This file documents various terms and definitions used throughout the Node.js community.

* **ABI**: [Application Binary Interface][] - Defines the interface between two binary program modules.

* **AFAICT**: As Far As I Can Tell.

* **AFAIK**: As Far As I Know.

* **API**: [Application Programming Interface][] - A set of rules and protocols that allows different software

applications to communicate with each other. APIs are used to enable integration between different systems.

* **ASAP**: As Soon As Possible.

* **BE**: Big [Endian][] - A Byte Order where the largest bit comes first. The opposite of **LE**.

* **Bootstrap**: Early phase in the Node.js process startup - sets up the execution environment and loads internal

modules.

* **CI**: [Continuous Integration][] - Development practice where code changes are frequently merged into a shared

repository.

* **CITGM**: Canary In The Gold Mine - A smoke test that tests the code change with popular npm packages.

* **CJS**: [CommonJS][] - Standard for JavaScript modules, and in most cases, [CommonJS Modules][].

* **CLDR**: [Common Locale Data Repository][] - A repository of locale data used in software engineering.

* **CLI**: [Command Line Interface][] - A way to interact with a computer program using text commands.

* **Code cache**: Chunk of bytes storing compiled JS code and its metadata.

* **CVE**: [Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures][] - Database maintaining reported security vulnerabilities.

* **Deps**: Dependencies - Upstream projects that this project depends on.

* **DOM**: [Document Object Model][] - A programming interface for web documents. It represents the structure of a

document as a tree of objects, allowing programmers to dynamically manipulate the content and structure of a web page.

* **ECMA**: [Ecma International][] - A nonprofit standards organization that develops and publishes international

standards, including **ECMA-262**.

* **ECMA-262**: **Ecma**'s [specification document for **ECMAScript**][], maintained and updated by the **TC39**.

* **ECMAScript**: A standard for scripting languages, including **JavaScript**.

* **EOF**: [End-of-File][] - Indicates the end of a file or stream.

* **EOL**: [End-of-Life][] (when used within project documents), [End-of-Line][] (when used within a program),

End-of-Life is usually how this term is used.

* **ESM**: [ECMAScript Module][] - The implementation of the **ECMA-262** module system.

* **ETW**: [Event Tracing for Windows][] - Provides a way to trace events in Windows systems.

* **FFDC**: First Failure Data Capture - Logs, traces, and dumps produced by default on program error.

* **FIPS**: [Federal Information Processing Standards][] - Set of standards for use in computer systems by non-military

government agencies and government contractors.

* **FS**: File System.

* **Godbolt**: [Compiler Explorer][] - Tool for running compilers interactively from a web browser.

* **HTTP**: [HyperText Transfer Protocol][] - An application protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia

information systems. It is the foundation of data communication on the World Wide Web.

* **ICU**: [International Components for Unicode][] - Library providing support for Unicode.

* **IDE**: [Integrated Development Environment][] - A software application that provides comprehensive facilities to

computer programmers for software development.

* **IETF**: [Internet Engineering Task Force][] - An international community responsible for developing and promoting

Internet standards.

* **IIRC**: If I Recall Correctly.

* **IIUC**: If I Understand Correctly.

* **IMHO**: In My Humble/Honest Opinion.

* **IMO**: In My Opinion.

* **IPC**: [Inter-Process Communication][] - Mechanism allowing processes to communicate with each other.

* **JIT**: [Just In Time][] - Method of executing computer code during runtime.

* **JS**: [JavaScript][] - A high-level, interpreted programming language that conforms to the **ECMAScript**

specification.

* **JS/C++ boundary**: Boundary between V8's runtime and JS code execution, often crossed when calling JS functions

with C++ linkage.

* **JSON**: [JavaScript Object Notation][] - A lightweight data-interchange format that is easy for humans to read and

write and for machines to parse and generate. It is commonly used for transmitting data between a server and a

web application.

* **LE**: Little [Endian][] - A Byte Order where the smallest bit comes first. The opposite of **BE**.

* **LGTM/SGTM**: Looks/Sounds good to me.

* **LTS**: [Long Term Support][] - Support provided for a software version for an extended period.

* **MDN**: [Mozilla Development Network][] - Resource for web developers.

* **MVC**: [Model-View-Controller][] - A software design pattern commonly used for developing user interfaces. It

separates the application into three interconnected components: the model (data), the view (presentation), and the

controller (logic).

* **Native modules/addons**: Modules compiled to native code from a non-JavaScript language,

such as C or C++, that expose interfaces callable from JavaScript.

* **npm**: [npm][] - A package manager and registry widely used for managing dependencies in

Node.js projects and for sharing code with others.

* **OOB**: Out Of Bounds - Used in the context of array access.

* **OOM**: Out Of Memory - Situation where a computer program exceeds its memory allocation.

* **OOP**: [Object-Oriented Programming][] - A programming paradigm based on the concept of "objects," which can

contain data and code to manipulate that data. OOP languages include features such as encapsulation, inheritance,

and polymorphism.

