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19-letter words containing f, i, n

  • functional database — (database, language)   A database which uses a functional language as its query language. Databases would seem to be an inappropriate application for functional languages since, a purely functional language would have to return a new copy of the entire database every time (part of) it was updated. To be practically scalable, the update mechanism must clearly be destructive rather than functional; however it is quite feasible for the query language to be purely functional so long as the database is considered as an argument. One approach to the update problem would use a monad to encapsulate database access and ensure it was single threaded. Alternative approaches have been suggested by Trinder, who suggests non-destructive updating with shared data structures, and Sutton who uses a variant of a Phil Wadler's linear type system. There are two main classes of functional database languages. The first is based upon Backus' FP language, of which FQL is probably the best known example. Adaplan is a more recent language which falls into this category. More recently, people have been working on languages which are syntactically very similar to modern functional programming languages, but which also provide all of the features of a database language, e.g. bulk data structures which can be incrementally updated, type systems which can be incrementally updated, and all data persisting in a database. Examples are PFL [Poulovassilis&Small, VLDB-91], and Machiavelli [Ohori et al, ACM SIGMOD Conference, 1998].
  • functional language — (language)   A language that supports and encourages functional programming.
  • functional medicine — individualized medical care that recognizes the interactions between genetic and environmental factors and between the body's interconnected systems.
  • future date testing — (testing)   The process of setting a computer's date to a future date to test a program's (expected or unexpected) date sensitivity. Future date testing only shows the effects of dates on the computer(s) under scrutiny, it does not take into account knock-on effects of dates on other connected systems.
  • general post office — (in the U.S. postal system) the main post office of a city, county, etc., that also has branch post offices. Abbreviation: G.P.O., GPO.
  • genetic fingerprint — DNA fingerprinting.
  • gentile da fabriano — 1370?–1427, Italian painter.
  • giovanni da fiesole — Giovanni da [Italian jaw-vahn-nee dah] /Italian dʒɔˈvɑn ni dɑ/ (Show IPA), Angelico, Fra.
  • give (free) rein to — to allow to act without restraint
  • give a person a fit — to surprise a person in an outrageous manner
  • give one credit for — to commend one for
  • go on the offensive — If you go on the offensive, go over to the offensive, or take the offensive, you begin to take strong action against people who have been attacking you.
  • godfrey of bouillon — (Duke of Lower Lorraine) 1060?–1100, French leader of the First Crusade 1096–99.
  • grandfather's chair — wing chair.
  • gravitational field — the attractive effect, considered as extending throughout space, of matter on other matter.
  • great wall of china — a system of fortified walls with a roadway along the top, constructed as a defense for China against the nomads of the regions that are now Mongolia and Manchuria: completed in the 3rd century b.c., but later repeatedly modified and rebuilt. 2000 miles (3220 km) long.
  • greenhouse whitefly — See under whitefly.
  • greenstick fracture — an incomplete fracture of a long bone, in which one side is broken and the other side is still intact.
  • gross profit margin — A gross profit margin is a measure of the profitability of a company, that is calculated by dividing gross profit by net sales.
  • grosse pointe farms — a city in SE Michigan, near Detroit.
  • guerrilla financing — the use of unconventional and marginally legal means to capitalize enterprises
  • gulf of carpentaria — a shallow inlet of the Arafura Sea, in N Australia between Arnhem Land and Cape York Peninsula
  • halt and catch fire — (humour, processor)   (HCF) Any of several undocumented and semi-mythical machine instructions with destructive side-effects, supposedly included for test purposes on several well-known architectures going as far back as the IBM 360. The Motorola 6800 microprocessor was the first for which an HCF opcode became widely known. This instruction caused the processor to read every memory location sequentially until reset.
  • hang five (or ten) — to ride a surfboard with the toes of one (or both) feet draped over the front edge of the board
  • hang on the lips of — to listen to with close attention
  • harbinger-of-spring — a North American umbelliferous herb, Erigenia bulbosa, having white flowers that bloom early in the spring.
  • have half a mind to — to have the intention of
  • have the makings of — show potential as
  • health professional — a person trained to work in any field of physical or mental health.
  • heat of sublimation — the heat absorbed by one gram or unit mass of a substance in the process of changing, at a constant temperature and pressure, from a solid to a gaseous state. Compare sublime (def 10).
  • helsinki conference — Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe.
  • hexafluoroplatinate — (chemistry) The univalent anion PtF6- prepared by reacting platinum hexafluoride with certain metals or other elements.
  • high-flying tippler — a variety of domestic pigeon bred mainly for flying
  • hildegard of bingen — Hildegard von (Hildegard of Bingen"Sibyl of the Rhine") 1098–1178, German nun, healer, writer, and composer.
  • house of correction — a place for the confinement and reform of persons convicted of minor offenses and not regarded as confirmed criminals.
  • house of councilors — the upper house of the Japanese diet.
  • huffing and puffing — empty threats or objections; bluster
  • hyperbolic function — a function of an angle expressed as a relationship between the distances from a point on a hyperbola to the origin and to the coordinate axes, as hyperbolic sine or hyperbolic cosine: often expressed as combinations of exponential functions.
  • hyperfine structure — the splitting of the lines of an atomic spectrum, produced by the angular momentum of the nucleus of the atom.
  • hyperfocal distance — the distance, at a given f number, between a camera lens and the nearest point (hyperfocal point) having satisfactory definition when focused at infinity.
  • idea of pure reason — any of the three undemonstrable entities (a personal soul, a cosmos, and a supreme being) implicit in the fact of a subject and an object of knowledge, and in the need for some principle uniting them.
  • identification card — a card giving identifying data about a person, as full name, address, age, and color of hair and eyes, and often containing a photograph: for use as identification at a place of employment, school, club, etc.
  • identification mark — barcode or serial number
  • if i'm not mistaken — You use expressions such as if I'm not mistaken and unless I'm very much mistaken as a polite way of emphasizing the statement you are making, especially when you are confident that it is correct.
  • immigration officer — official administrating incoming foreigners
  • imperial preference — a proposed system whereby free trade and levelled tariffs would exist between nations belonging to the British Commonwealth, in order to increase the prosperity of and unity between these nation
  • in commemoration of — in remembrance of
  • in consequence (of) — as a result (of)
  • in consideration of — the act of considering; careful thought; meditation; deliberation: I will give your project full consideration.
  • in definite pronoun — a pronoun, as English some, any, somebody, that leaves unspecified the identity of its referent.
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