Software Development Terms Beginning with S
Scheme (URL)
Section titled “Scheme (URL)”A scheme indicates the protocol (set of rules) browsers must use to access a website’s resources. Some popular schemes are HTTP, HTTPS, Mailto, and FTP.
Scope refers to the area where an item (such as a function or variable) is visible and accessible to other code.
Scope Chain
Section titled “Scope Chain”A scope chain refers to the unique spaces that exist from the scope where a variable got called to the global scope.
Scrolling Element
Section titled “Scrolling Element”A scrolling element is an element with a non-visible overflow value. In other words, an element has a scrolling mechanism if its overflow property is auto, hidden, overlay, or scroll.
search() in JavaScript
Section titled “search() in JavaScript”search() searches its calling string for the first occurrence of the method’s regular expression argument.
Search Engine
Section titled “Search Engine”A search engine is a software program you can use to search for resources on the internet.
In other words, a search engine is like a marketplace where you search for products.
A woman searches for vegetables at a marketplace – Image by Milada Vigerova
Popular search engines are Google, Bing, Yahoo, Yandex, CC Search, and DuckDuckGo.
Self-Executing Anonymous Function Expression
Section titled “Self-Executing Anonymous Function Expression”An self-executing anonymous function expression is a function expression that invokes itself automatically.
Self-Invoking Function Expression
Section titled “Self-Invoking Function Expression”An self-invoking function expression is a function expression that invokes itself automatically.
Serialization
Section titled “Serialization”Serialization converts a native object to a format that clients and servers can interchange.
Server (Computing)
Section titled “Server (Computing)”A server is a computer where documents are stored until other computers request them over the internet (or local network).
setState() in React
Section titled “setState() in React”setState() is the method used to update a class component’s state.
SHA-1 Checksum (Git)
Section titled “SHA-1 Checksum (Git)”A SHA-1 checksum is a long string that follows the word “commit” in a git log command’s output.
In other words, whenever you run the git log command, you will get an output like so:
commit z8d2f115010634ea4ae0a2670p7aec61b394c306Author: Oluwatobi Sofela <[email protected]>Date: Tue Dec 21 12:51:07 2023 +0100
Initialize projectThe long string that follows the word “commit” in the snippet above is the SHA-1 checksum.
The SHA-1 checksum is a 40-character string which we sometimes call “commit hash” or “Git commit reference.”
Shallow Copy
Section titled “Shallow Copy”You do shallow copy when you create references while cloning a value.
Shallow Object in JavaScript
Section titled “Shallow Object in JavaScript”A shallow object is one that contains only primitive items.
shift() in JavaScript
Section titled “shift() in JavaScript”shift() removes its calling array’s first item.
Side Effect
Section titled “Side Effect”Side effect occurs in a program whenever you use an external code in your function—which, as a result, impacts the function’s ability to perform its task.
Single-Page Application
Section titled “Single-Page Application”A single-page application (SPA) is a web app in which each of its unique URL file paths refers to a single HTML page that gets loaded only once from the server.
slice() JavaScript Array Method
Section titled “slice() JavaScript Array Method”slice() extracts a specified part of its calling array into a new array—without altering the original array.
slice() JavaScript String Method
Section titled “slice() JavaScript String Method”slice() extracts a specified part of its calling string into a new string—without altering the original string.
Software
Section titled “Software”Software is a collection of programs used to instruct the computer on what to do.
Source Code
Section titled “Source Code”A source code is your original file containing the code you wrote and edited. It is the source code that bundlers compile into a distribution code.
splice() in JavaScript
Section titled “splice() in JavaScript”splice() alters its calling array by adding or removing a specific number of items to/from it.
split() in JavaScript
Section titled “split() in JavaScript”split() returns an array containing the result of splitting a string into substrings.
Spread Operator
Section titled “Spread Operator”A spread operator (...) expands iterables into individual elements.
Staging Area (Git)
Section titled “Staging Area (Git)”The staging area is a file Git uses to store details about files it is about to commit into the .git directory.
Start Of (RegExp)
Section titled “Start Of (RegExp)”Regular expression’s start of operator (^) asserts that you wish to find the RegExp pattern at the start of a string.
State is the data a stateful program is managing.
State Hook (ReactJS)
Section titled “State Hook (ReactJS)”The state hook (useState) allows a function component hook into React’s state object.
Stateful Program
Section titled “Stateful Program”A stateful program is a program whose output depends on external states (events).
Stateless Program
Section titled “Stateless Program”A stateless program is one whose output does not depend on any external event.
Statement in JavaScript
Section titled “Statement in JavaScript”A JavaScript statement is a piece of code used to instruct the computer on an action to execute.
Static Class Field in JavaScript
Section titled “Static Class Field in JavaScript”A static class field is a property you can only access and modify directly from the class itself.
Static Initialization Blocks
Section titled “Static Initialization Blocks”Static initialization blocks encase the statements you want JavaScript to evaluate during a class’s initialization.
Sticky (RegExp)
Section titled “Sticky (RegExp)”Regular expression’s sticky flag (y) tells the computer to find a RegExp pattern at exactly the lastIndex position—not starting from the lastIndex position.
Strict Equality Operator in JavaScript
Section titled “Strict Equality Operator in JavaScript”The strict equality operator (===) checks if its two operands are strictly of equal type and value.
Strict Mode in JavaScript
Section titled “Strict Mode in JavaScript”JavaScript’s strict mode is a way of ensuring the code in a script (or function) are strictly JavaScript code—not generic code nor mistyped JavaScript code.
You can invoke the strict mode by including the literal string "use strict"; as the first statement of your script file (or function statement).
String in JavaScript
Section titled “String in JavaScript”A string is a quoted series of characters representing textual data.
String Expression in JavaScript
Section titled “String Expression in JavaScript”A string expression is a piece of code that expresses a string value.
Stub (TDD)
Section titled “Stub (TDD)”A stub is a test double used to mimic an external dependency while also returning hand-coded values that you can use to assess your program’s behavior with various test case responses from the dependency.
Styling Language
Section titled “Styling Language”A stylist helps to apply styles to an annotated document. So, for instance, CSS helps add artistic touches to the elements of an HTML document.
Subdomain
Section titled “Subdomain”A subdomain (third-level domain) is a subset of a specific website. It allows you to categorize your website into one or more sections.
Submodule (JavaScript)
Section titled “Submodule (JavaScript)”A submodule is a script used inside another module.
Substitutions (Webpack)
Section titled “Substitutions (Webpack)”Substitutions—in webpack—refers to the use of bracketed strings to create templates for filenames.
Substring
Section titled “Substring”Substring means part of a string. For instance, “Cat” is a substring of “Caterpillar” because “Cat” is part of the “Caterpillar” string.
switch Conditional Statement in JavaScript
Section titled “switch Conditional Statement in JavaScript”The switch conditional statement instructs the computer to execute a code block if the block’s case value matches the given expression.
Symbol in JavaScript
Section titled “Symbol in JavaScript”Symbol is a unique, anonymous value that you can create by invoking the Symbol() function in a JavaScript runtime environment.
Synchronous Callback
Section titled “Synchronous Callback”A synchronous callback is a callback whose execution happens immediately.
Synchronous Event
Section titled “Synchronous Event”A synchronous event is an activity that must occur at a specific point in time.
System Software
Section titled “System Software”System software is the computer programs computers use to accomplish specific tasks.