List of abbreviations used within the FOSS community, and their definitions and usages. This list inludes more common english acronyms popular on internet.
Maintained by folks at D-EDGE.
If you have a GitHub account, you can submit a pull request to any json in the data folder.
Write out the full name when you want to introduce a term (with the acronym in brackets). Use only the acronym after this. Example:
Companies don’t usually talk about FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). Instead, they use phrases such as “shiny object syndrome” and “market expectations.” Google is a great example of how FOMO can creep in.
FOMO Is Disastrous for Company Strategies by Ruben Ugarte
If you are only going to use the acronym once, maybe don't use it at all and rely on the whole expression instead.
| Abbreviation | Definition | Usage | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| ACK | ACKnowledgement | Agreed/accepted change. A loose ACK can be confusing. It's best to avoid them unless it's a documentation/comment only change in which case there is nothing to test/verify; therefore the tested/untested distinction is not there | Humanizer, Bitcoin |
| AFAICT | As Far As I Can Tell | aiohttp | |
| AFAIK | As Far As I Know | AFAIK, he will be away for three months. | Diffract |
| AOA | Analysis of Alternatives | /r/programming | |
| ASAP | As Soon As Possible | It is an informal way to say that who wrote it is busy at the moment and will reply as soon as he can. | Britannica |
| BBL | Brown Bag Lunch | It is an informal training meeting usually performed during lunch. It is a nice way to share knowledge, train on technical, business or any kind of skills. The speaker does not have to be an expert of the topic. | brownbaglunch on Github (French) |
| CCW | Comment and Criticism Welcome | ||
| CLA | Contributor License Agreement | Play Framework, Microsoft | |
| CLI | Command Line Interface | I prefer using the CLI because it is faster. | Wikipedia page for CLI |
| CMV | Change My View | ||
| CoC | Code of Conduct | Our Code of Conduct | |
| Concept ACK | Concept ACKnowledgement | Agree with the idea and overall direction, but haven't reviewed the code changes or tested them | Bitcoin |
| DevOps | Devlopment Operations | ||
| DI/DIP | Dependency Inversion Principle | The higher-level orchestrating components should not have to know the details of their dependencies | Hacker Laws |
| DoD | Definition of Done | When all conditions, or acceptance criteria, that a software product must satisfy are met and ready to be accepted by a user, customer, team, or consuming system. | DEFINITION OF DONE |
| DRY | Don't Repeat Yourself | This is used in couple with modular programming, and emphasize on code reusability | Wikipedia |
| DTO | Data Transfer Object | DTO Wikipedia | |
| DX | Developer Experience | Guidelines to make onboarding and development of a project easy to get into and maintain | Near (Github) |
| EBKAC | Error Between Keyboard And Chair | It's an error made by the human user of a complex system, usually a computer system, in interacting with it. | User error |
| ETA | Estimated Time of Arrival | To ask when something will be ready | /r/fsharp |
| FOMO | Fear Of Missing Out | The feeling of apprehension that one is either not in the know or missing out on information, events, experiences, or life decisions that could make one's life better | Hacker News |
| FOSS/FLOSS | Free & Open Source Software | That is both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source code is openly shared so that people are encouraged to voluntarily improve the design of the software | FOSS/FLOSS |
| FOUC | Flash Of Unstyled Content | When a web page appears briefly with the browser's default styles prior to loading an external CSS stylesheet | md-block, Wikipedia |
| FP | Functional Programming | ||
| FYA | For Your Action | When you ask someone to do something usually on an email or correspondence | |
| FYI | For Your Information | ArduPilot, F#'s slack | |
| GUI | Graphical User Interface | The GUI makes it very simple for beginners to use | Wikipedia page for GUI |
| IANAL | I Am Not A Lawyer | Used often before talking about licensing issues | HackerNews, CUPS |
| ICYMI | In Case You Missed It | ||
| IIRC | If I Recall Correctly | ||
| IMO | In My Opinion | ||
| ITT | In This Thread | ||
| KISS | Keep It Simple, Stupid | KISS is a design principle stating that most systems work fine if it is built/kept simple than making the system complex. | Wikipedia |
| LGTM | Looks Good To Me | See ACK | Cardidy, Simple Icons, proposal-array-grouping, /r/webdev |
| LOC/SLOC | (Source) Lines Of Code | Above each file on GitHub you can find something like `50 lines (43 sloc)`. The difference is the empty lines. | GitHub |
