b.md

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BA : → Basic access authentication

Babel : A JavaScript transpiler that is mainly used to convert ECMAScript 2015+ (ES6+) code into a backwards-compatible version of JavaScript that can be run by older JavaScript engines. † ℹ︎ babeljs.io

Back/forward cache : A browser optimization to improve the web browsing experience. Bfcache is an in-memory cache that stores a complete snapshot of a web page to enable fast back and forward navigation.

Backend : The data access layer of software of a piece of software, usually covering business logic and data storage. In the client-server model, the server is considered the back end. †

Backend for Frontend : The concept of having separate backends per application or interface, to act as intermediaries between the respective frontends and the underlying services. BFF was introduced in 2015 by Sam Newman.

Backlink : A link from one web resource (the referrer) to another web resource (the referent), made by an anchor, as viewed from the web resource being referred to. Other words for “backlink” are “incoming link,” “inbound link,” “inlink,” “inward link,” and “citation.” †

Backup : A copy of computer data taken and stored elsewhere so that it may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. The verb form, referring to the process of doing so, is “to back up,” whereas the noun and adjective form is “backup.” Backups can be used to recover data after its loss from data deletion or corruption, or to recover data from an earlier time. Backups provide a simple form of disaster recovery. †

Backup redundancy : → Standby redundancy

Backward compatibility : A property of a product, system, or technology that allows for interoperability with an older legacy system, or with input designed for such a system, especially in telecommunications and computing. Modifying a system in a way that does not allow backward compatibility is sometimes called breaking backward compatibility. †

Bad Neighborhood : Bad quality websites, or websites that are being penalized and downgraded by search engines. Search engine optimization (SEO) best practices suggest to avoid links to and from bad neighborhood websites.

Bada : A discontinued operating system for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. Bada was developed by Samsung. Its name is derived from “바다” (“bada”), meaning “ocean” or “sea” in Korean. Bada was released in 2010 and discontinued in 2013. †

Bandwidth : The maximum rate of data transfer across a given path. Bandwidth may be characterized as network bandwidth, data bandwidth, or digital bandwidth. †

Banner : An online advertising format, usually a horizontal or vertical rectangle in standardized sizes.

Barrierefreie-Informationstechnik-Verordnung : German accessibility regulations. ℹ︎ www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bitv_2_0

Base64 : A group of binary-to-text encoding schemes that represent binary data in an ASCII string format by translating it into a radix-64 representation. The term “Base64” originates from a specific MIME content transfer encoding. Each Base64 digit represents exactly 6 bits of data. Three 8-bit bytes (i.e., 24 bits) can therefore be represented by four 6-bit Base64 digits. Common to all binary-to-text encoding schemes, Base64 is designed to carry data stored in binary formats across channels that only reliably support text content. Base64 is particularly prevalent on the World Wide Web where its uses include the ability to embed image files or other binary assets inside textual assets such as HTML and CSS files. †

Baseline : In European and West Asian typography and penmanship, the line upon which most letters “sit” and below which descenders extend. †

Bash : A Unix shell and command language written by Brian Fox for the GNU Project as a free software replacement for the Bourne shell. First released in 1989, Bash has been used widely as the default login shell for most Linux distributions and Apple’s macOS Mojave and earlier versions. †

Basic access authentication : A method for an HTTP user agent (e.g., a web browser) to provide a user and password when making a request. In basic HTTP authentication, a request contains a header field in the form of Authorization: Basic <credentials>, where “credentials” is the Base64 encoding of ID and password joined by a single colon (“:”). Basic access authentication is specified in RFC 7617 from 2015, which obsoletes RFC 2617 from 1999. †

Basic Multilingual Plane : The first Unicode plane, plane 0, containing characters for almost all modern languages, and a large number of symbols. A primary objective for the BMP is to support the unification of prior character sets as well as characters for writing. Most of the assigned code points in the BMP are used to encode Chinese, Japanese, and Korean (CJK) characters. †

BBCode : A lightweight markup language used to format posts in many message boards. The available tags are usually indicated by square brackets ([]) surrounding a keyword, and parsed by the message board system before being translated into a markup language that web browsers understand, like HTML. †

BDD : → Behavior-Driven Development

Behavior : In web development, the code that deals with how content can be interacted with. This is often achieved through JavaScript.

