Glossary

Words are hard. A glossary, even for a small project, greatly reduces cognitive load and makes work easier. I started this practice after reading Domain-Driven Design by Eric Evans, who coined the term ubiquitous language. These definitions are not perfect and are subject to change :)

501(c)(6): A designation for American non-profits focused around business and commerce. See also OpenJS Foundation.
.NET: Pronounced and sometimes written `dotnet`. An open-source software toolkit developed by Microsoft.
AI: artificial intelligence
AI effect: The reclassification of actions from "AI" to "not AI."
app: In software, an app is an application.
appellation of origin: A geographical indication for products named after the region in which they are produced. The product's defining characteristics are essentially due to the geographical environment in which they're produced. See also Lisbon Agreement, Parmesan.
application: In software, an application is a standalone program that performs a set of functionality for a user. An application can be available as a service access through a website or as a product downloaded to the user's computer. Many applications today are distributed, where some functionality occurs on the user's computer and other functionality is done in a set of servers managed by the application provider ("the cloud").
article: In my blog, an article is a natural language series of paragraphs and whatnot. Generally posted at a specific time and only updated to fix typos and mistakes, not to add new information.
artificial intelligence: The ability to do something that seems smart. More complex definitions exist, but are not agreed upon. Artificial intelligence is mostly a buzzword. Arguably, a basic calculator is AI. Since the release of ChatGPT, most mentions of AI are references to generative AI.
Atom (text editor): A cross-platform, Electron-based, open-source, highly customizable editor maintained by GitHub and discontinued in 2022 in favor of Visual Studio Code.
blog: My blog is a homepage and a set of posts.
boxel: Voxels that are boxes, like in Minecraft. Usually wrapped in scare quotes as it's a term I made up 🤓
border czar: In American politics, this term was first used by media in the late '90s to describe Alan Bersin, whose official title was U.S. attorney and Special Representative for the Southwest Border, Department of Justice. Under Trump's second administration, czar titles became official for the first time, with Trump appointing Tom Homan as the Border Czar, reporting directly to Trump, on 2025-01-20. See also czar.
bulb (botany): a short underground stem with fleshy leaves or leaf bases that function as food storage organs during dormancy
Bun: A TypeScript toolkit originally by an independent team that includes its own runtime and more. Ultimately owned by Anthropic.
buzzword: A stock phrase that has become nonsense through endless repetition.
browser: A browser is a tool for listing, viewing, and navigating between records of a certain type: webpages, files, etc. In context, 'browser' may refer specifically to a web browser, file browser, or other particular browser.
C#: Pronounced and sometimes written `C Sharp`. An open-source programming language developed by Microsoft.
CASA: In my life, the acronym stands for Court Appointed Special Advocate, part of the National CASA/GAL Association, a nationwide American organization for children who experience abuse or neglect. A CASA volunteer, sometimes referred to as "a CASA," are parties to legal cases and tasked with gathering information and advocating on behalf of the child's best interests.
chatbot: An app that simulates a conversation with a user.
ChatGPT: A generative AI app released by OpenAI on 2022-11-30.
Claude (GenAI): A generative AI app released by Anthropic in March 2023.
Claude Code: A developer-focused generative AI app released by Anthropic in February 2025.
Claude Haiku: A line of LLMs whose first entry was released by Anthropic on 2024-03-13. Less powerful than Claude Sonnet and Claude Opus.
Claude Mythos: An Anthropic-developed LLM first learned of through leaked blog post drafts on 2026-03-26. A version was released privately as Claude Mythos Preview under Project Glasswing to select companies on 2026-04-07. Upon private release, Anthropic announced '[w]e do not plan to make Claude Mythos Preview generally available, but our eventual goal is to enable our users to safely deploy Mythos-class models at scale'.
Claude Opus: A line of LLMs whose first entry was released by Anthropic on 2024-03-04. More powerful than Claude Haiku and Claude Sonnet.
Claude Sonnet: A line of LLMs whose first entry was released by Anthropic on 2024-03-04. More powerful than Claude Haiku, less powerful than Claude Opus.
clove (garlic): A fleshy section of a bulb, usually 10-20 per bulb.
Chromium: An open-source web browser. Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and other browsers are Chromium wrappers. Ultimately owned by Google.
CJS: CommonJS module, the original way of using multiple JS files in a project. See also ESM.
