lifo

3 definitions found

lifo - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  LIFO
      n 1: inventory accounting in which the most recently acquired
           items are assumed to be the first sold [syn: last in first out
           , LIFO]

lifo - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  stack
  FILO
  last-in first-out
  LIFO
  
     <programming> (See below for synonyms) A data structure for
     storing items which are to be accessed in last-in first-out
     order.
  
     The operations on a stack are to create a new stack, to "push"
     a new item onto the top of a stack and to "pop" the top item
     off.  Error conditions are raised by attempts to pop an empty
     stack or to push an item onto a stack which has no room for
     further items (because of its implementation).
  
     Most processors include support for stacks in their
     instruction set architectures.  Perhaps the most common use
     of stacks is to store subroutine arguments and return
     addresses.  This is usually supported at the machine code
     level either directly by "jump to subroutine" and "return from
     subroutine" instructions or by auto-increment and
     auto-decrement addressing modes, or both.  These allow a
     contiguous area of memory to be set aside for use as a stack
     and use either a special-purpose register or a general
     purpose register, chosen by the user, as a stack pointer.
  
     The use of a stack allows subroutines to be recursive since
     each call can have its own calling context, represented by a
     stack frame or activation record.  There are many other
     uses.  The programming language Forth uses a data stack in
     place of variables when possible.
  
     Although a stack may be considered an object by users,
     implementations of the object and its access details differ.
     For example, a stack may be either ascending (top of stack is
     at highest address) or descending.  It may also be "full" (the
     stack pointer points at the top of stack) or "empty" (the
     stack pointer points just past the top of stack, where the
     next element would be pushed).  The full/empty terminology is
     used in the Acorn Risc Machine and possibly elsewhere.
  
     In a list-based or functional language, a stack might be
     implemented as a linked list where a new stack is an empty
     list, push adds a new element to the head of the list and pop
     splits the list into its head (the popped element) and tail
     (the stack in its modified form).
  
     At MIT, pdl used to be a more common synonym for stack,
     and this may still be true.  Knuth ("The Art of Computer
     Programming", second edition, vol. 1, p. 236) says:
  
       Many people who realised the importance of stacks and queues
       independently have given other names to these structures:
       stacks have been called push-down lists, reversion storages,
       cellars, dumps, nesting stores, piles, last-in first-out
       ("LIFO") lists, and even yo-yo lists!
  
     [Jargon File]
  
     (1995-04-10)
  

lifo - V.E.R.A. -- Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (June 2006) :

  LIFO
         Last In First Out