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literal
(redirected from literalizes)

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Legal 0.02 sec.
literal
In programming, any data typed in by the programmer that remains unchanged when translated into machine language. Examples are a constant value used for calculation purposes as well as text messages displayed on screen. In the following lines of code, the literals are 1 and VALUE IS ONE.

     if x = 1
       print "the value is one"
     endif

literal
1. Maths containing or using coefficients and constants represented by letters: ax2 + b is a literal expression
2. Publishing a misprint or misspelling in a text

(programming)literal - A constant made available to a process, by inclusion in the executable text. Most modern systems do not allow texts to modify themselves during execution, so literals are indeed constant; their value is written at compile-time and is read-only at run time.

In contrast, values placed in variables or files and accessed by the process via a symbolic name, can be changed during execution. This may be an asset. For example, messages can be given in a choice of languages by placing the translation in a file.

Literals are used when such modification is not desired. The name of the file mentioned above (not its content), or a physical constant such as 3.14159, might be coded as a literal. Literals can be accessed quickly, a potential advantage of their use.


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It makes a vivid setting for the scenes of erotic and emotional conflict, and literalizes the vision of Medea wallowing in her implacable grief and fury.
The off-rhyme of "I liked it" and the "taste of her cherry ChapStick" literalizes such forbidden fruit.
Todd Gray's series of photographs of himself smeared in shaving cream literalizes Frantz Fanon's "white mask" in a era where black skin is yet another niche market, while Virginia Nimarkoh's Nubian Queen (1999) drawings appropriate the skills of sidewalk artists both to celebrate and challenge the often invoked desire for authentic representation.
 
 
 
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