Glossary

Fastero

Fastero is the name of the library. This name was picked after thinking about a lot of things. Namely how easy it is to type, how much finger travel is required, trying to not name it after timeit, keeping it short, typing it with one hand

CLI

A command-line interface (CLI) is a text-based user interface (UI) used to run programs, manage computer files and interact with the computer.

Argument

Command line arguments are nothing but simply parameters that are specified after the name of the program in the system’s command line

Example

ls /home/wasi/code

Here ls is the name of the program and /home/wasi/code is the argument

Some programs may accept multiple arguments.

Option

A command-line option or simply option (also known as a flag or switch) modifies the operation of a command

Example

ls --color auto
ls --color=auto

In both cases ls is the name of the program and --color is the option, with the value auto

Flag

A command-line flag (sometimes also called a flag). Is basically a option without a value. This also modifies the operation of a command

Example

ls -a
ls --all

In both cases ls is the name of the program and -a and --all are the flags. Note that -a is short for --all

Run

A single execution of the code snippet. This is simillar to a “loop” in IPython’s %timeit

Batch

If you’re coming from IPython, A batch is like a “run” in IPython’s %timeit magic function. The way fastero basically works is that it runs timeit.Timer.timeit() multiple times which in turn, runs the code X number of times, and fastero gets the average from the numbers timeit returns. A batch is basically some X amount of runs of timeit.Timer.timeit() with X being a number automatically calculated from the –time-per-batch

Garbage Collection

The process of freeing memory when it is not used anymore. Python performs garbage collection via reference counting and a cyclic garbage collector that is able to detect and break reference cycles. The garbage collector can be controlled using the gc module.

Mean

For a data set, the arithmetic mean, also known as arithmetic average, is a central value of a finite set of numbers: specifically, the sum of the values divided by the number of values. 1

Standard deviation

In statistics, the standard deviation is a measure of the amount of variation or dispersion of a set of values. A low standard deviation indicates that the values tend to be close to the mean (also called the expected value) of the set, while a high standard deviation indicates that the values are spread out over a wider range. 2

σ

Standard deviation may be abbreviated SD, and is most commonly represented in mathematical texts and equations by the lower case Greek letter sigma σ 3

JSON

JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation. It is a lightweight data-interchange format. It is easy to parse and generate.

CSV

A CSV (comma-separated values) file is a text file that has a specific format which allows data to be saved in a table structured format.

YAML

YAML stands for “yet another markup language” or “YAML ain’t markup language” (a recursive acronym). is a human-friendly, cross language, Unicode based data serialization language designed around the common native data structures of agile programming languages.

Markdown

Markdown is a lightweight markup language that you can use to add formatting elements to plaintext text documents.

AsciiDoc

AsciiDoc is a text document format for writing notes, documentation, articles, books, ebooks, slideshows, web pages, man pages and blogs.

SVG

SVG stands for Scalable Vector Graphics. They are scalable without losing any quality as opposed to raster graphics.

Bar Chart

A bar chart or bar graph is a chart or graph that presents categorical data with rectangular bars with heights or lengths proportional to the values that they represent.

1

From https://en.wikipedia.com/wiki/Mean

2

From https://en.wikipedia.com/wiki/Standard_deviation

3

From https://en.wikipedia.com/wiki/Standard_deviation