4.5 — Speaking Engineer
When you collaborate with traditional software engineers, precision matters. These terms aren’t decorative — they’re how engineers communicate without ambiguity. Knowing them makes you a peer, not a client.
Infrastructure Terms
Section titled “Infrastructure Terms”| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Production (prod) | The live environment real users interact with |
| Staging | A copy of production used for testing before deploying |
| Development (dev) | Your local environment where you build and experiment |
| Sandbox | An isolated environment for safe experimentation — changes here affect nothing real |
| SSH (Secure Shell) | A secure way to connect to and control a remote computer via terminal |
| VPN (Virtual Private Network) | Encrypted tunnel between your computer and a private network |
| Firewall | Security system that controls what network traffic is allowed in and out |
| SSL/TLS | Encryption that makes web traffic secure — the “S” in HTTPS |
| DNS | Translates domain names (google.com) to IP addresses (142.250.80.46) — introduced in Phase 1 |
| IP address | A computer’s unique address on a network |
Code Collaboration Terms
Section titled “Code Collaboration Terms”| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Code review | Another developer examining your code before it’s merged — standard practice, not a judgment |
| Linting | Automated checking of code style and common errors |
| Testing | Automated verification that code works correctly |
| Unit test | Tests a single function or component in isolation |
| Integration test | Tests how multiple components work together |
| End-to-end (E2E) test | Tests the entire application flow as a user would experience it |
| Coverage | Percentage of code that is tested by automated tests |
| Semantic versioning (SemVer) | Version numbering: MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH (e.g., 2.1.3). Major = breaking changes. Minor = new features. Patch = bug fixes. |
| Breaking change | A change that makes existing things stop working — requires users to update their code |
| Backward compatible | A change that works with existing code without requiring updates |
| Deprecation | Marking something as “still works but will be removed in a future version” — a warning to stop using it |
| API endpoint | A specific URL where an API accepts requests (/api/users, /api/login) |
| Payload | The data sent with an API request |
| Authentication (AuthN) | Verifying who someone is — login |
| Authorization (AuthZ) | Verifying what someone is allowed to do — permissions |
| JWT (JSON Web Token) | A compact, self-contained token used for authentication — carries user info in encoded form |
| OAuth | A standard for giving one application limited access to your account on another service, without sharing your password |
Next: 4.6 — Production Thinking | Phase overview: Phase 4