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Magic Number (programming)
In computer programming, a magic number is any of the following: * A unique value with unexplained meaning or multiple occurrences which could (preferably) be replaced with a named constant * A constant numerical or text value used to identify a file format or protocol ) * A distinctive unique value that is unlikely to be mistaken for other meanings (e.g., Universally Unique Identifiers) Unnamed numerical constants The term ''magic number'' or ''magic constant'' refers to the anti-pattern of using numbers directly in source code. This breaks one of the oldest rules of programming, dating back to the COBOL, FORTRAN and PL/1 manuals of the 1960s. In the following example that computes the price after tax, 1.05 is considered a magic number: price_tax = 1.05 * price The use of unnamed magic numbers in code obscures the developers' intent in choosing that number, increases opportunities for subtle errors, and makes it more difficult for the program to be adapted and extended ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Computer Programming
Computer programming or coding is the composition of sequences of instructions, called computer program, programs, that computers can follow to perform tasks. It involves designing and implementing algorithms, step-by-step specifications of procedures, by writing source code, code in one or more programming languages. Programmers typically use high-level programming languages that are more easily intelligible to humans than machine code, which is directly executed by the central processing unit. Proficient programming usually requires expertise in several different subjects, including knowledge of the Domain (software engineering), application domain, details of programming languages and generic code library (computing), libraries, specialized algorithms, and Logic#Formal logic, formal logic. Auxiliary tasks accompanying and related to programming include Requirements analysis, analyzing requirements, Software testing, testing, debugging (investigating and fixing problems), imple ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Code Reuse
Code reuse is the practice of using existing source code to develop software instead of writing new code. ''Software reuse'' is a broader term that implies using any existing software asset to develop software instead of developing it again. An asset that is relatively easy to reuse and offers significant value is considered to have high reusability. Code reuse may be achieved different ways depending on a complexity of a programming language chosen and range from a lower-level approaches like code copy-pasting (e.g. via snippets), simple functions ( procedures or subroutines) or a bunch of objects or functions organized into modules (e.g. libraries) or custom namespaces, and packages, frameworks or software suites in higher-levels. Code reuse implies dependencies which can make code maintainability harder. At least one study found that code reuse at the class level reduces technical debt. Overview Ad hoc code reuse has been practiced from the earliest days of program ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unix
Unix (, ; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multi-user computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and others. Initially intended for use inside the Bell System, AT&T licensed Unix to outside parties in the late 1970s, leading to a variety of both academic and commercial Unix variants from vendors including University of California, Berkeley ( BSD), Microsoft (Xenix), Sun Microsystems ( SunOS/ Solaris), HP/ HPE ( HP-UX), and IBM ( AIX). The early versions of Unix—which are retrospectively referred to as " Research Unix"—ran on computers such as the PDP-11 and VAX; Unix was commonly used on minicomputers and mainframes from the 1970s onwards. It distinguished itself from its predecessors as the first portable operating system: almost the entire operating system is written in the C programming language (in 1973), which allows U ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Version 7 Unix
Version 7 Unix, also called Seventh Edition Unix, Version 7 or just V7, was an important early release of the Unix operating system. V7, released in 1979, was the last Bell Laboratories release to see widespread distribution before the commercialization of Unix by AT&T Corporation in the early 1980s. V7 was originally developed for Digital Equipment Corporation's PDP-11 minicomputers and was later ported to other platforms. Overview Unix versions from Bell Labs were designated by the edition of the user's manual with which they were accompanied. Released in 1979, the Seventh Edition was preceded by Sixth Edition, which was the first version licensed to commercial users. Development of the Research Unix line continued with the Eighth Edition, which incorporated development from 4.1BSD, through the Tenth Edition, after which the Bell Labs researchers concentrated on developing Plan 9. V7 was the first readily portable version of Unix. As this was the era of minicompute ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Null Pointer
In computing, a null pointer (sometimes shortened to nullptr or null) or null reference is a value saved for indicating that the Pointer (computer programming), pointer or reference (computer science), reference does not refer to a valid Object (computer science), object. Programs routinely use null pointers to represent conditions such as the end of a List (computing), list of unknown length or the failure to perform some action; this use of null pointers can be compared to nullable types and to the ''Nothing'' value in an option type. A null pointer should not be confused with an uninitialized variable, uninitialized pointer: a null pointer is guaranteed to compare unequal to any pointer that points to a valid object. However, in general, most languages do not offer such guarantee for uninitialized pointers. It might compare equal to other, valid pointers; or it might compare equal to null pointers. It might do both at different times; or the comparison might be undefined behavio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Primitive Type
In computer science, primitive data types are a set of basic data types from which all other data types are constructed. Specifically it often refers to the limited set of data representations in use by a particular processor, which all compiled programs must use. Most processors support a similar set of primitive data types, although the specific representations vary. More generally, ''primitive data types'' may refer to the standard data types built into a programming language (built-in types). Data types which are not primitive are referred to as ''derived'' or ''composite''. Primitive types are almost always value types, but composite types may also be value types. Common primitive data types The most common primitive types are those used and supported by computer hardware, such as integers of various sizes, floating-point numbers, and Boolean logical values. Operations on such types are usually quite efficient. Primitive data types which are native to the processor have a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
