The particular settings a system is currently arranged into. Choices made once and then held, until someone changes them.

What holds when nothing is chosen. A decision made in advance, on behalf of whoever does not decide.

Short form of function. A named abbreviation rather than a concept.

A repeatable way of doing a thing. A method survives the person who used it, which is what separates it from a knack.

A single act a system performs. Named as a unit so it can be counted, ordered and undone.

The conditions under which a thing actually runs, as opposed to how it was written. Where design meets what is really there.

A set of parts whose behaviour together is in none of them alone. A system is what the parts do, not what they are.