Advanced terms
Linux Capabilities
Kernel mechanism that splits root's monolithic privilege into ~40 discrete capabilities so processes get only the specific powers they need.
2w ago
Linux advanced
Loop Unrolling
PHP 8.0+
A compiler optimisation that replicates the loop body multiple times to reduce iteration overhead and enable further optimisations like instruction-level parallelism.
3mo ago
Compiler advanced
Linux Namespaces
Kernel feature that isolates global resources (PIDs, network, mounts, IPC, hostname, users) so processes see their own private view of the system.
4mo ago
Linux advanced
Leader Election in Distributed Systems
A coordination protocol where distributed nodes agree on a single 'leader' that takes responsibility for a specific task — preventing multiple nodes from performing the same action simultaneously (duplicate work, split-brain).
6mo ago
Architecture advanced
Lock-Free Programming
1
Lock-free algorithms guarantee system-wide progress without mutexes — using atomic CPU instructions (CAS) so at least one thread always makes forward progress even if others are delayed.
6mo ago
Concurrency advanced
Lazy Objects (PHP 8.4)
PHP 8.4+
PHP 8.4 native lazy object proxies defer initialisation until first access — enabling zero-cost dependency injection of services that may never be used in a request.
6mo ago
PHP advanced
Lexing & Parsing
PHP 7.0+
3
Two stages of language processing — the lexer converts source text to tokens, the parser converts tokens to an Abstract Syntax Tree representing the program's structure.
6mo ago
Compiler advanced
Late Static Binding (static::)
PHP 5.3+
1
static:: refers to the class actually called at runtime rather than the class where the method is defined, enabling polymorphic static methods.
6mo ago
PHP advanced
Lookahead & Lookbehind
1
Zero-width assertions that match a position based on what precedes or follows — without consuming characters, enabling context-sensitive matching.
6mo ago
Regex advanced
LRU Cache
A fixed-size cache that evicts the Least Recently Used entry when full, implemented with a hash map and doubly linked list for O(1) get and put.
6mo ago
Data Structures advanced
Lazy Objects (PHP 8.4)
PHP 8.4+
PHP 8.4 native lazy objects defer object initialisation until first property access — previously requiring proxy libraries, now built into the engine via ReflectionClass.
PHP advanced