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24-letter words containing a, n, o, m

  • command-line interpreter — command interpreter
  • common gateway interface — (web)   (CGI) A standard for running external programs from a web HTTP server. CGI specifies how to pass arguments to the program as part of the HTTP request. It also defines a set of environment variables that are made available to the program. The program generates output, typically HTML, which the web server processes and passes back to the browser. Alternatively, the program can request URL redirection. CGI allows the returned output to depend in any arbitrary way on the request. The CGI program can, for example, access information in a database and format the results as HTML. The program can access any data that a normal application program can, however the facilities available to CGI programs are usually limited for security reasons. Although CGI programs can be compiled programs, they are more often written in a (semi) interpreted language such as Perl, or as Unix shell scripts, hence the common name "CGI script". Here is a trivial CGI script written in Perl. (It requires the "CGI" module available from CPAN). #!/usr/bin/perl use CGI qw(:standard); print header, start_html, h1("CGI Test"), "Your IP address is: ", remote_host(), end_html; When run it produces an HTTP header and then a simple HTML page containing the IP address or hostname of the machine that generated the initial request. If run from a command prompt it outputs: Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1 Untitled Document

    CGI Test

    Your IP address is: localhost The CGI program might be saved as the file "test.pl" in the appropriate directory on a web server, e.g. "/home/httpd/test". Accessing the appropriate URL, e.g. http://acme.com/test/test.pl, would cause the program to run and a custom page produced and returned. Early web servers required all CGI programs to be installed in one directory called cgi-bin but it is better to keep them with the HTML files to which they relate unless they are truly global to the site. Similarly, it is neither necessary nor desirable for all CGI programs to have the extension ".cgi". Each CGI request is handled by a new process. If the process fails to terminate for some reason, or if requests are received faster than the server can respond to them, the server may become swamped with processes. In order to improve performance, Netscape devised NSAPI and Microsoft developed the ISAPI standard which allow CGI-like tasks to run as part of the main server process, thus avoiding the overhead of creating a new process to handle each CGI invocation. Other solutions include mod_perl and FastCGI.
  • common information model — (standard)   (CIM) An open systems management standard driven by the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF).
  • common program interface — (programming)   (CPI) The API of SAA.
  • communications satellite — an artificial satellite used to relay radio, television, and telephone signals around the earth, usually in geostationary orbit
  • communicative competence — a speaker's internalized knowledge both of the grammatical rules of a language and of the rules for appropriate use in social contexts.
  • compact disc interactive — (storage)   (CD-i) An embedded application of CD-ROM allowing the user limited interaction with films, games and educational applications via a special controller.
  • compact fluorescent lamp — A compact fluorescent lamp is a small fluorescent lamp (= a tubular light bulb coated with phosphor which produces a bright light) that has a lamp life that is much longer than incandescent lamps.
  • compensatory lengthening — the lengthening of a vowel when a following consonant is weakened or lost, as the change from Old English niht [nikht] /nɪxt/ (Show IPA) to night [nahyt] /naɪt/ (Show IPA) with loss of [kh] /x/ (Show IPA) and lengthening of [i] /ɪ/ (Show IPA) to a vowel that eventually became [ahy] /aɪ/ (Show IPA).
  • compiler target language — (CTL) The intermediate language used by the ALICE parallel machine.
  • complement fixation test — a serological test for detecting the presence of a specific antibody or antigen, used in the diagnosis of syphilis, etc
  • complement-fixation test — a test for diagnosing an infectious disease by detecting the presence of antibody in the blood, based on the fixing of a known quantity of complement to the antigen being tested and the specific antibody that combines with it. Abbreviation: CFT.
  • complementary wavelength — the wavelength of monochromatic light that could be mixed in suitable proportions with a given coloured light so as to produce some specified achromatic light
  • complexometric titration — a titration in which a coloured complex is formed, usually by the use of a chelating agent, such as EDTA, the end point being marked by a sharp decrease in the concentration of free metal ions
  • computational complexity — (algorithm)   The number of steps or arithmetic operations required to solve a computational problem. One of the three kinds of complexity.
  • computer design language — (language)   An ALGOL-like language for computer design.
  • condensed matter physics — the branch of physics that deals with the macroscopic physical properties of matter, especially solids; the study of the electromagnetic, structural, and thermodynamic properties of solids.
  • condensed-matter physics — the branch of physics that deals with the macroscopic physical properties of matter, especially solids; the study of the electromagnetic, structural, and thermodynamic properties of solids.
  • conductometric titration — titration in which the end point is determined by measuring the resistance of the solution to an electric current that is passed through it.
  • confederate memorial day — a day set aside in the South to pay tribute to those who served with the Confederate forces during the American Civil War. It is observed on April 26 in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; on May 10 in North Carolina and South Carolina; on May 30 in Virginia; and on June 3 in Kentucky, Louisiana, and Tennessee.
  • configuration management — (job, system management)   A discipline applying technical and administrative controls to identifying, documentating and reporting on configuration items, their physical and functional characteristics and changes to characteristics of those configuration items.
  • conservation of momentum — the principle that the total linear or angular momentum in any isolated system is constant, provided that no external force is applied
