Developers Dictionary

Developers, regardless of organization, often use a variety of terms to describe different concepts. Below is a list of definitions to help stakeholders better understand the language that Developers use.

C

CI (Continuous Integration)

Continuous Integration (CI) is a software development practice where developers frequently integrate their code changes into a shared repository, preferably several times a day. Each integration is automatically verified by building the application and running automated tests. This practice helps in identifying integration errors quickly, improving software quality, and accelerating the development process.

Code Refactoring

Code Refactoring is the process of restructuring existing computer code—changing the factoring—without changing its external behavior. Refactoring is intended to improve the design, structure, and/or implementation of the software, while preserving its functionality, in order to make the code more maintainable, readable, and efficient.

Compiler

A Compiler is a special program that translates high-level programming language code into machine language or a lower-level form so that it can be executed by a computer. Compilers perform this translation by analyzing and processing the source code, optimizing it, and then generating the target code, often reporting errors in the source code if found.

Continuous Deployment (CD)

Continuous Deployment (CD) is a software release process that uses automated testing to validate if changes to a codebase are correct and stable for immediate autonomous deployment to a production environment. CD is an extension of continuous integration, aiming to minimize the time taken to deploy changes to the software in operation.

Corrective Maintenance​

Corrective Maintenance involves the repair of faults or defects found in day-to-day system operations. It’s a reactive maintenance strategy that focuses on fixing problems as they occur to ensure that the software continues to function as expected.

Cross-Platform Development

Cross-Platform Development refers to the process of developing software applications or services that are compatible with multiple operating systems or platforms, such as Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android. This approach allows developers to write code once and deploy it across various platforms, saving time and resources.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in HTML or XML (including XML dialects such as SVG or XHTML). CSS describes how elements should be rendered on screen, on paper, in speech, or on other media.