stack

stack n.  The set of things a person has to do in the
   future.  One speaks of the next project to be attacked as having
   risen to the top of the stack.  "I'm afraid I've got real work to
   do, so this'll have to be pushed way down on my stack."  "I
   haven't done it yet because every time I pop my stack something new
   gets pushed."  If you are interrupted several times in the middle
   of a conversation, "My stack overflowed" means "I forget what we
   were talking about."  The implication is that more items were
   pushed onto the stack than could be remembered, so the least recent
   items were lost.  The usual physical example of a stack is to be
   found in a cafeteria: a pile of plates or trays sitting on a spring
   in a well, so that when you put one on the top they all sink down,
   and when you take one off the top the rest spring up a bit.  See
   also {push} and {pop}.

   At MIT, {pdl} used to be a more common synonym for {stack} in
   all these contexts, and this may still be true.  Everywhere else
   {stack} seems to be the preferred term.  {Knuth}
   ("The Art of Computer Programming", second edition, vol. 1,
   p. 236) says:

        Many people who realized the importance of stacks and queues
        independently have given other names to these structures:
        stacks have been called push-down lists, reversion storages,
        cellars, nesting stores, piles, last-in-first-out ("LIFO")
        lists, and even yo-yo lists!



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