Behavior-Driven Development : An agile software development process that encourages collaboration among developers, QA, and non-technical or business participants in a software project. BDD encourages teams to use conversation and concrete examples to formalize a shared understanding of how the application should behave. It emerged from Test-Driven Development (TDD). BDD combines the general techniques and principles of TDD with ideas from domain-driven design and object-oriented analysis and design to provide software development and management teams with shared tools and a shared process to collaborate on software development. †

Below the fold : The part of a web page that is visible only after scrolling down.

BEM : → Block Element Modifier

Best practice : A method or technique that has been generally accepted as superior to any alternatives because it produces results that are superior to those achieved by other means or because it has become a standard way of doing things, e.g., a standard way of complying with legal or ethical requirements. Best practices are used to maintain quality as an alternative to mandatory legislated standards. †

Bézier curve : A parametric curve, mathematically based on Bernstein polynomials, that is defined by a set of control points P0 through Pn, where n is called its order, and where the first and last points are always the end points of the curve, and where intermediate control points (if any) generally do not lie on the curve. Named after Pierre Bézier (1910–1999). †

Bfcache : → Back/forward cache

BFF : → Backend for Frontend

BGP : → Border Gateway Protocol

BHO : → Browser Helper Object

Bidi : → Bidirectional

Bidirectional : Text that contains both text directionalities, right-to-left (RTL or dextrosinistral) and left-to-right (LTR or sinistrodextral), and which generally involves text containing different types of alphabets. †

Big Bang : The practice of releasing a great amount of working software all at one time, as opposed to incrementally.

Big integer : An integral data type of 64 bits, with a signed range from –9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to 9,223,372,036,854,775,807, and an unsigned range from 0 to 18,446,744,073,709,551,615.

Big O notation : A mathematical notation that describes the limiting behavior of a function when the argument tends towards a particular value or infinity. It is a member of a family of notations invented by Paul Bachmann, Edmund Landau, and others, collectively called Bachmann-Landau notation or asymptotic notation. In computer science, big O notation is used to classify algorithms according to how their running time or space requirements grow as the input size grows. In analytic number theory, big O notation is often used to express a bound on the difference between an arithmetical function and a better understood approximation. †

Binary chop : → Binary search algorithm

Binary large object : A collection of binary data stored as a single entity. Blobs are typically images, audio, or other multimedia objects, though sometimes binary executable code is stored as a blob. †

Binary number : A number expressed in the base-2 numeral system or binary numeral system, which uses only two symbols: typically “0” (zero) and “1” (one). †

Binary search algorithm : A search algorithm that finds the position of a target value within a sorted array. Binary search compares the target value to the middle element of the array. If they are not equal, the half in which the target cannot lie is eliminated and the search continues on the remaining half, again taking the middle element to compare to the target value, and repeating this until the target value is found. If the search ends with the remaining half being empty, the target is not in the array. †

Binding : The association of entities (data or code) with identifiers. An identifier bound to an object is said to reference that object. Machine languages have no built-in notion of identifiers, but name-object bindings as a service and notation for the programmer is implemented by programming languages. Binding is intimately connected with scoping, as scope determines which names bind to which objects—at which locations in the program code (lexically) and in which one of the possible execution paths (temporally). †

Bitbucket : A Git-based source code repository hosting service owned by Atlassian. Bitbucket was launched in 2008. † ℹ︎ bitbucket.org

Bitmap : A raster graphics image file format used to store bitmap digital images, independently of the display device (such as a graphics adapter). Also known as bitmap image file or device independent bitmap (DIB) file format. † : → Raster image

BITV : → Barrierefreie-Informationstechnik-Verordnung

Black hat : Someone who violates computer security or systems for personal gain or maliciousness. †

Black Mode : → Dark Mode

Black-box testing : A method of software testing that examines the functionality of an application without peering into its internal structures or workings. This method of test can be applied virtually to every level of software testing: unit, integration, system, and acceptance. Black-box testing is sometimes referred to as specification-based testing. †

