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Glossary
the jargon that turns up every day
What it is
The words that arrive in AI answers, in error messages and in documentation. Not a dictionary but a list of what gets in the way of reading until you know it.
Code and its parts
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| variable | a named place a value is kept in |
| function, method | a named piece of code; a method is a function belonging to an object |
| argument, parameter | what you pass into a function; what it is called inside |
| return | hand a value back out of a function |
| class, instance | a class (the description); an instance (an object made from it) |
| property, field | a value belonging to an object |
| array, list | an ordered collection of values |
| dictionary, map, object | key–value pairs |
| string, integer, float, boolean | text, a whole number, a decimal, true/false |
| null, None, undefined | "nothing"; in JS also "no value was set" |
| scope | where a name exists |
| statement, expression | an instruction; something that has a value |
| loop, iterate | repeat; go through the elements one at a time |
| nested | one thing inside another |
| mutable, immutable | changeable; unchangeable |
What happens while it runs
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| runtime | the time the program is running (as opposed to the build) |
| exception, throw, raise | an error object; sending it up out of the code |
| catch, handle | intercept an error and deal with it |
| stack trace, traceback | the chain of calls leading to the crash |
| debug | look for the cause of an error |
| log | a record of an event; "the logs" are those records |
| crash | the program dies |
| hang, freeze | the program stops responding |
| race condition | two processes interfering with each other |
| memory leak | memory taken and never given back |
| timeout | a limit on how long to wait |
| async, await, promise | asynchrony: "wait for the result without blocking everything" |
| thread, process | two ways of running things at the same time |
| cache | stored answers kept so they needn't be computed again |
Data and the network
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| API | the way one program talks to another |
| endpoint | one specific address of an API |
| request, response | what is sent; what comes back |
| payload, body | the contents of a request or a response |
| header | a line of metadata on a request or a response |
| status code | the response code: 200, 404, 500 |
| JSON | a text format for data: pairs and lists |
| schema, validation | a description of data; checking against it |
| parse, serialize | turn text into data; turn data into text |
| query | a request to a database |
| index | a pointer in a database that speeds up searching |
| migration | a change to the database's structure |
| transaction | a group of changes, all or nothing |
| CRUD | create, read, update, delete |
| CORS | the browser rule about requests to another address |
Frontend
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| frontend, backend | what the user sees; what runs on the server |
| DOM | the tree of a page's elements in the browser |
| component | a piece of interface with its own code |
| props | data passed into a component from outside |
| state | data a component holds itself |
| render | draw, build the interface |
| hook | a React function named useSomething |
| effect | something done on the side: a request, a subscription, a timer |
| layout | how the elements are arranged |
| responsive | adapting to the width of the screen |
| viewport | the visible area of the screen |
| bundle | the built file holding the page's whole code |
Process and tools
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| repository, repo | a project with its history of changes |
| commit | one recorded change |
| branch, merge | a parallel line of work; bringing it back together |
| diff | the difference between versions |
| pull request | a proposal to merge changes in |
| rollback, revert | going back to how it was |
| dependency | somebody else's library your code needs |
| lock file | a file with the exact versions of the dependencies |
| environment | the set of settings a program runs with |
| build | turning sources into something that runs |
| artifact | what comes out of a build |
| deploy | putting it on the server |
| rollout | releasing a new version gradually |
| linter | a program that looks for suspicious places in code |
| refactoring | reworking code without changing its behaviour |
| legacy | old code that is frightening to change |
| technical debt | deferred decisions, and their interest |
About AI
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| prompt | a request to the model |
| context, context window | what the model can see now; how much fits |
| token | the chunk of text the model counts volume in |
| hallucination | something invented: a function, a link, a fact that doesn't exist |
| temperature | how varied the answers are |
| fine-tuning | further training a model on your own data |
| agent | a mode in which the model runs commands itself |
| system prompt | a standing instruction set before the conversation |