Software Engineering Glossary


.: special directory in Unix-based operating systems that represents the current directory

..: special directory in Unix-based operating systems that represents the parent directory

.htaccess: configuration file for Apache

.NET: open source managed software framework developed by Microsoft based on C#

2D: space with two dimensions

3 2 1 backup rule: states that there should be 3 copies of the data on 2 different media with 1 copy off-site

32bit architecture: architecture for CPUs and operating systems that allows to address 2^32 bytes of memory

3D: space with three dimensions

3D printing: additive manufacturing process of making 3D objects from a digital blueprint

3G: third generation of mobile network technology

4G: fourth generation of mobile network technology

64bit architecture: architecture for CPUs and operating systems that allows to address 2^64 bytes of memory

68-95-99.7 rule: 68% of values lie within one standard deviation of the mean, 95% lie within two, and 99.7% lie within three

7z: file format for compression, also a program implementing it and command for it

802.1x: IEEE standard for network access control

8K UHD, 8K Ultra HD, 8K Ultra High Definition: video resolution of 7680x4320 pixels

A record: DNS record that maps a domain name to an IPv4 address

AAAA record: DNS record that maps a domain name to an IPv6 address

AAC, advanced audio coding: file format for encooding audio

AAI: abbreviation for authentication, authorization and identity

abandonware: software that is no longer maintained by its developer and is no longer sold or supported

ABC, abstract base class: abstract base classes module in Python which decorates methods as abstract and then registers concrete classes as implementations of the abstract base

absolute path: path that starts with the root directory and points to the same location within file system regardless of where it is used; e.g. /var/log/syslog; cf. relative path

abstract class: class containing at least one abstract method

abstract data type, ADT: mathematical model for data types defined by its behaviour

abstract method: method that has a declaration but does not have an implementation

abstract syntax tree, AST: tree representation of the syntax of a code or structure of program

acceptance criteria: set of conditions that a software must satisfy to be accepted by a stakeholder or a customer

access control: security technique that restricts access to a resource based on authentication and authorization

access point, AP: network node that allows devices to connect to the network

accessibility: property of a software that makes it usable by people with disabilities or special needs

account: representation of the identity of a user in a system

accuracy: metric for machine learning and information retrieval which gives the proportion of correct predictions among total number of cases; TN + TP / (TN + TP + FN + FP)

Acer: computer manufacturer

ACID: set of properties of database transactions; see atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability

ack: command for searching in text files with regular expressions

ACL, access control list: list used by operating systems and network services to manage access permissions to resources

ACPI, advanced configuration and power interface: specification for operating systems to discover and configure hardware components

Acrobat Reader: program for viewing PDF files developed by Adobe

activation function: function that transforms the output of a neuron into a value that is then passed to the next layer; e.g. ReLU, sigmoid, tanh

activation record: data structure containing information about a function’s execution state, including parameters, local variables, and return address

Ada: statically typed object-oriented high-level programming language developed by the US Department of Defense for embedded systems

Adam optimizer: optimizer that uses weight decay and momentum from SGD optimizer

AdamW optimizer: optimizer that uses weight decay and momentum from Adam optimizer

adblock: software for blocking ads on websites usually in the form of a browser extension

add-one smoothing: technique in NLP to adjust probabilities to avoid zero probabilities of OOV words

additive synthesis: sound synthesis technique that adds sine waves together

adequacy: metric in machine translation which refers to how well the meaning of the source text is preserved in the target text

Adobe: company that develops software for creative professionals

Advent of Code, AOC, AoC: yearly programming challenge

AES, ADVANCED ENCRYPTION STANDARD: encryption algorithm

affine function: composition of a linear function followed by a translation

affordance: property of an object that suggests how it can be used

aggregation: function which combines several items (e.g. rows) into one value; e.g. average, count, min, max, median, sum, range etc.

AGI, artificial general intelligence: AI that can perform any intellectual task that a human can

agile, agile development: flexible and iterative approach to project management from 90s that prioritizes adaptability and emphasizes lots of small steps and continuous improvement instead of upfront planning and long-term scheduling

Aho-Corasick algorithm: algorithm for finding multiple search patterns in a text

AI alignment: subfield of AI that studies how to align artificial intelligence) with human values

AI complete problem: problem or task that is as hard as any artificial intelligence problem

Airbyte: software for connecting a source of data with a consumer of the data

Airflow: open source software developed by Apache written in Python for workflow management

AJAX, asynchronous JavaScript and XML: technique used in web development to create interactive and dynamic web applications based on JavaScript and XML

Alexa: voice assistant developed by Amazon

AlexNet: convolutional network model architecture that won the ImageNet competition in 2012

ALGOL: high-level programming language developed in 1958

algorithm: finite sequence of instructions for solving a problem or doing a computation

aliasing: having multiple names for the same thing

ALPAC: commitee known for its 1966 negative report impacting funding for machine translation research

alpha channel: layer of transparency in a bitmap image

AlphaGo: AI algorithm that learned to play the game of go by playing against itself

AlphaZero: AI algorithm that learned to play chess, shogi and go by playing against itself

alpine: CLI client for email written in C

Alpine Linux: lightweight Linux distribution based on musl and busybox

ALSA, advanced Linux sound architecture: software framework and part of the Linux kernel for providing an API for sound card device drivers

alsamixer: CLI software for controlling sound card drivers

Alt key: modifier key on a keyboard that modifies the function of other keys

ALU, arithmetic logic unit: core component of a CPU that performs arithmetic and logical operations

Amazon: company which started as an online bookstore and has grown into one of the largest companies in the world

ambiguity: property of a word or phrase with multiple meanings or interpretations

AMD, advanced micro devices: company that produces CPUs and GPUs

ampersand: name of the symbol &

Anaconda: distribution of the Python and R programming languages for scientific computing

Miniconda: minimal installer for Anaconda containing only conda and Python

anaphora: word or phrase that refers to another word or phrase in a text; e.g. “I like the book. It is interesting.”

anaphora resolution: NLP task of finding anaphoras in a text

anchor (HTML): HTML element in a hypertext document that links to another document or a specific part of it

anchor (regular expression): regular expression metacharacter that fixes position without matching any characters

AND: binary logical operation that outputs true only when both inputs are true

Android: mobile operating system developed by Google based on Linux

Android Studio: IDE for developing Android apps developed by Google based on IntelliJ

angel investor: individual who provides seed funding for a startup

Angular: TypeScript web framework developed by Google

AngularJS: discontinued (as of 2023) JavaScript web framework developed by Google

anomaly detection: machine learning technique for identifying unusual data points in dataset

anonymous function: function that does not have a name

ANSI C: C standard published by ANSI

ANSI, American National Standards Institute: organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States

Ansible: open source CLI automation software developed by Red Hat written in Python; it can configure systems, deploy software, and orchestrate advanced workflows to support application deployment, system updates, and more using ssh execution from controlled to managed nodes

Ansible Tower: web-based UI and dashboard for Ansible

Ant: build system for Java projects

anti entropy: process in distributed systems used to ensure data consistency and synchronization among nodes

anti join: join that returns only rows from the left table that do not match any rows in the right table

Apache software foundation, ASF: software foundation that develops open source software

Apache license: open source software license developed by the Apache software foundation

Apollo: GraphQL client and server library for JavaScript

Apache (HTTP server): HTTP server developed by Red Hat

API, application programming interface: way for two or more programs to communicate with each other, type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software

APK, Android application package: file format for Android apps

APL, a programming language: programming language developed in the 60s for mathematical notation

append: operation which adds items to the end of a list or file

appimage: file format for Linux apps

Apple: technology company that specializes in consumer electronics, proprietary software, and online services; e.g. macOS, Xcode. Swift, App Store

AppleScript: scripting language developed by Apple for macOS

applet: small application

application, app: see software

AppStore: software distribution platform for iOS apps

apt, advanced packaging tool, aptitude: CLI package manager for Debian-based Linux distributions

Arch Linux: Linux distribution that follows the KISS principle

architecture (machine learning: functional form or type of a model; sometimes incorrectly used as a synonym of the model itself

archive: file containing one or more files and/or directories

Ardour: open source DAW

Arduino: microcontroller board

argc, argument count: parameter in the main function that represents the number of command line arguments

argmax: operation that finds the argument that gives the maximum value from a target function

argument: value passed to a function when calling it; it can be passed by value or by reference; cf. parameter

argv, argument vector: parameter in the main function that is an array of strings representing the command line arguments

arithmetic mean: sum of a collection of numbers divided by the count of numbers in the collection

ARM, Advanced RISC Machine: processor architecture using a RISC instruction set

ARM64: 64-bit version of the ARM architecture

array: data structure for storing a sequence of simpler (usually homogenous) data types

array programming language: programming language operating mainly on arrays; e.g. APL, J, K, NumPy

Arrow: framework for tabular in-memory analytics developed by Apache

artificial intelligence, AI: field of computer science that studies how to make computers do things that people are (or have been) better at

Asana: software for project management

ASCII art: ASCII text characters and symbols that are combined to create an image

ASCII, American Standard Code for Information Interchange: encoding standard for plain text using 7-bit to represent Western European language characters; cf. Unicode

asciidoc: markup language for documentation

ASGI, asynchronous server gateway interface: protocol for web servers written in Python

ASP.NET: web framework developed by Microsoft for C# and .NET

aspell: CLI spell checker

ASR, automatic speech recognition: see speech recognition

assembler: software for converting assembly into machine code

assembly: low-level programming language that is a human-readable representation of machine code

assertion: expression in a programming language that is assumed to be true; used for debugging but sometimes dropped by compilers or interpreters during runtime

assignment: statement that assigns a value to a variable

association-rule mining: unsupervised learning technique for finding relations between variables in a dataset; e.g. people who buy diapers also buy beer

associative array: data structure that maps keys to values; cf. dictionary and map

asterisk: name of the symbol *

ASUS: company that develops hardware

asymmetric cryptography: cryptography system that uses different keys for encryption and decryption

asynchronous operation: operation that does not block the process from executing other tasks or operations

asynchronous programming: programming paradigm that allows the program to concurrently execute multiple tasks without waiting for the completion of the previous task

at sign: the name of the symbol @

AT&T Bell Labs: R&D division of AT&T that developed Unix and C

R&D, research and development: process of developing new products or services

Atlasian: that develops products for software developers, and project managers among other groups

Atlassian: company that develops software for software development teams

atomicity: property of a transaction that guarantees that either all or none of the operations are performed

attention: mechanism in neural networks that allows the network to focus on specific parts of the input

attribute: property (feature) of an object

Audacity: open source audio editing and recording software

audio embedding: embedding of an audio signal

authentication: process of verifying the identity of a user or a system

authoritative name server: server that stores the DNS records for a domain

authorization: process of verifying that a user or a system has access to a resource

autocompletion, auto-completion: feature that suggests possible completions for a word or phrase as the user is typing and allows the user to use the completion by pressing a key (tab) or clicking a button

autocorrelation, auto-correlation: correlation of a signal with itself shifted by a certain interval called lag

autoencoder: type of artificial neural network used for learning efficient codings, typically for the purpose of dimensionality reduction

autokey cipher: cipher that incorporates the message into the key for encryption

automatic variable: variable that is created and destroyed automatically by the compiler or interpreter; e.g. $@ in make

automation: process of replacing a manual process with a computerized one

automaton: mathematical model of a machine that can perform computations

autoregressive model: model which uses past predictions for predicting the value

availability: property of a system that ensures that the information is accessible to authorized users

AVC, advanced video coding: standard for video compression

AVI, audio video interleave: file format for video and audio

AVL tree, Adelson-Velskii Landis tree: self-balancing binary search tree with height difference of at most 1 between left and right subtrees

Awesome WM: tiling window manager

AWK, awk, Aho–Weinberger–Kernighan: programming language for processing files in text format

AWS, Amazon Web Services: cloud computing platform from Amazon

ax: 16-bit general-purpose register in x86 that is the lower half of eax

axiom: formal statement that is assumed to be true

Azure: IaaS from Microsoft

B tree: TODO

Byobu: terminal multiplexer

B+ tree: TODO

B-frame: frame that is encoded using motion compensation from both the previous and the next frame

B2B, business to business: providing services, products to other businesses

B2C, business to costumer: business model where a company sells products or services directly to consumers

Babel: transpilation library for JavaScript

BabelNet: multilingual lexicalized semantic network and ontology automatically created by linking Wikipedia to the WordNet

back button: GUI button in a web browser that allows the user to go back to the previously visited page

back propagation, backprop: algorithm that iteratively updates weights of the model according to the loss function

backdoor: attack TODO

backend, be, back-end: part of a software that is not directly accessed by the user and is usually running on a server

background process, background job: process that is not directly accessed by the user

backoff model: statistical language model that uses a hierarchy of simpler models when data is sparse

backport: TODO

backup: a copy of data that can be used to restore the original data

Backus-Naur form: notation for describing the formal grammar of a programming language

backward compatibility: property of a software that allows it to work with older versions of itself

balanced parentheses: property of a string that contains an equal number of opening and closing parentheses in the proper order

bandwidth: maximum amount of data that can be transferred over a network in a given amount of time

bar chart: chart that uses bars to show the frequency of categorical data

base address: memory address that serves as a reference point for accessing elements or data structures in memory

base64: binary to text encoding that represents binary data in an ASCII string format

Bash, Bourne Again Shell: shell for Linux-based operating systems developed by GNU

BASIC: programming language from 60s designed for students to learn programming

batch: random portion of training data used for forward pass (every time different/random) to save compute time; too small batches may introduce noise in loss values over time

batch normalization: technique for normalization of neural networks that normalizes the output of a layer to have mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1

batch size: hyperparameter of neural networks that determines the number of examples in a batch

Bayes’ rule: see Bayes’ theorem

Bayes’ theorem: if P(x) is true then P(y|x) = P(x|y) * P(y) / P(x); cf. conditional probability

Bayesian network: graph that represents conditional dependencies between random variables

Bazaar: version control system developed by Canonical

Bazel: open source build system developed by Google; similar to make

Beam: framework for distributed batch and streaming data processing developed by Apache

beam search: algorithm for finding the most likely sequence of words in a language model

BEAM, Bogdan Erlang Abstract Machine: virtual machine for Erlang programming language; used also by Elixir

BeautifulSoup: Python library for web scraping and HTML parsing

behavioral pattern: design pattern that describes communication between objects

benchmark: running an experiment on system, component, algorithm to asses its performance, efficiency or other metric

BERT, Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers: transformer-based ML technique for NLP pre-training

bfloat16: float format suitable for NVIDIA cards

bias: constant which is added to the product of features and weights used to offset the result to help the models to shift the activation function towards the positive or negative side

bidi, bidirectional text: text containing both left-to-right and right-to-left scripts

big data: term for a large amount of data that is too large to be processed by traditional methods or by a single computer

big O notation, O(): mathematical notation that describes the time complexity of a function (or algorithm) and puts an upper bound on time, memory or other resources required for the function

BigQuery: data warehouse from Google

bigram: n-gram of size 2

BigTable: distributed database from Google

binary: compiled executable file

binary operator: operator that takes two operands; e.g. 1 + 2

binary representation: representation of a value (number) in base 2; i.e. using only 0s and 1s

binary search: search algorithm that finds the position of a target value within a sorted array in logarithmic time by a recursive process of splitting the searched part of the array in half

binary search tree: binary tree where the left child is smaller than the parent and the right child is larger than the parent

binary tree: tree data structure where each node has at most two children

binomial distribution: probability distribution that describes the number of successes in a sequence of trials which can have two outcomes (success or failure); as the number of trials increases the distribution approximates normal distribution

bioinformatics: interdisciplinary field that studies biology using computer science approaches

biometrics: authentication method that uses biological characteristics of a person; e.g. fingerprint

BIOS, Basic Input/Output System: firmware that initializes hardware during booting of a computer

Bison: parser generator from GNU

bit: smallest data representable by a computer, 0 or 1, true or false, on or off

Bitbucket: version control system developed by Atlassian

bitcoin: cryptocurrency and blockchain protocol

bitmap: data structure that represents a bit array

bitmap image: digital image represented by a bitmap

bitrate: data rate of a digital signal measured in bits per second

bittorrent: peer-to-peer file sharing protocol

bitwise operation: operation that is performed on bit level

Blackberry: smartphone brand

blade server: compact server computer with a modular design optimized to minimize the use of physical space and energy

Blender: open source 3D graphics software

BLEU, Bilingual Evaluation Understudy: metric for evaluating the quality of machine translation

blob, binary large object: data type that can store binary data in a database; e.g. an image or a video

block (video): smaller unit within a macroblock, usually 8x8 or 4x4 pixels, used for more detailed processing and compression in video encoding

block comment: comment which spans multiple lines; delimited by special symbols, e.g. /* and */ in C

blockchain: distributed database that is used to maintain a continuously growing list of records called blocks

blog: website that contains posts usually in reverse chronological order

blogosphere: all blogs on the internet and their interconnections

Bloom filter: probabilistic data structure for set membership queries which may return false positives with configurable small probability and uses O(log n) space

Blu-ray: optical disc format

bluetooth: wireless technology for exchanging data over short distances

boilerplate: code that is repeated in many places; e.g. a HTML header or a menu on a website or Java getters and setters

bookmark: URL stored and easily accessible in a browser

bookmarklet: short JavaScript code executed by visiting a URL starting with javascript: which operates on the current web page and can be saved as a bookmark in browsers

boolean: data type that can have only two values: true or false

Boolean algebra: branch of mathematics that deals with boolean values and logical operations

Boolean formula: formula composed of boolean variables and logic operations

boolean function: function that takes boolean values as input and returns a boolean value as output

boot loader, bootloader: software that loads the operating system into the computer memory

secure boot: UEFI feature that checks the operating system for malware before booting

OEM, original equipment manufacturer: company that produces parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer

UEFI, Unified Extensible Firmware Interface: firmware that replaces the traditional BIOS and provides an interface between the operating system and the hardware

Bootstrap: CSS framework for responsive web design developed by Twitter

bot: software that performs automated tasks; short for robot

Bottle.py: Python web framework distributed in a single file

bottleneck (machine learning): layer in a neural network that has a smaller number of parameters than the previous layer

BOW, bag of words: simple model for natural language processing that ignores grammar and word order and represents text as a vector of word counts

Boyer-Moore algorithm: efficient string-searching algorithm which preprocesses the pattern to be searched for and runs faster as the pattern length increases

BPF, Berkeley Packet Filter: technology used for running sandboxed programs in a virtual machine-like construct in the Linux kernel without changing kernel source code or adding additional modules

Brainfuck: esoteric programming language with minimalist design, similar to Turing machine

branch: version control system term for a development copy of a repository that can be merged back to the original repository

branch misprediction: CPU low-level optimization that allows the CPU to continue executing instructions even if the branch has not been resolved yet and if the branch is resolved incorrectly, the instructions that were executed must be discarded

branch-per-feature workflow: workflow of using version control where each feature or bug fix is developed in a separate branch

Brasero: open source CD and DVD burner

breadcrumbs: GUI navigation element that shows the path to the current web page

breadth first search, BFS: graph algorithm that starts at the root node and explores all the neighboring nodes before moving to the next level; cf. DFS

break: keyword in some programming languages which exits a loop or switch immediately

breakpoint: debugging tool that pauses the execution of a program at a specific line of code

brew: package manager for macOS

bricking: state where an electronic device becomes completely unusable and inoperable

Brill’s tagger: error-driven transformation-based algorithm for PoS tagging

broadband: network connection with a high data transfer rate

broadcast: network communication method where a message is sent to all nodes in the network

Brother: printer brand

browser: software for viewing and navigating web; usually a GUI application, sometimes TUI application for a terminal

brute force algorithm: algorithm that tries all possible solutions to a problem

BSD, Berkley Software Distribution: Unix operating system developed at the University of California, Berkley

BSS section: section in a assembly code that contains uninitialized variables

btrfs, B-tree file system: file system for Linux using B-tree developed by Oracle

bubble sort: algorithm for sorting

buffer: data structure for storing data in a memory to be processed later

bug: undesirable feature in a source code causing an error in compilation or execution

build: process of converting source code into an executable program

bundle: web app distribution in a single file

bus: computer component for transferring data between components; e.g. PCI bus

bus factor: minimum number of team members needed for running a business

business intelligence, BI: software for analyzing business data

busy waiting: process of waiting for a condition to become true by repeatedly checking it; see also polling

busybox: software that provides several Unix utilities in a single executable

byte: 8 bits

byte pair encoding: encoding used in GPT models, shorter tokens are used for encoding longer words (tokens)

bytecode, byte code: set of instructions compiled for a runtime; e.g. Java and Python bytecodes

C#: object oriented programming language from Microsoft

C++, cpp: object oriented programming language

C, clang: low level programming language

cache: intermediate memory for storing data that is frequently accessed for better performance

cache memory: small, high-speed memory storage unit located close to the CPU, used to temporarily store frequently accessed data or instructions to improve overall system performance

call stack: data structure that stores information about the active subroutines calls

callback: function passed as an argument to another function to be called later

camelCase: naming convention for identifiers where words are joined together without spaces and each word starts with a capital letter; e.g. getMoreData

