Binary Glossary
Browse 14 binary terms defined in plain English, from the cultural dictionary of computing.
14 Binary Terms
- ABI
- ABI, or Application Binary Interface, defines the low-level interface between two binary program modules, specifying how functions are called, how data is laid...
- Base64
- An encoding scheme that represents binary data using 64 ASCII characters (A-Z, a-z, 0-9, +, /). Used to safely transmit binary data (images, files, keys)...
- Binary Data
- Data represented in raw byte form rather than as plain human-readable text, such as images, audio, serialized objects, compiled artifacts, or protocol...
- Binary Format
- A file or wire format that stores information as structured bytes rather than text, often to improve size, speed, or strict parsing. Binary formats are common...
- Binary Protocol
- A communication protocol that encodes messages as binary structures instead of human-readable text. Binary protocols often trade easier debugging for better...
- Binary Stream
- A sequential flow of raw bytes read from or written to a file, socket, device, or pipeline over time. Binary streams are used when data must be handled...
- Byte Stream
- A sequential flow of bytes read from or written to a source such as a file, socket, process, or device. Byte streams are the common abstraction used for binary...
- Endianness
- The byte order used to store multi-byte values in memory. Big-endian stores the most significant byte first (like reading left-to-right); little-endian stores...
- Linker
- Linker is a program that combines multiple compiled object files and libraries into a single executable or shared library. After a compiler translates source...
- Machine Code
- The lowest-level representation of a program — raw binary instructions that a CPU can execute directly without any translation or interpretation.
- MessagePack
- A binary serialization format that's like JSON but faster and more compact. Supports the same data types (maps, arrays, strings, numbers, booleans, null) but...
- Object File
- The intermediate binary output produced by a compiler (typically with a `.o` or `.obj` extension) that contains machine code, symbol tables, and relocation...
- Static Linking
- The build-time process of resolving all external symbol references by copying the required object code from static libraries directly into the output...
- Unsigned Integer
- An integer data type that represents only non-negative values (zero and positive numbers) by using all available bits for magnitude rather than reserving one...
Related Topics
- Networking (2 terms in common)
- Streams (2 terms in common)
- Serialization (2 terms in common)
- Systems (2 terms in common)
- I/O (2 terms in common)
- Compiler (1 terms in common)
- Web (1 terms in common)
- Compilation (1 terms in common)
- Encoding (1 terms in common)
- Compatibility (1 terms in common)
- Cpu (1 terms in common)
- Protocols (1 terms in common)
- Linker (1 terms in common)
- Low Level (1 terms in common)
- Performance (1 terms in common)
- Data Formats (1 terms in common)
- Data Types (1 terms in common)
- C/C++ (1 terms in common)
- Compilers (1 terms in common)
- Build (1 terms in common)