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Sentinel Node
In computer programming, a sentinel node is a specifically designated node used with linked lists and trees as a traversal path terminator. This type of node does not hold or reference any data managed by the data structure. Benefits Sentinels are used as an alternative over using NULL as the path terminator in order to get one or more of the following benefits: * Marginally increased speed of operations * Increased data structure robustness (arguably) Drawbacks * Marginally increased algorithmic complexity and code size. * If the data structure is accessed concurrently (which means that all nodes being accessed have to be protected at least for “read-only”), for a sentinel-based implementation the sentinel node has to be protected for “read-write” by a mutex. This extra mutex in quite a few use scenarios can cause severe performance degradation. One way to avoid it is to protect the list structure as a whole for “read-write”, whereas in the version with NULL i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Node (computer Science)
A node is a basic unit of a data structure, such as a linked list or tree data structure. Nodes contain data and also may link to other nodes. Links between nodes are often implemented by pointers. Nodes and Trees Nodes are often arranged into tree structures. A node represents the information contained in a single data structure. These nodes may contain a value or condition, or possibly serve as another independent data structure. Nodes are represented by a single parent node. The highest point on a tree structure is called a root node, which does not have a parent node, but serves as the parent or 'grandparent' of all of the nodes below it in the tree. The height of a node is determined by the total number of edges on the path from that node to the furthest leaf node, and the height of the tree is equal to the height of the root node. Node depth is determined by the distance between that particular node and the root node. The root node is said to have a depth of zero. Data ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
File-system Permissions
Most file systems include attributes of files and directories that control the ability of users to read, change, navigate, and execute the contents of the file system. In some cases, menu options or functions may be made visible or hidden depending on a user's permission level; this kind of user interface is referred to as permission-driven. Two types of permissions are widely available: traditional Unix file system permissions and access-control lists (ACLs) which are capable of more specific control. File system variations The original File Allocation Table file system has a per-file all-user read-only attribute. NTFS implemented in Microsoft Windows NT and its derivatives, use ACLs to provide a complex set of permissions. OpenVMS uses a permission scheme similar to that of Unix. There are four categories (system, owner, group, and world) and four types of access permissions (Read, Write, Execute and Delete). The categories are not mutually disjoint: World includes Gro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Semipredicate Problem
In computer programming, a semipredicate problem occurs when a subroutine intended to return a useful value can fail, but the signalling of failure uses an otherwise valid return value. The problem is that the caller of the subroutine cannot tell what the result means in this case. Example The division operation yields a real number, but fails when the divisor is zero. If we were to write a function that performs division, we might choose to return 0 on this invalid input. However, if the dividend is 0, the result is 0 too. This means there is no number we can return to uniquely signal attempted division by zero, since all real numbers are in the range of division. Practical implications Early programmers dealt with potentially exceptional cases, as in the case of division, using a convention that required the calling routine to check the validity of the inputs before calling the division function. This had two problems. First, it greatly encumbers all code that performs div ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canary Value
Canary originally referred to the island of Gran Canaria on the west coast of Africa, and the group of surrounding islands (the Canary Islands). It may also refer to: Animals Birds * Canaries, birds in the genera '' Serinus'' and '' Crithagra'' including, among others: ** Atlantic canary (''Serinus canaria''), a small wild bird *** Domestic canary, ''Serinus canaria domestica'', a small pet or aviary bird, also responsible for the "canary yellow" color term ** Yellow canary (''Serinus flaviventris''), a small bird Fish * Canary damsel (''Similiparma lurida''), fish of the family Pomacentridae, found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean * Canary moray (''Gymnothorax bacalladoi''), an eel of the family Muraenidae * Canary rockfish (''Sebastes pinniger''), of the family Sebastidae, found in the northeast Pacific Ocean People * Canary Burton (born 1942), American keyboardist, composer and writer * Canary Conn (born 1949), American entertainer and author * Bill Canary (fl. 1994), Repub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elephant In Cairo
An elephant in Cairo is a term used in computer programming to describe a piece of data that matches the search criteria purposefully inserted at the end of a search space, in order to make sure the search algorithm terminates; it is a humorous example of a sentinel value. The term derives from a humorous essay circulated on the Internet that was published in ''Byte'' magazine on September 1989, describing how various professions would go about hunting elephants. Algorithm When hunting elephants, the article describes programmers as following this algorithm: :# Go to Africa. :# Start at the Cape of Good Hope.The Cape of Good Hope has been traditionally believed to be Africa's southernmost point, but that is actually Cape Agulhas''. :# Work northward in an orderly manner, traversing the continent alternately east and west, :# During each traverse pass: :#:* Catch each animal seen. :#:* Compare each animal caught to a known elephant. :#:* Stop when a match is detected. This algorith ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Time Formatting And Storage Bugs
