Questions tagged [programming]

Questions about English used for talking about programming, but not about programming languages themselves. Note that helping to name programming variables/classes is out of this site's scope.

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Is there an umbrella term for "inflation" and "deflation"? [closed]

I am writing a software module that takes polygons and either inflates them or deflates them based on user input (i.e. if the user supplies 0.5 as input, the polygon is deflated to half of its size, ...
wfgeo's user avatar
  • 447
4 votes
3 answers
253 views

How to describe this unrecognizable content? [duplicate]

In programming, I got the following content which is unrecognizable in the output. When communicating with others, how should I describe the issue I encountered in more natural way? In fact, this ...
niaomingjian's user avatar
8 votes
3 answers
3k views

Hypernym for "radio button" and "checkbox"? [closed]

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, Since I'm coding a shared css class for radio buttons and checkboxes, I would like to word it with the appropriate hypernym. Kind regards
FaZe Unempl0yedd's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
102 views

Can an object with dependencies be called a "dependent"?

Programmers spend much time discussing and resolving object dependencies. Dependency ... [is] a state in which one object uses a function of another object.² For example, if A, an object, needs a ...
llundin's user avatar
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3 votes
3 answers
15k views

What is the correct pronunciation of SQLite? [closed]

I seem to be hearing many different vocalizations of the name, and I'm not sure which one is correct. The last thing I want to do is "erroneously" drop the name in a meeting, and someone feel the need ...
Krythic's user avatar
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2 answers
2k views

Is a software loop “breaked” or “broken”?

In software development there are code loop constructions, which you can BREAK. foreach(i in integers) ... break If I break the cycle, it becomes broken or breaked? Which sentence is correct ...
TOP KEK's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
128 views

What is a word for non alpha numeric characters that are the same when opened and closed?

Edited: I'm searching for a way to describe this: When using "quotes", one character is used twice: " When using (parentheses), two characters are used once: ( ) Is there a word for this property?...
llun's user avatar
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0 votes
2 answers
149 views

involves AAA and oftentimes BBB: programmers needed

I came cross these sentences today: When you write your code, you might end up with a chunk of code that is no longer used but still part of the program. Watch out for cases like these: remember ...
hx1997's user avatar
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-1 votes
1 answer
880 views

Difference between “find by” and “find for” [closed]

In programming exists the so-called repository pattern which is meant to retrieve data from somewhere. It usually has some methods with which it is possible to retrieve that data. These methods are ...
Fleshgrinder's user avatar
2 votes
4 answers
460 views

Looking for an adjective describing an easy programming language style

I am looking for an adjective with regard to computer programming, which says that a program language is not abstract, but very clear and intuitive or even overly "non-computerish". I saw this word ...
Til Hund's user avatar
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1 answer
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Plural or single form of word in names of variables, classes [duplicate]

I am wondering which option is more correct when I want to call some class of objects: NotificationService or NotificationsService. Is there difference between them? If so, what is it?
tohasan's user avatar
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1 answer
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What is the name for "designated" "oriented" "specialized" in this case?

I'm writing a technical document but couldn't think of a better term than "designated" in this scenario. I have a module which is general-purpose. I can tune it into a special-purpose one by doing ...
VictorCharlie23's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
949 views

Neutral word for saying that a task is finished, without denoting success or failure

I'm working on some code where a task has two result states: - Complete | The task completed successfully - Failure | The task failed to complete successfully (no further attempts will be made) The ...
Phillip Elm's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
149 views

What is another word for 'pronoun' within this problem domain?

An excerpt from the the song "99 Bottles of Beer" would be the following two verses: 2 bottles of beer on the wall, 2 bottles of beer. Take one down and pass it around, 1 bottle of beer on the ...
flyingL123's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
124 views

Use of we ... yourself

I use google translator to write english text. I write the text in english and let it translate into my mother tongue. So I can see "live" if the things I write can at least be understood by google ...
Matthias's user avatar
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1 answer
648 views

How to write English without assumptions and/or shortcuts? [closed]

English grammar allows for many shortcuts due to assumptions(usually from context). For example, not needing to put "you" in imperative sentences: "Get over here!" Another example is how commas are ...
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1 vote
0 answers
181 views

A word for the property of being either prefix or postfix

I'm looking for a word that describes the property of an operator being prefix or postfix, so I can write 'In expression x++, the _____ of ++ is "postfix"'. I thought of using 'fixity', but that ...
Michail's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
1k views