| MCVE | Minimal Complete Valid/Verfiable Example | When asking a question, people will be better able to provide help if you provide code that they can easily understand and use to reproduce the problem. Such a question will be to the point, include just the information that what is necessary, be valid, and be accompanied by a clear example of your problem which leaves no room for guesswork. This is referred to by community members as MCVE | Stack Exchange |
| MPA | Multi-Page Application | /r/web_design | |
| MR | Merge Request | See PR | |
| MRE | Minimal Reproducible Example | In computing, a minimal reproducible example (abbreviated MRE) is a collection of source code and other data files which allow a bug or problem to be demonstrated and reproduced. | Stack Overflow |
| MVC | Model View Controller | A commonly used software design architecture based around the Model (data), the View (user interface), and the Controller (logic to handle requests). | Medium |
| MVP | Minimum Viable Product | A prototype version of a product with the minimum required feature set | Wikipedia |
| MVVM | Model View ViewModel | A front-end software design architecture based around the Model (data), the View (user interface), and the ViewModel (logic that handles view data and interactions). | Knockout MVVM Explanation |
| NACK/NAK | Negative ACKnowledgement | Disagree with the code changes/concept. Should be accompanied by an explanation | Bitcoin |
| NIH | Not Invented Here | NIH Syndrome is a decision-making error where we tend to value our own ideas above those conceived by people outside of our group | learnosity |
| NP | No Problem | No stress, it is fine | |
| OOP | Object Oriented Programming | ||
| OP | Original Post/Original Poster | Original Poster (who started a thread) or Original Post (the message that started it) | /r/ProgrammerHumor, StackExchange |
| PEBCAK | Problem Exists Between Chair And Keyboard | It is a user error, not a problem / bug in the program | Humanizer, Community |
| PEBKAC | Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair | It is a user error, not a problem / bug in the program | Humanizer, Community |
| PEBMAC | Problem Exists Between Monitor And Chair | It's an error made by the human user of a complex system, usually a computer system, in interacting with it. | User error |
| PEBUAK | Problem Exists Between User and Keyboard | It's an error made by the human user of a complex system, usually a computer system, in interacting with it. | User error |
| PICNIC | Problem In Chair Not In Computer | It's an error made by the human user of a complex system, usually a computer system, in interacting with it. | User error |
| POBCAK | a US government/military acronym for Problem Occurs Between Chair And Keyboard | It's an error made by the human user of a complex system, usually a computer system, in interacting with it. | User error, List of U.S. government and military acronyms |
| PR | Pull Request | Tell others about changes you've pushed to a branch in a repository | /r/vuejs |
| RACI | Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed | A responsibility assignment matrix, also known as RACI matrix or linear responsibility chart, describes the participation by various roles in completing tasks or deliverables for a project or business process. | IBM |
| RCE | Remote Code Execution | Remote code execution is a cyber-attack whereby an attacker can remotely execute commands on someone else’s computing device. Remote code executions (RCEs) usually occur due to malicious malware downloaded by the host and can happen regardless of the device’s geographic location. Remote Code Execution (RCE) is also referred to as Remote Code Evaluation. | RCE |
| ReprEx | Reproducible Example | A reprex facilitates easier conversations about your code by presenting it in a concise and repeatable way. A simple copy-paste should be all that’s needed to run the reprex, and running it shouldn’t generate errors except for those that the reprex is intended to exemplify | Tidyverse, University of Virginia Library |
| RFC | Request For Comments | ||
| RFI | Request for Information | An RFI (request for information) is a formal process for gathering information from potential suppliers of a good or service. RFIs are intended to be written by customers and sent to potential suppliers. An RFI is typically the first and most broad series of requests intended to narrow down a list of potential vendor candidates. | RFI |
| RFP | Request for Proposal | A request for proposal (RFP) is a document that an organization, often a government agency or large enterprise, posts to elicit a response -- a formal bid -- from potential vendors for a desired IT solution. The RFP specifies what the customer is looking for and describes each evaluation criterion on which a vendor's proposal will be assessed. | RFP |