Canonical: company behind Ubuntu

Canva: software for creating graphics

canvas: HTML element for drawing graphics

CAP theorem: theorem that states that a distributed system cannot be consistent, available and partition tolerant at the same time

captcha, Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart: task for distinguishing humans from bots; e.g. a web page with a distorted image of text

captive portal: web page that a user is required to visit and interact with before accessing a public Wi-Fi network

car: Lisp function for returning the first element of a list

Cardan grille: cipher that uses a grid to hide the message

cardinality: number of elements in a set

Cassandra: distributed NoSQL database from Apache

casting: process of converting a data type to another

cat: Unix command for printing the contents of files

catastrophic cancellation: when the difference of two approximate numbers (e.g. lengths) is significantly different from the difference of the real values

categorical data: such data which can have only a discrete set of values; e.g. type of education, gender etc.; cf. continuous data

category (mathematics): collection of objects and morphisms between them

causation: relationship between two events where one event is the cause of the other event; often confused with correlation

CB, continuous build: process of building software after every change to the code base

CBOW, continuous bag of words: neural network model for natural language processing using word embedding

CBR, constant bit rate: property of audio codec which guarantees that the bitrate is constant; cf. VBR

CC, creative commons: family of licenses for creative works

CC-0: license that imposes no restrictions on a work

CC-BY, creative commons attribution: license which allows sharing, adapting and commercial use of a work as long as the author is credited (attributed)

CC-NC, creative commons non-commercial share-alike: license which allows sharing and adapting a work as long as the derived work is licensed under the same license and is not used for commercial purposes

CC-ND, creative commons non-derivative: license which allows sharing a work as long as it is not modified

CC-SA, creative commons attribution share-alike: license which requires the derived work is licensed under the same license

cd: command for changing the current directory

CD ROM: read only CD

CD RW: rewritable CD

CD, compact disk: medium for storing data

CD, continuous delivery: automatic process of releasing software in short cycles

cdr, contents of decrement part of register: Lisp function for returning the second element of a list

ceil: mathematical function for rounding a number up

Celery: Python library for asynchronous tasks

CentOS: Linux distribution based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux

centroid: center of mass of a shape used in clustering algorithms

CEO, chief executive officer: executive position in a company responsible for overall management of a company

certbot: software for managing TLS certificates

certificate: digital document that certifies the identity of a person or an organization or the ownership of a public key

certificate authority: entity that issues digital certificates

CESNET, Czech Education and Scientific NETwork: NREN for the Czech Republic

CGI, common gateway interface: standard for running programs on a web server

cgroup: Linux kernel feature for limiting and isolating resource usage of a process

chain of responsibility pattern: behavioral pattern

chaining: method of calling multiple methods on an object in a single statement; e.g. obj.method1().method2().method3()

changelog: list of changes in a software project

char: data type for storing a single character

character: representation of a symbol; e.g. a letter, a digit, a punctuation mark etc.

chatbot: bot for chatting with humans

checkbox: GUI element for selecting one or more options

checkpoint: place in a program where the state of the program is saved

checksum: value calculated from data for detecting errors in the data when the data is transmitted or stored

chi-square test: statistical test for testing the independence of two categorical variables

Chinchilla: LLM experiment aimed at exploring the limits of language model scaling

chip (hardware): integrated circuit

chipset: set of chips on a motherboard

Chomsky hierarchy: classification of formal grammars into four types: regular, context-free, context-sensitive and recursively enumerable

chroma: color component of a color space

chroma subsampling: method of reducing the amount of data in a video by reducing the resolution of the chroma

Chrome: web browser from Google

Chromebook: laptop running ChromeOS

ChromeOS: operating system from Google based on Linux

Chromium: open source web browser from Google

CI, continuous integration: frequent merging of small changes to the main branch

CIDR, classless inter-domain routing: standard for IP addressing that improves routing efficiency

cipher: encryption algorithm

CircleCI: Saas for continuous integration and continuous delivery

circular buffer: see ring buffer

class (OOP): extensible template for creating objects, providing initial values for state (member variables) and implementations of behavior (member functions)

class imbalance: the problem in machine learning where there is an unequal distribution of classes in the dataset

class inheritance: mechanism of object oriented programming where a class inherits properties of another class

class method: method of a class that is called on the class itself, not on an instance of the class

classification model: model which predicts a class or a category e.g. given a picture: what animal is in the picture or given an audio file: what genre is the song in the file; see also regression

CLI, command line interface, command line: TUI for interaction with the OS and programs using commands

ClickUp: Saas for project management

client: computer or browser that requests services from a server

Clippy: MS Office assistant in the shape of a paperclip

Clojure: functional programming language on JVM runtime based on Lisp

closure: function that has access to variables from the scope where it was defined

cloud computing: model of computing where resources are provided as a service over a network

cluster: group of computers working together

clustering: machine learning technique for grouping similar instances in a dataset together

cmake: build system for C++

Cmd key, command key: modifier key on a keyboard on Apple computers

cmp: assembly instruction used for comparing two values or operands which sets the processor flags based on the result of the comparison

CMS, content management system: software for managing content on a website; e.g. WordPress

CMYK, cyan magenta yellow black: color model used for printing

CNAME record, canonical name record: DNS record for mapping a domain to another domain

COBOL, common business oriented language: imperative procedural high-level programming language for business applications from the 1950s still in use today (as of 2023)

code: text representation of instructions for a computer to execute written in a programming language

code completion: IDE feature for completing code based on the context

code control: process of controlling changes to a codebase

code coverage: measure of how much of the source code is covered by tests

code injection: security vulnerability where malicious code is inserted into a program, often leading to unauthorized or unexpected behaviour

code review: process of reviewing source code changes resulting either in an approval (for merge) or asking for changes

code smell: characteristic in source code that might indicate a deeper problem

codebase: collection of source code

codec: software for encoding and decoding data, usually audio or video

codeowner: individual or team responsible for maintaining and reviewing code changes in a specific part of a software project used in version control systems

CoffeeScript: programming language that compiles to JavaScript

ColdFusion: programming language for web development from Adobe

Colemak: keyboard layout optimized for in English

collaborative filtering: machine learning task for filtering out items that a user might like on the basis of reactions by users with similar preferences; by searching a large group of people and finding a smaller set of users with tastes similar to a particular user

collation: set of rules that determine how data is sorted and compared in a database

collectd: daemon which collects system and application performance metrics

collection (data type): data type that holds multiple values; e.g. array, set

collection (Mongo): group of documents similar to a table in a RDBMS

collocation: sequence of words or terms that co-occur more often than would be expected by chance

color depth: number of bits used to represent the color of a single pixel in a bitmap

color model: model for representing colors as tuples of numbers; e.g. RGB, CMYK

color space: color model with a specific color gamut

columnar database: database optimized for querying a subset of columns rather then inserting or updating rows

combinator: higher-order function

combobox: GUI element that combines a textbox with a dropdown

command line arguments: parameters provided to a program at runtime via the command line

command, cmd: written instruction causing a computer to do something; consists of a program name, arguments

commit: version control operation that saves changes to a repository

Common Lisp: Lisp dialect Common Lisp; Lisp dialect

CommonCrawl: web crawler making the data available for research

communicating sequential processes, CSP: concurrency model where processes communicate by sending messages; also a programming language implementing the model

compilation: process of translating source code into machine code

compiler: program that translates source code into machine code

compose key: modifier key that allows to enter special characters by pressing the compose key and then a sequence of other keys; e.g. compose + " + a = ä

compression: process of reducing the size of data

compromise: security breach; e.g. leaking of a private key

computable function: function that can be calculated by an algorithm

computational linguistics: field of linguistics concerned with the statistical or rule-based modeling of natural language from a computational perspective

computer: machine that can be programmed to perform computation

computer science: scientific field studying computation, information and automation

computer security, cybersecurity: branch of computer science concerned with the protection of computer systems and networks

computer vision: subfield of computer science processing and analyzing images

computer worm: type of malware that replicates itself in order to spread to other computers

concatenation, concat: operation which joins two data structures into one; e.g. joining two strings or using cat command on two files

concept drift: change in the data distribution over time in machine learning

concurrency: property of a program which allows multiple tasks to be executed at the same time

Conda: package manager for Python

conditional probability: probability of an event given that another event has occurred; written as P(x|y) where x is the event and y is the condition

conditional statement: statement that executes a block of code if a condition is true and optionally another block of code if the condition is false

confidentiality: property of a system that ensures that only authorized users can access the information

configuration management: process of managing changes to a system in a way that it maintains integrity over time

conflict: when there are two changes to the same part of a code base which can’t be resolved automatically

confusion matrix: 2D matrix showing the number of correct and incorrect predictions made by a classification model

consensus algorithm: algorithm used for achieving agreement on a single data value among distributed processes or systems

consistency: property of a database which ensures that all data is valid according to defined rules

consistent hashing: type of hashing that minimizes the need for remapping keys when a hash table is resized

console: TUI for interaction with the OS and programs using commands; cf. terminal

const: keyword in some programming languages which declares a variable as constant

constant: variable which is not changed during execution of a program

constructor: special method of a class which is called when an instance of the class is created

container: virtualization technology for running applications in isolation

content farm: website that produces large amounts of low-quality content to attract visitors and earn money from ads

context switching: process of changing focus when doing multiple tasks

context-free grammar, CFG: formal grammar where each production rule is of the form A -> α, where A is a non-terminal and α is a string of terminals and/or nonterminals

context-free language, CFL: formal language that can be generated by a context-free grammar

context-sensitive grammar, CSG: formal grammar where each production rule is of the form αAβ -> αγβ, where A is a non-terminal and α, β, γ are strings of terminals and/or nonterminals

continuous data: data which contain a number that represents a quantity, e.g. weight; cf. categorical data

contract: TODO

convnext: family of convolutional neural network architectures

convolution: operation on two functions which produces a third function expressing how the shape of one is modified by the other

convolutional neural network, CNN: neural network containing convolution layers instead of fully connected layers particularly good for computer vision tasks

coocurrence analysis: method in computational linguistics to study the frequency and patterns with which words cooccur in texts

cookies: small piece of data sent from a server and stored in the user’s browser used to identify the user and store user-specific data

cooperative multitasking: tasks must yield when they do not need resources

coordinate: number(s) representing a position in space

copy on write: optimization technique where a copy of an object is created only when it is modified

copyleft: the legal technique of granting certain freedoms over copies of copyrighted works with the requirement that the same rights be preserved in derivative works

copyright: legal right to control the use and distribution of a creative work

Cordova: open source mobile development framework which allows you to use standard web technologies, HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript for cross-platform development

core: CPU unit that reads and executes instructions; see also multicore

coredump: file containing the memory image of a process when it crashed

coreference: when two or more expressions in a text refer to the same entity; e.g. “John” and “he” in “John went to the store. He bought milk.”; cf. anaphora

coreutils: set of basic Unix CLI tools; e.g. cat

corollary: proposition that follows from and is often appended to one already proved

coroutine: function that can pause execution and return control to the caller

corpus lexicography: field of lexicography that studies corpora for the purpose of creating dictionaries

corpus linguistics: field of linguistics that studies language phenomena using corpora

corpus, text corpus: collection of documents in a readable format

correlation: the strength of a association between two variables; does not imply causation

correlation coefficient: measure of how well-correlated two variables are, if CC between X and Y is 1.0, knowing X allows perfect prediction of Y, if CC is 0.0, knowing X tells you nothing about Y, and if it is -1.0, then X predicts Y, but a change in X causes an opposite change in Y

CORS, cross origin resource sharing: mechanism that allows restricted resources on a web page to be requested from another domain

Ceph: distributed object storage and file system

Cortex: complex system for monitoring large systems

CouchDB: NoSQL database from Apache

covariance: measure of how much two variables change together; correration coefficient is normalized covariance

CPAN, comprehensive Perl archive network: public repository of Perl packages

CPU, central processing unit: the most important processor in a computer; its “control center”

CPU-bound process: process that is limited by the speed of the CPU

CQT, constant Q transform: Fourier transform that uses a logarithmically spaced frequency axis

CRAN, comprehensive R archive network: public repository of R packages

crate: TODO

CRDT: TODO

CRT: hardware TODO

creational patterns: design pattern that deals with object creation mechanisms

Creative Commons: non-profit organization that provides licenses for creative works

credential: piece of document (or information) of an individual issued by a third party

CRF, constant rate factor: variable bitrate encoding method used in video compression to achieve a consistent level of quality throughout the video based on the complexity of the content

CRISP-DM, cross-industry standard process for data mining: standard for life cycle for data mining projects

CRM, customer relationship management: business strategy for managing a company’s interactions with customers and also software that provides tools for this

cron: command line utility for scheduling and running tasks for Unix-like OS

cronjob: job or task scheduled and run by cron

crontab: configuration file that specifies shell commands to run on a given schedule (on reboot, every 10 minutes, hourly etc.)

cross compilation: process of compiling code for one platform on a different platform

cross entropy: measure of the difference between two probability distributions

cross platform development: development of software that can run on multiple platforms

cross validation: technique for assessing how the results of a statistical analysis will generalize to an independent data set

cross-site scripting, XSS: security vulnerability in web apps that allows an attacker to execute arbitrary JavaScript code on the client

CRUD, create, read, update, delete: set of basic operations for databases

cryptocurrency: digital currency that uses cryptography for security

cryptography: field of computer science concerned with encryption and decryption in order to securely transmit data

CSIRT, computer security incident response team: team that handles computer security incidents

CSS, cascading style sheets: programming language for styling HTML documents

CSS3: version of CSS

CSV, comma separated values: text format for storing tabular data

CTO, chief technology officer: executive position in a company responsible for technology used and developed in a company

Ctrl key, control key: modifier key on a keyboard

CUDA, compute unified device architecture: parallel computing platform and programming model developed by Nvidia for GPUs

cURL: command line tool for transferring data over network protocols

curryfication: process of transforming a function that takes multiple arguments into a sequence of functions that take one argument each

curse of dimensionality: phenomenon in which algorithms suffer from poor performance on data with high dimensionality

cursor (database): pointer to a row in a database table

cursor (GUI): graphical representation of mouse position

cursor (TUI): movable indicator in TUI showing the current position for new text

CVS, concurrent versions system: software for tracking changes in a software projects

cycle: closed path in a graph

cyclomatic complexity: the number of possible execution paths inside a given piece of code

Cygwin (library): collection of GNU libraries dynamic library that provides POSIX compatibility layer for Windows

Cypher: query language for graph databases developed by Neo4j

Cypress: JavaScript testing framework for web apps

D3.js, D3: JavaScript library for producing dynamic, interactive data visualizations

daemon: non-interactive background process in Unix whose parent process is init process

DAG, directed acyclic graph: graph with no cycles

DER format: a binary form of a certificate or private key

Dagster: data orchestration framework

Dart: programming language for web development from Google

Dash (library): Python framework for building web pplications with interactive visualizations

Dasher: software for writing by eye gaze

data abstraction: TODO

data analysis: process of inspecting, cleansing, transforming and modeling data with the goal of discovering useful information from it

data augmentation: technique for increasing the amount of training data by adding slightly modified copies of already existing data

data contamination: when test examples are included in a model’s training data

data flow diagram: diagram that shows how data is processed by a system

data hazard: TODO

data lake: scalable storage repository that holds data of various types and formats in its raw form for later data analysis

data leakage: see information leakage

data link layer: second layer of the OSI model which provides the functional and procedural means to transfer data between network entities and to detect and possibly correct errors that may occur in the physical layer

data mining: the process of extracting useful patterns from large datasets

data model: model that describes the structure of data and the operations that can be performed on it

data orchestration: process of automating data pipelines

data pipeline: set of data processing elements connected in series where the output of one element is the input of the next one usually in the form of a DAG

data science: field of computer science that uses scientific methods to extract knowledge from data

data splitting: splitting dataset into train set, development set, validation, test parts

data structure: way of storing various data in computers, e.g. graphs, images, list of words, … usually linked to an algorithm which works with the structure effectively to solve a problem

data type: classification of data which tells the compiler or interpreter how the programmer intends to use the data

data versioning: process of tracking changes to data

data visualization: graphical representation of data which helps to understand the data and find patterns in it

data warehouse: centralized repository that stores cleaned and transformed structured data designed for query and analysis

data wrangling: process of cleaning, structuring and enriching raw data into a desired format for further use

data-oriented design, DOD: programming paradigm that focuses on efficient and flexible organization, processing and storage of data

database session: period of time during which a database connection is open

database, database system, db: collection of data organized in a way that allows access, management and updates

dataframe: data structure for storing data in a tabular format used in Pandas

dataset: collection of data used for machine learning or data science

datepicker: GUI element for selecting a date

datetime: data type for representing a date and time

DAW, digital audio workstation: software for recording, editing and producing music in the form of audio files

DB2: database management system TODO

dbt, data build tool: open source tool for data transformations using SQL queries and which manages data dependencies and abstracts from the infrastructure

dd: CLi utility in Unix-like operating systems used for copying and converting data, often used for tasks like disk imaging and backup

DDD, data display debugger: GUI tool for several CLI debuggers as GDB

DDoS, distributed denial of service: DoS attack that uses multiple computers to perform the attack

deadlock: situation in which two or more competing actions are each waiting for the other to finish

Debian: Linux distribution

debugger: software for debugging software allowing step-by-step execution and inspection; e.g. GDB

debugging: process of examining, analyzing, finding and fixing bugs during development of a software

decentralized system: system in which components are distributed across a network

decision tree: machine learning architecture that uses a tree-like graph to model decisions

declaration: statement that introduces a name into a program

declarative programming language: programming language that expresses the logic of a computation without describing its control flow; e.g. SQL

decoding: process of converting encoded data into its original form

decorator: function that takes another function and returns a modified function with additional functionality

decrement: unary operation that subtracts one from a number

decryption: process of converting encrypted data into its original form

Deep Blue: chess-playing supercomputer developed by IBM which beat the world chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997

deep learning: technique to extract and transform data by using multiple layers of neural networks

Deep Mind: AI company acquired by Google behind the AlphaGo and AlphaZero programs

Deep Thought: computer in the book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy which was built to find the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything

DeFi, decentralized finance: financial services built on top of blockchain technology

defragmentation: process of reducing fragmentation of files in a file system

Delphi: IDE for Pascal

demultiplexor: function or program that performs the inverse operation of a multiplexor

dense matrix: matrix with many non-zero elements

dense vector: vector with many non-zero elements

dependency: software or library or framework that is required for another software, library of framework to work

dependency injection: technique for passing dependencies to a function or object from the outside

deployment: process of making a software available for use by others

depth-first search, DFS: graph algorithm that explores as far as possible along each branch before backtracking

deque: data structure that allows adding and removing elements from both ends

dereferencing: process of accessing the value stored at a memory address pointed to by a pointer variable

derivative: measure of how a function changes when its input changes

deserialization: process of converting serialized data into its original form

design by contract, DBC: software design approach that uses formal specification of software components

design for testability pattern: design pattern that deals with testing

design pattern: general, reusable solution to a commonly occurring problem in software design; e.g. MVC

desktop: computer designed for regular use at a single location

desktop application: software that runs on a desktop

desktop environment: graphical user interface for an OS

deterministic finite automata: type of finite automata where each state has exactly one transition for each possible input

dev: a programmer

development set, dev set: see validation set

DevOps, development and operations: set of practices that combines software development and IT operations; e.g. CI/CD

DGT, Directorate General for Translation: directorate of the European Commission responsible for translation and language services

dialog (UX): UI element that allows users to interact with a computer

Dice coefficient: statistical measure for evaluating similarity between two sets used in NLP

dictionary: data structure that maps keys to values

differentiability: property of a function that it can be approximated by a linear function

dig, domain information groper: CLI tool for querying DNS servers

digit: symbol used to represent numbers; e.g. 2

digital data: discrete representation of data

digital imaging sensor: sensor that converts an optical image to an electronic signal

Digital Millennium Copyright act section 1201(A): U.S. law that makes it illegal to circumvent digital locks over copyrighted works, restricting user’s ability to access, use, or discuss materials that they own

DIKW pyramid, data information knowledge wisdom pyramid: hierarchy of knowledge that describes the relationship between data, information, knowledge and wisdom

dimension: the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within a given space

dimensionality: number of features in a dataset

direct memory access, DMA: feature allowing certain hardware subsystems in a computer to access system memory independently of the CPU

directory: file system data structure which contains references to children files and directories in a tree-like structure

dirty page: page that has been modified since it was last written

disambiguation, word sense disambiguation, WSD: process of identifying the meaning of a word in a given context, usually by selecting from a list of possible meanings

Discord: proprietary software for chatting and video conferencing

discrete Fourier transform, DFT: Fourier transform of a discrete signal

discretization: process of transforming continuous data into discrete data

disk drive: hardware device that reads and writes data to a disk

disk image: file that contains the contents of a storage

disk, disc: storage device for computers

dispatcher: function that receives a request and sends it to the appropriate handler

display: physical or virtual screen of a computer

distributed computing: field of computer science that studies distributed systems

distributed system: system whose components are located on different computers in a network

distribution: set of programs that are built, tested and distributed together

dividend: number that is divided by another number

divisor: number that divides another number

divide and conquer algorithm: algorithm design paradigm that recursively breaks down a problem into two or more sub-problems of the same or related type, until these become simple enough to be solved directly

Django: Python web framework

dmesg: command in Unix-based systems for displaying messages from the kernel

DNS packet: packet that contains a DNS query or a DNS response

DNS record: data record in the DNS that contains information about a domain

DNS resolver: server that receives DNS queries and returns the corresponding DNS records

