In programming language design, a first-class citizen (also object, entity, or value), in the context of a particular programming language, is an entity that can be constructed at run-time, passed as a parameter, returned from a subroutine, or assigned into a variable. In computer science the term reification is used when referring to the process (technique, mechanism) of making something a first-class object.
The term was coined by Christopher Strachey in the context of “functions as first-class citizens” in the mid-1960s.
Read more about First-class Citizen: Definition, Examples, Second and Third Class Objects
Famous quotes containing the word citizen:
“Loss of freedom seldom happens overnight. Oppression doesn’t stand on the doorstep with toothbrush moustache and swastika armband—it creeps up insidiously ... step by step, and all of a sudden the unfortunate citizen realises that it is gone.”
—Baron Lane (b. 1918)