kb/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_computer_science-7.md

title	chunk	source	category	tags	date_saved	instance
Glossary of computer science	8/19	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_computer_science	reference	science, encyclopedia	2026-05-05T07:50:43.180793+00:00	kb-cron

executable Also executable code, executable file, executable program, or simply executable. Causes a computer "to perform indicated tasks according to encoded instructions," as opposed to a data file that must be parsed by a program to be meaningful. The exact interpretation depends upon the use - while "instructions" is traditionally taken to mean machine code instructions for a physical CPU, in some contexts a file containing bytecode or scripting language instructions may also be considered executable.

execution In computer and software engineering is the process by which a computer or virtual machine executes the instructions of a computer program. Each instruction of a program is a description of a particular action which to be carried out in order for a specific problem to be solved; as instructions of a program and therefore the actions they describe are being carried out by an executing machine, specific effects are produced in accordance to the semantics of the instructions being executed.

exception handling The process of responding to the occurrence, during computation, of exceptions – anomalous or exceptional conditions requiring special processing – often disrupting the normal flow of program execution. It is provided by specialized programming language constructs, computer hardware mechanisms like interrupts, or operating system IPC facilities like signals.

Existence detection An existence check before reading a file can catch and/or prevent a fatal error.

expression In a programming language, a combination of one or more constants, variables, operators, and functions that the programming language interprets (according to its particular rules of precedence and of association) and computes to produce ("to return", in a stateful environment) another value. This process, as for mathematical expressions, is called evaluation.

== F ==

fault-tolerant computer system A system designed around the concept of fault tolerance. In essence, they must be able to continue working to a level of satisfaction in the presence of errors or breakdowns.

feasibility study An investigation which aims to objectively and rationally uncover the strengths and weaknesses of an existing business or proposed venture, opportunities and threats present in the natural environment, the resources required to carry through, and ultimately the prospects for success. In its simplest terms, the two criteria to judge feasibility are cost required and value to be attained.

field Data that has several parts, known as a record, can be divided into fields. Relational databases arrange data as sets of database records, so called rows. Each record consists of several fields; the fields of all records form the columns. Examples of fields: name, gender, hair colour.

filename extension An identifier specified as a suffix to the name of a computer file. The extension indicates a characteristic of the file contents or its intended use.

filter (software) A computer program or subroutine to process a stream, producing another stream. While a single filter can be used individually, they are frequently strung together to form a pipeline.

floating-point arithmetic In computing, floating-point arithmetic (FP) is arithmetic using formulaic representation of real numbers as an approximation to support a trade-off between range and precision. For this reason, floating-point computation is often found in systems which include very small and very large real numbers, which require fast processing times. A number is, in general, represented approximately to a fixed number of significant digits (the significand) and scaled using an exponent in some fixed base; the base for the scaling is normally two, ten, or sixteen. A number that can be represented exactly is of the following form:

      significand
    
    ×
    
      
        base
      
      
        exponent
      
    
    ,
  

{\displaystyle {\text{significand}}\times {\text{base}}^{\text{exponent}},}

where significand is an integer, base is an integer greater than or equal to two, and exponent is also an integer. For example:

    1.2345
    =
    
      
        
          12345
          ⏟
        
      
      
        significand
      
    
    ×
    
      
        
          10
          ⏟
        
      
      
        base
      
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
      
      
        
          
            
              
                −
                4
              
              ⏞
            
          
          
            exponent
          
        
      
    
    .
  

{\displaystyle 1.2345=\underbrace {12345} _{\text{significand}}\times \underbrace {10} _{\text{base}}\!\!\!\!\!\!^{\overbrace {-4} ^{\text{exponent}}}.}

for loop Also for-loop. A control flow statement for specifying iteration, which allows code to be executed repeatedly. Various keywords are used to specify this statement: descendants of ALGOL use "for", while descendants of Fortran use "do". There are also other possibilities, e.g. COBOL uses "PERFORM VARYING".

formal methods A set of mathematically based techniques for the specification, development, and verification of software and hardware systems. The use of formal methods for software and hardware design is motivated by the expectation that, as in other engineering disciplines, performing appropriate mathematical analysis can contribute to the reliability and robustness of a design.

formal verification The act of proving or disproving the correctness of intended algorithms underlying a system with respect to a certain formal specification or property, using formal methods of mathematics.

functional programming A programming paradigm—a style of building the structure and elements of computer programs–that treats computation as the evaluation of mathematical functions and avoids changing-state and mutable data. It is a declarative programming paradigm in that programming is done with expressions or declarations instead of statements.

== G ==

game theory The study of mathematical models of strategic interaction between rational decision-makers. It has applications in all fields of social science, as well as in logic and computer science. Originally, it addressed zero-sum games, in which each participant's gains or losses are exactly balanced by those of the other participants. Today, game theory applies to a wide range of behavioral relations, and is now an umbrella term for the science of logical decision making in humans, animals, and computers.

garbage in, garbage out (GIGO) A term used to describe the concept that flawed or nonsense input data produces nonsense output or "garbage". It can also refer to the unforgiving nature of programming, in which a poorly written program might produce nonsensical behavior.

Graphics Interchange Format

gigabyte A multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The prefix giga means 109 in the International System of Units (SI). Therefore, one gigabyte is 1000000000bytes. The unit symbol for the gigabyte is GB.