DNS, domain name system: hierarchical and decentralized naming system for computers, services, or other resources connected to the internet or a private network

DocBook: markup language for technical documentation

Docker: containerization platform and software for building, running and shipping containers

Dokku: platform as a service for web applications with CLI for deploying applications to a server; cf. Heroku

dd: command in Unix-based systems for copying and converting files

docker compose: Docker CLI tool for defining and running multi-container Docker applications

Docker image: file that contains a container and all its dependencies

Dockerfile: file that contains instructions for building a Docker image

documentation: description of the behaviour and functions intended for users

Docutils: Python library for parsing reStructuredText into HTML, LaTeX, XML or plain text

Dojo: JavaScript toolkit for building web applications

DOM, document object model: cross-platform and language-independent API for representing and interacting with XML documents

domain: name that identifies one or more IP addresses with a name that is easier to remember and use in URLs

domain specific language, DSL: high level abstration programming language that uses concepts and rules from a specific domain

DoS, denial of service: cyber attack that prevents legitimate users from accessing a service by overwhelming it with requests

dot product: scalar operation that takes two equal-length sequences of numbers and returns a single number

dotfiles: files that start with a dot (.) and contain configuration for software and operating systems

double: data type for representing floating point numbers with double precision in C and C++

double-word, dword: data size that typically consists of 32 bits or 4 bytes, commonly used for representing integers and memory addressing

download: process of copying data from a remote server to a local computer

dq: assembly directive used to declare and allocate space for a quadword variable or data in memory

drag&drop: UI mechanism for selecting and moving objects on a screen with a pointer device e.g. mouse

driver: software that controls a device

driver code: short code demonstrating or testing a specific program, function, code

DRM, digital rights management: technologies that restrict the use of digital content and devices after purchase

dropdown: UI element that allows users to select one value from a list

Drupal: content management system written in PHP

DRY, don’t repeat yourself: principle of software development that states that every piece of knowledge must have a single, unambiguous, authoritative representation within a system

DSLR, digital single-lens reflex: camera that combines the optics and the mechanisms of a single-lens reflex camera with a digital imaging sensor

DTD, document type definition: XML markup language that defines the building blocks of an XML document

durability: property that ensures database transactions are permanent

DVD, digital versatile disc: optical disc format

Dvorak: keyboard layout designed for typing speed and comfort

dw: assembly directive used to declare and allocate space for a word (16 bits) variable or data in memory.

dwm, dynamic window manager: tiling window manager for X11 from suckless

dynamic library, dll, dynamically linked library: library that is loaded at runtime

dynamic programming: programming paradigm that solves complex problems by breaking them down into simpler subproblems

dynamic web page: web page that is generated at runtime; cf. static web page

dynamically typed language: programming language that does not require variable types to be defined explicitly

DynamoDB: database management system with focus on availability and scalability sacrificing some of the ACID properties

e-commerce: business model that lets firms and individuals buy and sell things over the internet

e-ink: display technology that mimics the appearance of ink on paper

e-reader: device for reading ebooks

E2E test, end to end test: test that tests a complete software system from beginning to end

ELF, executable and linkable format: file format for executable files and shared libraries in Linux

core dump: file containing the memory image of a process when it crashes

E2EE, end-to-end encryption: encryption method that protects data between the sender and the recipient

early adopter: person who starts using a new software or service before most other people

early binding: process of linking a function call to its definition at compile time

early stopping: technique to avoid overfitting in ML by stopping the training process early

eax: 32-bit general-purpose register in the x86, commonly used for various arithmetic and data operations

ebook: book stored in a file format

Eclipse: IDE for Java

Ecma international: international standards organization for information and communication systems

ECMAScript: JavaScript standard by Ecma International

ecosystem: libraries, community, online resources etc. related to a given programming language

ed, line editor: line-oriented editor

edge: link between two nodes in a network

edge computing: computing that takes place near the source of data

edit distance: measure of how many operations (insertion, deletion, substitution) are required to change one string into another; cf. Levenshtein distance

editor: software for editing files

edx: 32-bit general-purpose register in the x86, often used in conjunction with eax for extended arithmetic operations

egg: logical structure for releasing a specific version of a Python project (code, resources, metadata) which is importable and distributable

Elasticsearch: search engine based on Lucene

Electron: framework for building desktop applications with web technologies

element: component (node) of a XML document; e.g. <head>

Elixir: functional programming language running on BEAM runtime supporting extreme concurrency and fault tolerance

EM algorithm, expectation-maximization algorithm: iterative method for finding maximum likelihood or maximum a posteriori estimates of parameters in statistical models

Emacs: text based editor with a built-in Lisp interpreter

email: electronic mail sent over a network

embedded system: computer system with a dedicated function within a larger mechanical or electrical system

embedding: mapping of a discrete feature to a vector

Ember.js: JavaScript framework for building web applications

emdash: dash that is as wide as the letter m

encapsulation: OOP principle of bundling data and methods that operate on that data

encoder decoder model: neural network architecture used in natural language processing for transforming an input to an output

encoding: process of converting data from one form to another

encryption: process of encoding a message or information in such a way that only authorized parties can access it

end-to-end model, e2e model: ML model that processes raw input data to produce the final output with minimal pre-processed features

endash: dash that is as wide as the letter n

endofunctor: functor mapping a category to itself

endpoint: URL of a web service

Enron dataset: dataset of emails from the Enron corporation used for research in NLP and ML

enshittification: informal term for the process by which platforms degrade UX over time to maximize profit

entity: distinct, separate, identifiable thing or concept often used in the context of data modeling

entropy: measure of the amount of information in a message

enum: data type representing a set of named constants; e.g. enum Color { RED, GREEN, BLUE }

environment variable: variable whose value is set outside the program or shell script

epic: in agile software development, a large user story that is broken down into smaller tasks

epilogue: portion of a function in assembly that performs cleanup tasks, such as restoring registers and stack, before returning control to the caller

epoch: one complete pass through the training data

epub, e-pub: ebook format based on XML

equ: assembly directive used to define symbolic constants or values, which can simplify code readability and maintenance

ER diagram, entity relationship diagram: diagram that shows the relationships between entities in a database

erasure coding: technique that breaks data into fragments and adds redundancy to recover from errors in distributed systems

Erathosthenes sieve: algorithm for finding all prime numbers up to a given limit by filtering out all non-prime numbers iteratively

ereader, e-reader: device for reading ebooks in digital format

ergodic process: statistical term for a process where its time average is equal to its ensemble average

ergonomics: study of designing equipment and devices that fit the human body and its cognitive abilities

Erlang: functional programming language supporting extreme concurrency and fault tolerance; uses BEAM runtime

ERP, enterprise resource planning: software for managing business processes

error: mistake in a program that causes it to behave incorrectly

error correcting code: code that can detect and correct errors in data

error handling: process of responding to error conditions

error rate: the proportion of validation set which was incorrectly predicted or labelled or classified by a model

error-driven transformation-based learning: approach in ML where models are iteratively improved by focusing on errors in predictions

Esc, escape: key on a keyboard used to generate the escape character (used to exit a mode)

escape character: character that signals the start of an escape sequence

escape sequence: sequence of characters that represents a special character; e.g. \n represents a newline character in Python

esoteric programming language, esolang: programming language designed to test the boundaries of programming language design; e.g. Brainfuck

esports: competitive video game playing

estimator: model that learns from data

ETH, ether: cryptocurrency and blockchain platform

Ethereum: blockchain platform for smart contracts

ethernet: standard set of protocols for LAN, MAN and WAN networks

ethtool: utility for querying and changing network interface controller and driver settings

ETL, extract transform load: process of extracting data from one database and loading it into another

evaluation (machine learning): process of assessing a model’s performance on validation set

event-driven programming: programming paradigm in which the flow of the program is determined by events such as user actions, sensor outputs, or messages from other programs

evolutionary algorithm: algorithm that uses principles of evolution (mutation, selection, crossover) to solve problems

ex, extended line editor: line-oriented text editor for Unix systems

line-oriented user interface, line-oriented UI: UI for early text editors where users edited documents one line at a time; e.g. ed, ex

exabyte: 10^18 bytes or 1,000 petabytes

Excel: spreadsheet application by Microsoft; part of Microsoft Office

exception: situation when a program cannot continue its execution due to an error or unexpected situation; the flow of execution is interrupted

executable, exe: binary file that can be run as a program

execution: process of running a program, command or script

EXIF, exchangeagle image file format: standard that specifies formats for images to store special tags (attributes) used by digital cameras

exponent: number that indicates how many times a base number is multiplied by itself

exploit, exploitation: software that takes advantage of a vulnerability in a system

expression: combination of values, variables, operators and functions that is evaluated to a single value

Ext js: JavaScript framework for building desktop applications

ext3: file system used by Linux

ext4: journaling file system used by Linux

extension: suffix of filename indicating its file format

extern: keyword used in assembly to declare external symbols or variables that are defined in other modules or source files

extrapolation: method for estimating unknown values by using known values outside the range of known values

extreme programming: agile software development methodology that emphasizes teamwork and communication

F score, F1 score, F measure: harmonic mean of precision and recall

F#, F sharp: functional programming language running on .NET runtime

Facebook: SaaS for social networking, also the name of the company that created it

factorial: unary function with the definition f(n) = n! = n * (n-1) * (n-2) * … * 2

factory: design pattern that defines an interface for creating an object but lets subclasses decide which class to instantiate

FAHQMT, fully automatic high quality machine translation: machine translation system that does not require human intervention or post-editing

FAISS, Facebook AI Similarity Search: library for efficient similarity search and clustering of dense vectors

fallout: TODO

false negative: item which was incorrectly classified as negative (not belonging to a class)

false positive: item which was incorrectly classified as positive (belonging to a class)

false positive rate: see fallout

fan in: number of inputs to a component

fan out: number of outputs from a component

fast.ai: library which simplifies building and training models built upon Pytorch

fasttext: library for efficient text classification and word embedding written in C++

fat finger: situation when a user accidentally presses the wrong key on a touch screen

FAT, file allocation table: file system for hard drives by Microsoft

FAT32: 32-bit version of the FAT file system

FDD, floppy disk drive: disk drive that reads and writes data to a floppy disk

feature (machine learning): measurable property of a phenomenon being modeled in machine learning; e.g. a pixel value in an image or a word in a sentence

feature (software): a piece of functionality of a software product

feature creep, scope creep: situation when a software product has more features than originally planned

feature flag: software development technique that allows to enable or disable a feature without deploying a new version of the software

federated learning: machine learning technique where the model is trained on decentralized data

Fedora: Linux distribution sponsored by Red Hat

feedforward neural network: neural network where the information flows in one direction from one layer to the next

fetch (git): operation that downloads commits from a remote repository to a local repository

few shot learning: machine learning technique that learns from a small number of examples

ffmpeg: command line tool for manipulating video and audio

FFT, fast Fourier transform: algorithm for computing the Fourier transform efficiently TODO

FIFO, first in first out: data structure where the first element added is the first element removed

Figma: collaborative web app for design

file: representation of data stored on a disk; not necessarily contiguous

file browser, file manager: UI for navigating the file system

file buffer: buffer used to store data read from or written to a file

file descriptor: number that uniquely identifies an open file in an operating system

file format: standard that specifies the structure and encoding of a file

file system: method of storing and organizing files on a disk

find: command for finding files in a file system

fine tuning: transfer learning technique where the parameters of a pretrained model are updated by training for additional epochs; many-shot learning

finger: command for displaying information about users

finite automata: automata with a finite number of states used to model computation and regular expressions

Firebase: app development platform by Google

Firefox: web browser by Mozilla

firewall: security system that monitors and controls incoming and outgoing network traffic

firmware: low-level software that is embedded in a device and is not easily changed

first-order logic: see predicate logic

fish, friendly interactive shell: shell with autocompletion, syntax highlighting and scripting capabilities

fit: the process of updating the parameters of a model such that the predictions of the model using the training data match the target labels

fitness function: in evolutionary algorithms, a function that measures the quality of a solution

fixed point (programming language): representation of real numbers within a set range by maintaining a fixed number of digits after the decimal point; cf. floating point representation

Flash: multimedia platform by Adobe

flash memory: see flash storage

flash storage: non-volatile storage device that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed

flash attention: an optimization technique that enhances the efficiency of attention mechanisms in transformer models, particularly benefitting the training and deployment of LLMs on GPUs by optimizing the computational workload and memory usage

Flask: Python web framework

flat file: file that contains records with no structured relationships

flexbox: CSS layout mode that arranges elements in a single direction

float: data type for representing floating point numbers

floating point number: binary representation of real numbers

floor: mathematical function that rounds a real number down to the nearest integer

floppy disk, FD: disk storage device that uses a flexible magnetic disk enclosed in a plastic shell

TFLOPS, teraflops equal to one trillion flops per second


FLOPS, floating point operations per second: measure of performance in the number of floating point operations per second

fluency: measure of smoothness and natural flow in language often used in assessing MT quality

Flutter: UI toolkit for building mobile applications developed by Google

fold (functional programming): see reduce

folder: see directory

font: set of glyphs used to render text and digital representation of a typeface

font family: set of font styles that share a common design

foo bar baz: placeholder names used in code examples

for loop: loop that repeats a block of code for a specified number of times

foreground process, foreground job: current process that is running and receiving input from the user

foreign key: key that references a primary key in another table

fork: copy of a repository in a version control system

formal grammar: set of rules for constructing valid sequences of word or tokens in a language

formal language: set of strings of symbols that may be constrained by rules

formal verification: process of proving that a program satisfies a specification

FORTH: programming language based on stack data structure

Fortran: programming language designed for scientific computing

forward pass: applying the model to the data based on the current parameter values

forward reference: reference to a label or symbol in assembly before it has been defined which may be resolved during the assembly process

Fourier transform, FT: transform that decomposes a signal into frequency components

fragmentation: phenomenon where a file is stored in non-contiguous blocks on a disk

frame: single image in a sequence of images that make up a video

FrameNet: lexical database of English representing the meaning of words in terms of frames and semantic roles

Borland Turbo: TODO

Free Pascal: IDE and compiler for Pascal and Object Pascal

Object Pascal: object-oriented dialect of Pascal

framerate, fps, frames per second: number of frames displayed or processed per second

framework: collection of tools, components, guidelines and libraries to simplify the development of software

freedesktop.org: organization that develops standards for desktop environments

frontend, FE, front-end: software component that interacts directly with the user

fsync: system call that ensures that all data in the buffer is written to disk

fsyncgate: bug in PostgreSQL that caused data loss on Android

FTP, file transfer protocol: protocol for transferring files between computers on a network

FTR: abbreviation of “for the record”

full duplex communication: communication where both parties can send and receive data simultaneously

full text search: information retrieval technique for finding documents that contain a given set of words from a query

fully connected layer: layer where each neuron is connected to every neuron in the previous layer

function: subroutine that can be called from other parts of the program

functional paradigm: programming paradigm based on the concept of functions and immutability

functional programming language: programming language based on functional paradigm; e.g. Haskell, Erlang

function component: React component that is defined as a function

functor: morphism function between categories

FUSE, file system in userspace: API for implementing file systems in userspace

g++: C++ compiler based on GCC

Gale-Church algorithm: algorithm for sentence alignment

garbage collector, GC: part of a programming language runtime system that manages the memory used by a program; its goal is to identify and reclaim memory which is no longer in use (referenced by the program), prevent memory leaks and improve memory efficiency

garden path sentence: ambiguous sentence that leads to an incorrect (partial) interpretation or syntactic analysis; e.g. time flies like an arrow and fruit flies like a banana

gate (machine learning): TODO

Gatsby: React-based, open-source web framework; cf. Next.js

GB, gigabyte: 10^9 bytes or 1,000 megabytes

GCC, GNU compiler collection: collection of compilers for programming languages developed by the GNU project

gdb, GNU debugger: debugger for C and C++ developed by the GNU project

GDPR, General Data Protection Regulation: EU regulation on data protection and privacy

gem, Ruby gem: package of Ruby application or library code

general-purpose computing on graphics processing units, GPGPU: the use of a GPUs in applications traditionally handled by the CPU; cf. CUDA, shader

generative model: model that can generate new data

generator: function whose state is saved then it returns (yields) a value so that execution can be continued from that point the next time it’s called

generics: programming language feature allowing to define functions and types that can be used with different types of data

genetic algorithm: see evolutionary algorithm

gensim: Python library for unsupervised topic modeling and NLP

geocoding: process of transforming a description of a location into a location on the Earth

geohash: system of geocoding that encodes geographical locations into short strings of digits and letters

geolocation: the process of determining the location of a device using its IP address

geometry: branch of mathematics that studies the properties of shapes

getaddrinfo: system call that resolves a domain name to an IP address

getter: method that returns the value of a property

gettext: program for translating strings in software

gevent: coroutine-based Python library for asynchronous programming based on greenlets

gibibyte: 2^30 bytes or 1,024 mebibytes

GIGO, garbage in, garbage out: principle that states that incorrect or poor quality input will always produce faulty output

GIL, global interpreter lock: mutex allowing only one thread to hold the control of the Python interpreter

GIMP, GNU image manipulation program: raster graphics editor by the GNU project

git: distributed version control system

GitHub: SaaS git

GitLab: open source SaaS git with self-hosting option

Google Kubernetes Engine, GKE: managed Kubernetes service for containers running on GCP

global scope: scope that is visible in the whole program

global variable: variable with a global scope

globbing: specifying a set of files using a simplified regular expression; e.g. *.txt matches all files with the .txt extension

glue tag: TODO

glyph: graphical representation of a character

Gmail: SaaS email service from Google

GNN, graph neural network: TODO

Gnome: desktop environment for Linux

GNU, GNU is not Unix: project to create a free operating system

GNU public license, GPL: license that allows to use, modify and distribute software as long as the source code is made available

GNU/Linux: Unix-like operating system based on the Linux kernel and the GNU userland; not to be confused with Linux

Go, golang: open source programming language designed to be suitable for systems programming

Good-Turing smoothing: statistical technique in NLP for estimating the probability of unseen events in a dataset

Goodreads: website with book reviews developed by Amazon

Google: company that provides SaaS services and open source software

Google AI: division of Google that focuses on artificial intelligence

Google Analytics: SaaS for tracking website traffic by Google

Google Cloud Platform, GCP: Iaas by Google

Google Maps: SaaS for maps by Google

Google Play: SaaS for distributing Android apps

Google Plus: discontinued (as of 2019) social network by Google

Google Search: SaaS search engine

Google Wave: discontinued (as of 2012) SaaS for real-time communication and collaboration developed by Google

GOP, group of pictures: a set of frames that are compressed together

goroutine: thread in Go

GOTO: statement that causes the program to jump to another part of the code; included e.g. in BASIC and C

GPLv3: TODO

GPS, global positioning system: satellite navigation system using the intersection of signal from three satellites to determine the position of a receiver on the Earth

GPT, generative pre-trained transformer: family of large language models from OpenAI

GPT4: large language model from OpenAI based on GPT architecture

ChatGPT: SaaS for chatbot based on GPT models

GPTQ, generative pre-trained transformer quantization: type of post-training quantization for LLM compressions (from 32 bits down to 3–4 bits)

GPU, graphics processing unit: special type of processor suitable for massive parallel computing

gradient: how each element is contributing to the final value (objective function) of the model; it is the slope of the function or the partial derivation; all functions and their elements must be differentiable

gradient boosting: machine learning technique for regression and classification problems, which produces a prediction model in the form of an ensemble of weak prediction models, typically decision trees

gradient descent: optimization algorithm for finding local/global maxima/minima in a function by iteratively moving in the direction of the negative gradient

Grafana: dashboard for time series data

graph (discrete mathematics): set of vertices and edges connecting them

graph (mathematical analysis): visual representation of a function; cf. plot, chart

graph database: NoSQL database for storing and easy querying graph data

graph theory: branch of mathematics studying graphs

graphene: Python library for GraphQL

graphics card: hardware component that generates and outputs images to a display it also allows parallel computing

GraphQL: query language for API developed by Facebook

greenlet: Python library for cooperative multitasking

grep, global regular expression print: CLI tool for searching and filtering text files

grid (CSS): grid is a set of intersecting horizontal and vertical lines defining the columns and rows

grid search cross validation: trying all combinations; suffers from exponential growth of combinations

gRPC, Google remote procedure call: implementation of RPC using protobufs sent over HTTP 2.0 protocol in full-duplex mode

GRU, gated recurrent unit: recurrent neural network that uses gates to control the flow of information

GTK, GIMP toolkit: widget toolkit for creating GUI applications

guesser: algorithm which guesses morphological categories and PoS](#pos) in OOV words in NLP of morphologically rich languages

GUI, graphical user interface: user interface that allows users to interact with computer programs through graphical icons and visual indicators; a mouse is typically used to manipulate the elements of the user interface

gulp: JavaScript build system

gunicorn: HTTP server

gzip: CLI tool for compressing data

H.264: see HEVC

H.265: video compression standard

Hadoop: framework for distributed computing developed by Apache

HAL2000: computer in the book 2001: A Space Odyssey

hallucination: nonsensical output of a generative model; coined by Andrej Karpathy

Hamming code: error-correcting code where each data bit is represented by a parity bit that is the result of a XOR operation on a subset of the data bits

