The Psychology of Quality and More

C Style: Standards and Guidelines (contents)

APPENDIX C : Implementing Standards

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This is not a complete C glossary! It is, however, intended as an explanation of some of the words used in this book, particularly non 'standard' C jargon words.

ANSI                       More correctly 'ANSI C'. The version of C defined by the American National Standards Institute.

argument                The items passed in a function call. e.g. CallFun( argument1, argument2). Also called actual parameter.

code                       Lines of C code - usually executable code.

code file                  A source code file which contains executable code.

comparison              An equality expression (e.g. (a > b)).

context                   The declarations, #define's, etc. which are used in the definition of another item.

data file                  A source code file which contains global variables, but not executable code.

define                     A defined item reserves memory storage space (this may be executable code or data). This is Kernighan and Ritchie's definition of the term, which may seem somewhat counter-intuitive, as a #define'd item declares but does not define.

declare                   A declaration announces the properties of an item. If it is not also a definition, then it will not reserve memory storage space.

external                  An external item is declared outside, but used inside, the current module.

global                     A global item can be referred to anywhere in the program. It's scope is universal.

header                    A header file is a source code file which is #included in one or more modules. By convention (but not by rule) it has a '.h' suffix.

item                       A general 'thing', dependent on the context. Typically it means, 'object or constant or function'.

K&R                        Kernighan and Ritchie. Authors of the original book on C, 'The C Programming Language'. The versions of this book are known as K&R1 and K&R2.

local                       A local item is declared inside a function and can be referred to only within that function.

module                   A module is a logical collection of functions and data, or design unit, which is contained in one or more files. (It is sometimes used, less correctly, as a synonym for 'file').

object                     A named region of memory that can be examined and stored into.

parameter               The variable in the parenthesized list in a function definition. Also called formal argument.

public                     A public item is declared inside, but is expected to be used outside, the current file.

private                    A private item is declared inside, and is used only inside, the current file.

program                 A computer program is the completed (compiled and linked) software system that is being written.

project                   The project is to write the computer program. The project team is the group of people who write the program.

prototype                More correctly, function prototype. A declaration of a function which describes the type of its parameters. (defined by ANSI).
e.g. int FuncCall( int Parm1, char *Parm2 );

replacement item     An item which is actually or effectively replaced during compilation. Its description does not reserve memory. Includes #define's, enum's and typedef's. Also struct's and union's identified only with a tag.

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