C (programming Language)
C (''pronounced'' '' – like the letter c'') is a general-purpose programming language. It was created in the 1970s by Dennis Ritchie and remains very widely used and influential. By design, C's features cleanly reflect the capabilities of the targeted Central processing unit, CPUs. It has found lasting use in operating systems code (especially in Kernel (operating system), kernels), device drivers, and protocol stacks, but its use in application software has been decreasing. C is commonly used on computer architectures that range from the largest supercomputers to the smallest microcontrollers and embedded systems. A successor to the programming language B (programming language), B, C was originally developed at Bell Labs by Ritchie between 1972 and 1973 to construct utilities running on Unix. It was applied to re-implementing the kernel of the Unix operating system. During the 1980s, C gradually gained popularity. It has become one of the most widely used programming langu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boolean Data Type
In computer science, the Boolean (sometimes shortened to Bool) is a data type that has one of two possible values (usually denoted ''true'' and ''false'') which is intended to represent the two truth values of logic and Boolean algebra. It is named after George Boole, who first defined an algebraic system of logic in the mid 19th century. The Boolean data type is primarily associated with conditional statements, which allow different actions by changing control flow depending on whether a programmer-specified Boolean ''condition'' evaluates to true or false. It is a special case of a more general ''logical data type—''logic does not always need to be Boolean (see probabilistic logic). Generalities In programming languages with a built-in Boolean data type, such as Pascal, C, Python or Java, the comparison operators such as > and ≠ are usually defined to return a Boolean value. Conditional and iterative commands may be defined to test Boolean-valued expressions. L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Per Mille
The phrase per mille () indicates parts per thousand. The associated symbol is , similar to a per cent sign but with an extra zero in the division (mathematics), divisor. Major dictionaries do not agree on the spelling, giving other options of per mil, per mill, permil, permill, permille. The word is the cognate in Dutch, German, Finnish and Swedish, and is sometimes seen as a loanword in English with the same meaning as ''per mille''. (Page 258) The symbol is included in the General Punctuation (Unicode block), General Punctuation block of Unicode at .Unicode.General Punctuation. 2014. Accessed 5 Aug 2014. There is also an Arabic-Indic per mille sign at . Examples Blood alcohol concentration Promille and permille are likely best known as shorthand terms for Blood Alcohol Concentration, where 1 promille corresponds to 1 gram of alcohol per liter of blood. Promille is used in the legal limits of BAC by volume, blood-alcohol content for driving a road vehicle in some count ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quadratic Equation
In mathematics, a quadratic equation () is an equation that can be rearranged in standard form as ax^2 + bx + c = 0\,, where the variable (mathematics), variable represents an unknown number, and , , and represent known numbers, where . (If and then the equation is linear equation, linear, not quadratic.) The numbers , , and are the ''coefficients'' of the equation and may be distinguished by respectively calling them, the ''quadratic coefficient'', the ''linear coefficient'' and the ''constant coefficient'' or ''free term''. The values of that satisfy the equation are called ''solution (mathematics), solutions'' of the equation, and ''zero of a function, roots'' or ''zero of a function, zeros'' of the quadratic function on its left-hand side. A quadratic equation has at most two solutions. If there is only one solution, one says that it is a double root. If all the coefficients are real numbers, there are either two real solutions, or a single real double root, or two comple ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Discriminant
In mathematics, the discriminant of a polynomial is a quantity that depends on the coefficients and allows deducing some properties of the zero of a function, roots without computing them. More precisely, it is a polynomial function of the coefficients of the original polynomial. The discriminant is widely used in polynomial factorization, polynomial factoring, number theory, and algebraic geometry. The discriminant of the quadratic polynomial ax^2+bx+c is :b^2-4ac, the quantity which appears under the square root in the quadratic formula. If a\ne 0, this discriminant is zero if and only if the polynomial has a double root. In the case of real number, real coefficients, it is positive if the polynomial has two distinct real roots, and negative if it has two distinct complex conjugate roots. Similarly, the discriminant of a cubic polynomial is zero if and only if the polynomial has a multiple root. In the case of a cubic with real coefficients, the discriminant is positive if the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Modulo
In computing and mathematics, the modulo operation returns the remainder or signed remainder of a division, after one number is divided by another, the latter being called the '' modulus'' of the operation. Given two positive numbers and , modulo (often abbreviated as ) is the remainder of the Euclidean division of by , where is the dividend and is the divisor. For example, the expression "5 mod 2" evaluates to 1, because 5 divided by 2 has a quotient of 2 and a remainder of 1, while "9 mod 3" would evaluate to 0, because 9 divided by 3 has a quotient of 3 and a remainder of 0. Although typically performed with and both being integers, many computing systems now allow other types of numeric operands. The range of values for an integer modulo operation of is 0 to . mod 1 is always 0. When exactly one of or is negative, the basic definition breaks down, and programming languages differ in how these values are defined. Variants of the definition In mathematics, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