Hamming window: window function used in signal processing

hapax legomenon: word or expression that occurs only once within a dataset or text corpus

haptic feedback: feedback based on the sense of touch particularly in technology that simulates physical sensations

hardware abstraction layer, HAL: layer of abstraction that allow the operating system to interact with the hardwareo at a general level rather than at a detailed hardware level

hardware accelerator: processor designed to accelerate machine learning tasks

hardware interrupt: interrupt generated by external hardware devices to signal the CPU that they require attention, also can trigger interrupt service routines and are used to handle events such as keyboard input or disk I/O

hardware, hw: physical part of a computer

harmonic mean: reciprocal of the arithmetic mean of the reciprocals of the values

hash: result of a hash function

hash collision, collision: the situation when two different inputs produce the same output in a hash function

hash function: function that maps data of arbitrary size to data of fixed size

hash table, hash map: data structure that maps keys to values using a hash function

hashbang: see shebang

Haskell: functional programming language from 1990s with a strong type system

HCI, human-computer interaction: discipline concerned with the design, evaluation and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them

HDD, hard disk drive: electro-mechanical non-volatile data storage device

HDFS, Hadoop Distributed File System: distributed file system used by Hadoop for storing large datasets

HDR, high dynamic range: technology enhancing the range of color and contrast in images by combining multiple images of the same scene taken at different exposures

head (Unix command): CLI tool for printing the first few lines of a file

head (model): the part of a pretrained which is removed and replaced with a randomly initialized layers suitable for fine-tuning on the target dataset

headless browser: web browser without a GUI usually used for automated testing and web scraping

heap: tree based data structure that satisfies the invariant property that the parent node is greater than its children nodes (in the case of a max heap)

heap sort: algorithm for sorting using heap in O(n log n)

Helm: package manager for Kubernetes

Heroku: platform as a service for web applications

heuristics: problem-solving approach using practical methods or shortcuts to produce solutions that are not guaranteed to be optimal

HEVC, high efficiency video coding: video compression standard improving on its predecessor H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, supporting resolutions up to 8K UHD and 10-bit color depth

hexadecimal number, hex: number in base 16

hibernation: power-saving state of a computer that uses the least amount of power when the memory is saved to the hard drive

hidden layer: layer of a neural network that is not an input layer nor an output layer

hidden Markov model, HMM: statistical model that assumes the Markov property and that the state is not directly observable

high level programming language: programming language with strong abstraction from the details of the computer

higher-order function: function that takes another function as an argument, returns a function as a result, or both

hitchhiker: someone who is part of a project but does not actually do any work on it

home directory: directory in a file system that is designated for a particular user and typically contains the user’s files; in Unix systems, it is denoted by ~

homonymy: language phenomenon when a word that is spelled the same as another word but has a different meaning; e.g. bank (financial institution) and bank (land alongside a river)

horizontal scaling: increasing performance by adding more nodes to a distributed system

host: computer connected to a network

hostname: identifier that is assigned to a computer connected to a network

hot swapping: replacing a module without stopping the whole system

hotfix: patch applied to a software to fix a critical bug

hover: user interface event when the mouse is moved over an element without pressing any buttons

HP, Hewlett-Packard: software and hardware company

HPC, high-performance computing: field of computer science that deals with supercomputers and parallel computing

href: HTML attribute used to specify the URL of a hyperlink

HTER, human translation error rate: metric used in machine translation to measure the post-editing effort, it compares a human-translated text with a machine-translated one

HTML, hypertext markup language: markup language for creating hypertext documents used on the web; represented in memory as a DOM

HTML5: version of HTML with new elements, attributes, and behaviors e.g. <video>, <audio>, <canvas>, <svg>

htmx: JavaScript library for AJAX with HTML attributes

htop: CLI tool for monitoring system resources

HTTP DELETE: HTTP method for deleting data

HTTP GET: HTTP method for retrieving data

HTTP header: part of HTTP request or response containing key-value pairs; e.g. Content-Type: application/json or Content-Length: 1024

HTTP POST: HTTP method for creating data

HTTP PUT: HTTP method for updating data

HTTP server: server that serves HTTP requests

HTTP verb: GET, DELETE, PUT, POST etc.

HTTP, hypertext transfer protocol: text based protocol for client server communication over the Internet used by the web

HTTP/1: version of HTTP

HTTP/2: version of HTTP

HTTPS: secured HTTP

hub (network): central or core part of a network where connections or paths intersect

HuggingFace: company that develops NLP models and framework of the same name

HuggingFace Space: platform for sharing NLP models and datasets

human-readable format: file format that is easy for humans to read and understand

hunalign: program for sentence alignment

Hungarian notation: naming convention for variables where the name of the variable indicates its type; e.g. strName or lNames

HUP, hangup: POSIX signal to terminate a process

hyperlink: reference to another document or part of it that a reader can follow by clicking

hyperparameter: global parameter of the model; e.g. learning rate or batch size

hyperparameter tuning: process of finding optimal hyperparameters of a model

hypertext: text that contains hyperlinks

hypervisor: software that creates and runs virtual machines and manages them

hyphen: punctuation mark -

I-frame: frame that contains only the changes from the previous frame

I/O buffering: process of temporarily storing data while it is being transferred between two elements in a computer

IaaS, infrastructure as a service: cloud computing service that provides virtualized computing resources over the internet

IBM, International Business Machines: software and hardware company

iCloud: cloud storage service by Apple

ICMP, internet control message protocol: network protocol for sending error messages

icon: GUI element represented as a graphical symbol used for navigation and interaction

ICQ: instant messaging application; the name derives from “I seek you”

id: unique identifier, usually a number

IDE, integrated development environment: software containing tools to facilitate software development; usually contains a text editor, console, debugger or file browser

identifier: name that identifies a variable, function, class, or other object

idiv: x86 assembly instruction used for signed integer division which divides the accumulator (rax) by a specified operand, storing the quotient in rax and the remainder in the remainder (rdx) register

IDL, interface definition language: programming language for defining interfaces

IEC, International Electrotechnical Commission: international standards organization for electrical engineering

IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers: professional association for electrical engineering and computer science

if statement: see conditional statement

iframe: HTML element that allows to embed another HTML document inside the current one

IIS, Internet Information Services: web server by Microsoft

IM, instant messaging: form of communication that offers real-time text transmission over the Internet

image classification: task in machine learning to classify images into categories

ImageMagick: software suite for image manipulation

ImageNet: image-based dataset for machine learning with 14 million images in more than 20,000 categories

IMAP, internet message access protocol: protocol used my email clients to retrieve emails from email server – messages are kept on the server; cf. POP3

IMDb: website with information about movies and TV shows

immutability: property of an object or data type that cannot be changed

imperative programming language: programming language that uses statements to change a program’s state

implementation: realization of a specification in a programming language

implicit type conversion: type conversion that is done automatically by the compiler

IMSI, international mobile subscriber identity: key used to identify a subscriber on mobile telephony devices

imul: x86 assembly instruction used for signed integer multiplication

inc: x86 assembly instruction used to increment the value of a register or memory location by 1

increment, inc: unary operation that increases a variable by one

index (programming language): indices represent the position of an element in a sequence; e.g. the first element has index 0 in many programming languages

indexing: process of creating an index for a database to improve the speed of data retrieval

inference (logic): process of deriving logical conclusions from premises

inference (ML): process of using a model to make predictions

infimum: greatest lower bound

infix: middle of a string or word

infix notation: standard notation where the operator is placed between its operands

influxdb: time series database

information hiding: TODO

information leakage: situation when a model is able to learn validation set from the training data

information retrieval: discipline of computer science

information technology: TODO

information theory: branch of applied mathematics that studies quantification, storage, and communication of information

ingest: process of importing multiple data into a single data store

ingress: Kubernetes resource that manages external access to the cluster by exposing HTTP and HTTPS routes

inheritance: see class inheritance

INI: text format used for configuration

init process: process with PID 1 in Linux that starts and manages other processes

init system: system in Linux that starts and manages services

initialization: process of setting the initial values of weights and biases in a neural network

inner join: join that only includes rows that match in both tables

inorder: tree traversal where the root is visited between the left and right subtrees

inplace operator: operator that modifies its operand; e.g. += in Python

input device: hardware that sends data to a computer; e.g. keyboard, mouse

INSERT: SQL statement and operation to insert data into a table

insert sort, insertion sort: algorithm for sorting

Instagram, IG: social network for sharing photos and videos

installation: process of setting up a software

instance (OOP): object of a class

instruction pointer register, rip: CPU register that holds the memory address of the next instruction to be executed

instruction set: set of instructions that a processor can execute; e.g. x86, ARM, MIPS, RISC-V, …

integer: basic data type to represent whole numbers

integral: mathematical object that can be interpreted as an area or a volume

integrated circuit: electronic circuit made of semiconductor material

integration test: test that checks if the components of a system work together

integrity: property of a system that ensures that the information is not modified by unauthorized users

Intel: company that designs and manufactures microprocessors

IntelliJ: IDE for Java and other languages

inter-annotator agreement, IAA: measure of the degree of agreement among different annotators in assigning categories to items in NLP

intercom, intercommunication system: communication system within a building

interface: point of interaction between two systems, APIs, user and a computer

interface (OOP): contract that specifies what a class can do without specifying how it does it

interlingua: artificial language used as an intermediary between two natural languages

internationalization, i18n: process of designing a software so that it can be adapted to various languages and regions

internet: global network of computers; connected via internet protocol

interpolation: method for estimating unknown intermediate values by using known values

interpreted language: programming language which is not compiled into machine code but is interpreted by an interpreter on the fly; e.g. Python, JavaScript

interpreter: software that interprets source code of a programming language and executes it, it can be interactive

interprocess communication, IPC: mechanism that allows processes to communicate with each other

interruption: situation when a process is stopped by an interrupt request

intersection: set of elements that are common to two or more sets

invariant: property which stays the same after a set of operations is executed

IO, I/O, input/output: type of operation that reads from or writes to a storage

IO-bound process: process that is limited by the speed of the IO

iOS: operating system for Apple devices

IoT, internet of things: network of devices connected to the internet

IP address: unique identifier of a device connected to the internet used in the internet protocol

IP, internet protocol: set of rules that govern how data is sent and received over a network

iPad: tablet developed by Apple

iPhone: smartphone developed by Apple

iptables: program for configuring firewall in Linux

IPv4: version of IP using 4 bytes for addresses

IPv6: version of IP using 6 bytes for addresses

IPython, interactive Python: interactive shell for Python with features like syntax highlighting, autocompletion, history etc.

IRC, internet relay chat: text based instant messaging system

IRQ, interrupt request: signal sent to CPU that temporarily stops a running process

ISO (file format): file format for storing disk images

ISO 8601, ISO date format: standard for date format that is in the form YYYY-MM-DD and is useful for sorting

ISO 8859-1: standard for character encoding of Latin alphabet

ISO, international organization for standardization: organization that develops and publishes international standards

isolation: property of database transactions that ensures that concurrent transactions do not interfere with each other

ISP, internet service provider: company that provides access to the internet

ISR, interrupt service routine: function in low-level programming that handles interrupts from hardware or software

issue: bug or a feature request; cf. ticket

iterator: object that allows to iterate over a collection of items

iTerm: terminal emulator for macOS

J: array programming language

jar, Java archive: file format for distributing Java classes and other resources

Java: high-level cross-platform object-oriented programming language; developed by Sun Microsystems with syntax similar to C

Java Virtual Machine, JVM: virtual machine that executes Java bytecode

JavaDoc: documentation generator for Java

JavaScript: programming language used mainly for web development

Jekyll: static site generator written in Ruby

Jenkins: open source automation server for continuous build and continuous deployment

Jinja: templating engine and language for Python

jitter: variation in latency

jmp: assembly instruction used for unconditional branching which transfers control to a specified memory address, allowing for non-sequential execution of code; cf. GOTO

join: operation that combines two or more database tables into one

Joomla: content management system

journaling file system: file system that keeps track of changes not yet commited to the file system’s main part by recording the goal of such changes

JPEG, JPG, joint photographic experts group: method of lossy compression for digital images; files with this compression usually have .jpg or .jpeg extension

jq, JSON query: CLI tool for parsing and manipulating JSON

jQuery: JavaScript library for DOM manipulation

jQuery UI: jQuery library for creating user interfaces

JSF, JavaServer Faces: Java framework for web development

JSON, JavaScript Object Notation: text format for representing structured data

JSONL, JSON Lines: text format where each line is a JSON object

Julia: LLVM based, dynamically typed programming language for high performance

Jupyter notebook: open source web application for creating and sharing computational documents; cf. literate programming

JWT, JSON web token: standard for creating access tokens that assert some number of claims

K: proprietary array programming language

k-means clustering: unsupervised clustering algorithm that partitions n observations into k clusters by repeatedly calculating the centroid of the current groups and then assigning each observation to the nearest centroid until the centroids do not change anymore

Kafka: framework for distributed streaming data processing developed by Apache

Kaggle: data science competition platform and online community

Kaimin normalization: torch.nn.init.kaiming_normal_()

Kali Linux: Linux distribution for penetration testing

kanban: visual system supporting decision making in project management; commonly in combination with scrum

kata: short practise, e.g. implementing a known algorithm

KDD, knowledge discovery in databases: process of discovering useful knowledge from a collection of data

KDE, K Desktop Environment: desktop environment for Linux and other Unix systems

KDY, Know Your Domain: process of understanding the domain of the software being developed

kebab case: naming convention where words are separated by hyphens; e.g. my-temp-variable

keepassx: password manager for Linux

Kendo: UI library for JavaScript

Keras: open source neural network library written in Python

kernel (machine learning): function that takes two inputs and returns a similarity score

kernel (operating system): program at the core of an operating system controlling everything in the system; it manages processes, memory, I/O operations etc

kerning: process of adjusting the spacing between characters in a proportional typeface

key (cryptography): piece of information that controls the operation of a cipher

key binding: mapping between a key or combination of keys and an action

key value store: database that stores data as a collection of key-value pairs

keyboard: peripheral device for input of text

keyframe: frame that is encoded fully without referencing other frames; cf. B-frame, P-frame

keylogger: software that records every keystroke

keymap: mapping between physical keys and actions

keynav: software for controlling the mouse cursor with the keyboard

keyring: see password manager

kibibyte: 2^10 bytes or 1,024 bytes

kill: command to terminate a process by sending it a signal

kilobyte: 1,000 bytes

Kindle: e-reader developed by Amazon

Kibana: a data visualization dashboard for Elasticsearch

dashboard: GUI that provides at-a-glance views of indicators relevant to a particular objective or business process

KISS, keep it simple stupid: approach to software development based on the idea that most systems work best if they are kept simple rather than made complicated

kNN, k-nearest neighbors: classification algorithm that classifies a new observation by finding the k closest observations in the training set and assigning the new observation to the most common class among these k neighbors

knowledge base: collection of knowledge in digital form

Kotlin: programming language for Java virtual machine and Android

KPI, key performance indicator: measurable value that demonstrates how effectively a company is achieving key business objectives

Kubernetes, k8s: open source system for automating deployment, scaling and managing containerized apps

KVM, kernel-based virtual machine: open source virtualization technology built into Linux kernel developed by Red Hat

KYC, Know Your Customer: process for identifying and verifying the client’s identity to protect financial institutions against fraud, corruption, money laundering etc.

L1 cache: cache that is part of the CPU and is the fastest to access

L1 regularization: regularization technique that adds a penalty equal to the sum of the absolute value of the coefficients

L2 cache: cache that is part of the CPU and is slower to access than L1 cache

L2 regularization: regularization technique that adds a penalty equal to the sum of the squared value of the coefficients

LED, light emiting diode: TODO used in screens

label: correct answer of the ground truth associated with the input data

lambda calculus: mathematical model of computation based on function abstraction and application using variable binding and substitution; introduced by Alonzo Church in 1930s

lambda function: anonymous function

lamma.cpp: library for running pretrained models; it has a wrapper for Python

LAN, local area network: computer network that interconnects computers within a limited area such as a school, university campus or office building

LanceDB: open source vector database for machine learning applications

Laplace smoothing: technique in for handling OOV in NLP by adding a small value to the count of each word

laptop: portable computer

Laravel: PHP web framework

laser printer, laserjet: printer that uses a laser beam to produce an image on a drum that is rolled through a reservoir of toner and then onto a sheet of paper

late binding: technique of deferring the resolution of a symbol until runtime

latency: the time between sending a request and receiving a response or initiating an action and seeing the result

LaTeX: Tex macro package for typesetting documents using markup language

lattice: partially ordered set in which every two elements have a unique supremum and a unique infimum

layer: neural network component that transforms input data into output data represented as a matrix

layout engine: software component that combines content with a presentation to generate an output that can be displayed on a screen

lazy evaluation: evaluation strategy that delays the evaluation of an expression until its value is needed; e.g. the second half of A and B is not evaluated when A is false

LDA, latent Dirichlet allocation: generative statistical model that allows sets of observations to be explained by unobserved groups that explain why some parts of the data are similar

LDAP, lightweight directory access protocol: protocol for accessing and maintaining services over IP; a common use is to provide a central place to store usernames and passwords

leaderless replication: replication scheme in which all nodes are equal and there is no distinguished leader

leaf function: function that does not call any other functions within its body

leaf node: node that has no children

Leaflet: open source JavaScript library for mobile-friendly interactive maps

leaky bucket: algorithm for controlling data flow in networks by analogy to water flowing out of a bucket

lean: set of practices that emphasize efficiency, minimizing waste, and delivering value to customers; originated in Toyota manufacturing

learner: combination of a model and data; used e.g. in fastai library

learning bias: see bias

learning rate: hyperparameter expressing how much to change the weights each pass to move down the loss gradient

learning rate decay: learning rate can be dynamic (with regards to the step number within optimization); can be determined by tracking losses while altering learning rates

least squares: method for finding the best fit of a set of data points to a linear function by minimizing the sum of the squares between the actual and predicted values

least upper bound: element that is greater than or equal to other elements; see also supremum

Leet Code: website for practicing design and implementation of algorithms

left join: join that returns all rows from the left table and the matched rows from the right table

legacy code: code that is old and difficult to maintain

lemma (linguistics): the canonical form of a lexeme

lemma (mathematics): proven proposition which is a corollary to one or more of the axioms of a system

Lesk algorithm: algorithm for word sense disambiguation that uses the dictionary definition of a word and the context in which the word appears to resolve ambiguity

less: command for viewing text files; cf. more

Let’s Encrypt: free, automated, and open certificate authority providing digital certificates for website encryption

Levenshtein distance: specific type of edit distance

lexeme: unit of lexical meaning that underlies a set of words that are related through inflection; e.g. run, runs, ran and running are forms of the same lexeme run

inflection: process of adding morphemes that modify a verb’s tense, mood, aspect, voice, person, or number or a noun’s case, gender etc.

lexer: program that performs lexical analysis

lexical analysis: process of converting a string into a sequence of lexemes

lexical scoping: scoping that uses the location of a variable’s definition to determine where it can be used

LGTM, looks good to me: commonly used in code review as an approval formula

libc: library that defines the system calls and other basic facilities such as string handling

glibc: GNU C library

library: reusable software usually organized into modules

license: legal document that grants permission to use a software under certain conditions

lifecycle: steps that an object goes through; in OOP, the steps are between creation and destruction, in issues management, the steps are between creation and resolution

LIFO, last in first out: data structure where the last element added is the first one to be removed

linear data structure: data structure where the elements are arranged in a linear order

linear probing: hashing technique that resolves collisions by trying the next slot in the hash table

linear regression: regression analysis with assumed linear relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variable

linguistics: scientific study of language

link farm: see content farm

linked list: data structure for storing a sequence of items

linker: program that combines machine code with other libraries to create an executable

linkrot: process by which hyperlinks on individual websites in general point to web pages, servers or other resources that have become permanently unavailable

LINQ, language integrated query: query syntax that is integrated into the programming language; e.g. SQL in C#

linter: program that analyzes source code to flag programming errors, bugs, stylistic errors, and suspicious constructs

Linux: open source Unix-like operating system

Linux distribution: Linux kernel bundled with additional software; e.g. Ubuntu, Fedora or Arch Linux

Liskov substitution principle: principle in object-oriented programming stating that if S is a subtype of T, then objects of type T may be replaced with objects of type S without altering any of the desirable properties of the program

Lisp: a family of functional programming languages with fully parenthesized syntax from the 1950s which represents code as nested lists

list: array containing a sequence of (heterogenous) elements

list comprehension: syntax for creating a list based on existing lists in-place; e.g. [x**2 for x in range(10)]

list file, lst: file generated by an assembler that contains the assembly code along with its corresponding machine code instructions, often used for debugging and analysis

listeme: item that is memorized as part of a list as opposed to being generated by a rule; e.g. the word took in the list take, took, taken

literate programming: programming paradigm that combines documentation (prose) and source code

little endian: byte order of a binary number in which the least significant byte is stored first

livelock: situation when two or more processes are in a loop waiting for each other to finish and thus none of them can finish

LL grammar, left linear grammar: formal grammar in which all productions are of the form A → wB or A → w where A and B are nonterminals and w is a string of terminals

LL1 grammar, left linear grammar with one lookahead: LL grammar in which the first terminal of B is unique

LLM, large language model: language model with a large number of parameters usually based on transformers

LLVM, low level virtual machine: compiler and toolchain between any instruction set architecture and any programming language written in C++

