What do you call a computer window when it is not maximized or minimized?
What do you call a computer window when it is not maximized or minimized? I have been using unmaximized, but I feel there is a more precise way.
4
votes
1answer
61 views
Provenance of 'deprecated' (in the programming sense)
What are some early uses of "deprecation" in computer science? When did the word enter common usage in the field of programming? Are there any particularly well-known examples of early deprecations ...
0
votes
0answers
67 views
Etymology of “x” in “pixel”? [closed]
Does anyone know how the word "pixel" (..a minute area of illumination on a display screen, one of many from which an image is composed) came about?
I've once heard it's the abbreviation of "picture ...
0
votes
2answers
101 views
Difference between ‘“folder” and “directory”
What is the difference between folder and directory in the context of computer science?
-1
votes
2answers
95 views
Inverse for the term "refinement”
In computer science there is a term "refinement".
Refinement is a hierarchical relationship between two concepts. If B refines A, then the requirements of B are a superset of the requirements of A. ...
38
votes
3answers
1k views
How “macro” in computer programming came about
The prefix macro- is normally used for large things like macroeconomics and macroscopic. How did it come to be used to describe text macros in the programming world?
9
votes
1answer
263 views
When did “Easter egg” begin to mean “hidden feature”?
Can anybody trace the origins of 'Easter egg' for this meaning?
-1
votes
4answers
833 views
What’s the difference between “tool” and “utility”?
I find these two words appear together often, especially mentioned as tool and utility for the Unix operating system. So I am wondering about the difference between them.
0
votes
4answers
66 views
Failing sometimes for unknown reason
Context: I have an automated test that sometimes fails for unknown reason. It's a sort of false positive: the feature it tests is not broken. Most of the time, either it succeeds or fails for right ...
3
votes
2answers
595 views
What is the difference between obsolete and deprecate in computer science?
Given the two terms "obsolete" and "deprecate" in computer science, what is the difference between them?
What I understand,
Deprecated means still available for use but will no longer be developed ...
8
votes
2answers
495 views
Origin of the term “wizard” in computing
In computer user interfaces a "wizard" is a set of screens that guide the user through a process.
Does anyone know the origin of this term? I personally associate wizards with magic more than a ...
1
vote
1answer
87 views
Prepositions used with “command line” and “shell”
I found the following variations on the use of "command line" and "shell" in computing and wonder which are correct and how to use them appropriately.
Command line: is it "at the command line" or ...
1
vote
1answer
82 views
What is a “big-ender pair”?
In the sci.math newsgroup ca. 23 Mar 2013, in thread Subject: Re: math formulae?, I saw the following:
> >"Is the tournment liken to a bridge tournment? The problem is vague.
> > ...
0
votes
1answer
95 views
Is it “falsy” or “falsey”?
I have seen both versions of the word, falsy and falsey.
It can mean "something that is equivalent to false" in computer science, such as "The only two falsy values in the Ruby Language are false and ...
2
votes
2answers
120 views
What is the word for a pair of bytes?
Bit is a portmanteau of binary digit.
A byte is 8 bits.
A nibble is 4 bits (half a byte).
Is there a word for a pair of bytes?
6
votes
2answers
186 views
Etymology of “ping”
According to Wikipedia ping, the IP network utility, was named after the sonar "ping", which is apparently onomatopoeic.
However, "ping" is now used in the vernacular in the sense of "pinging" ...
30
votes
3answers
1k views
Why is a “splash screen” so called?
Wikipedia describes a "splash screen" as such...
"A splash screen is an image that appears while a game or program is loading."
and its purpose...
[Splash screens] are typically used by ...
2
votes
1answer
71 views
Etymology of “modal dialogs” in computerese
When programming you may deal with so-called modal dialogs — these are windows where you are supposed to provide information before you are allowed to proceed any further. A modal dialog blocks or ...
21
votes
3answers
9k views
Origin of the term “driver” in computer science
According to Wikipedia:
… a device driver or software driver is a computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a hardware device.
What is the origin of the term ...
0
votes
2answers
149 views
“Feeding” data or “entering” data: which one is correct?
Which is the better verb to use with data: feeding or entering?
Furthermore, which is more common in the
literature of the field and which do people who
work in the field say more often?
Are they ...
6
votes
3answers
239 views
What is the correct pronunciation of “regex”?
The term regular expression is often shortened to regex. What is the correct pronunciation of the g in regex?
Is it like the g1 in gallium, or is it like the g2 in giraffe? I’ve heard it said both ...
6
votes
3answers
193 views
Origin and scope of “cruft”
I just had to look up "cruft" (jargon for software or hardware that is of poor quality), as used in a comment to an earlier question.
But I can't find any details of etymology, and I don't know how ...
45
votes
9answers
3k views
“Username”, “user name” or “user-name”
In computer science, you should have a username or a user name or a user-name and a password to be able to log into the system.
Which one is the correct spelling?
3
votes
1answer
50 views
String slicing nomenclature
Maybe I'm just not very good with Google, but I'm looking for good terms to use when describing manipulation of strings of characters, specifically words to describe:
Removing a prefix
Removing a ...
3
votes
1answer
128 views
Is “catenate” used in IT parlance?
When I was doing my IT degree in the 80s we learned that, in programming terms, concatenation was the act of joining two strings together.
Recently I was reading a technical manual and came across ...
0
votes
2answers
97 views
Pronunciation of OS X versions [closed]
I don't feel like this belongs on SU, so I put it here.
I know that "OS X" is pronounced "oh-ess ten," but how should the common construction "OS X 10.9" be pronounced?
