Glossary

application protocol

In computer network programming, the application layer is an abstraction layer reserved for communications protocols and methods designed for process-to- process communications across an Internet Protocol (IP) computer network. Application layer protocols use the underlying transport layer protocols to establish host-to-host connections.

binary stream

A binary file is a computer file that is not a text file; it may contain any type of data, encoded in binary form for computer storage and processing purposes. Many binary file formats contain parts that can be interpreted as text; for example, some computer document files containing formatted text, such as older Microsoft Word document files, contain the text of the document but also contain formatting information in binary form.

declarative

In computer science, declarative programming is a programming paradigm that expresses the logic of a computation without describing its control flow. Many languages applying this style attempt to minimize or eliminate side effects by describing what the program should accomplish, rather than describing how to go about accomplishing it (the how is left up to the language’s implementation). This is in contrast with imperative programming, in which algorithms are implemented in terms of explicit steps.

django

Django is an open source web application framework, written in Python, which follows the model–view–controller architectural pattern. It was originally developed to manage several news- oriented sites for The World Company of Lawrence, Kansas, and was released publicly under a BSD license in July 2005; the framework was named after guitarist Django Reinhardt. In June 2008 it was announced that a newly formed Django Software Foundation will maintain Django in the future. https://djangoproject.com/

namedtuple

Returns a new tuple subclass named typename. The new subclass is used to create tuple-like objects that have fields accessible by attribute lookup as well as being indexable and iterable. Instances of the subclass also have a helpful docstring (with typename and field_names) and a helpful __repr__() method which lists the tuple contents in a name=value format. http://docs.python.org/2/library/collections.html#collections.namedtuple

package

A Python package is a module defined by a directory, containing a __init__.py file, and can contain other modules or other packages within it.

package/
    __init__.py
    subpackage/
        __init__.py
    submodule.py

see also, namespace package

packet

In computer networking, a packet is a formatted unit of data carried by a packet mode computer network. Computer communications links that do not support packets, such as traditional point-to-point telecommunications links, simply transmit data as a series of bytes, characters, or bits alone. When data is formatted into packets, the bitrate of the communication medium can be better shared among users than if the network were circuit switched.

struct

This module performs conversions between Python values and C structs represented as Python strings. This can be used in handling binary data stored in files or from network connections, among other sources. It uses Format Strings as compact descriptions of the layout of the C structs and the intended conversion to/from Python values. http://docs.python.org/2/library/struct.html