"The Prefix of Output File Names" or "The Prefix of Output Files Name" or both are wrong? [closed]

I point this out for making it clear what I try to achieve. I'm writing a little documentation for my command line utility. It generates two files: {Prefix}-{4096}bits.public {Prefix}-{4096}bits....
AlexMelw's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
123 views

how to say action x causes y and nothing but y

Background I once witnessed this conversation between two software engineers.. something like: eng1: I just gave you the api eng2: are the results deterministic when I enter key i? I'm not sure if ...
abbood's user avatar
  • 127
0 votes
1 answer
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Is the phrase "code swing" valid like "mood swing"?

When I am coding an application, I like to start by outlining a certain code standard which I follow. However, if I am working on a big project I tend to change my coding standard through the code. I ...
bobbybrown6969's user avatar
10 votes
3 answers
3k views

Origin of phrase "cut a release"

In software development there is the phrase "cut a release," which means "to create a final package of software ready for distribution" and may include the distribution itself. I've used it for years ...
Alan De Smet's user avatar
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1 answer
112 views

What is the slang English word for not structured programming code?

What is the slang English word for code that doesn't have structure: procedures, functions, classes etc. ?
Rudziankoŭ's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
5k views

"Render" vs "rendering" as modifiers

I have troubles figuring out whether to use "render" or "rendering" in the context of drawing something on a computer screen in certain scenarios. Technologies that are used for drawing/rendering: ...
maja's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
160 views

Words for resulting task states in computing [closed]

I have a question about naming of terminal states of a task regarding to computing area. Think of a task that is being processed by some system. There're several possible states the task can be ended ...
pkuderov's user avatar
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0 votes
2 answers
230 views

What do you call something that gathers a particular property given an object?

I'm working on a program that will have a list of functions each of which, given an object, will return a particular property of the object. For instance, one of these will return the height of the ...
Juan's user avatar
  • 115
0 votes
1 answer
78 views

Single words for denoting a desired number of "a count to be reached" and "the actual number obtained"

I'm currently designing a software library. There are only two hard problems in computer science: Naming things, Cache invalidation and off-by-one errors. And at the moment I'm struggling with ...
datenwolf's user avatar
  • 103
21 votes
15 answers
10k views

Neutral term for "broken" in software

As a software developer, I often see the term "broken" being thrown around regarding a bug or issue with a program. I don't think this is accurate, considering that often a program will continue to ...
deMouser's user avatar
  • 397
0 votes
2 answers
2k views

“0 Bytes” vs “0 Byte”? [closed]

Just was wondering why and Which one is the correct one? or both? A zero byte file or zero length file is a computer file containing no data; that is, it has a length or size of zero bytes. Zero ...
l2aelba's user avatar
  • 119
0 votes
2 answers
171 views

A noun to be used for something normalized

I'm looking for a noun that can be used to describe some object that was normalized. The situation is this - I have an original object (which I also refer to as original, as a noun), and I normalize ...
Gyfis's user avatar
  • 109
0 votes
4 answers
89 views

Term for documentation/code/config

I am looking for a term that would succinctly combine "documentation", "code", "config", essentially "intellectual property", or IP, but IP sounds somewhat formal/legaleze to me, I'm wondering if ...
rr3tt's user avatar
  • 117
1 vote
1 answer
63 views

short / clear word for constituent? [closed]

I'm a programmer looking to name a variable, so extra points for brevity (characters in word) and clarity. I have many objects which can be aggregated such that one of them acts as a stand in and ...
eretmochelys's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
99 views

Phrase or word for describing a basic pricing rationale?

I'm creating an application where customers can buy things. For some things they are charged based on the quantity of things they buy, but for others they are based on the total weight of the things ...
ZeroOne's user avatar
  • 101
8 votes
3 answers
1k views

What is the generic term for a thing you subscribe to?

I'm trying to set up a naming convention for some software I'm working on, and I need a name for the thing that people subscribe to. In my model we have: Subscriber (a person) Subscription (the 'link'...
Beejamin's user avatar
  • 417
3 votes
1 answer
162 views

What exactly does this strange sentence mean?