LM, language model: probability distribution over sequences of words

LMGTFY, let me google that for you: sarcastic response to a question that could have been easily answered by a search engine

load balancing: technique used to distribute workloads across multiple resources

load factor: ratio of the current number of elements in a hash table to the size of the hash table

LOC, line of code: number of lines of code used as a metric for measuring the size of a software program

local storage: storage that is available only to the current browser

local variable: variable that is declared inside a function and is only accessible inside that function

locale: set of parameters that defines the user’s language, region and preferences

localhost: hostname that refers to the current computer

localization, l10n: TODO

lock: synchronization mechanism for enforcing limits on access to a resource in an environment where there are many threads of execution

lodash: JavaScript library that provides utility functions

log: special output of a program used for debugging and troubleshooting, monitoring and performance analysis and security and auditing

log linear time complexity: time complexity of an algorithm that is proportional to the logarithm of the input size

log loss: see cross entropy loss function

logarithmic time: time complexity of an algorithm that is proportional to the logarithm of the input size

logDice score: statistical measure used in corpus linguistics for evaluating collocation strength coocurrence analysis; cf. Dice coefficient

logging: process of recording events, actions or messages that occur during a program execution and which produces logs

logic: branch of mathematics

logic gate: electronic circuit that implements a logical operation

logical operation: function that takes one or more boolean values and produces a boolean value

logical operator: symbol that represents a logical operation

logistic function: function which startsoff increasing slowly, then grows more rapidly and eventually levels off; the f(x) values are usually between 0 and 1

logistic regression: classification algorithm that uses the logistic function to model the probability of a certain class or event existing such as pass/fail, win/lose, alive/dead or healthy/sick

logit: function that maps probabilities to the real numbers which are easier to work with in logistic regression

long: representation of integers in some programming languages

lookahead (parser): number of tokens that are read ahead to decide which production to use in parsing

lookahead (regular expression): number of characters that are read ahead in a string to decide whether a pattern matches

loop: sequence of instructions that is repeated until a certain condition is reached; a part of flow control in programming languages

loose coupling: TODO

loss, loss function: function which takes a model’s predictions and the desired output and computes a number expressing how good is the model’s prediction; used for driving the stochastic gradient descend; the measure of model’s performance

lossless compression: compression where no information is lost when the compressed data are uncompressed; cf. lossy compression

lossy compression: compression where some information is lost when the compressed data are uncompressed; cf. lossless compression

low level abstraction: abstraction provides little or no abstraction from a computer’s instruction set architecture

LR grammar, left regular grammar: formal grammar in which all productions are of the form A → wB or A → w where A and B are nonterminals and w is a regular expression

LSM tree, log-structured merge tree: data structure that maintains a sorted key-value map in persistent storage

lsof: command for listing open files

LSP, language server protocol: protocol for enabling IDE features for a programming language

LSTM, long short term memory: recurrent neural network model which can learn long-term dependencies

LTE, long-term evolution: standard for wireless broadband communication for mobile devices and data terminals

LTR, left to right text: text (or script) written from left to right; e.g. Latin, Cyrillic

Lua: programming language designed primarily for embedded systems and clients

LuaTeX: TeX engine that uses Lua as an embedded scripting language

Lucene: Java library for information retrieval and full-text search

luma: brightness component of a color space

LUW: acronym for three major operating systems Linux, Unix, and Windows

LWN.net: Linux news website and webzine

m4: macro processor

MAC address, media access control address: unique identifier assigned to a network device for communications at the data link layer

MXNet: deep learning framework by Apache

machine code: sequence of instructions executed directly by a CPU

machine language: lowest-level programming language that is directly executed by a CPU consisting of binary instructions that correspond to specific operations and memory addresses

machine learning, ML: field of computer science; training of programs developed by allowing a computer to learn from its experience (training data) rather than through manually coding the individual steps

machine translation, MT: NLP task of translating text from one language to another

MacOS: operating system for Apple computers

macro: rule or pattern that specifies how a certain input sequence should be mapped to a replacement output sequence according to a defined procedure; a part of preprocessor

macroblock: block of pixels, typically 16x16, used as the basic unit for processing and compressing video frames which includes luma (brightness) and chroma (color) information

mail: see email

mail list, mailing list: collection of names and addresses used by an individual or an organization to send material to multiple recipients

mail server: server that handles email

main (C): function that is called when a C program starts

main branch, main: see master branch

main memory: see RAM

mainframe: large computer that is used by many people at the same time

make: build automation CLI tool from GNU

Makefile: script for make

malloc: C function for allocating a block of memory on the heap

malware: malicious software

man page: documentation for a command or other software component in Unix

MAN, metropolitan area network: network that interconnects users with computer resources in a geographic area or region larger than that covered by even a large LAN but smaller than the area covered by a WAN

managed code: code that runs on a virtual machine and is managed by the runtime

Mann-Whitney U test: non-parametric test for comparing the means of two samples

Mantis: open source bug tracking system

mantissa: part of a floating point number which contains its significant digits

many to many, m:n: relationship between two entities where one entity can be associated with many instances of the other entity and vice versa

map: see dictionary

mapping: function that associates each element of a set with an element of another set

MapReduce: algorithm for processing and generating large data sets

MariaDB: relational database management system that is a drop-in replacement for MySQL

markdown, MD: text format for specifying basic formatting

Markov chain: stochastic model describing a sequence of possible events in which the probability of each event depends only on the state attained in the previous event

Markov property: property of a stochastic process where the conditional probability distribution of future states of the process depends only upon the present state, not on the sequence of events that preceded it

markup language: text format that uses tags to define elements within a document

masking: operation that uses a sequence of bits to select or modify a subset of bits

master branch, master: branch in a version control system which is considered to be the definitive version of the source code

material design: UI design system developed by Google

material UI: React component library implementing material design

Matlab: programming language and GUI for numerical computing

Matplotlib: Python library for data visualization

matrix: rectangular array of numbers arranged in rows and columns; a vector of vectors

Mattermost: open source, self-hosted Slack alternative

Maven: build system for Java projects

maximum likelihood estimation, MLE: statistical method for estimating the parameters of a model based on observed data

mc, midnight commander: CLI file manager

McCabe complexity: see cyclomatic complexity

MDA, model driven architecture: software development methodology that focuses on modeling and model transformation

mean: quantity that has a value which is intermediate to the extreme values of a set of numbers

mean squared error, MSE: loss function for regression defined as the average of the squared differences between the predicted value and the actual value

mebibyte: 2^20 bytes or 1,024 kibibytes

media player: software for playing multimedia

median: value separating the higher half of a sorted data sample from the lower half

megabytes: 10^6 bytes or 1,000 kilobytes

memory: part of computer that is used to store information for immediate use; see also RAM

memoization: caching

memo (React): higher-order component for memoizing a functional component to prevent unnecessary re-renders when its props or state have not changed

memory address: representation of the location of bytes in memory

memory allocation: process of allocating a block of memory for a variable in a program

memory footprint: amount of memory used by a program

memory leak: bug in a program that causes it to consume more and more memory over time

memory management: consists of tasks like memory alloocation, memory freeing

memory safety: property of a programming language that guarantees that a program cannot access memory that it is not authorized to access

Mercurial: distributed version control system

merge: action of adding code changes to an existing code base in a repository; usually integrating commits from a development branch into the main branch

merge conflict: situation when two commits cannot be merged automatically by a version control system since they modify the same part of the code

merge request: process of asking code maintainers and code reviewers to review code changes; cf. pull request

merge sort: algorithm for sorting

Merkle tree: tree data structure that is used to efficiently verify the contents of a large data set by storing hashes of the subtrees in nodes

Metasploit Framework: penetration testing tool

msfconsole: CLI for Metasploit Framework

message broker: software that translates messages from the formal messaging protocol of the sender to the formal messaging protocol of the receiver

metacharacter: character that has a special meaning in a regular expression; cf. escape sequence

metadata: data about data; e.g. EXIF allows adding information about the camera, lens, location and date to an image file for a photo taken with a smartphone

METEO: machine translation evaluation metric

METEOR: metric used in machine translation that considers word order and semantic similarity, offering a more flexible evaluation compared to BLEU

method: function that is defined inside a class

metric: function that measures the quality of a model or a system; used for human consuption, cf. loss

MFC, Microsoft Foundation Classes: C++ library for developing Windows applications

MI, mutual information: measure in information theory that quantifies the mutual dependence between two variables

micro-benchmark: short snippet of code used to compare performance or other qualities/properties

microblogging: form of blogging that allows users to write brief text updates

microcontroller: integrated circuit that contains all the functions of a computer

microprocessor: integrated circuit that contains all the functions of a CPU of a computer

microservice: software architecture that structures an application as a collection of services that are loosely coupled, independently deployable, organized around business capabilities and owned by a small team

Microsoft: company that develops and sells computer software and consumer electronics

Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit: deep learning framework

mid-squared method: pseudorandom number generator

middleware: software that connects two otherwise separate systems

migration: process of moving data from one database to another or upgrading a database to a new version

mindmap: diagram used to visually organize information often around a single concept

minification: process of removing all unnecessary characters from the source code without changing its functionality

MIPS architecture: reduced instruction set computer architecture

MIPS, million instructions per second: measure of a computer’s performance

MIT license: TODO

mixed type: data type that can contain values of different types

Mkdocs: static site generator for documentation

MKV, Matroska video, matroska: video container file format that can hold an unlimited number of video, audio, picture, or subtitle tracks in one file

MLC, machine learning compilation: project for running models on various platforms

MLOps, machine learning operations: practice of applying DevOps to machine learning

mmap, memory map: system call that maps files or devices into memory without copying data

MMLU, massive multitask language understanding: multilingual dataset for benchmarking large language models

mobi: ebook file format for Kindle

mobile application: application designed to run on mobile devices

mobile friendly website: website that displays correctly on mobile devices

mock: simulated object or function that mimics the behaviour of a real object or function

Mockito: Java framework for mocking

mod rewrite: module for Apache server that provides a rule-based rewriting engine to rewrite requested URLs on the fly

modal: dialog that requires users to interact with it before they can return to the main application which usually overlays the main application window

modal editor: editor that has different modes for different operations; e.g. insert mode for inserting text, normal mode for navigation and manipulation, visual mode for highlighting parts of text, command mode for executing commands etc.

model: special kind of a general program which can do many things based on weights and its structure

model parameters: see parameters

model view controller, MVC: software design pattern for implementing user interfaces where model represents the structure of data, view is a way of interpreting the model and controller is a way of controlling the the view and provide the model with new data

modifier key: key on keyboard that modifies the action of another key when pressed together with it; e.g. Shift, Alt, Ctrl

modular design: design principle that divides a system into smaller parts called modules which can be independently created and then used in different systems

module: part of a program that can be used in other programs

momentum: hyperparameter of gradient descent that determines how much the previous update influences the current update

monad: monoid in the category of endofunctors

monad (design pattern): design pattern in which pipeline implementation are abstracted by wrapping a value in a type

Mongo, MongoDB: NoSQL database system

Mongoose: ORM in Node.js for MongoDB

monoid: algebraic structure with a single associative binary operation and an identity element

monorepo: repository that contains more than one project; e.g. both backend and frontend of a web application

monospace: type face in which all characters have the same width

Monte Carlo method: class of algorithms that rely on repeated random sampling to obtain numerical results for simulations, optimization, and numerical integration

more: command for viewing text files; cf. less

morpheme: smallest meaningful unit of a language

morphism: structure-preserving mapping from one mathematical structure to another

morphological analysis: process of breaking words down into morphemes or assigning parts of speech to them

morphology: branch of linguistics that studies the structure of words

Moses: statistical machine translation software

motherboard: main printed circuit board in a computer that holds many of the crucial components of the system as CPU, memory, connectors for hard drives, USB ports, etc.

mouse: pointing device that detects 2D motion relative to a surface

mouseless computing: human-computer interaction technique that allows users to interact with a computer without using a mouse

mov: x86 assembly instruction which copies data from one location to another, such as between registers or between memory and registers

Mozilla: nonprofit organization that develops open source software

MPEG, Moving Picture Experts Group: working group of experts that was formed by ISO and IEC to set standards for audio and video compression and transmission

MPEG4: MPEG standard for audio and video compression

MPI, message passing interface: standard for message passing between parallel processes

MPP, massively parallel processing: architecture that uses many processors to perform a set of coordinated computations in parallel

MS Access: database management system from Microsoft

MS DOS, DOS: text-based operating system developed by Microsoft

mul: x86 assembly instruction which multiplies two integer values and stores the result in the destination operand

multi-word expression, MWE: phrase that consists of multiple words that functions as a single unit of meaning; e.g. New York City, United States of America

multicore: CPU that contains more than one core

multimedia: content that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, video, etc.

multiple dispatch: process of choosing the right method to apply based on the number of arguments and their type; in OO programming languages the choice is based on the first argument, e.g. in Julia it’s based on the signature of the method

multiplication: arithmetic operation

multiprocessing: parallel computing technique in which a program is divided into multiple processes which are executed simultaneously on different CPUs

multitasking: parallel computing technique in which a program is divided into multiple tasks which are executed simultaneously

multithreading: parallel computing technique in which a program is divided into multiple threads which are executed simultaneously on different CPUs

musl: libc implementation that is small and fast

mutability: property of a data type that can be changed after it has been created

mutation: operation which alters the data (e.g. in a database)

mutex, mutually exclusive flag: object (lock) which prevents multiple threads from accessing the same resource at the same time

mutt: text based email client

mux, multiplexer: function or program allowing several input signals to share one device or resource; a multiple-input single-output switch

MVCC, multi-version concurrency control: concurrency technique that allows multiple versions of the same data to coexist

MX record: DNS record that specifies a mail server responsible for accepting email messages on behalf of a domain

MyMemory: translation memory system combining MT with human contributions

MySQL: open source relational database management system

naive Bayes classifier: simple probabilistic classifier based on applying Bayes’ theorem with strong independence assumptions

NAL, network abstraction layer: part of the H.264/AVC and HEVC video coding standards, responsible for formatting the video data in a manner suitable for transport or storage, abstracting the specifics of the network or storage medium

NVMe, non-volatile memory express: protocol for accessing flash storage via the PCIe bus

Nagios: open source monitoring system

PCIe, Peripheral Component Interconnect Express: high-speed serial bus standard for connecting peripherals to a computer

name binding: association of data (or code) with identifiers

named entity, NE: entity that is referenced by a proper name; e.g. Thomas Jefferson (person), New York (location), Microsoft (company)

namespace: set of unique names used to identify and refer to objects

namespace packages: way of splitting code of one Python package into separate directories or repositories

NaN, not a number: special floating point value that represents an undefined or unrepresentable value

NAND, not and: logic gate and binary logical operation that outputs true only when at least one input is false

Nano: text based editor for Unix

NAS, network attached storage: storage that enables multiple users and heterogeneous client devices to retrieve data from a centralized disk

NAT, network address translation: method of mapping IP address space onto another by modifying network address in the IP header

natural language: language that has evolved naturally in humans; e.g. English, French, Chinese, etc.

natural language processing, NLP: field of computer science that deals with the interaction between computers and humans using natural language; also a subset of AI

Nautilus: file manager for the GNOME

NEF, Nikon Electronic Format: image file format used by Nikon cameras

negation: logical operation that takes a boolean and returns the opposite boolean

negative caching: DNS caching of negative responses

negative lookahead: TODO

Neo4j: graph database

neomutt: fork of mutt actively maintained (as of 2023)

Neovim: fork of Vim with better support for plugins, LSP and Lua scripting

NetBeans: IDE for Java

netcat: networking utility for reading from and writing to network connections using TCP or UDP

netstat: CLI tool that displays network connections, routing tables, and a number of network interface statistics

network: group of computers connected together

network interface controller: hardware component that connects a computer to a network

neural network: machine learning model inspired by the neuron model

neuron model: mathematical model of a biological neuron

newline: special character or sequence of characters that is used to represent the end of a line of text and the start of a new line

newsgroup: discussion group on the Internet

Next.js: React framework

NFS, network file system: file system over network

Nginx: HTTP server

ngram, n-gram: sequence of n items, usually words or characters

ngrep, network grep: network packet analyzer that uses regular expressions for complex pattern matching

NIST, national institute of standards and technology: organization that promotes innovation and industrial competitiveness in the United States

NLTK, natural language toolkit: Python library for NLP

nmap, network mapper: network scanner used to discover hosts and services by sending packets and analyzing the responses

no free lunch theorem: theorem that states that no machine learning optimization algorithm works best for every problem

node (graph theory): vertex in a network

node (parallel computing): computer in a cluster that is dedicated to performing computation

Node.js: JavaScript runtime built on Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine

NOHUP: POSIX signal and command to ignore the HUP signal

noisy channel model: model in information theory and SMT

Nokia: Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics company

non-parametric test: statistical test that does not make assumptions about the population; e.g. Mann-Whitney U test; cf. parametric test

non-volatile storage, non-volatile memory: storage that retains its data even when not powered

nondeterministic finite automata: type of finite automata where each state can have multiple transitions for the same input

nondeterministic Turing machine: Turing machine that can be in multiple states at once

nonterminal, non-terminal: symbol that can be replaced by a sequence of other symbols

NOR, not or: binary logical operation that outputs true only when both inputs are false

normal distribution: probability distribution that is symmetric and bell-shaped

normal form: database is in normal form if it satisfies certain constraints that avoid data anomalies

normalization (database): process of organizing data in a database and turning it into a normal form

normalization (machine learning): process of rescaling numeric attributes to a range of values between 0 and 1

normalized scientific notation: standardized way of representing real numbers using a mantissa and an exponent

NoSQL, not only SQL: database system to store non-tabular data: key-value, documents, graph (nodes and vertices)

NOT: unary logical operation that outputs true only when the input is false

Notepad: simple text editor available in Windows by default

Notepad++: open source text editor for Windows based on Scintilla

NP problem: problem that can be solved in polynomial time (O(n^k)) by a nondeterministic Turing machine

NP-complete problem: problem that is as hard as any NP problem

npm, node package manager: package manager for Node.js

NREN, national research and education network: specialised internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education communities within a country

nroff: markup language for typesetting documents

NS record, name server record: DNS record that specifies the authoritative name servers for a domain

NSFW, not safe for work: content (e.g. a comment on a social network) which should be looked at in private as it may contain offensive or indecent material

nsstring: string class in Objective-C

NTFS, new technology file system: proprietary journaling file system developed by Microsoft for Windows

NTP, network time protocol: protocol for synchronizing clocks over a network

NTSC, National Television System Committee: analog television color system

null: constant that typically represents a null pointer, an empty value, or no data

null pointer: pointer that does not point to any object

null pointer exception: exception that occurs when a program attempts to access a null pointer

nullish coalescing operator, ??: logic operator that returns its right-hand side operand when its left-hand side operand is null or undefined, and otherwise returns its left-hand side operand

NumPy: Python library for efficient matrix operations

NVIDIA: company that designs and manufactures GPUs

NVIDIA Collective Communications Library, NCCL: library for parallel computing on GPUs

NVIDIA Optimized Deep Learning Frameworks, NVIDIA DALI: library for accelerating data pipelines for machine learning applications

OAuth, open authorization: open standard for authentication and authorization

object: data structure that contains data and functions to operate on that data

object code: see machine code

object storage: storage architecture that manages data as objects

Objective-C: object oriented programming language developed by Apple for macOS and iOS

observability: measure of how well internal states of a system can be inferred from knowledge of its external outputs

Ocaml: functional programming language

OCR, optical character recognition: technology to convert images of typed or handwritten text into text format

ODBC, open database connectivity: standard for database access

ODS, operational data store: database designed to integrate data from multiple sources for additional operations on the data

Office 365: cloud service by Microsoft that provides access to office software

Office, MS Office: suite of office software developed by Microsoft

offset: integer value that represents the displacement or distance from a base address, index or position

OLAP, online analytical processing: software that enables users to analyze multidimensional data interactively from multiple perspectives; cf. OLTP

OLTP, online transaction processing: software that facilitates and manages transaction-oriented applications; cf. OLAP

onclick: HTML attribute that specifies a JavaScript function to be executed when the element is clicked

one hot encoding, 1-hot encoding, one-of-V encoding, 1-of-V encoding: ML method where a categorical variable is converted into a binary vector where each index in the vector corresponds to a category, with a ‘1’ indicating the presence of that category; e.g. the categories ‘red’, ‘green’, and ‘blue’ could be encoded as [1, 0, 0], [0, 1, 0], and [0, 0, 1]

ontology: formal representation of knowledge as a set of concepts within a domain and the relationships between those concepts

OOM, out of memory: situation when a program tries to allocate more memory than is available

OOO, out of office: situation when a person is not available (e.g. on vacation)

OOP, object oriented programming: programming paradigm based on the concept of objects and their interactions

OOV, out of vocabulary: word that is not in the vocabulary used by a language model; usually replaced with <unk> or some other special token

open access: publication model that makes research outputs freely available to the public

open addressing: hash table collision resolution technique where the hash function is used to find an alternative location in the table

open source: software whose source code is available to the public under a license that specifies conditions of use and modification

Open Type, OTF: font format

Open-closed principle: software design principle that states that software entities should be open for extension, but closed for modification

OpenAI: non-profit AI research company

OpenCV, open computer vision: open source computer vision and machine learning software library