| RTFM | Read The F*****g Manual | Originally a way for the _gurus_ to get rid of trivial questions from newbies, now a humble way to state that a mistake or a waste of time can be avoided by reading the freaking manual first (assuming it exists). | XKCD comic, Github commits |
| SCM | Source Code Management | See VCS | |
| SE | Software Engineer or System Engineer | ||
| SOLID | Single responsibility, Open-closed, Liskov substitution, Interface segregation and Dependency inversion | 5 (of many) software design principles, promoted by Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin | Wikipedia |
| SPA | Single-Page Application | /r/web_design | |
| SRE | Site Reliability Engineer | How They SRE | |
| SRP | Single-Responsibility Principle | The single-responsibility principle is a computer-programming principle that states that every module, class or function in a computer program should have responsibility over a single part of that program's functionality, and it should encapsulate that part. wikipedia | /r/csharp/ |
| SSOC | Social Summer of Code | Social foundation offers this two-month long summer program for students to learn about the open-source culture and get involved in the community. Participants contribute to real-life projects under the guidance of experienced mentors. | Social Summer of Code |
| SWE | SoftWare Engineer | ||
| TBD | To Be Defined/Done | Software Craft Website | |
| tested ACK | Tested ACKnowledgment | Reviewed the code changes and have verified the functionality or bug fix | Bitcoin |
| TIL | Today I Learned | TIL that TIL is Today I Learned | /r/ProgrammerTIL/ |
| TYSM | Thank You So Much | Cyber Definitions | |
| utACK | UnTested ACKnowledgment | Reviewed and agree with the code changes but haven't actually tested them | Bitcoin |
| VCS | Version Control Software | A way to keep a track of the changes in the code so that if something goes wrong, we can make comparisons in different code versions and revert to any previous version that we want. Git, SVN or Mercurial are VCS | /r/ProgrammerHumor, softwaretestinghelp.com |
| WDYT | What Do You Think | Bitrise Workflow Editor | |
| WIP | Work In Progress | Do not merge yet | GitLab's blog |
| WRT | With Respect to | In reference to a particular thing or situation | Tailwind Blog, Hacker News |
| WYSIWYG | What You See Is What You Get | It is a system in which editing software allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product. It is typically used an arbitrary markup language to define the codes/tags | WYSIWYG |
| XP | Extreme Programming | Wikipedia | |
| YAGNI | You Ain't Gonna Need It | Tech Excellence | |
| YMMV | Your Mileage May Vary | Whisper |
| Abbreviation | Definition |
|---|---|
| AFK | Away From Keyboard |
| BRB | Be Right Back |
| CMIIW | Correct me if i'm wrong |
| IKR | I know, right |
| ILY | I love you |
| IRL | In Real Life |
| IYKYK | If You Know You Know |
| LFG | let's freaking go |
| LMFAO | Laughing my freaking *a* off |
| LMK | Let me know |
| LOL | Laugh out loud |
| LTR | Left To Right |
| NVM | Never mind |
| OFC | Of course |
| ROFL | Rolling on floor laughing |
| RTL | Right To Left |
| SMH | Shaking my head |
| STFU | Shut the *freak* up |
| TTYL | Talk to you later |
| TYVM | Thank you very much |
| YOLO | You only live once |
| Abbreviation | Meaning | URL | What they do |
|---|---|---|---|
| AWS | Amazon web Services | https://aws.amazon.com/ | Amazon Web Services offers reliable, scalable, and inexpensive cloud computing services. |
| FSF | Free Software Foundation | https://www.fsf.org | Oversee a number of open source organizations |
| GH | GitHub | https://github.com | Source code host, owned by Microsoft |
| GNU | Collection of free software, a license | https://gnu.org | program of FSF, develops many linux tools and a commonly used license |
| MS | Microsoft | https://microsoft.com | Makers of windows, azure, vscode, and other tools that might be relevent to developers |
| OSI | Open Source Initiative | https://opensource.org | Defining 'Open Source' |
| SO | StackOverflow | https://stackoverflow.com | Popular question and answer website |
| Abbreviation | Definition | Example |
|---|---|---|
| EFK | Elasticsearch, Fluentd, and Kibana | How To Set Up an Elasticsearch, Fluentd and Kibana (EFK) Logging Stack on Kubernetes |
| ELK | Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana | What is the ELK Stack? |
| LAMP | Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP (Perl or Python) | IBM Cloud, Wikipedia |
| LEMP | Linux, Nginx Server, MySQL, PHP (Perl or Python) | |
| MEAN | MongoDB, Express.js, Angular.js, Node.js | |
| MERN | MongoDB, Express.js, React.js, Node.js | |
| SAFE | Suave (or Saturn), Azure, Fable, Elmish | /r/fsharp |
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- Bitcoin's CONTRIBUTING.md
- Bitcoin hacker lingo (stolen from TCP)
- What do cryptic Github comments mean?
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