Dossy 📺

I am working on this dictionary of dev-related words with definitions for a non-dev world. In a perfect world it will be used for a future project, in our world it will likely be shelved when a shinier idea comes to mind.

Pull requests with words or definitions or both words and definitions or even some spelling/grammatical corrections are very welcome.

A

Acronym

Nerds use these to make them sound cool to no one but themselves and other nerds. When two nerds get together, the goal is for one nerd to out-acronym the other until one admits defeat and asks what an acronym stands for.

API

(Application Program Interface)

AI

(Artificial Intelligence)

ASCII

B

C

Computer

Computer Hardware

When your favorite nerd says things like, 'I built my first computer when I was 8' in a braggadocious way, they're just showing off. It's not hard.

All you need are some parts that fit together like LEGO's. They are: CPU, Motherboard, GPU, Memory, Storage, PSU, and IO. This will get you a running computer. Put an OS and some Drivers on there and you're all set to watch those cat videos.

Cookie

CPU

(Central Processing Unit)

D

Defragmentation

See Fragmentation

Driver

E

F

Fragmentation

Sometimes, computers get slow. You take it to your favorite nerd and they tell you to defragment your hard drive to see if it help. Usually, if you've got an old computer, it will help.

Imagine your hard drive is like a big bin full of legos. On a day to day basis, you will both put in and pull out LEGO's with no organization scheme. This is fine, but when you're specifically trying to look for a piece, there's no guarantee on how fast you will find it. This is a fragmented hard drive.

In order to defragment the LEGO's, we invent a storing scheme. We would fit together all the pieces and organize them by color and size. This not only takes up the least amount of space in your bin so that you can have more LEGO's, but you now know where every piece is. You can now find any piece much faster. To take this a step further, you could create a top section that held you most commonly used piece for faster access. This is a defragmented hard drive.

G

GPU

(Graphics Processing Unit)

H

Hardware

HTTP

(Hypertext Transfer Protocol)

I

IDE

(Integrated Development Environment)

IO

(Input/Output)

Internet

J

K

L

M

Memory

Modem

Motherboard

N

O

OS

(Operating System)

P

Programming Language

PSU

(Power Supply Unit)

Q

R

Router

S

Server

Imagine the waitress at your local diner. She asks what you would like and you ask for an order of pancakes. She writes it down and takes it back to the kitchen. When she returns she (hopefully) has your pancakes.

A server works in much the same way*. In a web browser you type in a URL (think about your order of pancakes) and give it to a server (waitress) who then sends back a web page (pancakes).

A server is simply a computer really far away that is waiting to take your order and give you the information you desire.