Scope Glossary

Browse 6 scope terms defined in plain English, from the cultural dictionary of computing.

6 Scope Terms

Closure
Closure is a programming concept where a function retains access to variables from its enclosing scope even after that outer function has finished executing....
Feature Creep
The ongoing expansion of a product's features beyond its original purpose, often driven by market pressure, competitive anxiety, or a PM who keeps saying 'just...
Namespace
A container that holds a set of identifiers (names) and provides a scope to avoid collisions — allowing two different libraries to define a function with the...
Static Variable
A variable allocated in static memory that persists for the entire lifetime of the program rather than being created and destroyed with each function call. In...
Tip of the Iceberg
The visible part of a much larger underlying problem. In engineering slang, the first weird symptom is often just the tip of the iceberg for a deeper...
Upvar
A variable referenced inside a closure or nested function that is defined in an enclosing scope. The compiler must decide whether to capture it by value, by...

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