I’ve recently come across the existence of the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard created by professor August Dvorak. And I’ve been looking for solid sources on how to pronounce the man’s name and I can’t find any. Answer In a comment, Michael Harvey wrote: I read an interview in Byte magazine about 1992 with John C Dvorak, … Read more
Frequently developers need to refer to the user that has been logged on to the application. This user is generally referred to as the current user. I would prefer to use a single word for it due to the high frequency of occurrence of this in the codebase and reduce the vagueness of the general … Read more
You can be “stuck at home”, “stuck at the airport” or “…at a certain level” e.g. Today, inflation is still low, but unemployment is stuck at a painfully high level. But you are “stuck in the middle”, “stuck in the suburbs” and “stuck in debt”. So, what about a virtual entity or state such as … Read more
When writing about computing, should I refer to a component in the front-end or on the front-end? For example: It was decided to place the function in the front-end Or should it be It was decided to place the function on the front-end Is it the same preposition for the back-end? I will appreciate any … Read more
It is said that XLAT is an abbr of translate. But I don’t understand how come it ends up like that? There is no site on internet would explain it but they’re all agree that XLAT is shorten of translate. I can get that LAT is in the end part of translate (LATe) but what … Read more
There are (for example) three dynamic libraries that is files libxx.so, libyy.so, and libzz.so (or .dll files xx.dll, yy.dll, and zz.dll on Windows). What do you call the collection of all three files (as well the entire source code from which the three files are generated)? It is commonly called library, but to say “the … Read more
What does this word mean? instaciate, otherwise instatiate It’s not in any of my dictionaries, but there are a few too many occurrences of this word in programming communities and across the Internet for me to believe that these people all really mean “instantiate.” Bonus: Argue for a correct spelling. Answer instantiate, verb in·stan·ti·ate | … Read more
I’m trying to recall the term for an operator/function where f(a, b) = f(b, a). For example, a + b = b + a for all values of a and b. However a – b != b – a unless a = b. Answer I think the word you are looking for is commutative: (mathematics, … Read more
In opposite to – versioned – files that are under Source-Code-Version-Control system (i.e. Git/SVN), is there a way to call files that left deliberately out in one word? Is word “un-versioned” (“non-versioned”?) valid construct? Answer The (informal) adjective I’d use is non-VC’d, as in “non-Version Controlled”. For example: I do use source control, but putting … Read more
I’m looking for an adjective that will describe a software tool that is ready to be used out of the box without any additional configuration, but it may be configured to fit a specific case. [adjective] TLS termination proxy. Answer You used one yourself: out of the box. As an attributive adjective it would normally … Read more