Blacklist : A basic access control mechanism that allows through all elements (email addresses, users, passwords, URLs, IP addresses, domain names, file hashes, etc.), except those explicitly mentioned. Those items on the list are denied access. The opposite of a blacklist is a whitelist. †

Blink : A browser engine used in the Chrome web browser and other projects. It is developed as part of the Chromium project with contributions from Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Opera, Adobe, Intel, IBM, Samsung, and others. Blink was released in 2013. †

Blisk : A developer-centered cross-platform web browser. Blisk was first released in 2016. ℹ︎ blisk.io

Blob : In JavaScript, an object that represents a blob, which is a file-like object of immutable, raw data. Blobs can be read as text or binary data, or converted into a ReadableStream so its methods can be used for processing the data. Blobs can represent data that is not necessarily in a JavaScript-native format. ‡ : → Binary large object

Block : In CSS, a section enclosed by an opening ({) and a closing curly brace (}). : In JavaScript, a collection of related statements enclosed by an opening ({) and a closing curly brace (}). ‡ : → Block box : → Block container box : → Block container element : → Block-level box : → Block-level element

Block box : A block-level box that is also a block container.

Block container : → Block container element

Block container box : A block-level box that is not a table box or the principal box of a replaced element. It either contains only block-level boxes or, if establishing an inline formatting context, only inline-level boxes.

Block container element : An element whose principal box is a block container box.

Block element : → Block-level element

Block Element Modifier : A naming convention for HTML and CSS classes. BEM was introduced in 2005 by Yandex. ℹ︎ getbem.com

Block flow : A CSS concept referring to the direction in which blocks are running. In an English document, block flow goes from top to bottom.

Block formatting context : A formatting context in which boxes are laid out vertically. Vertical margins are respected but collapse.

Block-level box : A box created by a block-level element.

Block-level element : An element that is formatted visually as a block.

Blog : A discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order, so that the most recent post appears first, at the top of the web page. Until 2009, blogs were usually the work of a single individual, occasionally of a small group, and often covered a single subject or topic. In the 2010s, “multi-author blogs” (MABs) emerged. †

Blogging : The act of running a blog, and writing posts for a blog.

Blogosphere : A collective term for all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community (or as a collection of connected communities) or as a social networking service in which everyday authors can publish their opinions. †

BMP : → Basic Multilingual Plane : → Bitmap

BOM : → Byte Order Mark

Bookmark : A URI that is stored for later retrieval in any of various storage formats. All modern web browsers include bookmark features. Bookmarks are normally accessed through a menu in the user’s web browser, and folders are commonly used for organization. †

Bookmark icon : → Favicon

Bookmarklet : Unobtrusive JavaScript stored as the URL of a bookmark in a web browser or as a hyperlink on a web page. Bookmarklets allow to add one-click functionality to the respective browser or web page. †

Boolean : A data type that has one of two possible values (usually denoted true and false) which is intended to represent the two truth values of logic and Boolean algebra. It is named after George Boole, who first defined an algebraic system of logic in the mid-19th century. The Boolean data type is primarily associated with conditional statements. †

Bootstrap : An HTML/CSS framework. ℹ︎ getbootstrap.com

Border : Per the CSS box model, any kind of line (solid, dotted, dashed, etc.) surrounding an element of a document, if present. The border area lies between the padding and margin areas of a box.

Border Gateway Protocol : A standardized exterior gateway protocol designed to exchange routing and reachability information among autonomous systems on the Internet. BGP is classified as a path-vector routing protocol, and it makes routing decisions based on paths, network policies, or rule sets configured by a network administrator. It was first described in 1989 in RFC 1105, and has been in use on the Internet since 1994. †

Bottom-posting : A posting style in which the reply follows the quote. †

Bounce rate : A marketing term used in web traffic analysis that represents the percentage of visitors who enter a site and then leave (“bounce”) rather than continue to view other pages within the same site. The bounce rate is calculated by counting the number of single page visits and dividing that by the total visits. It is then represented as a percentage of total visits. †

Bound variable : A variable that was previously free, but has been bound to a specific value or set of values. †

