actual parameter:See “argument.”
adapter:A printed-circuit card that plugs into a computer and controls a device, such as a video display or a printer.
address:The memory location of a data item or procedure, or an expression that evaluates to an address. In CodeView, the expression can represent just the offset (a default segment is assumed), or it can be in segment:offset format.
address range:A range of memory bounded by two addresses.
anonymous allocation:Assignment to a segment at link time.
ANSI (American National Standards Institute):The institute responsible for defining programming-language standards to promote portability of languages between different computer systems.
ANSI character set:An 8-bit character set that contains 256 characters. See “ASCII character set.”
API (application programming interface):A set of system-level routines that can be used in an application program for tasks such as input, output, and file management. In a graphics-oriented operating environment like Microsoft Windows, high-level support for video graphics output is part of the API.
argc:The conventional name for the first argument to the main function in a C source program (an integer specifying the number of arguments passed to the program from the command line).
argument:A value passed to a routine or specified with an option in the command line for a utility. Also called an actual parameter. See also “parameter.”
argv:The conventional name for the second argument to the main function in a C source program (a pointer to an array of strings). The first string is the program name, and each following string is an argument passed to the program from the command line.
array:A set of elements of the same type.
ASCII character set :The American Standard Code for Information Interchange 8-bit character set, consisting of the first 128 (0 to 127) characters of the ANSI character set. The term ASCII characters is sometimes used to mean all 256 characters defined for a particular system, including the extended ASCII characters. ASCII values represent letters, digits, special symbols, and other characters. See also “extended ASCII.”
ASCII file:See “text file.”
.ASM:The extension for an assembly-language source file.
Assembly mode:The mode in which CodeView displays the assembly-language equivalent of the machine code being executed. CodeView disassembles the executable file in memory to obtain the code.
automatic data segment:See “DGROUP.”
available memory:The portion of conventional memory not used by system software, TSR utilities, or other programs.