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ironclad: so strong that it cannot be challenged or changed

undermine: to make something, especially somebody’s confidence or authority, gradually weaker or less effective

arbitrary: DJ[ˋɑ:bi͵trəri] not seeming to be based on a reason, system or plan and sometimes seeming unfair

bear the brunt of something: to receive the main force of something unpleasant

recalcitrance: the fact of being unwilling to obey rules or follow instructions; the fact of being difficult to control

stalemate: a disagreement or a situation in a competition in which neither side is able to win or make any progress

transgression: an act that goes beyond the limits of what is morally or legally acceptable

snide: ​criticizing somebody/something in an unkind and indirect way

muster: to find as much support, courage, etc. as you can

bratty: (of a person, especially a child) badly behaved

wiseass: smart aleck

smart aleck: an obnoxiously conceited and self-assertive person with pretensions to smartness or cleverness

obnoxiously: in an extremely unpleasant way, especially in a way that offends people

conceited: being too proud of yourself and what you do

self-assertive: very confident and not afraid to express your opinions

pretension: ​the act of trying to appear more important, intelligent, etc. than you are in order to impress other people

pull back: to move back from a place

tamp: tamp something (down) to press something down hard, especially into a closed space

deliberate: done on purpose rather than by accident

notion: an idea, a belief or an understanding of something

jibe: to say something that is intended to make somebody look silly or feel embarrassed

The Wind in the Willows: novel by Kenneth Grahame

roam: (of the eyes or hands) to move slowly over every part of somebody/something

caveman: a person who lived in a cave thousands of years ago

dictate: to control or influence how something happens

husbandry: farming, especially when done carefully and well

sleuthing: the act of investigating a crime or mysterious event

Bill Gates "Source Code"

Online Dictionaries Used:

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The string class

The object-oriented approach (often shortened to OOP) is a way of designing and writing software by organizing code around objects rather than just functions and logic. It’s one of the most popular programming paradigms and is used in many modern languages like Java, Python, C++, and C#.

In C++: <string>

This header provides the std::string class, a more powerful and safer alternative to C-style strings.

It supports:

- Dynamic memory management

- Operator overloading (e.g., +, ==)

Dynamic memory management is the process of allocating and freeing memory at runtime, rather than at compile time. It’s essential when you don’t know in advance how much memory your program will need --- like when handling user input, working with large datasets, or building flexible data structures like linked lists or trees.

In C++, strncpy() is a legacy function inherited from the C standard library, defined in the <cstring> header. It’s used to copy a fixed number of characters from one C-style string to another. While it works in C++, it's generally recommended to use std::string for safer and more expressive string handling.

In C++, strncat() is a legacy function from the C standard library used to append a limited number of characters from one C-style string to another. It’s declared in the <cstring> header and works directly with character arrays.

semantics: the study of the meanings of words and phrases

concatenation: a series of things or events that are linked together

exhaustive: including everything possible; very careful or complete

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His teacher

"Fall of a year" refers to the season of autumn, especially in North America.

qualm: a feeling of doubt or worry about whether what you are doing is right

unbeknownst: without the person mentioned knowing

penmanship: ​the art of writing by hand; skill in doing this

cursive: ​(of handwriting) with the letters joined together

showboating: behavior that is intended to show people how clever, skillful, etc. you are

flute: a musical instrument of the woodwind group, like a thin pipe in shape. The player holds it to the side of his or her face and blows across a hole at one end.

memento: a thing that you keep or give to somebody to remind you or them of a person or place

slaughterhouse: a building where animals are killed for food

seep: (especially of liquids) to flow slowly and in small quantities through something or into something

unveil: to remove a cover or curtain from a painting, statue, etc. so that it can be seen in public for the first time

awe: feelings of respect and slight fear; feelings of being very impressed by something/somebody

appalled: feeling or showing horror at something unpleasant or wrong

crackle: to make short sharp sounds like something that is burning in a fire

scribble: to write something quickly and carelessly, especially because you do not have much time

Bill Gates "Source Code"

Online Dictionaries Used:

hk.dictionary.search.yahoo.com

www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com

Tile

encaustic: a paint made from pigment mixed with melted beeswax and resin and after application fixed by heat

Stoke-on-Trent: city in England

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C strings

consecutive: following one after another in a continuous series

The null character --- written as '\0' in C and C++ --- is a special character used to mark the end of a string in many programming languages, especially those influenced by C.

<cstring> Header in C++

This is part of the C++ Standard Library, inherited from C’s <string.h>. It provides functions for manipulating C-style strings (null-terminated character arrays).

The String class is a fundamental part of many programming languages, used to represent and manipulate sequences of characters.

std::string greeting = "Hello";

greeting += " World";

std::cout << greeting;  // Output: Hello World

size_t is a special unsigned integer type used in C and C++ to represent the size of objects in memory or array indices.

