In this chapter, we shortly describe the main terms used in this book with references to the relevant sections in the book.
The rightmost column is supposed to contain a link to the part(s) of the book where the term is introduced. It is currently incomplete.
| Term | Explanation | References |
|---|---|---|
| Access modifiers | Supplementary properties that restrict access to attributes of an object including %public, %private, %protected, %package_boundary and %package. | |
| Action | The accomplishment of creating/destroying physical phenomena and/or changing properties of physical phenomena in a domain. | |
| Atomic operation | An operation that cannot be interrupted while it is being executed. | |
| Active object | An object that performs computations of its own: a program object, a coroutine or parallel object. An object that includes statements that are executed as part of the generation of the object, is not considered an active object. | |
| Activity | A partial ordered sequence of actions. | |
| Attribute | A local data-item, method, or class of an object. | |
| Attribute accessor | An expression that describes access to an attribute of a specific object. | |
| Actual parameter | If the formal parameter is a data-item, then an actual parameter is the value of an expression assigned to the formal parameter at the invocation of a method or instantiation of a class. If the formal parameter is a virtual method or virtual class, then an actual parameter is a binding of the virtual. | |
| Argument | Alternative term for actual parameter. | |
| Class | A template for objects with identical structure. | |
| Class instantiation | The action of generating an object from a class, and executing its statements. Similar to method invocation. | |
| Control structure abstraction, control abstraction | Alternative term for a control method. | |
| Control flow | The order in which the operations of a program are performed. It determines how a program moves from one operation to another based on the state of the objects. | |
| Control structure | A statement that specifies the order of execution of other statements based on state of the objects and thus controls the control flow of a program. | |
| Control structure method, Control method | A method that defines a control structure. | |
| Computation | A partial ordering of operations executed by a computer. | |
| Coroutine | Shorthand for coroutine object | |
| Coroutine object | An active object that represents an activity that may be suspended and later resumed at the point of suspension. | |
| Data-item | A constant or variable object reference or value object. | |
| Datum | A piece of information that may be a value or an object reference. | |
| Declaration | A description of a constant or variable data-item in an object descriptor or method descriptor. | |
| Derived | An object descriptor and class is said to be derived from its superclass. | |
| Direct superclass | The direct superclass is the class from which the class/singular object is explicitly derived as specified in the object descriptor for the class/singular object Se også 8.1.4 | |
| Expression | A description/syntactic element that describes a computation of a value. | |
| Formal parameter | A formal parameter of a method or class may be a variable data-item or a virtual method or virtual class. Se also actual parameter. | |
| Function | A method that computes a value solely based on the values of its parameters. It does not read or modify data-items in its enclosing object or other objects. | |
| Ghost object | An object that is used solely for the purpose of explaining a given programming language mechanism. | |
| Identity | A physical phenomena has an identity. Physical phenomena are distinct which means that they have different identities. | |
| Inheritance | An alternative term for the subclass mechanism. | |
| Item | A declaration or a statement in an object-descriptor. | |
| Intrinsic object | An object that is a declared using obj, is generated as part of the generation of the object containing the declaration and exists during the lifetime of this object. | |
| Invoker | The object (class object or method object) executing the method invocation that generates a given method object – the invokee. | |
| Invokee | The method object being generated as part of a method invocation executed by an object or method object – the invoker. | |
| Mainpart | The items defined in an object-descriptor excluding the direct superclass. | |
| Method | A template for computations with identical structure. | |
| Method generation | The computation of generating a method object; includes generation of possible data-items and assignments of possible parameters. Similar to object generation. | |
| Method invocation | The computation of a method generation from a method description, followed by execution of its statements. Similar to object instantiation | |
| Method object | An object created from a method. | |
| Module | An object descriptor for a singular object that is organized in the qBetaWorld hierarchy and mapped to a folder and file in the filesystem. | |
| Object | Objects are the basic, physical entities that exist in computers; objects are the building blocks of computational processes. An object has variable and/or constant datums, part-objects, classes, methods, and a computation part. A material objects has in addition an identity. A method objects does not have an identity. | |
| Object-descriptor | A description of the structure of an object consisting of a possible superclass, and possible items. | |
| Object generation | The computation of generating an object; includes generation of possible data-items and assignments of possible parameters. Similar to method generation. | |
| Object instantiation | The computation of an object generation from a object descriptor, followed by execution of its statements. Similar to method invocation. | |
| Object reference | A data-item that may hold a reference to an object. See also Reference. | |
| Operation | An action executed by a computer. | |
| Parallel object | An active object that executes actions in parallel with other parallel objects. | |
| Parameter | Shorthand for formal parameter. See also actual parameter and argument. | |
| Program | A module that is intended for execution. | |
| Reference | Short-hand for object-reference. | |
| Scope | The part of the qBetaWorld where a given name is visible. | |
| Singular object | An object that is one of its kind and not an instance of a class. | |
| Singular method object | A method object that is one of its kind and not an instance of a method. | |
| Statement | A description of an activity (action?) in an object-descriptor. | |
| Structure | Shorthand for object structure. | |
| Subclass | A class that is derived from another class – its direct superclass, and inherits attributes and statements from the superclass. | |
| Superclass | A class from which other classes are derived. See also direct superclass. | |
| Submethod | A method that is derived from another method – its direct supermethod, and inherits attributes and statements from the supermethod. | |
| Supermethod | A method from which other methods are derived. | |
| Type | A concept that covers a class of values. This is a simplified defintion of a type intended for programming – the mathematical concept of a type is much more complicated and exists in different variants. | |
| Value | A mathematical entity like a number, point, polygon, etc. | |
| Value object | An object that is an instance of a subclass of class Value; the object is embedded in a holding object and intended for representing a value. | |
| Value type | A class that is a subclass of class Value. See also Type. |
