terminology

Perl and PHP do this with backticks. For example, $output = `ls`; Returns a directory listing. A similar function, system("foo") , returns the operating system return code for the given command foo. I'm talking about a variant that returns whatever foo prints to stdout. How do other languages do this? Is there a canonical name for this function? (I'm going with "backtick"; though maybe I could coin "syslurp".) J.F. Sebastian Python from subprocess import check_output as qx output = qx(['ls', '-lt']) Python < 2.7 or < 3.1 Extract subprocess.check_output() from subprocess.py or adapt something

After reading the question , I know the differences between declaration and definition. So does it mean definition equals declaration plus initialization? Declaration Declaration, generally, refers to the introduction of a new name in the program. For example, you can declare a new function by describing it's "signature": void xyz(); or declare an incomplete type: class klass; struct ztruct; and last but not least, to declare an object: int x; It is described, in the C++ standard, at §3.1/1 as: A declaration (Clause 7) may introduce one or more names into a translation unit or redeclare names