C Glossary
Browse 10 c terms defined in plain English, from the cultural dictionary of computing.
10 C Terms
- C Backend
- A compiler backend that generates C source code as an intermediate representation, which is then compiled to native machine code by a C compiler — a strategy...
- GLib
- A general-purpose utility library originally developed for GTK, providing data structures, threading abstractions, event loops, and type systems for C...
- GObject
- An object-oriented type system and framework for C, part of GLib, that provides classes, inheritance, interfaces, signals, and properties — effectively bolting...
- Header File
- Header File is a file in C and C++ (typically with a .h or .hpp extension) that contains declarations of functions, classes, types, constants, and macros that...
- Low-Level Programming
- Programming that operates close to the hardware abstraction layer — using languages like C, Rust, or assembly — where the developer manages memory, interacts...
- Malloc
- The C standard library function (`memory allocate`) that requests a block of uninitialized heap memory of a specified size in bytes, returning a void pointer...
- Sentinel Value
- A special in-band value (such as -1, null, or EOF) used to signal an exceptional condition or the end of data within a stream or return type, avoiding the need...
- Shared Library
- A compiled library (`.so` on Linux, `.dylib` on macOS, `.dll` on Windows) that is loaded into memory once by the OS and mapped into the address space of every...
- Variadic Function
- A function that accepts a variable number of arguments, such as C's printf(), JavaScript's rest parameters (...args), or Python's *args. The mechanism varies...
- Void
- A type (or pseudo-type) indicating the absence of a value. As a function return type, void means the function performs a side effect and returns nothing. In C,...
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