OpenGL: API for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics

OpenOrca: huge dataset of questions and answers

OpenShift: container orchestration platform by Red Hat

OpenSSL: library used for secure communication over computer networks

OpenVPN: open source VPN software

operand: value on which an operator acts

operation: function that takes one or more inputs and produces a result; e.g. addition, subtraction, multiplication, division

operator: symbol that represents an operation

operator overloading: programming language feature that allows operators to be redefined for custom types

optical disc: storage medium that uses optical technology to read and write data

optimistic concurrency control: concurrency control method that assumes that no conflict will occur

optimizer: function that minimizes the loss function by adjusting the weights of a model

OPUS: large multilingual parallel corpus

or: logil operator that returns true if either of its operands is true

Oracle: database management system and a company that develops it

Oracle Cloud: IaaS and PaaS by Oracle

orchestration: process of automating the deployment, management and scaling of containers

order of magnitude: power (factor) of 10

ORM, object relational mapper: technique for converting data between a relational database and objects in an object oriented programming language

OS X: Unix based operating system developed by Apple

OS, operating system: software that manages computer and provides common services for applications run on the computer

OSI model, Open Systems Interconnection model: conceptual model that characterizes and standardizes the communication functions of a computing system without regard to its underlying internal structure and technology

outlier: data point that differs significantly from other observations

Outlook: email and calendar software developed by Microsoft

overfitting: when a model starts to memorize the training set instead of finding generalizable underlying patterns in the data

overflow: when a number is too large to be represented by the data type used to store it

overlay file system: file system that stores files on another file system

Overleaf: SaaS for LaTeX

P-frame: frame that is encoded using the difference between it and the previous frame

package: the form of software suitable for distribution

package manager: program that automates the process of installing, upgrading, configuring, and removing software modules

packet: unit of data that is routed between an origin and a destination on a network

page: fixed-length block of memory

page fault: when a program tries to access a page that is not in the main memory

page rank: algorithm for measuring the importance of a web page for the purpose of search engine

pagination: technique for dividing a large dataset or document into smaller parts (called pages)

pair programming: software development technique where two programmers work together on the same task usually on one computer

PAL, phase alternating line: video encoding system used in Europe

palindrome: string that reads the same backward as forward

PaLM, pathways language model: large language model from Google AI with 540 billion parameters

Pandas: Python library for data analysis

parallel, GNU parallel: command line tool for parallel computing

parallel computing: type of computation where many calculations are performed simultaneously

parallel corpus: corpus that contains translations of the same text in multiple languages where each sentence is aligned with its translation

parameter: variable that is part of the function definition

parameters (machine learning): sometimes used interchangeable with weights

parametric test: statistical test that makes assumptions about the population; e.g. t-test; cf. non-parametric test

parent class: class that is inherited from

parity bit: bit added to a byte of data to make the number of bits with the value 1 even or odd

parser: program for parsing

parsing, syntactic analysis: procedure that analyzes the structure of a text according to the rules of a formal grammar

partial derivation: derivation of a function with respect to one of its arguments

partition: contiguous block of sectors on a disk that is treated as a separate unit

partition table: table that stores information about the partitions on a disk

Pascal: imperative programming language designed in 1968 for teaching purposes

pass: CLI password manager

pass (Python): keyword in Python that does nothing

pass (machine learning): one complete presentation of the training set to a model

pass by reference: method of passing arguments to a function where the function receives a reference to the original variable instead of a copy of its value

pass by value: method of passing arguments to a function where the function receives a copy of the original variable instead of a reference to its value

password: string of characters used for authentication

password manager: software for securely storing passwords and other credentials

PATA, parallel AT attachment: bus interface for connecting mass storage devices, predecessor of SATA

patch: software update that fixes bugs

PATH: environment variable that specifies the directories in which executable programs are searched in Unix command line

path (graph theory): sequence of vertices in a graph where each vertex is connected to the next one

path (OS): string that identifies a file or directory in a file system

pattern: see regular expression

pattern matching: technique for checking if a string matches a given regular expression

PayPal: company that provides online payment services

PC, personal computer: computer for personal use

PCA, principal component analysis: technique for reducing the dimensionality of a dataset by projecting it onto a lower dimensional space

PCI, peripheral component interconnect: bus for connecting hardware devices to a computer

PDF, portable document format: file format for storing documents in a device independent manner suitable for printing

PDO, PHP data objects: PHP extension for database access

peer-to-peer network, p2p: network where all nodes are equal and there is no central server

PEMDAS, parantheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction: mnemonic for the order of operations in Python expressions

pentest, penetration test: security test of a software or hardware system by attempting to exploit its vulnerabilities

perfect hash function: hash function with no collisions

peripheral: hardware device that is connected to a computer but is not part of it; e.g. a printer

Perl: scripting language

permalink, permanent link: URL that points to a specific web page and does not change over time

perplexity: measurement in information theory that quantifies how well a model predicts a sample

persistent memory: memory that retains its contents even when power is lost

PERT, program evaluation and review technique: project management statistical tool for estimating the time required to complete a project developed by the US Navy in the 1958

pessimistic lock: lock that prevents other processes from accessing a resource until the lock is released

petabyte: 10^15 bytes or 1,000 terabytes

Petri net: graph for modeling concurrent systems

PGP, pretty good privacy: encryption software

PhantomJS: headless browser

PHP, PHP hypertext preprocessor, personal home page: programming language for creating dynamic web pages

phrase-based MT, phrase-based machine translation, PBMT: approach in MT where translations are made on the basis of phrases rather than individual words; cf. word-based MT

pi, Ludolph’s number: constant–the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, approximately 3.14159

pickle: Python standard library module for serializing and deserializing objects

PID, process identifier: number used by an operating system to uniquely identify a process

pie chart: chart that shows the relative sizes of different categories in a dataset as slices of a pie

PII, personally identifiable information: information that can be used to identify a person

PIL: Python library for image processing

ping: Unix command for testing whether a host is reachable using ICMP

ping of death: denial of service attack that sends malformed ICMP packets to a host

Pinterest: social network for sharing images

pip: Python package manager

pipe: Unix inter-process communication mechanism that connects the standard output of one process to the standard input of another

pipeline, pipe, |: method for passing standard output from one process to another as standard input; symbolized by ‘|’ in many shell environments

pivot table: table that summarizes data from another table

pivoting: technique for rotating a table by turning the columns into rows

pixel art: art that is created by placing individual pixels on a canvas

pixel perfect: type of design that is implemented with pixel level accuracy

pixel, px, pel, picture element: single point in a raster image or the smallest addressable element in a screen

plain text: file format for storing text in some encoding

platform: software or hardware environment in which applications can run

platform as a service, PaaS: cloud computing service that provides a platform for running applications; e.g. Heroku

PLOS, Public Library of Science: open access publisher

plot: graph that shows the relationship between two variables

Plotly: data visualization library

plugin: software component that adds a specific feature to an existing program

PoC, proof of concept: (software) prototype that demonstrates the feasibility of a concept

pointer: variable that stores the memory address of a value

polling: technique for periodically checking for new data; e.g. a client periodically checks for new messages; cf. busy waiting

polymorphism: programming language feature where a method can be used with different types

polysemy: property of a word or phrase that has multiple meanings; e.g. “bank” can mean a financial institution or the land

pop: operation that removes an element from a stack

POP3, Post Office Protocol version 3: protocol for retrieving email messages which are deleted from the server upon retrieval

popup: graphical user interface element that appears on top of the current window

PoS tagger: program that assigns a part of speech to each word in a text

PoS, part of speech: category of words in a natural language that have similar grammatical properties; e.g. noun, verb, adjective, adverb

POSIX, portable operating system interface: family of standards for maintaining compatibility between Unix systems

post: message sent to a forum or a wegpage

post mortem: analysis of an issue caused by a bug after it has been mitigated

post-editing (machine translation): process of improving translation from MT by human editors

postfix: notation where the operator is written after the operands; e.g. 3 4 +

PostgreSQL, Postgres, pg: relational database system with ACID compliance

Postman: software for testing APIs

postorder: tree traversal where the children of a node are visited before the node itself

PostScript, PS: page description language from Adobe

pothole case: see snake case

power law: relationship between two quantities where one quantity varies as a power of another

PowerBI: business intelligence tool from Microsoft

PowerPoint: sofware for creating presentations by Microsoft

PowerShell: shell and scripting language from Microsoft

pragma: directive in source code that provides additional information to the compiler, typically to optimize or modify compilation

pragmatics: subfield of linguistics dealing with context-dependent aspects of meaning that are not directly derived from the words of the language

precedence: order in which operators are evaluated

precision: the fraction of true positives cf. recall

predicate: function that returns a boolean value

predicate logic: logic that uses quantified variables and quantified predicates

prediction: output or result of a model

preemptive multitasking: multitasking technique where the scheduler can interrupt a task to run another task

prefetching: technique for loading data into cache before it is needed

prefix: beginning of a string or word; e.g. re in rethink, un in undo, etc.

prefork server model: server model where there is a central master process that manages a set of worker processes

preorder: tree traversal where the root is visited before the children

preprocessor: program that processes a text file before it is compiled

presupposition: in pragmatics, a proposition which is assumed to be true in a given discourse

pretrained model: model that has weights already trained on some other (usually larger) dataset

primary key: column or set of columns that uniquely identifies a row in a table

prime number, prime: number that is only divisible by itself and 1; e.g. 11

Primefaces: Java library for creating web applications

primitive: data type that is not composed of other data types

principle of compositionality, compositionality principle: language expression is compositional if the meaning of it is determined by the meaning of its constituents; e.g. the meaning of red car is compositional while White house is not

printf: C function for printing formatted text

priority queue: data structure where the element with the highest priority is removed first

private key: key used for encryption that is kept secret

private method: method that can only be called from within the class where it is defined

private variable: variable that can only be accessed from within the class where it is defined

private network: network that is not accessible from the public Internet

probability distribution: function that describes the probability of a random variable taking certain values

procedure: function that does not return a value

process: program in execution which has its own memory space

processor: hardware component that executes instructions

production: deployment of a software that is used by users

program: set of instructions for a computer to execute usually in in binary format

programming language: artificial language for writing programs

programming paradigm: style of programming

progress bar: graphical user interface component for showing the progress of a task

Project Gutenberg: digital library of public domain books

project management: discipline of planning, organizing, and managing resources (time, money, people) to achieve specific goals

Prolog: logic programming language from the 1970s

prologue: initial set of instructions at the beginning of a function that typically includes stack setup, register saving, and other preparations for the function’s execution

Prometheus: software for aggregating metrics from various services; designed to run on one server

promise: JavaScript object representing the eventual completion or failure of an asynchronous operation

prompt (browser): JavaScript component for interacting with the user

prompt (ChatGPT): input from the user in a chatbot conversation

proof of work: consensus mechanism where the miner must solve a puzzle to add a block to the blockchain

property: variable that is accessed like an attribute but is actually a method

proportional typeface: typeface where the width of characters varies

propositional calculus: branch of logic that deals with propositions and their relationships

proprietary software: software that is not open source

protocol: set of rules for communication between two entities

protocol buffer, protobuf: binary file format developed by Google

Protractor: e2e testing framework for Angular

proxy server: server intercepting requests and forwarding them to the appropriate servers and then back to users with the goal of load balancing, security, and caching

ps: command for listing processes in Unix

pseudorandom number generator: algorithm that generates a sequence of numbers that appear random, but are actually deterministic

psql: command for interacting with a PostgreSQL

public domain: intellectual property that is not protected by copyright; license which allows sharing and adapting a work without any restrictions

public key: key that is shared publicly; cf. private key

public method: method that can be called from outside the class where it is defined

pull (git): operation in a git which fetches and merges changes from a remote repository

pull request: request to merge a branch into another branch; cf. merge request

pumping lemma for regular languages: lemma that says that all sufficiently long strings in a regular language have a substring that can be repeated an arbitrary number of times to produce a new string that is also part of the language; the lemma is used to prove that a language is not regular

punctuation: symbols used in writing to separate sentences and their elements to clarify meaning; e.g. comma, period, question mark, etc.

Puppet: configuration management tool

Puppeteer: Node.js library for controlling headless Chrome

push (git): operation in a git which sends changes to a remote repository

push (stack): operation that adds an element to a stack

pushdown automata: type of finite automata with a stack that can be used to store data

PWA, progressive web app: web app that uses modern web capabilities and APIs to deliver an app-like experience

PyCharm: IDE for Python

pypy: Python implementation written in Python

Pydantic: Python library for data validation and settings management

pySpark: Python API for Spark

pytest: Python testing library

Python: dynamically typed programming language

PyTorch: machine learning framework for Python

Q: high-level, general-purpose programming language used mainly in finance for time series analysis

QA, quality assurance (software development): process for ensuring quality of a software

QA, question answering (machine learning): task of answering a question based on a given context

QEMU, quick emulator: virtualization software

Qt: cross-platform framework and toolkit for developing GUI applications

quadratic probing: hashing technique that uses a quadratic function to find the next available slot in a hash table

quadratic time: time complexity of an algorithm that is proportional to the square of the size of the input

quadtree: tree in which each internal node has exactly four children used in spatial indexing

quadword, qword: data type used to represent 64 bits or 8 bytes of data, often used for storing large integers, memory addresses, and floating point numbers in assembly

quant: quantitative analyst

quantified self: movement of people tracking personal data; e.g. health, sleep, etc.

quantifier: logical operator that binds a variable in a logical formula; e.g. ∀ and ∃

quantitative analysis: analysis of numerical data; e.g. stock prices, sales, etc.

quantization: process of converting a continuous signal into a discrete signal

quantum computing: field of computing that applies principles of quantum physics to information theory and computation

qubit: quantum bit, the fundamental unit of quantum information in quantum computing

query: request for information from a system

query language: programming language for querying data

query optimization: process of choosing the most efficient way to execute a query

queue: data structure that stores data in FIFO manner

quick sort: recursive algorithm for sorting lists

quorum: minimum number of votes required for a decision to be valid

qutebrowser: web browser focused on keyboard navigation and minimalism which uses Qt and Python for development and Vim key bindings

QWERTY: standard keyboard layout

QWERTZ: keyboard layout used in Central Europe

R, rlang: programming language for statistical computing

RabbitMQ: message broker

race condition: error that occurs when the timing or sequence of processes’ execution leads to incorrect or unexpected behaviour

rack (hardware): physical frame or enclosure for mounting multiple electronic equipment modules, commonly used in server and networking installations

radio button: GUI element that allows the user to select one option from a list of options

radix sort: sorting algorithm that classifies data based on the digits of the numbers from the least significant digit to the most significant digit and is efficient for sorting large sets of data with a limited range of possible values

RAG, retrieval augmented generation: using a relevant document prepended to the prompt to improve the results of chatbot

RAID, redundant array of independent disks: storage technology that combines multiple disks into a single logical unit

RAID0: TODO

RAID1: storage technology that mirrors data across two or more disks for redundancy

RAID2: RAID configuration using Hamming code error correction rarely used in practice

RAID5: TODO

RAM, random access memory: memory that can be accessed randomly

random forest: machine learning architecture that uses an ensemble of decision trees

random generator: algorithm that generates a sequence of numbers that cannot be predicted

random search: random combination of hyperparameters are used to find the best solution

random variable: variable whose possible values are numerical outcomes of a random phenomenon; e.g. the number of heads in 10 coin flips

ransomware: malware that encrypts data and demands a ransom from the victim

Raspberry Pi: small computer used in IoT

raster graphics: representation of graphical components as a collection of pixels

raster image: see bitmap image

RAW: image file format storing unprocessed data from a digital camera

rax: x86 CPU register used as the general-purpose accumulator register

rbp, base pointer register, RBP, register base pointer: x86 CPU register commonly used for addressing variables on the stack in function prologues and epilogues

rbx, rcx: x86 CPU register used as a general-purpose register for data storage and manipulation

rc suffix, run commands: Unix configuration file suffix for running commands at startup

rdi: x86 CPU register used for passing the first argument to a function in the calling convention of some operating systems

rdx: x86 CPU register used for various purposes, including as a general-purpose register and for holding the high part of a dividend in integer division operations

React: JavaScript web framework developed by Facebook

React component: UI component in React

React hook: React functions (or API) for directly using state and lifecycle features from function components

React Redux: method to share global state in React web app

README: plain text file that contains information about a software; usually part of its repository

real time: system that responds to events immediately

recall: the ratio of retrieved relevant items and all relevant items; also true positive / (true positive + false negatives)

recaptcha, reCAPTCHA: CAPTCHA service by Google

reciprocal: reciprocal of a number x is 1/x

recommendation engine: see recommendation system

recommendation system, recommender system: system that recommends items to users based on their preferences; cf. collaborative filtering

recursion: technique of solving a problem by solving a smaller part of the same problem

recursively enumerable grammar: TODO

recursively enumerable grammar, RE grammar: grammar that can generate all recursively enumerable languages; also known as type-0 grammar or unrestricted grammar

red black tree: data structure that is a binary search tree with additional constraints on the nodes

Red Hat: company that develops Linux distributions and other software

Red Hat Enterprise Linux, RHEL: Linux distribution from Red Hat with long-term support, paid subscription and focus on stability

red zone: region in memory in the x86 reserved for temporary data storage for leaf functions

Reddit: social media platform

redirect: process of forwarding a request to another URL and potentially another server

Redis: key-value store

redo: operation that repeats the last undo operation

Redshift: data warehouse service from AWS

reduce: higher-order function that takes a binary function, a starting value (accumulator) and a list, and applies the function to the accumulator and each element of the list

redundancy: fault tolerance technique where multiple copies of data are stored

Redux store: global state in React Redux

refactoring: technique for changing (ideally improving) the design of existing code without changing its behaviour

register: small, fast memory location within the CPU that temporarily hold data and instructions during processing

registry: database of configuration settings in Windows

regression analysis: estimates the expected value of a numeric attribute when all the input attributes are fixed

regression model: model which predicts one or more numeric quantities e.g. a temperature or a location; cf. classification

regression testing: process of testing a software after a change to ensure that the change did not break the software

regular expression, regex, regexp, RE: pattern for matching strings written as a string; cf. regular language

regular grammar: formal grammar where all rules are of the form A -> aB or A -> a where A and B are non-terminals and a is a terminal

regular language: formal language that can be described by a regular grammar

regularization: technique for reducing overfitting; e.g. L1 and L2 regularization

reinforcement learning, RL: machine learning technique where an agent learns by interacting with an environment without a specific goal but by maximizing a reward for desired behaviour

relational database management system, RDBMS: database and related utilities for storing and retriewing (querying) tabular data

relative path: path that is relative to the current directory; e.g. ../../foo.txt

release: version of a software that is ready for production

ReLU, rectified linear unit: activation function used in neural networks which is defined as max(0, x)

remote desktop: desktop environment that is running on a remote server and can be accessed from a client

remote repository: repository that is stored on a remote server

replica: copy of a database or service that is used to increase availability

repository, repo: decentralized storage location for version control system

research software engineer, RSE: software engineer building software for other researchers

resilient distributed dataset, RDD: data structure that represents a collection of records that can be partitioned across nodes in a cluster and can be operated on in parallel

ResNet, residual network: type of convolutional model

ResNet32: ResNet with 32 layers

resolution: number of pixels in a display, image or video usually expressed as the number of pixels in the horizontal and vertical dimensions; e.g. 1920x1080

responsive web design: method of designing web apps that adapts to different screen sizes

REST API: API built on HTTP 1.1 protocol based on the principles of REST

REST, representational state transfer: software architecture for web services

RESTful API: set REST API

reStructuredText: markup language for writing technical documents

reStructuredText, reST: markup language for writing Python documentation

resumption: continuing an operation or process after a pause or interruption

return: keyword that returns a value from a function

reverse engineering: process of analyzing a software or hardware to understand its design and functionality, often for replication or enhancement

revision: see commit

RFC, request for comments: document proposing a standard

rFlags, register flags: CPU register in x86 that holds various flags that indicate the status and results of arithmetic and logical operations

RGB, red green blue: color model where each basic color is represented by one byte

RGBA, red green blue alpha: color model where each basic color is represented by one byte and the alpha channel is used for transparency

right join: join that includes all rows from the right table and only matching rows from the left table, when there is no match, the left columns are filled with NULL

ring buffer: data structure that is a queue with a fixed size that overwrites the oldest element when full

RIP, register instruction pointer: CPU register in x86-64 indicating the location of the next instruction to execute

ripgrep, rg: command-line tool for searching files using regular expressions; cf. grep, ack

RISC, reduced instruction set computer: computer with a small set of simple instructions

RISC-V: open source RISC instruction set

RLHF, reinforcement learning with human feedback: technique for improving on pure LLM where a human (or a better model) picks a better answer from a selection

RNN, recurrent neural network: model architecture for modeling sequential data with layers that are connected to themselves which allows the model to remember previous states

ROC curve, receiver operating characteristic curve: graph) that shows the performance of a binary classifier at different thresholds; the curve is obtained by plotting the true positive rate (also known as recall) along the y-axis against the false positive rate

roll back: undo a transaction or a deployment

root (linguistics): morpheme that carries the main meaning of a word; e.g. overbooked, underachiever

root (OS): user with the highest level of privileges in Unix systems

root directory: directory that contains all other directories denoted as /

root node: node with no parent

rotating file: set of files to store recent information where the oldest file is deleted when a new file is created

router (network): device that forwards packets between networks

router (web app): mechanism for mapping URLs to views

routine: set of instructions that performs a specific task in a program; generic term for function, method, procedure

routing table: data table stored in a router or network host that lists the routes to particular network destinations