Boundary value problem : A boundary value problem is a differential equation together with a set of additional constraints, called the boundary conditions. A solution to a boundary value problem is a solution to the differential equation which also satisfies the boundary conditions. †

Bounding box : The smallest possible rectangle (aligned with the axes of that element’s user coordinate system) that entirely encloses an element and its descendants. ‡

Bourne shell : A shell, or command-line interpreter, for computer operating systems. Developed by Stephen Bourne at Bell Labs, it was a replacement for the Thompson shell, whose executable file had the same name (sh). The Bourne shell was released in 1979 in the Version 7 Unix release distributed to colleges and universities. †

Bower : A maintenance-only package manager for the JavaScript programming language. Bower was first released in 2012. ℹ︎ bower.io

Box : The visual space occupied by an HTML element’s content. †

Box model : A concept for the rectangular boxes that are generated for elements in the document tree and laid out according to the visual formatting model. The boxes consist of content, padding, border, and margin areas.

Box model hack : A popular early 2000’s workaround for Internet Explorer 5/5.5’s incorrect support of the CSS box model. The box model hack was obsoleted by improved browser implementations and an additional CSS property (box-sizing). ℹ︎ is.gd/nZKbJw

Boyscout Rule : The idea to “always leave code better than you found it,” which may be attributable to Robert C. Martin.

Bracket notation : One of two ways to access object properties in JavaScript (objectName['propertyName']), the other being dot notation.

Braille (⠃⠗⠁⠊⠇⠇⠑) : A tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired. Braille is traditionally written with embossed paper. Braille users can read computer screens and other electronic supports using refreshable braille displays. They can write braille with the original slate and stylus or type it on a braille writer, such as a portable braille notetaker or computer that prints with a braille embosser. Braille was developed in 1824 by Louis Braille, who published it in 1829. †

Branch : A duplicate of an object under version control. Branches are also known as trees, streams, or codelines. The originating branch is sometimes called the parent branch, the upstream branch (or “upstream,” especially if the branches are maintained by different organizations or individuals), or the backing stream. Child branches are branches that have a parent; a branch without a parent is referred to as the trunk or the mainline. †

Branch predication : → Predication

Branching : The duplication of an object under version control (such as a source code file or a directory tree) so that modifications can occur in parallel along multiple branches. Branching generally implies the ability to later merge or integrate changes back onto the parent branch. †

BREAD : → Browse, Read, Edit, Add, Delete

Breadcrumb : A graphical control element frequently used as a navigational aid in user interfaces and on web pages. It allows users to keep track and maintain awareness of their locations within programs, documents, or websites. †

Breakpoint : In software development, an intentional stopping or pausing place in a program, put in place for debugging purposes. A breakpoint is sometimes also referred to as a pause. † : In web development, any point at which a media query is introduced and the layout changed. ‡

Brewer’s Theorem : → CAP Theorem

Bring Your Own License : A licensing model that allows to use available software licenses flexibly, both on-premise and in the cloud. While BYOL can help to save licensing cost, it comes with the responsibility of managing the respective licenses.

Broken link : A hyperlink that does not work, or work anymore, that is, that points to a target that is not available. Broken links constitute link rot.

Brotli : A data format specification for data streams compressed with a specific combination of the general-purpose LZ77 lossless compression algorithm, Huffman coding, and second-order context modeling. † ℹ︎ github.com/google/brotli

Browse, Read, Edit, Add, Delete : A variation of CRUD. †

Browser : A software application for accessing information on the World Wide Web. When a user requests a particular website, the web browser retrieves the necessary content from a web server and displays the resulting web page on the user’s device. As of March 2019, more than 4.3 billion people use a browser, which is about 55% of the world’s population. The three most popular browsers are Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. †

Browser detection : → Browser sniffing

Browser engine : A core software component of every major web browser. The primary job of a browser engine is to transform HTML documents and other resources of a web page into an interactive visual representation on a user’s device. Besides “browser engine,” two other terms are in common use regarding related concepts: “layout engine” and “rendering engine.” In theory, layout and rendering (or “painting”) could be handled by separate engines. In practice, however, they are tightly coupled and rarely considered separately. †

