terminology

Explain “claims-based authentication” to a 5-year-old

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Well, not exactly to a 5-year-old, but please avoid buzzword and enterprisespeak if possible. Claims-based authentication seems to be all the rage now, but I could not find a simple and down-to-earth explanation of what it actually is, how is it different from what we have now (I assume “what we have now” to be … Read more

Static/Dynamic vs Strong/Weak

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I see these terms bandied around all over the place in programming and I have a vague notion of what they mean. A search shows me that such things have been asked all over stack overflow in fact. As far as I’m aware Static/Dynamic typing in languages is subtly different to Strong/Weak typing but what … Read more

What is the difference between a shim and a polyfill?

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Both seem to be used in web development circles, see e.g. HTML5 Cross Browser Polyfills, which says: So here we’re collecting all the shims, fallbacks, and polyfills… Or, there’s the es5-shim project. In my current project we’re using a number of these, and I want to stick them all in the same directory. So, what … Read more

What is boilerplate code?

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A coworker had never heard of this, and I couldn’t provide a real definition. For me, it’s always been an instance of ‘I-know-it-when-I-see-it’. Bonus question, who originated the term? 15 Answers 15 “boilerplate code” is any seemingly repetitive code that shows up again and again in order to get some result that seems like it … Read more

Functional, Declarative, and Imperative Programming [closed]

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Closed. This question needs to be more focused. It is not currently accepting answers. Want to improve this question? Update the question so it focuses on one problem only by editing this post. Closed 5 years ago. Improve this question What do the terms functional, declarative, and imperative programming mean? 14 s 14 At the … Read more

What is “runtime”?

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I have heard about things like “C Runtime”, “Visual C++ 2008 Runtime”, “.NET Common Language Runtime”, etc. What is “runtime” exactly? What is it made of? How does it interact with my code? Or maybe more precisely, how is my code controlled by it? When coding assembly language on Linux, I could use the INT … Read more

Simulator or Emulator? What is the difference?

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While I understand what simulation and emulation mean in general, I almost always get confused about them. Assume that I create a piece of software that mimics existing hardware/software, what should I call it? A simulator or an emulator? Could anyone explain the difference in terms of programming? Bonus: What is the difference in English … Read more