1. Dictionary
What it commonly means: A book with words and their definitions
What it means to a software engineer: A map of keys and values
2. Map
What it commonly means: A visual representation of a space
What it means to a software engineer: A collection of keys and their values
3. Key
What it commonly means: A metal or magnetic card that allows people to open a lock
What it means to a software engineer: An identifier for some other value
4. Recursion
What it commonly means: Something that is happening over and over
What it means to a software engineer: See recursion
5. Big-O
What it commonly means: Southern for big and old
What it means to a software engineer: A way to represent the complexity of an algorithm
6. Buffer
What it commonly means: Space between items
What it means to a software engineer: An allocated piece of memory for holding data for sending or receiving
7. Stack
What it commonly means: An orderly arrangement of items one on top of another
What it means to a software engineer: A segment of memory to hold short lived values
8. Heap
What it commonly means: An disorderly arrangement of items clumped together in a pile
What it means to a software engineer: A segment of memory to hold long lived objects
9. Word
What it commonly means: A singular component of a language that has meaning
What it means to a software engineer: Two bytes
10. Math Problems
What it commonly means: 0.1 + 0.2 = 0.3
What it means to a software engineer: 0.1 + 0.2 = 0.3000000000000004
11. Oct 31
What it commonly means: Halloween
What it means to a software engineer: Dec 25
12. Dec 25
What it commonly means: Christmas
What it means to a software engineer: Oct 31
13. Editor
What it commonly means: Someone who corrects errors in a piece of text
What it means to a software engineer: The Great War -- Vi vs. Emacs
14. Done
What it commonly means: Completed
What it means to a software engineer: "Works on my machine"
15. Troubleshooting
What it commonly means: Figuring out where the problem is
What it means to a software engineer: "Works on my machine"
16. Overflow
What it commonly means: The leftovers from pouring a liquid or a space for viewing an event if there isn't enough room in the main space
What it means to a software engineer:
Stack overflow: Too much recursion; Google's top results to programming questions.
Buffer overflow: Not enough allocated space to store a string of bytes; a security vulnerability
17. Bug
What it commonly means: An insect or a problem with a program
What it means to a software engineer: A feature
Thumbnail credit to JJ Harrison (jjharrison89@facebook.com)
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