CLS: In software UX design, Cumulative Layout Shift. Refers to pieces of content moving after they've been presented to the user, often due to other pieces of content appearing on a delay.
code coverage: A usually-ambiguous term referring to some form of test coverage
cognitive load: Mental effort, usually to solve complex problems.
coverage: Test coverage
C Sharp: C#
CSS: Cascading Style Sheets, a computer language designed for styling websites, first released in 1996.
CWE: Common Weakness Enumeration
CVSS: Common Vulnerability Scoring System
czar: In American politics, this is a mostly unofficial term to refer to officials appointed by the US president to handle specific issues. It follows a tradition of unofficial czar titles for simplification dating back to 1919's "industry czar." Trump made the term part of official titles for the first time in American politics during his second administration, naming a White House AI and Crypto Czar, Border Czar, and Pardon Czar. Despite this, the titles are still usually put in scare quotes by other publications. See also border czar.
deets: details
Deno: A TypeScript toolkit by the creator of Node.js that includes its own runtime and more. Ultimately owned by 'the Deno authors.'
dividend: The number that is split in division. In `6 / 2`, `6` is the dividend. See also divisor.
divisor: The number that goes into the other one in division. In `6 / 2`, `2` is the divisor. See also dividend.
dotnet: .NET
Ecma: Organization that defines ECMAScript. Short for Ecma International, originally short for European Computer Manufacturers Association.
ECMAScript: A specification of how website scripting languages must behave. JavaScript is the most popular implementation of ECMAScript. See also TypeScript.
Electron (software): A framework for creating desktop applications based on web technologies. Created by GitHub in 2013 and donated to the OpenJS Foundation in 2019.
engine: In software, an engine is a system used to execute code. Common JavaScript engines are JavaScriptCore and V8.
ESM: ECMAScript modules, the modern way of using multiple JS files in a project. See also CJS.
FOSS: free and open-source software. See also libre.
garlic: A bulbous flowering plant used as a seasoning, culinary ingredient, and traditional medical remedy.
GenAI: generative AI
generative AI: A type of artificial intelligence that generates content based on its input. Contrast this with non-generative AI, such as a chess engine, that outputs a chess move. ChatGPT is the most famous modern example of generative AI.
geographical indication: As defined by WIPO: "a sign used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin." See also appellation of origin.
GitHub: A developer operations platform created in 2008 and acquired by Microsoft in 2018.
GPT: Generative pre-trained transformer, a machine learning architecture commonly used for modern LLMs. Coined by OpenAI in a research paper in 2018, the term is generic and not protected by copyright.
graph theory: The study of pairwise relationships. For example, a social network graph could have a set of nodes, where each node represents a person. Then, we draw a line from each person to each of their friends. We call each line an edge. The same can be done for road networks and many other concepts.
gratis: Something available without costing money. There are often other terms of access, like data collection or a restriction on duplication. "Free as in free beer if you sign up for my newsletter." See also libre.
grep: global, regular expression, print. A shell utility defined by POSIX for searching for text in a group of files.
GUI: In software, a graphical user interface. The elements of the UI are presented visually, with graphical buttons. Popular web browsers like Chrome, Edge, and Safari are all GUI-based, as are nearly all consumer-grade software applications.
Haiku (GenAI): Claude Haiku
hardware: Physical devices like a keyboard, mouse, and monitor. Also applies to non-digital domains: a wrench, a hammer, etc. See also software.
hawk: In American politics, a hawk is someone who advocates fiercely for a cause or policy. Coined in 1792, war hawks were and are people who advocated for going to war in peacetime. When used without qualifications, it generally refers to war hawks. See also liberal hawk.
HTML: Hypertext Markup Language, a markup language designed to specify the content of a website, first released in 1993.
IDE (software): Integrated development environment, an app that provides many tools for creating and reviewing software. Common pieces include a debugger, syntax highlighting, diff viewers, and integrated terminals. Modern IDEs are usually extensible with community-created plugins for advanced or niche tools. See also text editor, Visual Studio.
IRC: Internet Relay Chat
JavaScript: A programming language released in 1995 and originally built for website interactivity. See also ECMAScript.
JavaScriptCore: A JavaScript engine used by WebKit and Bun.
JS: JavaScript
knowledge elicitation: The process of gathering information from people.
liberal hawk: A politically liberal person, in the American sense of the term, who is also a war hawk. See also hawk.
libre: Something that is available with minimal limitations, but may still cost money to access. From the Latin līber, like liberty. "Free as in free speech, not free beer." See also FOSS, gratis, open-source.