RPC, remote procedure call: protocol that allows a program to cause a subroutine or procedure to execute in another address space (commonly on another computer on a network) without the programmer explicitly coding the details for this remote interaction

RPS, request per second: metric for measuring the performance of a server

RSA, Rivest–Shamir–Adleman: cryptographic algorithm for public key encryption

RSI, repetitive strain injury: injury caused by overuse of the hands and arms; e.g. by typing or using a mouse

RSP, Register Stack Pointer: CPU register that points to the top of the current stack frame in x86

RSS, Rich Site Summary, RDF Site Summary, Really Simple Syndication: XML format for publishing updated content on web

RSVP, répondez s’il vous plaît: request for a response to an invitation (e.g. for a meeting)

rsync: CLI program for copying files between two locations effectively by only transferring the differences

Unison: file synchronization program similar to rsync

RTF, rich text format: file format for storing formatted text

RTFM, read the fucking manual: initialism and internet slang

RTL, right to left text: text (or script) written from right to left; e.g. Arabic, Hebrew

rubber duck debugging: method of finding a solution to a problem just by articulating it in spoken or written form

Ruby: dynamic open source programming language

Ruby on Rails: web framework written in Ruby

rule 31: principle in online communities stating that if it exists, there is internet content of it

rule-based MT, RBMT, rule-based machine translation: machine translation approach relying on manually predefined linguistic rules

ruliad: abstract object representing the result of following all possible computational rules in all possible ways

runtime: instructions executed while a program is running necessary for the proper execution of the code; e.g. garbage collector in Python

runtime code: code required to implement runtime system of a programming language

runtime error: error that occurs during runtime and which usually can’t be detected beforehand

Rust: low-level programming language designed to be memory-safe

rustacean: mascot of Rust

rxvt: terminal for X11

S: programming language for data analysis; cf. R

Sentry: self-hosted and cloud-based service for application performance monitoring and error tracking

S3 (R): framework for OO in R

S3, simple storage service: cloud storage service by AWS

SaaS, software as a service: method of software delivery and licensing in which software is accessed online

Safari: web browser by Apple

Salesforce: CRM platform and company that develops it

salt: random data used as an additional input to a hash function

Samba: software suite for file sharing

Samsung: South Korean company that manufactures electronics

sandbox: isolated environment for testing either separated from production or restricted in terms of resources

sanity check: quick test to confirm that a system is working properly or data quality is reasonable

SAP, systems, applications and products: software company developing ERP systems

SAS, statistical analysis system: software suite for advanced analytics

Sass: preprocessor scripting language which is transpiled into CSS

SAT, satisfiability problem: problem of determining if there exists an interpretation that satisfies a given Boolean formula

SATA, serial AT attachment: bus interface for connecting mass storage devices

sbt, Scala build tool: build tool for Scala

Scala: open source functional programming language that runs on the JVM

scalar: single value of a particular type; e.g. integer, float

scanf: C function for reading formatted input

scanner: input device for digitizing documents and images

scheduler: process that decides which process to run next

scheduling: process of assigning resources to tasks

schema: specification of database structure (format of tables, types of columns, etc.)

Scheme: functional programming language

Scikit learn, sklearn, scikit: Python library for machine learning

Scintilla: open source code editing component

SciPy: Python library for scientific computing

scope: part of a program where a name binding is valid

Scrapy: Python library for web scraping

screen: display device for a computer

screen lock: program that prevents unauthorized access to a computer

screen reader: program that reads text displayed on a screen used e.g. by visually impaired users

screen, GNU screen: terminal multiplexer

screencast: digital recording of computer screen

screensaver: program that displays an (animated) image when a computer is idle

screenshot: digital image of computer screen

script: program written in a scripting language; synonymous with program in some contexts

scripting language: programming language used to manipulate, customize and automate existing systems; usually interpreted; e.g. AWK, Bash, Lua, etc.

scriptio continua: text or language without spaces between words

scrolling: moving displayed text or graphics in a particular direction

scrum: agile project management framework focused on adaptability and iterative progress through fixed-length sprints

scrum master: person responsible for facilitating the scrum process

SCSI, small computer system interface: set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices

SD card, secure digital card: flash memory storage device

SDK, software development kit: toolikit for developing software for a specific platform

Seaborn: Python library for data visualization

search engine: software system that is designed to carry out search in a large collection of documents, e.g. web

SECAM, Séquentiel couleur à mémoire: analog television color system

sector: smallest unit of storage on a disk

security by obscurity, security through obscurity: security through secrecy of design or implementation; e.g. sharing a link with randomly generated URL

security vulnerability: weakness in a system that allows an attacker to compromise the confidentiality, integrity or availability of the system

sed, stream editor: CLI Unix utility for text processing

seed funding: first money that a startup receives used usually for product development and market research

seed, random seed: value used for initialization of random generator function

seek: low level method for jumping to a position in a file

segmentation: memory management technique that divides a computer’s primary memory into segments

segmentation fault, segfault: runtime error caused by an invalid memory access

SELECT: SQL statement for querying relational database for selecting columns or rows based on the query

selection sort, select sort: sorting algorithm that repeatedly finds the minimum element and puts it at the beginning

Selenium: Python library for web scraping

self: keyword in some programming languages that refers to the current object

self balancing tree: tree data structure that automatically keeps its height small to guarantee fast operations

self hosting: running a service on your own (virtual) server

self join: join of a table with itself

SELinux: security module for Linux kernel

semantic versioning, semver: convention for versioning software in the form of MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH where MAJOR number is incremented when backward incompatible changes are made, MINOR is incremented when new functionality is added in a backwards-compatible manner, and PATCH is incremented when backwards-compatible bug fixes are made

semantics (linguistics): study of meaning in language; also level of language carrying meaning

semaphore: synchronization primitive used to control access to a shared resource in the context of concurrency

semiconductor: material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator

semicolon: punctuation mark ;

sense vote: preliminary vote to determine the sense of the meeting

sensitivity: see recall

sentence alignment: NLP technique for aligning sentences in multilingual texts which are translations of each other on document level resulting in parallel corpus

SEO, search engine optimization: process of improving the visibility of a web page in search engine results

separation of concerns: general principle for software development

sequence-to-sequence model: type of ML model used for transforming a sequence of elements from one domain into another commonly used in NLP e.g. for machine translation

sequential data: data that is stored in a sequence and the order is an inherent property of it

sequential search: technique for finding an element in a list by checking each element in order

serial port: hardware interface for serial communication

serialization: process of converting data structures or objects into a format that can be stored or transmitted

series A: first round of venture capital financing where the money raised are usually used for developing a business plan and to increase revenue

series B: second round of venture capital financing where the money raised are usually used for scaling the business and to provide competitive salaries

series C: third round of venture capital financing where the money raised are usually used for expanding into new markets and acquisitions

server: computer which is connected to a network and provides services to other computers

serverless: cloud computing execution model where the cloud provider dynamically manages the allocation of machine resources

servlet: Java programming class used to extend the capabilities of servers

set (data structure): data structure that stores unique elements

setter (OOP): method for setting a value of a property

setuptools: Python library for packaging

SGD, stochastic gradient descent: method for efficiently finding weights for a model

SGML, standard generalized markup language: markup language for defining document types

shader: program that runs on a GPU to compute rendering effects (lighting or position of vertices and pixels) which can be used for general programming; cf. GPGPU

Shannon’s game: game to study the redundancy and information content of the English language

sharding: database partitioning technique where each partition is stored on a separate server

shared library: library that is loaded at runtime

Sharepoint: collaboration platform by Microsoft

shebang: in Unix, the first line of a script that tells the shell which interpreter to use to execute the script; e.g. #!/usr/bin/python

shell script: a set of commands for shell stored in a file; cf. program

shell sort: sorting algorithm that sorts elements far apart from each other and then reduces the gap between elements to be compared

shell, sh: program that interprets and executes commands entered by the user in terminal

shift: operation that moves all bits in a binary number to the left or right and which can be used for multiplication or division by powers of 2

Shift key: modifier key that is usually used to uppercase letters

Shiny: R package for building interactive web apps

Shopify: SaaS e-commerce platform

short option: command option that is a single character; e.g. -h

sibling: node that has the same parent

side effect: change made by a function that is not part of its return value and remains after the function has finished executing; e.g. modifying a global variable or writing to a file

sigmoid: non-linear function with a characteristic S-shaped curve; see also logistic function

signal: message sent to a process to notify it of an event

SignalR: library for ASP.NET for real-time web functionality

signed integer: integer that can be negative or positive

significance: measure of how likely it is that an effect is not due to chance

significand: see mantissa

SIGSEGV, segmentation fault: signal sent to a process when it accesses a memory location that is not allowed

SIM card, subscriber identity module card: removable card used in mobile devices which securely stores IMSI

SIMD, single instruction, multiple data: parallel computing technique where a single instruction is executed on multiple data points

similarity search: search for similar objects in a database or dataset

Simula: the first object-oriented programming language which introduced objects, classes, inheritance, coroutines and garbage collection

simulated annealing: optimization technique inspired by the process of annealing in metallurgy used to find an approximate global optimum in a large search space by iteratively making small random changes to a solution and accepting those changes according to a specific probability that decreases over time

single responsibility principle, SRP: principle in which a module should be responsible to one and only one actor each class should have only one reason for rewriting

singleton: class with its only instance or set with only one element

singleton pattern: design pattern where a class can only have one instance usually implemented by hiding the constructor

Siri: voice assistant by Apple

skip list: data structure for storing a sorted list of items using a hierarchy of linked lists for faster search

skip-gram: algorithm in NLP used for learning high-quality word embeddings

Slack: commercial software for instant messaging

slice (video): subdivision of a video frame used in video compression, self-contained, able to be decoded independently of other slices, which is useful for error recovery and parallel processing

slider: GUI element for selecting a value from a range

slug: abbreviated portion of a webpage’s URL that uniquely identifies it. e.g. https://www.mysite.com/category/post-name has slug post-name

Smalltalk: object-oriented programming language from the 1970s

smart contract: program that runs on a blockchain and can be used to automatically enforce an agreement

smoothing: technique in statistics for making a dataset less noisy or more comprehensible

smoke test: see sanity check

SMS, short message service: protocol for sending text messages over mobile networks

SMTP, simple mail transfer protocol: protocol for transmitting emails

SMTPS, simple mail transfer protocol secure: secured version of SMTP using TLS

snake case: naming convention for identifiers where words are separated by underscores; e.g. num_of_students

snap (Linux): package format for Linux

snapshot: copy of a database (or a dataset at a specific point in time

Snowflake: Tor pluggable transport

SOAP, simple object access protocol: protocol for exchanging XML messages over HTTP

socat: CLI tool that establishes two bidirectional byte streams and transfers data between them

social network: application that allows users to connect with each other over internet, share multimedia content, etc.

socket (operating system): file descriptor used e.f. for inter-process communication

socket.IO: JavaScript library for real-time web apps

SOFSEM: international conference on current trends in theory and practice of computer science originated in 1974 in Czechoslovakia

softmax: non-linear function that exponentiates numbers and normalize them to sum into 1.0; used to make the layer output a probability distribution

software: complex program consisting of source code and data, UI and documentation

software 2.0: term coined by Andrej Karpathy to distringuish the traditional software development (manually writing a code) and the approach of machine learning—letting the computer learn on its own from training data

software architecture: high-level structure of a software

software design: process of defining the software architecture

software development: process of creating software, programming

software engineering: see software development

SOLID: set of design principles used in object oriented programming; S for single responsibility principle, O for open-closed principle, L for Liskov substitution principle, I for interface segregation principle and D for dependency inversion principle.

sort, sorting: operation with data sequence which re-arranges its elements in ascending or descending order

sound card: hardware device that can play and record sound and convert between analog and digital signals

source code: see code

source control: see version control

source language: language from which a translation is made

SPA, single page application: web app that loads a single HTML page and dynamically updates the page as the user interacts with it

space: set of points

spam: unsolicited email messages

Spark: framework for distributed computing built on top of Hadoop

sparse matrix: matrix in which most of the elements are zero

sparse vector: vector in which most of the elements are zero

spawn: method of creating a new process from an existing one

specification: document that describes a system to be developed: its requirements properties, user interface, etc.

specificity: the proportion of actual negatives that are correctly classified; calculated as TN / (TN + FP)

speech recognition: task of converting digial audio signal of speech into text

spell checker: software that checks the spelling of words in a text

spellchecker: software tool for checking and correcting spelling errors in text

Sphinx: Python documentation generator built upon Jinja and Docutils

splice: method of inserting or removing elements from an array

split tunneling: VPN configuration where only traffic destined for the private network is sent through the VPN and other traffic is sent through the regular connection

spline: curve defined by control points in vector graphics

splint: static analysis tool for C

spreadsheet: software or a data structure for working with tabular data

Spring: Java framework

sprint: interval in agile development during which a team works intensively on a set of tasks; usually 1–4 weeks long

spyware: malware that collects information about a user without their knowledge

SQL injection: security vulnerability in web apps that allows an attacker to execute arbitrary SQL code on the server

SQL, structure query language: domain specific language for managing and manipulating relational databases

SQLAlchemy: Python ORM

SQLite: single file database system

square brackets: brackets [ and ]

square root: number that when multiplied by itself gives the original number

SSD, solid state disk: storage device based on flash memory

SSH key: public key used for SSH authentication

SSH, secure shell: protocol and a program for secure communication between two computers over an insecure network

SSL, secure socket layer: protocol for establishing an encrypted connection between a client and a server

SSO, single sign-on: mechanism for logging in to multiple web apps with a single set of credentials

SSR, server side rendering: technique of rendering a web app on the server and sending the result to the client as HTML

st, simple terminal: terminal for X11 from suckless

stack: data structure that operates in LIFO manner

stable sort: sorting algorithm that preserves the order of elements with equal keys

stack frame: data structure used to represent the state of a function or subroutine during execution typically including information like local variables and return addresses

stack overflow: bug that occurs when a stack is full and a new element is pushed onto it

stack trace: list of function calls that led to the current point of execution

StackOverflow: online platform for asking and answering questions about programming

stale link: hyperlink that leads to an unaccessible web page

standard: specification that describes how a system should behave or be structured

standard deviation: measure of how spread out a set of values is computed as the square root of the variance

standard error output, stderr: output stream for error messages in Unix

standard input, stdin: input stream for reading data in Unix systems

standard library: set of libraries that are distributed with a programming language

standard output, stdout: output stream for writing data in Unix systems

startup: newly founded company

statement: syntactic unit of a programming language that expresses some action to be carried out; e.g. x = 1 or INSERT INTO users VALUES (1, 'John')

static analysis: analysis of a program without executing it

static linking: when external libraries are included in a program at compile time by the linker

static binding: see early binding

static memory allocation: memory allocation where the size of the allocated memory is known at compile time

static method: method that is not bound to an object

static site: website that doesn’t contain any dynamic content (e.g. JavaScript code)

static site generator: software that generates a static site from a set of templates in plain text

static type checking: type checking that is performed as static analysis

statically typed programming language: programming language that requires type annotations of variables

statistical machine translation, SMT: machine translation approach that uses n-gram models to translate text from one language to another

statistical model: model that describes a system using statistical methods

statistics: branch of mathematics that deals with data analysis

stem: part of word without suffix; e.g. booking, booked, books

stemming: NLP technique that removes the suffixes from words to reduce the size of the vocabulary or as a kind of word normalization

stochastic system: system that has some randomness in it

Stockfish: chess software

storage engine: part of database that is responsible for storing and retrieving data from the disk

stored procedure: function that is stored in a database to be executed later

streaming: method of data processing where data is processed as it arrives and not as a whole

Streamlit: Python library for building data science web apps

stress testing: type of testing that checks the system under heavy load

string: data structure for representing text

strong type system: type system that does not allow implicit type conversions

struct: C library for working with structured data

structural patterns: group of design patterns that deal with the composition of classes and objects

structured analysis: software design method that uses data flow diagrams to describe a system

structured data: data that is organized in a certain way and can be easily processed

structured programming: paradigm that promotes the use of well-organized, modular code composed of functions or subroutines

Stuxnet: computer worm discovered in 2010 known for targeting industrial control systems

subdomain: part of a domain; e.g. www in www.example.com

subprocess: process that is spawned by another process

subroutine: specific type of routine which help avoid code duplication; two types: function and procedure; the term emphasizes that it is a subordinated part of a program

substring: part of a string

subtree: tree that is a part of another tree

suckless: community of open-source developers that create minimalistic software; e.g. st, dwm

sudo, superuser do: superuser command in Unix systems that allows to run a command as another user

suffix: ending of a string or word; e.g. .txt in file.txt, rc in .bashrc, ing in running, etc.

sum: result of adding two or more numbers

Sun Microsystems: company that developed Java

superclass: see parent class

supercomputer: computer with high level of performance

superuser: user with the highest level of privileges in Unix systems

supervised learning: machine learning task where the model is trained using labeled data

supremum: least upper bound

SVG, scalable vector graphics: XML-based file format for representing vector graphics

SVM, support vector machine: machine learning model for classification and regression

SVN, Subversion, svn: open source software for versioning and revisions of source code developed by Apache

Swagger: framework for documenting REST APIs

swapping: process of moving memory pages between RAM and disk

SWEBOK, software engineering body of knowledge: IEEE standard for software engineering which describes generally accepted knowledge about software engineering

Swift: programming language developed by Apple running on LLVM

Swing: Java GUI toolkit

switch (statement): statement that allows to select one of many code blocks to be executed

swipe: TODO

SWOMPT, subject-verb-object-manner-place-time: word order in English

Symfony: PHP framework

synchronization (multiprocessing): process of coordinating the execution of multiple threads or processes

syntactic sugar: syntactic shortcut that makes the code easier to read and write but does not add any new functionality; e.g. x++ vs. x = x + 1

syntax: set of rules that defines the combinations of symbols that are considered to be correctly structured programs in a given programming language

syntax highlighting: feature of a UI that highlights the syntactic elements of a programming language to make the code easier to read

SysML, systems modeling language: UML for systems engineering

system call, syscall: request to an operating system to perform a low-level operation; e.g. opening a file, reading a file, etc.

systemd: Linux init system

systemd timers: systemd unit for scheduling tasks

SYSTRAN, SYStem TRANslation: machine translation software

T-score: statistical measure used in a variety of contexts, including hypothesis testing in statistics

t-test: parametric test for comparing the means of two samples

T9: predictive text technology for mobile phones

table (database): collection of related data held in a structured format within a database

table (spreadsheet): cells organized into rows and columns

tableless web design: web design method that avoids using HTML tables for layout control

tablet: portable computer with a touchscreen and without a keyboard

tabular data: data represented in the form of a table–in rows and columns

tabular model: model which predicts one column of a table based on data in other columns of the table

tabulator, tab: whitespace character that advances the cursor to the next position usually located at every 4th or 8th column, also the corresponding key on the keyboard

TAC, traffic acquisition costs: money paid to other companies for using a company’s product; e.g. Google pays Apple to be their default search engine

tagset: a set of PoS tags used by a tagger

tail: command that prints the last lines of a file

Tailwind CSS: CSS framework

tanh, hyperbolic tangent: non-linear function used as activation function in neural networks

tar: Unix command for archiving files

target language: language into which a translation is made

Tatoeba: parallel corpus aiming to provide example sentences in multiple languages

TB, terabyte: 10^12 bytes or 1,000 gigabytes

tc, traffic control: Linux program for controlling network traffic

Tcl: high-level, interpreted dynamic programming language

Tcl/Tk: GUI toolkit for Tcl

TCP, transmission control protocol: network protocol for reliable communication between computers on internet

tcpdump: CLI packet analyzer for network traffic monitoring

TDD, test-driven development: software development in which unit tests are written before the code itself

Teams, MS Teams: software for communication developed by Microsoft

tech debt, technical debt: software development metaphor for the extra work that arises when code that is easy to implement in the short run is used instead of applying the best overall solution

telephony: technology for voice communication

telnet, teletype network: network protocol for remote terminal access

templating engine: software that combines templates with a data model to produce documents

temporal decomposition: breadkign down a system or dataset into components or elements based on time; used in time series analysis

tensor: [multidimensional] array

TensorFlow: machine learning library developed by Google

TER, translation error rate: metric used in machine translation to calculate the number of edits needed to change automatically translated text to match a reference text

terminal: program that provides a text-based user interface to an operating system; not to be confused with shell

terminal (NLP): symbol that cannot be expanded further

terminal multiplexer: software that allows multiple terminal sessions to be accessed simultaneously in a single window

terminfo: library and database of terminal capabilities that enables programs to use terminals in a device-independent manner

ternary operator: operator that takes three arguments; e.g. a ? b : c

Terraform: software for managing infrastructure as code

tessellation: the covering of a surface using one or more geometric shapes (tiles) with no overlaps and no gaps; see also tiling

test set: part of the dataset which is used only for the final evaluation of a model

test suite: collection of test cases for testing

testing: process of evaluating a software

TeX: programming language for typesetting

text classification: NLP task of assigning a document to one or more categories

text format: file format that stores data as plain text

text mining: NLP task of extracting useful information from unstructured text

TF-IDF, term frequency-inverse document frequency: statistical measure used to evaluate how important a word is to a document in a collection or corpus

