Online Computer Terms Dictionary - B

Block Started by Symbol

<memory> (BSS) The uninitialised data segment produced by Unix linkers. Objects in the bss segment have only a name and a size but no value.

Executable code is located in the code segment and initialised data in the data segment.

(2004-02-24)

Nearby terms: Block Diagram Compiler « blocked records « Block Redundancy Check « Block Started by Symbol » block-structured » block transfer computations » Bloggs Family, the

block-structured

<language> Any programming language in which sections of source code contained within pairs of matching delimiters such as "{" and "}" (e.g. in C) or "begin" and "end" (e.g. Algol) are executed as a single unit. A block of code may be the body of a subroutine or function, or it may be controlled by conditional execution (if statement) or repeated execution (while statement, for statement, etc.).

In all but the most primitive block structured languages a variable's scope can be limited to the block in which it is declared.

Block-structured languages support structured programming where each block can be written without detailed knowledge of the inner workings of other blocks, thus allowing a top-down design approach.