code

Webster's Dictionary (1913)

Origin: F., fr. L. codex, caudex, the stock or stem of a tree, a board or tablet of wood smeared over with wax, on which the ancients originally wrote; hence, a book, a writing.

1. A body of law, sanctioned by legislation, in which the rules of law to be specifically applied by the courts are set forth in systematic form; a compilation of laws by public authority; a digest.

☞ The collection of laws made by the order of Justinian is sometimes called, by way of eminence, “The Code”. Francis Wharton

2. Any system of rules or regulations relating to one subject; as, the medical code, a system of rules for the regulation of the professional conduct of physicians.

3. Any set of symbols or combinations of symbols used for communication in any medium, such as by telegraph or semaphore. See Morse code, and error-correcting code.

A system of rules for making communications at sea by means of signals has been referred to as the naval code.

4. Any set of standards established by the governing authority of a geopolitical entity restricting the ways that certain activities may be performed, especially the manner in which buildings or specific systems within buildings may be constructed; as, a building code; a plumbing code; a health code.

5. Any system used for secrecy in communication, in which the content of a communication is converted, prior to transmission, into symbols whose meaning is known only to authorized recipients of the message; such codes are used to prevent unauthorized persons from learning the content of the communication. The process of converting a communication into secret symbols by means of a code is called encoding or encryption. However, unauthorized persons may learn the code by various means, as in code-breaking.

6. An error-correcting code. See below.

7. Computers The set of instructions for a computer program written by a programmer, usually in a programming language such as Fortran, C, Cobol, Java, C++, etc.; also, the executable binary object code. All such programs except for the binary object code must be converted by a compiler program into object code, which is the arrangement of data bits which can be directly interpreted by a computer.

Code civil or Code Napoleon, a code enacted in France in 1803 and 1804, embodying the law of rights of persons and of property generally. Abbot. error-correcting code Computers A set of symbols used to represent blocks of binary data, in which the original block of data is represented by a larger block of data which includes additional bits arranged in such a way that the original data may be read even if one or more of the bits of the encoded data is changed, as in a noisy communicaiton channel. Various codes are available which can correct different numbers or patterns of errors in the transmitted data. Such codes are used to achieve higher accuracy in data transmission, and in data storage devices such as disk drives and tape drives. object code Computers the arrangement of bits stored in computer memory or a data storage device which, when fed to the instruction processor of a computer's central processing unit, can be interpreted directly as instructions for execution. genetic code Biochemistry, genetics The set of correspondences between sequences of three bases (codons) in a RNA chain to the amino acid which those three bases represent in the process of protein synthesis. Thus, the sequence UUU codes for phenylalanine, and AUG codes for methionine. There are twenty-one naturally-occurring amino acids, and sixty-four possible arrangements of three bases in RNA; thus some of the amino acids are represented by more than one codon. Several codons do not represent amino acids, but cause termination of the synthesis of a growing amnio acid chain.

The genetic code is represented by the following table: The Genetic Code ===================================================== UUU Phenylalanine (Phe) AUU Isoleucine (Ile) UCU Serine (Ser) ACU Threonine (Thr) UAU Tyrosine (Tyr) AAU Asparagine (Asn) UGU Cysteine (Cys) AGU Serine (Ser) UUC Phe AUC Ile UCC Ser ACC Thr UAC Tyr AAC Asn UGC Cys AGC Ser UUA Leucine (Leu) AUA Ile UCA Ser ACA Thr UAA STOP AAA Lysine (Lys) UGA STOP AGA Arginine (Arg) UUG Leu AUG Methionine (Met) or START UCG Ser ACG Thr UAG STOP AAG Lys UGG Tryptophan (Trp) AGG Arg CUU Leucine (Leu) GUU Valine Val CCU Proline (Pro) GCU Alanine (Ala) CAU Histidine (His) GAU Aspartic acid (Asp) CGU Arginine (Arg) GGU Glycine (Gly) CUC Leu GUC (Val) CCU Pro GCC Ala CAC His GAC Asp CGC Arg GGC Gly CUA Leu GUA Val CCA Pro GCA Ala CAA Glutamine (Gln) GAA Glutamic acid (Glu) CGA Arg GGA Gly CUG Leu GUG Val CCG Pro GCG Ala CAG Gln GAG Glu CGG Arg GGG Gly

1. To convert (a text or other information) into a encoded form by means of a code{5}.

2. To write a computer program in a programming language; as, to code a sorting routine.

Biochemistry, genetics To serve as the nucleotide sequence directing the synthesis of a particular amino acid or sequence of amino acids in protein biosynthesis; as, this sequence of nucleotides encodes the hemoglobin alpha chain..

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54 · with additions: +PJC, GCIDE editors

Free On-line Dictionary of Computing

1.<software> Instructions for a computer in some programming language, often machine language (machine code).

The word "code" is often used to distinguish instructions from data (e.g. "The code is marked 'read-only'") whereas the word "software" is used in contrast with "hardware" and may consist of more than just code.

(2000-04-08)

2.<cryptography> Some method of encryption or the resulting encrypted message.

(2006-11-10)

The Jargon File

1.n. The stuff that software writers write, either in source form or after translation by a compiler or assembler. Often used in opposition to “data”, which is the stuff that code operates on. Among hackers this is a mass noun, as in “How much code does it take to do a bubble sort?”, or “The code is loaded at the high end of RAM.” Among scientific programmers it is sometimes a count noun equilvalent to “program”; thus they may speak of “ codes” in the plural. Anyone referring to software as “the software codes” is probably a newbie or a suit.

2.v. To write code. In this sense, always refers to source code rather than compiled. “I coded an Emacs clone in two hours!” This verb is a bit of a cultural marker associated with the Unix and minicomputer traditions (and lately Linux); people within that culture prefer v. ‘code’ to v. ‘program’ whereas outside it the reverse is normally true.