Code n. 1.A body of law, sanctioned by legislation, in which the rules of law to be specifically applied by the courts are set forth in systematic form; a compilation of laws by public authority; a digest. Note: The collection of laws made by the order of Justinian is sometimes called, by way of eminence, "The Code".
2.Any system of rules or regulations relating to one subject; as, the medical code, a system of rules for the regulation of the professional conduct of physicians.
3.Any set of symbols or combinations of symbols used for communication in any medium, such as by telegraph or semaphore. See Morse code, and error-correcting code. Note: A system of rules for making communications at sea by means of signals has been referred to as the naval code. 4.Any set of standards established by the governing authority of a geopolitical entity restricting the ways that certain activities may be performed, especially the manner in which buildings or specific systems within buildings may be constructed; as, a building code; a plumbing code; a health code.
5.Any system used for secrecy in communication, in which the content of a communication is converted, prior to transmission, into symbols whose meaning is known only to authorized recipients of the message; such codes are used to prevent unauthorized persons from learning the content of the communication. The process of converting a communication into secret symbols by means of a code is called encoding or encryption. However, unauthorized persons may learn the code by various means, as in code-breaking. 6.An error-correcting code. See below.
7.(Computers) The set of instructions for a computer program written by a programmer, usually in a programming language such as Fortran, C, Cobol, Java, C++, etc.; also, the executable binary object code. All such programs except for the binary object code must be converted by a compiler program into object code, which is the arrangement of data bits which can be directly interpreted by a computer.
Code civil or Code Napoleon, a code enacted in France in 1803 and 1804, embodying the law of rights of persons and of property generally.
error-correcting code (Computers) A set of symbols used to represent blocks of binary data, in which the original block of data is represented by a larger block of data which includes additional bits arranged in such a way that the original data may be read even if one or more of the bits of the encoded data is changed, as in a noisy communicaiton channel. Various codes are available which can correct different numbers or patterns of errors in the transmitted data. Such codes are used to achieve higher accuracy in data transmission, and in data storage devices such as disk drives and tape drives.
object code (Computers) the arrangement of bits stored in computer memory or a data storage device which, when fed to the instruction processor of a computer's central processing unit, can be interpreted directly as instructions for execution.
genetic code (Biochemistry, genetics) The set of correspondences between sequences of three bases (codons) in a RNA chain to the amino acid which those three bases represent in the process of protein synthesis. Thus, the sequence UUU codes for phenylalanine, and AUG codes for methionine. There are twenty-one naturally-occurring amino acids, and sixty-four possible arrangements of three bases in RNA; thus some of the amino acids are represented by more than one codon. Several codons do not represent amino acids, but cause termination of the synthesis of a growing amnio acid chain. Note: The genetic code is represented by the following table: UUU Phenylalanine (Phe) - UCU Serine (Ser) - UAU Tyrosine (Tyr) - UGU Cysteine (Cys) - UUC Phe - UCC Ser - UAC Tyr - UGC Cys - UUA Leucine (Leu) - UCA Ser - UAA STOP - UGA STOP - UUG Leu - UCG Ser - UAG STOP - UGG Tryptophan (Trp) - CUU Leucine (Leu) - CCU Proline (Pro) - CAU Histidine (His) - CGU Arginine (Arg) - CUC Leu - CCU Pro - CAC His - CGC Arg - CUA Leu - CCA Pro - CAA Glutamine (Gln) - CGA Arg - CUG Leu - CCG Pro - CAG Gln - CGG Arg - AUU Isoleucine (Ile) - ACU Threonine (Thr) - AAU Asparagine (Asn) - AGU Serine (Ser) - AUC Ile - ACC Thr - AAC Asn - AGC Ser - AUA Ile - ACA Thr - AAA Lysine (Lys) - AGA Arginine (Arg) - AUG Methionine (Met) or START - ACG Thr - AAG Lys - AGG Arg - GUU Valine Val - GCU Alanine (Ala) - GAU Aspartic acid (Asp) - GGU Glycine (Gly) - GUC (Val) - GCC Ala - GAC Asp - GGC Gly - GUA Val - GCA Ala - GAA Glutamic acid (Glu) - GGA Gly - GUG Val - GCG Ala - GAG Glu - GGG Gly - -
