
[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin cōdex, book. See codex.]
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(1) A set of machine symbols that represents data or instructions. See data code and machine language.
(2) Any representation of one set of data for another. For example, a parts code is an abbreviated name of a product, product type or category. A discount code is a percentage.
(3) To write a program. See coding, source code and line of code.
(4) To encode for security purposes. See cryptography and coding.
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Symbolic representation of a piece of information, such as a social security number that represents a U.S. Citizen in, various file systems. Used for many purposes, codes store information efficiently in computer files and help to organize output from those files in a meaningful way. Codes assigned to various types of promotions such as direct-mail packages, cents-off coupons, space ads, and catalog order forms are used as the basis for organizing the results of those promotions in response analysis reports. See also alphanumeric; key code; matchcode.
| Cobra, Cobol, Coach Fare | |
| Code of Ethics, Code of Professional Responsibility, Codicil |
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.
n. 1. any system of communication in which arbitrary groups of symbols represent units of plain text of varying length. Codes may be used for brevity or for security.
2. a crypto-system in which the cryptographic equivalents (usually called “code groups”) typically consisting of letters or digits (or both) in otherwise meaningless combinations are substituted for plain text elements which are primarily words, phrases, or sentences.
See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.
code, a shared set of rules or conventions by which signs can be combined to permit a message to be communicated from one person to another; it may consist of a language in the normal sense (e.g. English, Urdu) or of a smaller‐scale ‘language’ such as the set of hand‐signals, horns, grimaces, and flashing lights used by motorists. The code is one of the six essential elements in Roman Jakobson's influential theory of communication (see function), and has an important place in structuralist theories, which stress the extent to which messages (including literary works) call upon already coded meanings rather than fresh revelations of raw reality. An important work in this connection is Roland Barthes's S/Z (1970), in which a story by Balzac is broken down into five codes, ranging from the ‘hermeneutic code’ (which sets up a mystery and delays its solution) to the ‘cultural code’ (which refers to accepted prejudices, stereotypes, and values).
Verbs: codify, decode, encode.
1. A legal instrument adopted within a political jurisdiction (such as a town, county, state, province, parish, etc.) that prescribes the minimum acceptable levels of the design, construction, installation, and performance of materials, components, devices, items of equipment, appliances used in a building, or building systems and/or subsystems.
2. A published body of rules and regulations for building practices, materials, and installations, designed to protect the health, welfare, and safety of the public, such as a building code, health code, etc. Codes established by municipal, state, or federal authorities usually have the power of law.
Generally speaking, information theory shows that for any particular application there is an optimum code; it does not, unfortunately, tell how to devise the code. Morse code, consisting of a series of dots and dashes, or marks and spaces, is commonly used in telegraphy. In a computer, information is digitally encoded as strings of binary digits or bits. ASCII, the American Standard Code for Information Interchange, and Unicode are two ways representing alphanumeric characters in a binary form.
Special error-detecting codes are used extensively in digital systems to ensure the successful transfer of data. One method uses an extra bit, called a parity-check bit; if each bit is considered as a 1 or 0 (depending on whether or not it is set), the sum of a fixed number of bits can be made even (or odd) by properly setting the parity bit to a one or zero. Errors are detected on the receiving end simply by checking whether each received word is even (or odd). Audio data on a compact disc is digitally encoded and a special error correcting code is used to detect and correct errors that may have been introduced through manufacturing error or are created during the reading or playing process.
Certain arbitrary codes are used to ensure secrecy of communication; merely the message, without the rules by which the symbols are associated, will not provide an eavesdropper with an understandable version of it. See cryptography; signaling.
Bibliography
See P. Lunde, ed., The Book of Codes (2009).
A systematic and comprehensive compilation of laws, rules, or regulations that are consolidated and classified according to subject matter.
Many states have published official codes of all laws in force, including the common law and statutes as judicially interpreted, that have been compiled by code commissions and enacted by legislatures. The U.S. Code (U.S.C.) is the compilation of federal laws.
(DOD) 1. Any system of communication in which arbitrary groups of symbols represent units of plain text of varying length. Codes may be used for brevity or for security. 2. A cryptosystem in which the cryptographic equivalents (usually called "code groups"), typically consisting of letters or digits (or both) in otherwise meaningless combinations, are substituted for plain text elements which are primarily words, phrases, or sentences. See also cryptosystem.
"You, who are on the road, must have a code that you can live by-"
— Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
Tutor's tip: A "coda" is a summarizing part that is somehow separate from the whole, a "code" is a set of symbols, while a "coed" is either a female student or a term that indicates a school has both make and female students.
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| cod-liver oil, cocktail, cochromatography | |
| coded amino acid, codehydrase I, codehydrase II |
1. a set of rules governing one's conduct. Called also ethical code.
2. a system by which information can be communicated.
3. a set of alphabetical or numerical markers which are an index to a much larger bank of information.
1. a system of recording information by symbols so that only selected people will know the meaning. Used also to conserve space. 2. a systematic statement.

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Coding may refer to:
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - kode, kodet tekst, kodeks, moral
v. tr. - omsætte til kode
v. intr. - specificere den genetiske kode for en aminosyre, få hjertestop
idioms:
Nederlands (Dutch)
code, wetboek, (gedrags)voor- schriften, telefonisch kengetal, geldende normen, coderen
Français (French)
n. - code, règlements, code civil, code de conduite, code (message), (Fin) code (de succursale), (Télécom) indicatif, (Comput) code
v. tr. - (gén, Comput) coder
v. intr. - (Gén) déterminer le code de, faire un arrêt cardiaque
idioms:
Deutsch (German)
v. - kodieren, chiffrieren, verschlüsseln
n. - Kodex, Gesetzbuch, Vorwahl, Kode, Geheimschrift
idioms:
Ελληνική (Greek)
v. - κωδικοποιώ, κωδικογραφώ
n. - κώδικας
idioms:
Italiano (Italian)
codificare, cifrare, codice, prefisso
idioms:
Português (Portuguese)
v. - codificar, cifrar, traduzir em código
n. - código (m), cifra (f), coleção (f) de leis
idioms:
Русский (Russian)
кодировать, кодекс, нормативное положение, код, поведение по данным традициям
idioms:
Español (Spanish)
n. - código, código civil, prefijo, cifra, clave
v. tr. - cifrar, codificar
v. intr. - poner en clave, poner en código
idioms:
Svenska (Swedish)
v. - koda, kodifiera
n. - lagsamling, kod
中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
编码, 电码, 法典, 把...编码, 制成法典, 指定遗传密码
idioms:
中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 編碼, 電碼, 法典
v. tr. - 把...編碼, 製成法典
v. intr. - 指定遺傳密碼
idioms:
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 법전, 규약, 암호, 부호
v. tr. - 법전으로 작성하다, 암호로 하다, ~을 코드화하다
v. intr. - 유전암호를 지정하다
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 符号, 暗号, 規則, 法典
v. - 暗号にする, 符号化する
idioms:
العربيه (Arabic)
(فعل) شفر, حول رساله الى رموز (الاسم) قانون, شريعه, نظام, شفرة, رموز
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - צופן, קוד, עקרונות, כללים, קובץ חוקים, טקסט של תוכנת מחשב, המוסר השולט בחברה מסוימת, מוסר התנהגות אישי
v. tr. - רשם בכתב-סתרים, קודד, הצפין, ציפן
v. intr. - היה הצופן הגנטי ל-
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