I was reading the Virtualbox coding guide, and I saw this. What exactly does this sentence mean? Background: Virtualbox is basicly a virtualization application. You can run another operating system ...
user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
3k views

Is “kludge” a proper word to name a dirty hack in software development

There in software development, we sometimes use a solution, which is to prop the existing code up, not to fix the real cause of the problem. It might be called “dirty hack,” or “kludge.” It’s wry and ...
Aleksei Matiushkin's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
191 views

Which prepositions to use with computer trees?

Given a tree-like computational data structure, something where every entity (except for the root entity) has exactly one parent and may have any number of children (for example, the internal ...
Matthias Ronge's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
221 views

What's a term for a container of ambiguous (undefined) entities?

For example, if an entity may have a variable amount of attributes, with varying attribute keys which map to values of different types. A glob, so to speak. But while each entity is unique, one ...
tshallenberger's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
3k views

Is "sign up to" an acceptable alternative to "sign up for" on websites? [closed]

I generally see "sign up for" online, but I've noticed "sign up to" in a few places. Is that an acceptable alternative when talking about signing up for a service? For example, PayPal says "It's free ...
Tin Man's user avatar
  • 336
3 votes
2 answers
222 views

Move one position forward and one position back

Looking for a pair of words that compactly express the notion of moving one position forward, and one position backward. I had thought to use "advance" for the first, as you might say a clock's ...
Gil Hamilton's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
1k views

The meaning given to "coalesce" in sql [closed]

I'm a software developer and a linguistics fan. In SQL syntax, there's a command named COALESCE, which does a simple thing (quote from here): It simply goes through all the parameters one by one, ...
HeyJude's user avatar
  • 857
2 votes
3 answers
164 views

Which indefinite article to use if the noun starts with a non-letter character?

In the Perl programming language, symbols in front of variable names are called a sigil. When reading code out loud, the sigil is spoken. $foo becomes dollar foo. The sigil for functions is the ...
simbabque's user avatar
  • 133
2 votes
1 answer
697 views

Meaning and usage of the word meme in a technical context?

I have been dabbling in meaning of words and I was wondering about the possible usage of the word meme in English which started in Greek mimeme. Google gives me the definition: An element of a ...
Adrian Z.'s user avatar
  • 123
2 votes
2 answers
2k views

What is the proper term for the position of a digit within a number?

I am writing documentation for a code base, and I want my documentation to be as clear and unambiguous as possible. I am searching for the proper term to refer to the position of digit within a number....
David C's user avatar
  • 123
38 votes
8 answers
12k views

What is the antonym of "assemble a team"?

in the context of the computer software industry, what would be the opposite of "assemble a team"? a colleague of mine (who is a native english speaker) suggested "dissemble", but looking up the word ...
Eliran Malka's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
41 views

Should I use cache partition or cache partitioning to name a technique

The "cache partition technique" is a technique that divides the cache into the equal-size cache partitions. I'm not sure if I should call it "cache partition technique" or "cache partitioning ...
Mike's user avatar
  • 115
0 votes
2 answers
366 views

Category names of chess pieces

I am writing a chess computer program, and I call the Bishop a "Diagonal Piece", because it can attack diagonally and anti-diagonally. How can I call the Rook which can attack vertically or ...
Elad Weiss's user avatar
0 votes
3 answers
1k views

How to refer to nested levels?

Context: tree (data structure). "... and some components were 2 or 3 levels nested" (to refer to the second or third level of the tree) Is the sentence above correct? Otherwise, how should we refer ...
zurfyx's user avatar
  • 103
0 votes
1 answer
73 views

Software Term for Someone Conditioned To Reporting Bugs

I'm a software developer so I'd prefer answers that are somewhat related to that field, but any general answer for this behavior is desirable. Some testers of our products become conditioned to ...
Alex's user avatar
  • 101
6 votes
2 answers
726 views

Use of the term "consecutive" to describe a single item

There's an exercise on Hackerrank, a programming website, that asks me to find the number of consecutive 1s in a binary representation of a decimal number (e.g. 5 is 101 in binary). The author of the ...
Aleksandr Hovhannisyan's user avatar
3 votes
9 answers
211 views

Term for infinitely expanding problems [duplicate]

The scenario: I have a problem Z that I’m tasked with solving by my boss. However, before I can complete Z, I must first finish tasks Y and X. However, X depends on tasks W, V, U, and T. And so on, ad ...
David Gormley's user avatar

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