Glossary

Below is a list of commonly-referenced computing and programming terms found throughout the Better Bally Book:

BCD:

debounce:

dope vector: “A data structure used to hold information about a data object, e.g. an array, especially its memory layout…The dope vector includes an identifier, a length, a parent address, and a next child address.”
Source: Dope vector

endian:

framebuffer: “A framebuffer (frame buffer, or sometimes framestore) is a portion of RAM[1] containing a bitmap that is driven to a video display from a memory buffer containing a complete frame of data.”
Source: Framebuffer

high-order:

low-order:

reentrant: “In computing, a computer program or subroutine is called reentrant if it can be interrupted in the middle of its execution and then safely called again (“re-entered”) before its previous invocations complete execution.”
Source: Reentrancy (computing)

register:

scratchpad:

semaphore: “A variable or abstract data type used for controlling access, by multiple processes, to a common resource in a concurrent system such as a multiprogramming operating system. A trivial semaphore is a plain variable that is changed (for example, incremented or decremented, or toggled) depending on programmer-defined conditions. The variable is then used as a condition to control access to some system resource.”
Source: Semaphore (programming)

vector: