Documenting all of the terms and advanced concepts of programming would be impossible. This glossary intends to push you in the right direction for any of the concepts you are interested in or define the terms you’re curious about. It also doubles as a F.A.Q. since many of the questions I receive ask me to explain or demonstrate a concept, API, etc.
If you can’t find a term here, you can pick up a reference book or try one of the following websites which I have found useful:
FOLDOC
Webopedia
3D Programming
BeOS Programming
Binary Trees
CGI Programming
Colored Text
Correct ‘Hello World’ in Modern C++
Driver Programming
Game Programming
Graphics Programming
GUI Programming
Internet Programming
Macintosh Programming
Modern C++ Headers (without .h)
Multimedia Programming
Network Programming
Standard Template Library (STL)
Windows Programming
World Wide Web Programming
X-Windows Programming
Old glossary (starting point) …
Definition vs Declaration: A declaration notifies the compiler of the existence of some symbol while a definition does this as well as states everything there is to know about it. A definition is therefore a declaration. A variable declaration is a loose term and usually equates to both declaring and defining a variable. The exception to this is ‘extern’ variables and ‘static’ member variables; both of which are simply declarations and must be paired with a definition elsewhere.
Memory Cell: A sequence of bytes in memory that is owned by a single thing. A variable’s value is stored in a memory cell.
Function Header: The statement that sits atop a function body and represents the function entry point. The function header contains the function return type, name, and parameter list.
Function Body: A statement block associated with a function. Above this block sits the function header. This block is the logic associated with a particular function.