The primary possibility I can ...
3
votes
3answers
99 views
“Run on an OS” vs. “run under an OS”
What is the correct way to specify the operating system you are targeting or using?
Is a program running on or under an operating system (OS)?
Is a machine running an OS or under an OS?
2
votes
4answers
254 views
What would be a suitable name for the game panel in tetris?
I am trying to develop a Tetris clone. However, I am unsure what to name the panel where the user places the pieces.
Game panel seems too generic since the entire frame is in fact the panel of the ...
5
votes
3answers
242 views
“Intended” vs. “intentional”
I'm reading an article about intention recognition in computing areas and somehow robotics. I came across this sentence:
This problem has been discussed as the difference between “intended and ...
8
votes
3answers
895 views
Capitalization of User Interface Buttons
Being an amateur programmer and a bit of a perfectionist, I often find myself wondering about capitalization in user interfaces.
If you look towards the top of this very website, you'll notice the ...
0
votes
0answers
94 views
Lite vs. Full (something) - alternatives [closed]
I see quite often references to lite vs full (something). For example, I may be able to get a lite version of something for free and would have to pay for full version of the same thing, which would ...
3
votes
2answers
150 views
How popular are the terms “software” and “hardware” outside the computer world?
If I’m not mistaken, the terms software and hardware were ordinary English words, but they have been widely popularized by popularity of computers. How much they are common (and acceptable by native ...
7
votes
5answers
976 views
What is “embarrassing” about an embarrassingly parallel problem?
In computer science, a problem that is obviously decomposable into many identical but separate subtasks is called embarrassingly parallel.
An example is a cryptographic brute force attack, in which ...
-1
votes
5answers
422 views
“Concatenate” vs. “merge” vs. “join” in scientific text
I wonder what the difference is between concatenate, merge and join from the lexical point of view.
These words are often used in scientific or programming text. It seems to me that different authors ...
3
votes
4answers
3k views
Is there a word meaning “append”, but at the beginning, not the end? [closed]
In computer programming, when you append a "string" to another, you add it to the end of the former string.
E.g.
String string1 = "abcd";
String string2 = "efgh";
Appending the two strings would ...
11
votes
5answers
3k views
Difference between “computation” and “calculation”
If the words computation and calculation are not perfect synonyms what is the difference between them? Which one describes more accurately what is done by a person computing or calculating something ...
0
votes
2answers
125 views
“Computing” vs. “computation”
Can anybody explain the difference between computing and computation? Which one is correct:
computing/computation node (to refer to a server)
computing/computation power (to refer to the FLOPS of a ...
3
votes
3answers
119 views
Expression to describe error’s way
In the context of a computer system, events that fail to go to their destination are redirected to another one through several steps. I’m looking for an expression to describe the way they take.
I ...
1
vote
1answer
147 views
Is there a word for someone who posts a “comment”? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
How do you call who writes comments in this board? Commenter or commentator?
Difference between “commentor” and “commentator”
Why do we say 'commentator' instead of ...
5
votes
1answer
118 views
The origin of binary “image”? [closed]
I'm curious why a chunk of binary data is called image?
Like disk image, boot image, Linux image, flash image, etc.
In my brain, image is something two-dimensional, but binary data is a ...
4
votes
4answers
655 views
What does the word “hacking” or “hacker” come from? [closed]
Is there a history behind the word "hacker" and "hacking"?
Could it have anything to do with "hashing" i.e. using a hash function?
1
vote
3answers
73 views
What is an overall term for a service that publishes digital publications?
I'm looking at what I am calling Digital Edition Solution Providers (ways of taking a PDF of a magazine and turning it into a website, and content for sale on Apple Newsstand, Android, KindleFire ...
1
vote
1answer
235 views
'Rollover'/'Roll over' in computer world
While Oxford Dictionary of English does not have definition of rollover, Wiktionary defines this word as "a graphic element that changes its shape or colour when the cursor moves over it"; in other ...
2
votes
5answers
171 views
“Printfing” or “printingf”?
At this point the program starts printfing the pot value.
At this point the program starts printingf the pot value.
Both sound wrong, and yet... one of them must be used.
1
vote
3answers
62 views
Word for code/applications that call an API library
I have an API library, what do I call code/applications that use it? I want to avoid "client" because in my context, it is ambiguous with another concept.
Also it doesn't have to be a single word, as ...
14
votes
6answers
508 views
What is the noun to refer to the 64- or 32-bit -ness of an operating system
I know that "processor architecture" can be used to refer to whether the processor is 32-bit or 64-bit (or something else), but what word can be used for the operating system? Note that it's not ...
-1
votes
1answer
137 views
Why is it correct to say “to negate a double”? [closed]
In programming you can negate a double. At least Google hits tend to that, but there are, though, a lot of hits for invert a double.
While the definition of to invert is clear
to invert:
to ...
8
votes
1answer
307 views
What do you call the phenomenon where a rectangle Ϳ is shown because a font lacks a glyph?
Is there a name to describe the situation where a particular character is shown on a computer screen in a particular font, but this font does not have a glyph for this particular character?
Usually, ...
2
votes
2answers
456 views
call vs invoke - informatics context
Particularly in computer science and informatics,
when should one use them? Is call the preferred form?
For instance,
call function
invoke method
Googling for "call operation" returns +300 000 ...
1
vote
1answer
107 views
What is the word for an applied template? [closed]
The notion of a template is that it is abstract and can be applied to future instances. Is there a word that means an instantiated template?
I'd prefer something that specifically refers to the fact ...
