Glossary

Here is a list of words, commonly used when using Exakat, with their definitions and their synonyms.

  • A
    Analysis
    An Analysis is a pattern that may be detected in the code. The analysis has a human-redable description, and a specific implementation.
    AST
    The Abstract Syntax Tree : a representation of the PHP code as a graph. The AST is the first consisten organisation of the PHP tokens, after tokenization.
    Audit
    An Audit is the result of a set of Rules being run on a piece of code. The shape of the audit is the Report.
  • B
    Bug
    A bug is a software malfunction, which leads to undesirable output, including the halt of the execution without results.
  • C
    CIT
    Acronym for Class-Interface-Trait. Sometimes, this includes also Enum, as CITE. All those structures share the same namespace.
    CITE
    Acronym for Class-Interface-Trait-Enum. Sometimes, this excludes also Enum, as CIT.
    Cobbler
    The Exakat command to modify a piece of code.
    CPM
    Acronym for Constant-Property-Method.
  • D
    Directive
    A configuration option.
    Dump
    The phase of execution, which prepare the results from the graph database to the data storage for reports.
  • I
    Initialisation
    Set up of a data space by giving it a preset value.
    Inventory
    The collections of all the different values of a specific type of data, observed or measured. For example, variable names, functioncall frequency, or methods’s length.
    Issue
    The result of an analysis, when an analysis is applied to a code.
  • L
    Load
    The phase of execution, which loads the source code into the central database.
    Lint
    The PHP execution phase, where the text file is read, and turned into tokens and checked for consistency.
  • N
    Nullsafe
    A nullsafe operator is able to carry a function or fail graciously. In particular, it won’t stop the execution with a fatal error. For example, the null-safe operator ?-> or coalesce ??
  • R
    Report
    A set of issues, gathered into a consistent format, after running the analysis on the code. A report may include multiple rulesets, and use various format, such as HTML, JSON or Text.
    Rule
    A synonym for Analysis. This may be more descriptive, and less related to implementation.
    Ruleset
    A consistent group of analysis, recognizable with a specific name.
  • S
    Stubs
    Stubs are a set of PHP files which provide the methods, classes and interfaces signature for a library or component. The actual code is not provided, as the important information lies in the signature.
  • T
    Token
    The atomic element of information in a PHP script. The PHP code is broken down into tokens, such as 123 or ‘if’ and then organized in a consisten AST before execution.