Thanos: complex software for monitoring large and complex systems based on Prometheus

The Jargon File: glossary of slang terms used by programmers

Theano: machine learning library developed by University of Montreal

thesaurus: reference work that lists words grouped together according to similarity of meaning, often providing synonyms and antonyms

thread: part of a process which executes instructions

thread safety: property of a software that guarantees correct execution in a multithreaded environment

throughput: amount of work done in a given time

thunk: piece of code that does some delayed work; in React Redux context thunks are patterns of writing functions with logic inside that can interact with a Redux store’s dispatcher and other methods

ticket: see issue

Tidyverse: collection of R packages for data science

TIFF, tagged image file format: file format for storing raster graphics

tiling: see tessellation

tiling window manager: window manager which automatically arranges windows on a screen (or multiple screen) in a tiling fashion

time complexity: measure of the amount of time taken by an algorithm to run as a function of the length of the input

time series: sequence of data points indexed in time order

timestamp: sequence of characters or encoded information identifying when a certain event occurred, usually in the form of Unix time or ISO 8601

timm, torch image models: library for PyTorch models

Tkinter: GUI toolkit for Python

TLD, top-level domain: last part of a domain name; e.g. .com, .org, .net, .edu

TLDR, too long didn’t read, tl;dr: summary of a long text

TLR, technology readiness level: measure of the maturity of a technology from research to deployment

TLS, transport layer security: cryptographic protocol for secure communication

tmux: terminal multiplexer

TMX, translation memory exchange: XML-based format for exchanging translation memories

TODO, to do: when used as a comment in source code it means that something needs to be implemented

token (natural language processing): word or a piece of a word separated by whitespace or punctuation

token (network): unit of data that is transmitted over a network

token bucket: algorithm for controlling network traffic allowing flexible bandwidth management

tokenization: process of splitting texts into tokens

TOML, Tom’s obvious minimal language: text format for configurations

tooltip: UI component in the form of a small pop-up window that appears when a user pauses the mouse pointer over an element

top: CLI tool for monitoring system resources

top-down analysis: approach that starts with the highest level of conceptual detail and works down to the specifics

topic modeling: NLP task of discovering topics in a text corpus

Tor: network for anonymous communication developed by the US Navy

TOTP, time based one time password: method for two factor authentication using a password which expires quickly

touchpad: input device for moving a cursor on a screen by sliding a finger on a surface

TPU, tensor processing unit: special processor designed for machine learning developed by Google; see also GPU

trackball: input device for moving a cursor on a screen by rotating a ball

trackpoint: input device for moving a cursor on a screen by pressing a stick

Trados: computer-assisted translation software suite widely used in the translation industry

training: see fit

training data: see training set

training set: part of dataset used for fitting the model; doesn’t contain validation set

transaction: sequence of database operations which are executed as a single unit which can be cancelled in the case of failure

transactional data: event information such as sale of an item, issuing of an invoice, etc.

transfer learning: using a pretrained model for a task different to what it was originally trained for

transfer rate: measure of the speed of data transfer

transformer: neural network architecture based on attention mechanism

translation (geometry): transformation that moves every point of a figure by the same distance in a given direction

translation memory: database of translations used in computer assisted translation

transpilation: process of converting source code from one programming language to another; e.g. TypeScript to JavaScript

tree (data structure): data structure that is a collection of nodes connected by edges with uni

tree (graph theory): graph without cycles

tree height: number of edges on the longest path between a root and a leaf

tree shaking: process of removing unused code from a bundle

tree traversal: process of visiting every node in a tree

trie: type of search tree used for locating specific keys from within a set

trigram: n-gram of size 3

Troyan horse: type of malware disguised as legitimate software used to gain access to a user’s system

true negative: data point which is negative and correctly predicted by a model as negative

true negative rage: see specificity

true positive: data point which is positive and correctly predicted by a model as positive

true positive rate: see recall

truecase: the proper/original case of text

trunk: the main branch in a source control system

trunk-based development: source control branching approach where developers work in a single branch called trunk/master/main, and do not use other long lived branches

truth table: table that shows the output of a logic gate or a boolean function for all possible combinations of inputs

truthy: expression which evaluates to true in a boolean context

tshark: network protocol analyzer part of the Wireshark suite used for CLI-based packet analysis

TSV, tab separated values: text format for storing tabular data

tty, teletypewriter: device file in Unix systems that represents a terminal

TUG, TeX Users Group: non-profit organization for people who are interested in TeX and LaTeX

TUI, text-based user interface: user interface based on text; a keyboard is used for input and a terminal for output

tuple: immutable finite sequence of items; 2-tuple is called ordered pair or couple or tuple, 3-tuple is called a triple (triplet)

Turbo Pascal: Pascal compiler and IDE for DOS and Windows

Turing machine: mathematical model of computation that defines an abstract machine which manipulates symbols on a strip of tape according to a table of rules

Turing test: test of a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour equivalent to or indistinguishable from that of a human

Turing-complete system: system that can perform any computation

Twig: templating engine for PHP

Twilio: cloud communications platform as a service

Twitch: live video streaming platform

Twitter: social network and microblogging service

two factor authentication, 2FA: more secure authentication which adds another layer of security with requiring a second independent way of authentication (with SMS or a mobile application or email

TXT record: DNS record that contains text information

type checking: process of verifying and enforcing the constraints of type system

type coercion: converting a value from one data type to another; e.g. 4 to "4" or 4.0

type signature: description of the input and output of a function

type system: set of rules that assigns a property called type to the various constructs of a computer program such as variables, expressions, functions or modules

type-0 grammar: see recursively enumerable grammar

type-1 grammar: see context sensitive grammar

type-2 grammar: see context free grammar

type-3 grammar: see regular grammar

typeface: set of glyphs that share common design features

TypeScript, TS: programming language which is a superset of JavaScript

Ubuntu: Linux distribution

UDP, user datagram protocol: network protocol for unreliable communication between computers

UI, user interface: way for humans to interact with a computer programs; can be graphical or text-based

ultra high definition, UHD: video resolution of 3840x2160 pixels

UML, unified modeling language: modeling language for software and systems

unary operation: operation with a single operand; e.g. not

underfitting: situation when a model is too simple to capture the underlying structure of the data

undo: operation which reverts the last action

unicameral script: script that has only one case for each letter as opposed to scripts like Latin or Cyrillic which have both uppercase and lowercase forms

Unicode: standard enumerating symbols used in writing systems and assigning a unique number for each

union: set operation which creates a new set that contains all the elements that are in at least one of the original sets

uniq: Unix utility which filters adjacent duplicate lines from standard input

unit test: testing unit which tests a subroutine

universal approximation theorem: mathematical proof that shows that a neural network can slove any mathematical problem to any level of accuracy

Unix: family of operating system with multitasking and multiuser features

Unix domain socket: socket which is used for communication between processes on the same host

Unix epoch: point in time defined as 00:00:00 UTC on 1 January 1970

Unix philosophy: set of software design principles based on Unix which emphasizes modularity and reusability and simplicity

Unix time: number of seconds that have elapsed since Unix epoch

unshift: operation that adds elements to the beginning of an array in some programming languages

unsigned integer: integer that can only be positive; cf. signed integer

unstructured data: data that doesn’t have a predefined data model or is not organized in a predefined manner

unsupervised learning: machine learning technique where the model is not provided with the correct answers but only with the raw data

UPDATE: SQL command which updates rows in a table

update operator: see inplace operator

upscaling: process of increasing the resolution of an image or video often using algorithms to add detail and reduce blur

upsert: database operation that updates an existing row if a specified value already exists (in a table) and inserts a new row if the specified value doesn’t already exist; portmanteau of update and insert

upvote: vote in favor of something

URI, uniform resource identifier: string that unambiguously identifies a resource

URL, uniform resource locator: reference to a web that specifies its location on a network

urxvt: fork of rxvt supporting Unicode

usability testing: process of testing a software with real users to see how easy it is to use, related to UX

USB, universal serial bus: standard that defines the cables, connectors and communication protocols used in a bus for peripherals

Usenet: network of newsgroups

user story: description of a feature from the perspective of the user

useradd: Unix command which creates a user account

userland: part of OS which is not part of the kernel

usermod: Unix command which modifies a user account

userspace: set of locations in memory which are used by processes and kernel modules

UTF16, unicode transformation format 16: variable width character encoding standard for Unicode compatible with ASCII using 16–32 bits per character; it’s more efficient than UTF8 for Asian languages

UTF8, UTF-8, unicode transformation format 8: variable width character encoding standard for Unicode compatible with ASCII using 8–32 bits per character

UUID, universally unique identifier: 128-bit number used to identify information in computer systems; it is usually displayed as a sequence of 32 hexadecimal digits separated into five groups by hyphens

UUID3: UUID generated from a namespace and a name

UUID4: UUID generated randomly

uvicorn: HTTP server for ASGI applications

uWSGI: HTTP server

UX, user experience: overall experience and satisfaction a user has when interacting with a software

V8: JavaScript engine

Vagrant: software for building and managing virtual machine environments

validation set: part of dataset for training a model which is put aside (usually 20 %) and used to measure the accuracy of the model; the rest of the dataset is called training set

variable: container that holds information which has name and a value which can be changed during execution of a program

variance: measure of how far a set of numbers is spread out or the average of the squared differences from the mean

VB.NET: programming language which is a part of .NET

VBA, Visual Basic for Applications: Visual Basic implementation used in Microsoft Office

VBR, variable bit rate: property of audio codec which allows the bitrate to vary in time; cf. CBR

VBScript: programming language

vector (data type): homogenous sequence of values of the same data type

vector (mathematics): object that has a magnitude and a direction; cf. tensor

vector database: database that stores vectors and supports vector operations

vector graphics: representation of images as a collection of geometric primitives; cf. raster graphics

vectorization: process of converting an algorithm from operating on a single value at a time to operating on a set of values at one time to improve performance

velocity: number of points completed per each sprint

venture capital, VC: private equity financing provided to startup companies

verilog: hardware description language

vendor lock-in: situation where a customer is dependent on a vendor for products and services and cannot move to another vendor without substantial costs

version bump: increase of a version to a higher (semver) number; a dependency version can be bumped (up) as well

version control (system): software for managing versions of source code

vertex: point where two or more lines meet; see also node

vertical scaling: improving performance by adding more resources to a single node; e.g. more RAM or CPU

vertical, vert, vertical format: text format where every token is on a separate line and linguistic information (e.g. PoS) is on the same line separated by a tab and structure elements (e.g. sentence and documents) are encoded as simple HTML elements

VGA, video graphics array: video display standard

Vi: modal text based editor from the 70s

VirtualBox: software for creating and managing virtual machines

Viber: instant messaging and VoIP application

video conferencing: videotelephony for groups

video game: game played on a computer or a special hardware

videotelephony: telecommunication technology for the transmission of audio and video between two or more participants in different locations

vignette: more detailed description of a software; cf. README

Vim: text based editor, alternative implementation of Vi

Vim golf: competition to solve a problem using the fewest number of keystrokes in Vim

Vim script: programming language used to extend Vim

vimdiff: CLI tool for comparing files in Vim

vimrc: Vim configuration file

virtual assistant: software that can perform tasks or services for an individual based on verbal commands

virtual machine: program that emulates a computer system or operating system within another system

virtual memory: memory management technique that allows an OS to compensate for physical memory shortages by temporarily transferring data from RAM to disk

virtualenv, virtual environment, venv: tool to create isolated Python environments with their own dependencies

virtualization: method of running multiple OS on a single computer by using a hypervisor

virus: malware that replicates itself

VisiData, vd: TUI for exploring and arranging tabular data

visitor pattern: design pattern that separates an algorithm from an object structure on which it operates

Visual Basic: programming language

Visual C++: programming language from Microsoft

Visual Studio: IDE from Microsoft

Viterbi algorithm: algorithm for finding the most likely sequence of hidden states in a hidden Markov model

vlc, video lan client: media player and streaming server

VMware: company that makes virtualization software for x86 architecture

vnc, virtual network computing: remote desktop software

VoIP, voice over IP: technology that allows making voice calls over internet connection using internet protocol

volatile: keyword in some programming languages

VPN, virtual private network: network that extends a private network across a public network

VRML, Virtual Reality Modeling Language: XML based file format for representing 3D graphics

Vue.js: JavaScript web framework

W3C: consortium that develops web standards

w3m: text based web browser

WAFT, weighted alignment F-measure with thresholds: metric used in machine translation for evaluating word alignment accuracy

wake-on-lan: technology that allows turning on a computer remotely

walk: graph traversal algorithm

wallpaper: image used as a background on a computer screen

WAN, wide area network: network which covers a large geographical area

WASM, web assembly: low-level bytecode for web browsers

watch: CLI tool to execute a command periodically

waterfall development: software development methodology where each phase of the development process is completed before the next phase begins

WAV: audio file format

Wayland: communication protocol between a display server and clients; also a C library implementation of that protocol; intends to replace older X11

wc, word count: CLI tool to count lines, words and characters in a file

web application: software that runs in a web browser

web crawling: process of automatically browsing the web

web design: process of creating web pages

web driver: software component which enables browsers to communicate with web servers

web framework: framework for developing web applications

web page: document on the web

web ring: collection of websites linked together in a circular structure

web scale: term used to describe a system that is designed to handle a large amount of traffic

web scraping: technique of extracting data from web pages

web server: server which serves web content over HTTP

web service: software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network

web session: period of time during which a user interacts with a web app

web socket: protocol for full-duplex communication between a client and a server over a TCP connection

webhook: HTTP callback which is triggered by an event

Webkit: layout engine used in browsers

WEBP, web picture: image file format optimized for the web

Webpack: JavaScript module bundler

website: collection of web pages with a specific URL

weight decay: regularization technique which penalizes large weights by adding a term to the loss function

weights: values usually in the form of matrices or tensors; see also parameter

wget: command for accessing web resources

WhatsApp: instant messaging software and service

wheel (operating system): user account with a wheel bit (additional special system privileges)

wheel (Python): replacement for eggs

where clause: clause in a SQL which filters rows

while loop: loop which executes a block of code while a condition is true

Whisper: speech recognition open source model by OpenAI

whitespace: non-printable character; e.g. space, a tabulator, a vertical tabulator

who: command for displaying information about users

whoami: command for displaying the current user

whois: protocol for querying databases that store the registered users or assignees of an IP address or a domain name

widget: GUI component

wifi, Wi-Fi, wireless fidelity: wireless communication protocol for LAN

Wikidata: collaboratively edited knowledge base

wikification: process of adding hyperlinks to a text which disambiguates the words and phrases

Wikipedia: collaboratively edited encyclopedia

wildcard: character which can be used as a substitute for any other character or characters in a string

Winamp: media player for Windows

window manager, window system: software that manages different parts of display screens

Windows: operating system by Microsoft

Wine: compatibility layer for running Windows apps on Linux

WIP, work in progress: unfinished work, something which is a subject of change in the future

wireless: communication protocol or technology over the air; e.g. wifi, bluetooth

Wireshark: open-source packet analyzer

Wix: WYSIWYG website builder platform

WLAN, wireless LAN: wireless LAN

Word, MS Word: word processor by Microsoft

word: sequence of characters which is treated as a unit

word alignment: process in NLP used in MT for aligning words or phrases in a source language with their translations in a target language

word embedding: embedding of words

word order: rules for order of words in various languages; e.g. SVOMPT in English

word processor: software for creating and editing documents in WYSIWYG fashion

word size: number of bits that can be stored in a register

word-based MT, word-based machine translation: approach in MT where translations are made on the basis of individual words; cf. phrase-based MT

word2vec: group of models in natural language processing used to produce word embeddings involves using shallow neural networks for reconstructing linguistic contexts of words

WordNet: lexical database of English with ontology organized in a graph structure

WordPress, WP: content management system for web sites written in PHP

workflow: sequence of tasks which are executed in a specific order

WPA supplicant: software implementing WPA protocol

WPA, Wi-Fi protected access: security protocol for Wi-Fi networks

WPF, Windows presentation foundation: GUI framework for Windows

write ahead log, WAL: database logging technique where changes are written to a log before they are applied to the database

write once run anywhere: Java slogan to express its cross-platform nature

write-only code: code that is hard to read and understand;

WSDL, web services description language: XML-based language for describing web services

WSL, Windows Subsystem for Linux: compatibility layer for running Linux binaries on Windows

WWW, world wide web, web: system of interlinked hypertext documents accessible via the internet

WYSIWYG, what you see is what you get: text editor that shows the final output during editing

X (company): see Twitter

X Window System, X: see X11

X.org foundation: non-profit organization that develops X11 and other software

X11: windowing system for bitmap displays common on Unix systems

x86: CPU architecture developed by Intel

xAI: company developing AI tools to understand the universe

XAML, extensible application markup language: XML based markup language for WPF applications

xargs: Unix command for building and executing commands from standard input

Xcode: IDE for macOS by Apple

xd, hexdump: command for dumping binary files in hexadecimal format

XDG, X Desktop Group: working group of freedesktop.org

xdotool: command line tool for automation of X11 tasks

XeTeX: TeX typesetting engine supporting Unicode and modern font format as Open Type

Xfce: lightweight desktop environment for Linux

xfwm4: window manager for Xfce

XLIFF, XML Localization Interchange File Format: XML-based format used in software localization

XML, eXchange markup language: SGML markup language

XMLHTTPRequest: JavaScript API for making HTTP requests

xmodmap: utility in X Window System for modifying keymaps and pointer button mappings used for customizing input device behaviour

XOR, exclusive or: binary logical operation that outputs true only when both inputs differ

XP, extreme programming: methodology that emphasizes close collaboration between developers and customers, continuous feedback, and practices such as test-driven development, pair programming, and continuous delivery

XPATH, XML path language: query language for XML documents

xrandr: CLI tool for managing display outputs in X Window System which enables dynamic control over screen resolution, refresh rates, and orientations

XSD: XML based language for describing the structure of XML documents

XSL: family of languages used to transform XML documents

XSLT, extensible stylesheet language transformations: XML based language for transformation of XML documents

xterm: terminal for X11

Xubuntu: Linux distribution based on Ubuntu with Xfce as the default desktop environment

xxd: program for hexadecimal dump of a file

XXX, x-rated content: content which is indecent

xz: file format and program for compression

Y’UV, YUV: color model found in the PAL analogue color TV standard

YAML, YAML Ain’t Markup Language: text format for representing structured (nested) data using indentation rather than parantheses

YAML stanza: group of lines in YAML file

Yandex: Russian technology company

YCbCr: color space used in video systems separating a video signal into luma (Y) representing brightness, and chroma (Cb and Cr) representing color

YDbDr: color space used in SECAM color TV broadcasting similar to YIQ and YUV, it separates the video signal into Y (luma) and two chrominance components (Db and Dr) for color encoding

YIQ: color space used in NTSC color TV broadcasting separating the video signal into Y (luma), I (in-phase color), and Q (quadrature color) optimizing the bandwidth efficiency of the transmission

YouTube: video sharing platform

youtube-dl, youtube downloader: software for downloading videos from YouTube

YPbPr: analog version of the YCbCr color space

Yubikey: hardware key for two-factor authentication

z index: property in CSS which sets the order of a positioned element on z axis

ZB, zettabyte: 10^21 bytes or 1,000 exabytes

Zend framework: open source object-oriented web application framework implemented in PHP

zero day: type of security vulnerability of software or hardware unknown to the vendor which has zero days to fix the issue

zero shot learning: machine learning method where a model is altered to predict classes it has not seen during training

zeroth-order logic: see propositional logic

Zig: low level programming language Zigbee; wireless communication protocol used in IoT applications

zip: file format for compression

Zipf’s law: law that states that the frequency of a word is inversely proportional to its rank in the frequency table

zlib: library for compression

Zoom: proprietary software for videotelephony

zstd: lossless compression algorithm or the program implementing it

ZTE, Zhongxing Telecommunication Equipment: Chinese telecommunications company

ZX Spectrum: 8-bit personal computer released in 1982

About

This glossary is WIP.

One of the driving principles of this glossary is to be able to generate Anki flashcards from it.

When a term is used in a definition it must link to its own definition.
Basic terms are not defined in this glossary: analysis, average, execution, finite, job, notation, principle, sequence, system, tool, … only if they have a special meaning (e.g. method).
All non basic terms must be defined in this glossary using the most specific terms possible.
Abbreviations should be defined together with the full term.
All terms should be (proper) nouns.
Multiword terms should be included only if they don’t satisfy the compositionality principle. E.g. there is no point in having term Linux kernel when it can be deduced from the two terms Linux and kernel.
Avoid using hyphens in lexemes.
Only the first usage of a term within a definition is hyperlinked.
Proper noun lexemes should be external links.
Do not use links to Wikipedia, this glossary should be self-contained.
Polysemous terms should be defined separately and distinguished with a contextual term in parentheses. The contextual term should be the most general term.
Avoid using cyclic definitions.
Avoid using rare abbreviations in definitions.
The text after semicolon in a definition is not part of the definition. It may contain additional information about the term, examples and references to synonyms or related terms.
No determiners at the beginning of definitions.
Definitions should not contain external links.
Avoid mentioning people.

published: 2023-06-30
last modified: 2024-04-11

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https://vit.baisa.cz/notes/code/vocabulary/