Glossary
Glossary
Commonly used words, phrases, abbreviations, and acronyms across software development, UI/UX, security, and general computing.
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ACM
Association for Computing Machinery
agile development
Software development methodology
AI
Artificial Intelligence
AI
Adobe Illustrator
algorithm
Set of steps to solve a problem
ANSI
American National Standards Institute
API
Application Programming Interface
APK
Android application package
app
Software application
AR
Augmented reality
ASCII
American Standard Code for Information Interchange
Assembly
Assembly language
B2B
Business to Business
back end
actions that happen on the server side
bash
a type of UNIX shell
BDD
Behavior-driven Development
BIOS
Basic Input/Output System
Boolean
Data type that holds either true or false
branch
A copy of a repository to work on in parallel
bug
problem in the code
CA
Certificate Authority
call stack
data structure where a subroutine/function goes when it runs
callback
executable code passed as an argument
camel case
camelCase - each word begins with a capital letter
certificate
public key certificate
character
letter, space, or puntuation mark
character encoding
mapping of each character to a number
CI
Continuous integration
class
building block of object-oriented programming
CLI
Command-line Interface
client
computer that requests information over a network
code block
grouping of code
code review
checking the code of teammates
command line
text-based user interface
comment
non-executable annotations in code
commit
saving the latest changes to the repository
compiled language
language that must be compiled to run
compiler
program that rewrites source code into machine code
compression
data compression
conditional
checking if something is true or false
console
computer console
constant
value that does not change
context menu
menu with additional options activated by right-click or alt click
cookie
small text file used to personalize the experience to a website
CORS
Cross-origin resource sharing
CPU
Central processing unit
CSRF
Cross-site request forgery
CSS
Cascading Style Sheets
data analysis
inspecting, cleaning, and analyzing data
data science
study of gaining knowledge from data
data structure
organization or container of data
data type
type of data that tells the program how it may be used
database
A system for storing information
debug
find and correct errors in a program
delimiter
character used for separation of values
deprecation
marking a feature that will be removed or discouraged.
diff
tool to compare differences between files
digital literacy
Ability to use or create data/information on a computer or mobile device.
DNS
Domain Name System
docblock
specially formatted comments
DOM
Document Object Module
domain name
registered name of a network of computers
encapsulation
principle restricting access to an object’s components
EOF
end-of-file
ethernet
cable to connect computers together
exception
a special case that block the program from continuing
expression
an evaluation as opposed to an instruction
float
Floating point number
FTP
File transfer protocol
GDPR
General Data Protection Regulation
git
Distributed version control system
GNU
GNU’s Not Unix (recursive acronym)
hamburger menu
HDD
Hard disk drive
HTML
Hypertext Markup Language
HTTP
Hypertext Transfer Protocol
IDE
Integrated development environment
IEEE
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
iOS
Operating system on iPhones
IP
Internet Protocol
ISO
International Organization for Standardization
ISP
Internet service provider
JPEG/JPG
File format for pictures. Also known as JPG
JSON
JavaScript Object Notation
MDN
MDN Web Docs
npm
Originally “Node package manager”
numpy
Python data analysis library
OOP
Object-oriented programming
OS
Operating system
OSI model
Open Systems Integration Model
OWASP
Community devoted to web security
PHP
PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor
PNG
Portable Network Graphics
RAM
Random-access memory
REST
Representational state transfer
root
superuser or admin account
Sass
Syntactically Awesome Style Sheets
SDK
Software Development Kit
SFTP
SSH File Transfer Protocol or Secure File Transfer Protocol
slug
A user-friendly version of a webadress
SQL
Structured Query Language
SSD
Solid-state drive
SSH
Secure Shell
sudo
“superuser do”
TCP
Transmission Control Protocol
TDD
Test-driven development
TLS
Transport Layer Security
UI
User interface
URI
Uniform Resource Identifier
URL
Uniform Resource Locator
URN
Uniform Resource Name
UX
abbreviation for user experience
VCS
Version Control System
virtual environment
Sandboxed place to run your apps
VR
Virtual Reality
W3C
World Wide Web Consortium
WCAG
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
web browser
Also called browser for short
XML
Markup language
XSS
Cross-site scripting
YAML
Recursive acronym meaning YAML Ain’t Markup Language
zsh
Short for Z-shell
ACM
Tags
general computing
Quick definition
Association for Computing Machinery
Summary
US-based international learned society for computing
Article
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional membership group, reporting nearly 110,000 student and professional members as of 2022. Its headquarters are in New York City.
The ACM is an umbrella organization for academic and scholarly interests in computer science (informatics). Its motto is "Advancing Computing as a Science & Profession".
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