  • cooperative multitasking — (parallel, operating system)   A form of multitasking where it is the responsibility of the currently running task to give up the processor to allow other tasks to run. This contrasts with pre-emptive multitasking where the task scheduler periodically suspends the running task and restarts another. Cooperative multitasking requires the programmer to place calls at suitable points in his code to allow his task to be descheduled which is not always easy if there is no obvious top-level main loop or some routines run for a long time. If a task does not allow itself to be descheduled all other tasks on the system will appear to "freeze" and will not respond to user action. The advantage of cooperative multitasking is that the programmer knows where the program will be descheduled and can make sure that this will not cause unwanted interaction with other processes. Under pre-emptive multitasking, the scheduler must ensure that sufficient state for each process is saved and restored that they will not interfere. Thus cooperative multitasking can have lower overheads than pre-emptive multitasking because of the greater control it offers over when a task may be descheduled. Cooperative multitasking is used in RISC OS, Microsoft Windows and Macintosh System 7.
  • dead white european male — a man whose importance and talents may have been exaggerated because he belonged to a historically dominant gender and ethnic group
  • detoxification programme — a programme of treatment for alcoholism or drug addiction
  • developmental disability — a disability, as mental retardation or cerebral palsy, that begins at an early age and continues indefinitely, leading to substantial handicap.
  • developmental psychology — a branch of psychology that studies changes in human behavior from early life to death.
  • dicyclopentadienyl metal — ferrocene (def 2).
  • diphenylaminechlorarsine — adamsite.
  • do no harm/do sb no harm — If you say that something would do no harm, or do someone no harm, you are recommending a course of action which you think is worthwhile, helpful, or useful.
  • domain-specific language — (language)   A machine-processable language whose terms are derived from a domain model and that is used for the definition of components or software architectures supporting that domain. A domain-specific language is often used as input to an application generator.
  • domestic relations court — in some states, a court with jurisdiction over matters involving relations within the family or household, as between husband and wife or parent and child
  • domestic-relations court — court of domestic relations.
  • double-crested cormorant — a North American cormorant, Phalacrocorax auritus, having tufts of black and white feathers on the sides of the head.
  • ductal carcinoma in situ — a form of breast cancer originating in the breast itself rather than spreading from another site
  • dutch west india company — a Dutch merchant company chartered in 1621 to carry on trade with Africa, the West Indies, North and South America, and Australia.
  • dynamic adaptive routing — Automatic rerouting of traffic based on analysis of current network conditions. This does not include routing decisions based on predefined information.
  • ecole normale superieure — (body)   (ENS) A higher education and research institution in Paris, France.
  • effort adjustment factor — (programming)   (EAF) A term used in COCOMO to calculate a cost driver attribute's effect on a project. It is the product of the effort multipliers corresponding to each of the cost drivers for the project.
  • electromagnetic spectrum — the complete range of electromagnetic radiation from the longest radio waves (wavelength 105 metres) to the shortest gamma radiation (wavelength 10–13 metre)
  • emotional roller coaster — a situation or experience that alternates between making you feel excited, exhilarated, or happy and making you feel sad, disappointed, or desperate
  • environmental assessment — a formal assessment of the impact a project will have on the environment
  • environmental management — controlled and planned management of the environment
  • environmentally friendly — that has no or the least possible impact on the environment
  • equine infectious anemia — swamp fever (def 2).
  • ethyl-para-aminobenzoate — benzocaine
  • european investment bank — a financial institution of the European Union which is based in Luxembourg and which provides loans, especially to the less economically developed countries of the EU
  • european monetary system — the system used in the European Union for stabilizing exchange rates between the currencies of member states and financing the balance-of-payments support mechanism. The original Exchange Rate Mechanism was formed in 1979 but superseded in 1999 when the euro was adopted as official currency of 11 EU member states. A new exchange rate mechanism (ERM II) based on the euro is used to regulate the currencies of participating states that have not adopted the euro
  • evolutionary computation — Computer-based problem solving systems that use computational models of evolutionary processes as the key elements in design and implementation. A number of evolutionary computational models have been proposed, including evolutionary algorithms, genetic algorithms, the evolution strategy, evolutionary programming, and artificial life.
  • evolutionary programming — (EP) A stochastic optimisation strategy originally conceived by Lawrence J. Fogel in 1960. An initially random population of individuals (trial solutions) is created. Mutations are then applied to each individual to create new individuals. Mutations vary in the severity of their effect on the behaviour of the individual. The new individuals are then compared in a "tournament" to select which should survive to form the new population. EP is similar to a genetic algorithm, but models only the behavioural linkage between parents and their offspring, rather than seeking to emulate specific genetic operators from nature such as the encoding of behaviour in a genome and recombination by genetic crossover. EP is also similar to an evolution strategy (ES) although the two approaches developed independently. In EP, selection is by comparison with a randomly chosen set of other individuals whereas ES typically uses deterministic selection in which the worst individuals are purged from the population.
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