* **PPC**: [PowerPC][] - A type of microprocessor architecture.

* **Primordials**: Pristine built-ins in JavaScript that are not affected by prototype pollution.

* **Prototype Pollution**: Process in which a user mutating object prototypes affects other code.

* **RAII**: [Resource Acquisition Is Initialization][] - Programming idiom used to manage resources in C++.

* **REPL**: [Read Evaluate Print Loop][] - Environment for interactive programming.

* **RFC**: [Request For Comments][] - A Document used in standardization processes.

* **RSLGTM**: Rubber-Stamp Looks Good To Me - The reviewer approves without a full code review.

* **RSS**: [Resident Set Size][] - Amount of memory occupied by a process in RAM.

* **SMP**: [Symmetric Multi-Processor][] - Architecture where multiple processors share the same memory.

* **Snapshot**: Chunk of bytes containing data serialized from a V8 heap.

* **TBH**: To Be Honest.

* **TC39**: [Ecma Technical Committee 39][], governing body over **ECMAScript**.

* **TSC**: Technical Steering Committee - Governing body within a project.

* **UI**: [User Interface][] - The point of interaction between a user and a computer program. It includes elements

such as buttons, menus, and other graphical elements that allow users to interact with the software.

* **URL**: [Uniform Resource Locator][] - A reference to a web resource that specifies its location on a computer

network and the mechanism for retrieving it, typically using the HTTP or HTTPS protocol.

* **UTF-8**: [Unicode Transformation Format - 8-bit][] - A variable-width character encoding widely used for

representing Unicode characters efficiently in byte-oriented systems.

* **V8**: [The JavaScript engine][] that powers Node.js and Chrome browser.

* **Vendoring**: Integrating external software into the project by copying its code source.

* **VM**: [The Node.js VM module][] - Provides a way of executing code within V8 Virtual Machine contexts.

* **W3C**: [World Wide Web Consortium][] - An international community that develops standards and guidelines for

various aspects of the web ecosystem.

* **WASI**: [Web Assembly System Interface][] - Interface for WebAssembly.

* **WASM**: Web Assembly - Binary instruction format for a stack-based virtual machine.

* **WG**: Working Group - Autonomous teams in the project with specific focus areas.

* **WHATWG**: [Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group][] - Community developing web standards.

* **WIP**: Work In Progress - Unfinished work that may be worth an early look.

* **WPT**: [web-platform-tests][] - Test suite for web platform APIs.

[Application Binary Interface]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_binary_interface

[Application Programming Interface]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_programming_interface

[Command Line Interface]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command-line_interface

[Common Locale Data Repository]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Locale_Data_Repository

[Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures]: https://cve.org

[CommonJS]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CommonJS

[CommonJS Modules]: https://nodejs.org/api/modules.html#modules-commonjs-modules

[Compiler Explorer]: https://godbolt.org/

[Continuous Integration]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_integration

[Document Object Model]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Document_Object_Model

[ECMAScript Module]: https://nodejs.org/api/esm.html#modules-ecmascript-modules

[Ecma International]: https://ecma.org

[Ecma Technical Committee 39]: https://tc39.es/

[End-of-File]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End-of-file

[End-of-Life]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End-of-life_product

[End-of-Line]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newline

[Endian]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endianness

[Event Tracing for Windows]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_Viewer

[Federal Information Processing Standards]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Information_Processing_Standards

[Hypertext Transfer Protocol]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol

[Integrated Development Environment]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_development_environment

[Inter-Process Communication]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter-process_communication

[International Components for Unicode]: https://icu.unicode.org/

[Internet Engineering Task Force]: https://www.ietf.org/

[JavaScript]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript

[JavaScript Object Notation]: https://www.json.org/

[Just In Time]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-in-time_compilation

[Long Term Support]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-term_support

[Model-View-Controller]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model%E2%80%93view%E2%80%93controller

[Mozilla Development Network]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US

[NPM]: https://www.npmjs.com/

[Object-Oriented Programming]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-oriented_programming

[PowerPC]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerPC

[Read Evaluate Print Loop]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Read%E2%80%93eval%E2%80%93print_loop

[Request For Comments]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Request_for_Comments

[Resident Set Size]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resident_set_size

[Resource Acquisition Is Initialization]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_acquisition_is_initialization

[Symmetric Multi-Processor]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symmetric_multiprocessing

[The JavaScript Engine]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V8_\(JavaScript_engine\)

[The Node.js VM Module]: https://nodejs.org/api/vm.html

[Unicode Transformation Format - 8-bit]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8

[Uniform Resource Locator]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URL

[User Interface]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_interface

[Web Assembly System Interface]: https://github.com/WebAssembly/WASI

[Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHATWG

[World Wide Web Consortium]: https://www.w3.org/

[specification document for **ECMAScript**]: https://ecma-international.org/publications-and-standards/standards/ecma-262/

[web-platform-tests]: https://github.com/web-platform-tests/wpt