Lisbon Agreement: An agreement first signed in 1958 allowing countries to protect appellations of origin in all signatory countries.
LLM: Large language model. A statistical representation of natural language used in modern chatbots.
Luanti: An open-source 'boxel' game creation system including a game engine, distribution platform, and application for players.
magic (software): A value or file with no other direct reference in app source that's still valuable for the application or its developers. For example, `.gitignore` is a magic file used by Git for developers to mark files that don't need to be tracked. Also refers to file signatures, bytes used at the beginning of a file to denote the type.
MCVE: minimum complete verifiable example
Mocha: A test framework for Node and web browsers owned by the OpenJS Foundation.
natural language: A language used by people to communicate, like English, Arabic, or American Sign Language. See also programming language.
Node: In frontend software, it's often shorthand for Node.js. When not capitalized (`node`), may refer to a node in a graph. See also graph theory.
Node.js: A JavaScript runtime wrapped around V8.
notes: In my blog, a page of notes is a series of nested bulleted lists with many sources and analyses, not necessarily meant to be read in order. The same page may be frequently updated with additional information. A large page of notes may be split into multiple smaller pages for organization.
npm: The default package manager for Node.js. Open-source and ultimately owned by Microsoft. See also package manager.
Opus (GenAI): Claude Opus
OpenAI: A GenAI company and creator of ChatGPT.
OpenJSF: OpenJS Foundation
OpenJS Foundation: An American non-profit 501(c)(6) that promotes web technologies. Electron and Mocha are two of many projects owned by the OpenJS Foundation.
open-source: Software that is available to inspect, download, copy, and redistribute with minimal limitations. The most common limitation is that any distributed copies must also be open-source. Some open-source projects require monetary payment to access. See also libre.
package manager: A system for managing external modules for a project. For JavaScript, common package managers are Bun, Deno, npm, pnpm, and yarn.
Parmesan: A type of cheese. In European Union and Lisbon Agreement countries, it's always Parmigiano Reggiano. Outside of those countries, it may refer to a local analog. Named after Parma and Reggio Emilia, two provinces in Italy where it's produced. See also appellation of origin.
pici: Thick, hand-rolled pasta, like fat spaghetti.
pnpm: A package manager for JavaScript, developed as "performant npm" built by a different team than npm.
pomodoro: The Italian word for tomato.
POSIX: Portable Operating System Interface. The X is unused. A set of IEEE standards defining the Shell programming language, common utilities, and more.
post: In my blog, a post is either an article or a page of notes.
programming language: A language designed for developers to communicate with computers. Programming languages often include unambiguous syntax to ensure instructions are executed the same way every time.
regex: regular expression
regular expression: A sequence of characters that specifies a match pattern in text. For example, `^a+(b|c)$` matches `aaab` and `ac` but not `abc`
require(ESM): A compatibility feature in Node.js for CJS projects to work with ESM projects.
requirements coverage: A form of test coverage that considers documented requirements.
Roslyn (software): The public codename for Microsoft's open-source .NET compiler platform APIs, used to compile C# and Visual Basic as well as provide developer-facing tools like IntelliSense suggestions in IDEs. Named after a city in Washington, the state where Microsoft is headquartered.
RSS: Really Simple Syndication or Resource Description Framework Site Summary
runtime: A system used to both execute code and interact with 'external' software objects. For example, in JavaScript, an engine can run `1 + 1`, but only a runtime can interact with the `document` object on a webpage. Common JavaScript runtimes are Bun, Deno, and Node.js.
scare quotes: Quotation marks wrapped around a non-standard term, e.g. "Bacteria can 'walk' across the surface of your teeth."
scenario coverage: A form of test coverage that considers real-world scenarios, not just lines of code. For example, a single line of code might call `IsNullOrWhiteSpace` and have full condition coverage with two tests, but would require several tests for scenario coverage: `null`, empty string, string with all spaces, string with all tabs, string with mix of other whitespace, etc. Also useful when automated coverage reporting is unavailable, e.g. in integration or end-to-end tests. Sometimes referred to by others as code coverage. Scenario coverage is a term I made up, but a common concept in the industry.
slug (software): The part of a URL after the top-level domain (TLD). For instance, the slug of `https://markwiemer.com/glossary#software?hello=world` is `/glossary#software?hello=world`
software: Non-physical digital technology. This website is software, but your monitor or phone are not software. See also hardware.
