signature

sig·na·ture   (sĭg'nə-chər)    n.   One's name as written by oneself. The act of signing one's name. A distinctive mark, characteristic, or sound indicating identity: A surprise ending is the signature of an O. Henry short story. Abbr. Sig. or S. Medicine The part of a physician's prescription containing directions to the patient. Music A sign used to indicate key. A sign used to indicate tempo. A letter, number, or symbol placed at the bottom of the first page on each sheet of printed pages of a book as a guide to the proper sequence of the sheets in binding. A large sheet printed with four or a multiple of four pages that when folded becomes a section of the book. Printing A letter, number, or symbol placed at the bottom of the first page on each sheet of printed pages of a book as a guide to the proper sequence of the sheets in binding. A large sheet printed with four or a multiple of four pages that when folded becomes a section of the book. [French, from Old French, from Medieval Latin signātūra, from Latin signātus, past participle of signāre, to mark, from signum, sign; see sign.]

Main Entry: sig·na·ture
Function: noun
1 a : the act of signing one's name or of making a mark in lieu thereof b : the name of a person written with his or her own hand to signify that the writing which precedes accords with his or her wishes or intentions c : any mark (as initials, stamp, or printed name) made on a document and intended to serve as an indication of the party's execution or authentication of the document and intent to be bound by it —see also PRIVATE SIGNATURE
2 : a distinguishing or identifying mark, feature, or quality; especially : a distinctive method of committing a crime that is characteristic of an offender

Main Entry: sig·na·ture
Pronunciation: 'sig-n&-"chu(&)r, -ch&r, -"t(y)u(&)r
Function: noun
1 : a feature in theappearance or qualities of a natural object formerly held to indicate its utility in medicine either because of a fancied resemblance to a body part (as a heart-shaped leaf indicating utility in heartdisease) or because of a presumed relation to some phase of a disease (as the prickly nature of thistle indicating utility in case of a stitch in the side)
2 : the part of amedical prescription which contains the directions to the patient

signature sig·na·ture (sĭg'nə-chər)
n.
The part of a physician's prescription containing directions to the patient.

signature
1. A set of function symbols with arities.
2. (Or sig) A few lines of information about the sender of an electronic mail message or news posting. Most Unix mail and news software will automagically append a signature from a file called .signature in the user's home directory to outgoing mail and news.
A signature should give your real name and your e-mail address since, though these appear in the headers of your messages, they may be munged by intervening software. It is currently (1994) hip to include the URL of your home page on the World-Wide Web in your sig.
The composition of one's sig can be quite an art form, including an ASCII logo or one's choice of witty sayings (see sig quote, fool file). However, large sigs are a waste of bandwidth, and it has been observed that the size of one's sig block is usually inversely proportional to one's prestige on the net.
See also doubled sig, sig virus.
2. A concept very similar to abstract base classes except that they have their own hierarchy and can be applied to compiled classes. Signatures provide a means of separating subtyping and inheritance. They are implemented in C++ as patches to GCC 2.5.2 by Gerald Baumgartner .
(ftp://ftp.cs.purdue.edu/pub/gb/).
(2001-01-05)