M

Machine address; see memory address.

Machine code is the combination of machine instructions with the data used by those instructions. A synonym is object code.

A machine instruction is one of the fundamental operations that a CPU can perform. Some examples of these operations are addition, subtraction, or other arithmetic operations; other possibilities include operations that control what instruction will be executed next. All C++ programs must be converted into machine instructions before they can be executed by the CPU.

A machine language program is a program composed of machine instructions.

A member function is a function defined in a class interface. It is viewed as "belonging" to the class, which is the reason for the adjective member.

A member variable is a variable defined in a class interface. It is viewed as "belonging" to the class, which is the reason for the adjective member.

Memberwise copy means to copy every member variable from the source object to the destination object. If we don't define our own copy constructor or assignment operator for a particular class, the compiler-generated versions will use memberwise copy.

A memory address is a unique number identifying a particular byte of RAM.

A memory hierarchy is the particular arrangement of the different kinds of storage devices in a given computer. The purpose of using various kinds of storage devices having different performance characteristics is to provide the best overall performance at the lowest cost.

A memory leak is a programming error in which the programmer forgot to delete something that had been dynamically allocated. Such an error is very insidious, because the program appears to work correctly when tested casually. The usual way to find these errors is to notice that the program runs apparently correctly for a (possibly long) time and then fails due to running out of available memory.

A modification expression is the part of a for statement executed after every execution of the controlled block. It is often used to increment an index variable to refer to the next element of an array or a vector; see the entry for the for statement for an example.


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