Sonnet (GenAI): Claude Sonnet
TACO: Trump Always Chickens Out. Coined May 2025 in reference to Trump-announced tariffs, which were often delayed or entirely cancelled. It's since been used to reference many of Trump's subsequent actions.
TDS: Trump Derangement Syndrome. Originally following in the footsteps of Bush Derangement Syndrome and others like it, it remains primarily used by Trump supporters to criticize anti-Trump people, claiming that anti-Trumpers are against everything Trump does because it's Trump doing it. However, unlike previous president derangement syndromes, TDS is now being used by anti-Trump people to criticize Trump supporters, claiming that they're in favor of everything Trump does because it's Trump doing it.
test coverage: A measure of how much of a software project is covered by automated tests. Common metrics are lines of code (line coverage aka statement coverage), branches executed (branch coverage), functions called (function coverage), and conditional values evaluated (condition coverage). See also code coverage, scenario coverage, requirements coverage.
test framework: A software tool for writing automated tests for a project.
text editor: A programming for working with text-based documents, like basic notes or programming source code. Advanced text editors may also be considered IDEs. See also Atom, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Zed.
TLD: top-level domain
toolkit: A set of related tools to accomplish a variety of tasks. Number of tools and scope of work accomplished by the tools varies widely.
top-level domain: A top-level domain, or TLD, is the "main" part of a URL. For instance, the TLD of `https://markwiemer.com/glossary` is `markwiemer.com`
Trump: Donald Trump, 45th and 47th president of the United States. See also border czar, TACO, TDS.
TUI: Terminal user interface. Some developer-facing applications run entirely in a terminal application and are limited to rendering text. TUI-based apps often have a different design philosophy and target audience than GUI-based apps.
"type": "module": A package.json property instructing Node to load modules using ESM instead of CJS.
TypeScript: An open-source superset of JavaScript that adds and enforces types. Originally, TypeScript had to be transpiled to JavaScript outside of most runtimes. Now, transpilation or direct TypeScript execution is bundled to varying degrees in common runtimes. As such, the terms 'JavaScript' and 'TypeScript' are becoming increasingly interchangeable. Ultimately owned by Microsoft.
ubiquitous language: A common set of terms used in a cross-disciplinary team to improve communication.
UI: User interface. In software, this often refers to the layout and visual appearance of buttons, icons, and other visual elements on a given page. See also UX.
UI/UX: A joint consideration of both UI and UX. As the two fields are closely related, some teams have one person fulfill both roles.
UNCTAD: United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
URI: Uniform Resource Identifier. Formerly Universal Resource Identifier. All URLs are URIs, but not all URIs are URLs.
URL: Uniform Resource Locator. This is the thing you type into the address bar of your browser to go to different websites. For example, the URL of this page is `https://markwiemer.com/glossary`, and the URL to this word is `https://markwiemer.com/glossary#url`. See also URI, slug, top-level domain.
UX: User experience. In software, often refers to GUIs and the user journey through an application.
UX/UI: See UI/UX.
V8: In software, V8 is a JavaScript engine used by Node.js, Chromium, and more.
VB: Visual Basic
Visual Basic: A Microsoft-built programming language. The first iteration, now known as "Classic Visual Basic," was released in 1991 and is no longer supported. The modern version, originally known as "Visual Basic (.NET)," was first released in 2001.
Visual Studio: A closed-source Windows-only IDE originally developed for .NET, now with extensions for many frameworks and languages. Created and maintained by Microsoft. See also Visual Studio Code.
Visual Studio Code: An open-source cross-platform Electron-based IDE with official and community-created plugins for many frameworks and languages. Created and maintained by Microsoft. See also Visual Studio.
VS Code: Visual Studio Code
voxel: Volume element, often in reference to player-editable 3D terrain, like in Minecraft or Astroneer. See also boxel.
WebKit: The browser engine for Apple devices.
web technologies: Usually in reference to HTML (content), CSS (style), and JavaScript (interactivity), the three technologies present in nearly all websites.
WIPO: World Intellectual Property Organization
wrapper: A piece of software whose core functionality is provided by the software it wraps.
Zed (text editor): A cross-platform Rust-based spiritual successor to Atom, open-sourced in 2024. Its name comes from `Z` as the last, or ultimate, and `ed` for editor.
Zod (JavaScript): A TypeScript-based validation library that also works with vanilla JavaScript.

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Glossary