Browser extension : A small software module for customizing a web browser. Browsers typically allow a variety of extensions, including user interface modifications, ad blocking, and cookie management. Browser plugins are a separate type of module. The main difference is that extensions are usually just source code, but plugins are always executables (i.e., object code). As of 2019, plugins have been deprecated by most browsers, while extensions are widely used. †

Browser Helper Object : A DLL module designed as a plugin for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer web browser to provide added functionality. BHOs were introduced in 1997 with the release of Internet Explorer 4. Most BHOs are loaded once by each new instance of Internet Explorer. BHOs are still supported as of Windows 10, through Internet Explorer 11, while BHOs are not supported in Edge. †

Browser sniffing : A set of techniques used in websites and web applications in order to determine the web browser a visitor is using, and to serve browser-appropriate content to the visitor. This practice is sometimes used to circumvent incompatibilities between browsers due to misinterpretation of HTML, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), or the Document Object Model (DOM). While the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) maintains up-to-date central versions of some of the most important Web standards in the form of recommendations, in practice no vendor has developed a browser which adheres exactly to these standards. As a result, different browsers may display the same page differently, and browser sniffing was developed to detect the web browser in order to help ensure consistent display of content. †

Browser testing : The testing of websites and apps in different web browsers.

Browser War : A market competition between web browsers, usually referring to the First Browser War (1995–2001) between Internet Explorer (Microsoft) and Navigator (Netscape) or the Second Browser War (2004–2017) between Internet Explorer, Firefox (Mozilla), and Chrome (Google).

Browsing : A kind of orienting strategy to identify something of relevance. One of the two major ways of interacting with the Web, the other one being searching. †

Browsing context : The environment in which a browser displays a document, as with a tab, window, or frame. Each browsing context has a specific origin, the origin of the active document, and a history that lists all the displayed documents in order. Communication between browsing contexts is restricted. ‡

Buffer : A storage in physical memory used to temporarily store data while it is being transferred from one place to another. ‡

Bug : An error, flaw, or fault in a computer program or system that causes it to produce an incorrect or unexpected result, or to behave in unintended ways. Most bugs arise from mistakes and errors made in either a program’s source code or its design. †

Bug tracking system : A software application that keeps track of reported software bugs in software development projects. It may be regarded as a type of issue tracking system. Many bug tracking systems allow end users to enter bug reports directly. Other systems are used only internally in a company or organization doing software development. Typically, bug tracking systems are integrated with other project management software. A bug tracking system is usually a necessary component of a professional software development infrastructure. †

Bugfix : → Patch

Bugzilla : A web-based general-purpose bug tracking system and testing tool originally developed and used by the Mozilla project. Bugzilla was first released in 1998 by Netscape. † ℹ︎ bugzilla.org

Build Verification Test : → Smoke testing

Bulletin Board Code : → BBCode

Bundling : The process of dynamically or statically merging (bundling) several files, notably JavaScript modules, for output to a client or a server. Bundling reduces the number of files and requests to be delivered to a client and thus helps improve performance.

Bushnell’s Law : An aphorism attributed to Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, on the subject of video game design: “All the best games are easy to learn and difficult to master. They should reward the first quarter and the hundredth.” This is also referred to with the sentence “easy to learn, hard to master.” †

BVT : → Build Verification Test

BYOL : → Bring Your Own License

Byte Order Mark : A particular use of a special Unicode character, U+FEFF BYTE ORDER MARK, whose appearance as a magic number at the start of a text stream can signal several things to a program reading the text: the byte order, or endianness, of the text stream in the cases of 16-bit and 32-bit encodings; the fact that the text stream’s encoding is Unicode, to a high level of confidence; or which Unicode character encoding is used. †

Bytecode : A form of instruction set designed for efficient execution by a software interpreter. Unlike human-readable source code, bytecodes are compact numeric codes, constants, and references (normally numeric addresses) that encode the result of compiler parsing and performing semantic analysis of things like type, scope, and nesting depths of program objects. The name “bytecode” stems from instruction sets that have one-byte opcodes followed by optional parameters. †

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