An unsigned integer is a whole number data type that can only represent non-negative values—that is, zero and positive numbers.

A character array is a data structure used to store a sequence of characters --- essentially, it's how many programming languages represent strings under the hood.

ASCII stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. It’s a character encoding standard that assigns numeric values to letters, digits, punctuation marks, and control characters so computers can store and exchange text reliably.

In C++, strncpy() is a function from the C standard library (inherited via <cstring>) used to copy a fixed number of characters from one C-style string to another. It's a bit of a double-edged sword --- powerful but easy to misuse if you're not careful.

The sizeof operator in C and C++ is used to determine the size, in bytes, of a data type or object at compile time.

strncpy(name, src, sizeof(name) - 1);

name[5] = '\0';  // Manually null-terminate

Here, the -1 is used because:

You reserve the last slot for the null terminator.

You copy at most n - 1 characters to avoid overflow.

Then manually add '\0' at the end.

concatenate: to link together in a series or chain

The strcat() function in C is used to concatenate two C-style strings—that is, it appends one string to the end of another.

The strncat() function in C is used to safely concatenate a limited number of characters from one C-style string to another.

In C++, strlen() is a function from the C standard library (accessible via <cstring>) that returns the length of a null-terminated C-style string, excluding the null character '\0'.

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Top seller

dog-eared: (of a book) used so much that the corners of many of the pages are turned down

distillation: (formal) the process or result of getting the essential meaning, ideas or information from something

advancement: progress in a job, social class, etc.

boot camp: a training camp for new members of the armed forces, where they have to work hard

filbert: a type of hazel tree that produces oval nuts

pecan: the nut of the American pecan tree with a smooth pink-brown shell

daunting: making somebody feel nervous and less confident about doing something; likely to make somebody feel this way

tally: a record of the number or amount of something, especially one that you can keep adding to

parameter: ​something that decides or limits the way in which something can be done

pistol: a small gun that you can hold and fire with one hand

If you say that a person, a team, an organization, etc. has bragging rights, you mean that they have achieved a good result or are better or more successful than their competitors or opponents at that time.

steep: sudden and very big

pitch: to set something at a particular level

hash mark: service stripe

service stripe: a stripe worn on an enlisted person's left sleeve to indicate three years of service in the army or four years in the navy

perennial: ​continuing for a very long time; happening again and again

Bill Gates "Source Code"

Online Dictionaries Used:

hk.dictionary.search.yahoo.com

www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com

www.merriam-webster.com

Reference & in C++

In C++, a reference is essentially an alias for another variable. Once a reference is initialized to a variable, it becomes just another name for that variable—any operation on the reference is actually performed on the original variable.

- Declared using the & symbol

int a = 10;

int& ref = a;  // ref is a reference to a

- Must be initialized when declared.

- Cannot be changed to refer to another variable after initialization.

- Useful for function arguments and return values to avoid copying large data.

Reference:

int& ref = var;

cannot be null

cannot be reassigned

do not need dereferencing

Pointer:

int* ptr = &var;

can be null

can point to difference variables

need dereferencing

In programming, an alias is a second name for the same memory location. It means two or more variables refer to the same underlying data—so changing one affects the other.

Modifying a reference does change the original variable, because they both refer to the same memory location.

In programming, nullability refers to whether a variable is allowed to hold a null value --- meaning it can represent the absence of a value.

syntax: (computing) the rules that state how words and phrases must be used in a computer language

In C++, a reference is essentially an alias for another variable. That means:

- It doesn't exist as a separate object in memory.

- When you take the address of a reference, you're actually getting the address of the original variable it refers to.

C++ does not allow arrays of references.

References are not objects: They don’t occupy their own memory --- they’re just aliases for existing variables.

Arrays require elements to be assignable: But references must be initialized when declared and cannot be reseated.

References must be initialized at declaration.

A reference is not a standalone object; it must alias an existing variable.

Because of this, the compiler needs to know what it's referring to immediately --- there is no such thing as a "null" or "unbound" reference.

In C++, pointer initialization is optional, but that comes with a big caveat.

caveat: a warning that particular things need to be considered before something can be done

In C++, references provide one level of indirection.

indirection: indirect action or procedure

In C++, multiple levels of indirection with pointers means having pointers that point to other pointers --- and this can go as deep as your brain (or compiler) can handle!

When you use a reference:

- You're not accessing the object directly.

- Instead, you're accessing it through an alias --- a single level removed from the actual object.

In C++, you can absolutely declare a pointer with the void type, and it's known as a void pointer or generic pointer.

A void* is a special type of pointer that can point to any data type, but it doesn't know what type it's pointing to.

References in C++ are like secret passageways --- they let you access and manipulate data efficiently without the overhead of copying.

iteration: the process of repeating a mathematical or computing process or set of instructions again and again, each time applying it to the result of the previous stage

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