substantiation

n : additional proof that something that was believed is true;

"fossils provided further confirmation of the

evolutionary theory" [syn: {confirmation}, {verification},

{check}]

instantiation

Producing a more defined version of some object

by replacing variables with values (or other variables).

1. In {object-oriented programming}, producing a particular

{object} from its {class template}. This involves allocation

of a structure with the types specified by the template, and

initialisation of {instance variable}s with either default

values or those provided by the class's {constructor}

function.

2. In {unification}, (as used in {logic programming}, {type

checking} and {type inference}), binding a {logic variable}

({type variable}) to some value (type).

(1995-03-28)