MUMPS Programming/Glossary

Glossary for MUMPS Programming webpages

Algorithms
An algorithm is a way of writing down a recipe or list of things to do which is intended for a computer to follow. The word algorithm is Computer Speak. Just like the rhythm of a song provides a framework when singing, an algorithm provides the skeleton for the ideas written in a Computer Language

Bar
Bar is part of Foobar. See Foobar.

Blargh
This is just a word that I made up for this example. Blargh is not Computer Speak.

Computer Speak
Computer Speak is a special language that computer people use to talk about ideas, sometimes using a made up word for something that would otherwise take a lot longer to say. It is not the language that computer people use to tell the computer something. That is a Computer Language like  MUMPS.

Computer Language
A Computer Language is a very limited form of language that is simple enough for a computer to follow the commands, and do something with the data. Generally, a computer language has a syntax and a grammar that is very precise, with only one way to describe what the computer programmer expects the computer to do. There are hundreds of computer languages in the world. MUMPS is a computer language commonly used to keep track of medical records.

Foo
Foo is part of Foobar. see Foobar.

Foobar
Foobar (some people spell it FUBAR) is a made up word from many years before computers were around. Sometimes computer people use part of the word like foo or bar as a name, and sometimes they use Foobar just so they have a name for things they are talking about that don't normally have names.

Data
Data is Computer Speak for things that are stored in a computer. It might be a word, a number, a picture, or any other stuff that you want the computer to save and later be able to give back to you. Sometimes you want the computer to do something else with the data other than just to give it back. The things you can tell the computer to do are called Programs

Data Structures
Data Structures is Computer Speak for the shape of things stored in a computer. Every thing in a computer has some shape. The different shapes determine what you can do with the computer Data.

Programs
The word Program is Computer Speak. A Program is a list of things that you want a computer to do. Programs usually have names, and usually do stuff to things in the computer called Data. Computer People write programs because they don't want to constantly give commands to the computer telling it what to do.

Recipe
The word recipe is not Computer Speak. It is the list of things to get together before cooking or making some food, and the list of things to do to combine the things together to make the food.

MUMPS
MUMPS is a computer language created at Massachusetts General Hospital in the late 1960s. It has changed over the years, and currently can do a lot of things that are difficult to do in other languages. It has special features in it that make it easier to handle the things computers for medicine need done.

Quux
Quux (pronounced like "Quacks" with a "u" sound) is a made up word that isn't commonly a part of Computer Speak. Many computer people use quux as a made up name so they can talk about things that they don't have any better name to use.