Glossary O
- object
- (1) An internal structure that represents a system resource such as
a file, a thread, or a graphic image. (2) A data object.
- object file
- The binary output
of a language processor (such as an assembler or compiler), which can either
be executed or used as input to the linker.
- obsolescent
feature
- A feature of FORTRAN 77 that is considered to be redundant in Fortran
90. These features are still in frequent use.
- octal constant
- A constant that is a string of octal (base 8) digits (range of 0 to
7) enclosed by apostrophes or quotation marks and preceded by the letter
O.
- operand
- The passive element in an expression on which an operation is performed.
Every expression must have at least one operand. For example, in I .NE.
J, I and J are operands. Contrast with operator.
- operation
- A computation involving one or two operands.
- operator
- The active element in an expression that performs an operation. An
expression can have zero or more operators. Intrinsic operators are arithmetic
(+, -, *, /, and **) or logical (.AND., .NOT., and so on). For example,
in I .NE. J, .NE. is the operator.
Executable programs can define operators which are not intrinsic.
- optimization
- The process of producing efficient object or executing code that takes
advantage of the hardware architecture to produce more efficient execution.
- optional argument
- A dummy argument that has the OPTIONAL
attribute (or is included in
an OPTIONAL statement in the procedure definition). Such an argument does
not have to be associated with an actual argument.
- order
of subscript progression
- A characteristic of a multidimensional array in which the leftmost
subscripts vary most rapidly. Also called column-major order.
- overflow
- An error condition occurring when an arithmetic operation yields a
result that is larger than the maximum value in the range of a data type.