flatten vt.
[common] To remove structural information, esp. to filter
something with an implicit tree structure into a simple sequence
of leaves; also tends to imply mapping to flat-ASCII. "This code flattens an
expression with parentheses into an equivalent canonical form."
Node:flavor, Next:flavorful, Previous:flatten, Up:= F
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flavor n.
1. [common] Variety, type, kind. "DDT commands come in two
flavors." "These lights come in two flavors, big red ones and
small green ones." "Linux is a flavor of Unix" See vanilla. 2. The attribute that causes
something to be flavorful.
Usually used in the phrase "yields additional flavor". "This
convention yields additional flavor by allowing one to print text
either right-side-up or upside-down." See vanilla. This usage was certainly reinforced
by the terminology of quantum chromodynamics, in which quarks
(the constituents of, e.g., protons) come in six flavors (up,
down, strange, charm, top, bottom) and three colors (red, blue,
green) -- however, hackish use of `flavor' at MIT predated QCD.
3. The term for `class' (in the object-oriented sense) in the
LISP Machine Flavors system. Though the Flavors design has been
superseded (notably by the Common LISP CLOS facility), the term
`flavor' is still used as a general synonym for `class' by some
LISP hackers.
Node:flavorful, Next:flippy, Previous:flavor, Up:= F
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flavorful adj.
Full of flavor (sense 2);
esthetically pleasing. See random
and losing for antonyms. See also
the entries for taste and elegant.