In computer science, time formatting and storage bugs are a class of software bugs that may cause time and date calculation or display to be improperly handled. These are most commonly manifestations of arithmetic overflow, but can also be the result of other issues. The most well-known consequence of bugs of this type is the Y2K problem, but many other milestone dates or times exist that have caused or will cause problems depending on various programming deficiencies. Year 1975 On 4 January 1975, the 12-bit field that had been used for dates in the DECsystem-10 operating systems overflowed. There were numerous problems and crashes related to this bug while an alternative format was developed. Year 1978 The Digital Equipment Corporation OS/8 operating system for the PDP-8 computer used only three bits for the year, representing the years 1970 to 1977. This was recognized when the later COS-310 operating system was developed, and dates were recorded differently. Year 198 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Null Object Pattern
In object-oriented computer programming, a null object is an object with no referenced value or with defined neutral (''null'') behavior. The null object design pattern, which describes the uses of such objects and their behavior (or lack thereof), was first published as "Void Value" and later in the ''Pattern Languages of Program Design'' book series as "Null Object" . Motivation In most object-oriented languages, such as Java or C#, references may be null. These references need to be checked to ensure they are not null before invoking any methods, because methods typically cannot be invoked on null references. The Objective-C language takes another approach to this problem and does nothing when sending a message to nil; if a return value is expected, nil (for objects), 0 (for numeric values), NO (for BOOL values), or a struct (for struct types) with all its members initialised to null/0/NO/zero-initialised struct is returned. Description Instead of using a null referenc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magic String
In computer programming, a magic string is an input that a programmer believes will never come externally and which activates otherwise hidden functionality. A user of this program would likely provide input that gives an expected response in most situations. However, if the user does in fact innocently provide the pre-defined input, invoking the internal functionality, the program response is often quite unexpected to the user (thus appearing "magical"). Background Typically, the implementation of magic strings is due to time constraints. A developer must find a fast solution instead of delving more deeply into a problem and finding a better solution. For example, when testing a program that takes a user's personal details and verifies their credit card number, a developer may decide to add a magic string shortcut whereby entering the unlikely input of "***" as a credit card number would cause the program to automatically proceed as if the card were valid, without spending ti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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; for files, see List of file signatures * A distinctive unique value that is unlikely to be mistaken for other meanings (e.g., Globally 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 has been referred to as breaking one of the oldest rules of programming, dating back to the COBOL, FORTRAN and PL/1 manuals of the 1960s. The use of unnamed magic numbers in code obscures the developers' intent in choosing that number, increases opportunities for subtle errors (e.g. is every digit correct in 3.14159265358979323846 and is this equal to 3.14159?) and makes it more difficult for the program to be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sentinel Value
In computer programming, a sentinel value (also referred to as a flag value, trip value, rogue value, signal value, or dummy data) is a special value in the context of an algorithm which uses its presence as a condition of termination, typically in a loop or recursive algorithm. The sentinel value is a form of in-band data that makes it possible to detect the end of the data when no out-of-band data (such as an explicit size indication) is provided. The value should be selected in such a way that it is guaranteed to be distinct from all legal data values since otherwise, the presence of such values would prematurely signal the end of the data (the semipredicate problem). A sentinel value is sometimes known as an " Elephant in Cairo," due to a joke where this is used as a physical sentinel. In safe languages, most sentinel values could be replaced with option types, which enforce explicit handling of the exceptional case. Examples Some examples of common sentinel values and their ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mutex
In computer science, a lock or mutex (from mutual exclusion) is a synchronization primitive: a mechanism that enforces limits on access to a resource when there are many threads of execution. A lock is designed to enforce a mutual exclusion concurrency control policy, and with a variety of possible methods there exists multiple unique implementations for different applications. Types Generally, locks are ''advisory locks'', where each thread cooperates by acquiring the lock before accessing the corresponding data. Some systems also implement ''mandatory locks'', where attempting unauthorized access to a locked resource will force an exception in the entity attempting to make the access. The simplest type of lock is a binary semaphore. It provides exclusive access to the locked data. Other schemes also provide shared access for reading data. Other widely implemented access modes are exclusive, intend-to-exclude and intend-to-upgrade. Another way to classify locks is by what happe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Binary Search Tree
In computer science, a binary search tree (BST), also called an ordered or sorted binary tree, is a rooted binary tree data structure with the key of each internal node being greater than all the keys in the respective node's left subtree and less than the ones in its right subtree. The time complexity of operations on the binary search tree is directly proportional to the height of the tree. Binary search trees allow binary search for fast lookup, addition, and removal of data items. Since the nodes in a BST are laid out so that each comparison skips about half of the remaining tree, the lookup performance is proportional to that of binary logarithm. BSTs were devised in the 1960s for the problem of efficient storage of labeled data and are attributed to Conway Berners-Lee and David Wheeler. The performance of a binary search tree is dependent on the order of insertion of the nodes into the tree since arbitrary insertions may lead to degeneracy; several variations of the b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
