Hackers & Painters

Glossary

abstract

Hiding details. When a language is more abstract, you can write programs using a smaller number of (individually more powerful) operations.

Ada

An object-oriented language designed by a committee for the DoD in the late 1970s. Turned out about like you would expect.

AI, artificial intelligence

A general term for several kinds of work that attempt to make machines think. The more mathematical have had some success (e.g. in computer vision).

Algol

A programming language initially designed in 1958 by a committee (bad) of very smart (good) people. Rarely used to write programs, but had a great influence on succeeding languages.

algorithm

A method for doing something. Recipes are examples of algorithms.

alphanumeric characters

Letters and digits.

API

Application Program Interface. The list of commands an operating system or library will accept from applications.

APL

An extremely succinct language designed in the early 1960s by Ken Iverson. Used especially in numerical applications. Its modern descendant is J.

application

A program that is not infrastructure. E.g. a word processor, but not an operating system. Not a precise term.

Arc

A vaporware Lisp dialect.

array

What in school you called a matrix: an n-dimensional collection of numbered pigeonholes for storing data.

ASP

Application Service Provider. A company that lets you use software on their computers via a network, as opposed to installing and running the software on your own computer.

assembly language

A more programmer-friendly form ...