Flex

[fleks] /flɛks/

verb (used with object)
1.
to bend, as a part of the body:
He flexed his arms to show off his muscles.
2.
to tighten (a muscle) by contraction.
verb (used without object)
3.
to bend.
noun
4.
the act of flexing.
5.
British.

6.
Mathematics. an inflection point.
[fleks] /flɛks/
adjective
1.
Informal. :
a flex program of workers’ benefits.
1.
a combining form representing in compound words:
flextime.
/flɛks/
noun
1.
(Brit) a flexible insulated electric cable, used esp to connect appliances to mains US and Canadian name cord
2.
(informal) flexibility or pliability
verb
3.
to bend or be bent: he flexed his arm, his arm flexed
4.
to contract (a muscle) or (of a muscle) to contract
5.
(intransitive) to work according to flexitime
6.
to test or display (one’s authority or strength)
v.

1520s, probably a back-formation from flexible. Related: Flexed; flexing.

flex (flěks)
v. flexed, flex·ing, flex·es

language
1. Faster LEX.
2. A real-time language for dynamic environments.
[“FLEX: Towards Flexible Real-Time Programs”, K. Lin et al, Computer Langs 16(1):65-79, Jan 1991].
3. An early object-oriented language developed for the FLEX machine by Alan Kay in about 1967. The FLEX language was a simplification of Simula and a predecessor of Smalltalk.
(1995-03-29)
software, hardware
A system developed by Ian Currie (Iain?) at the (then) Royal Signals and Radar Establishment at Malvern in the late 1970s. The hardware was custom and microprogrammable, with an operating system, (modular) compiler, editor, garbage collector and filing system all written in Algol-68. Flex was also re-implemented on the Perq(?).
[I. F. Currie and others, “Flex Firmware”, Technical Report, RSRE, Number 81009, 1981].
[I. F. Currie, “In Praise of Procedures”, RSRE, 1982].
(1997-11-17)

GNU’s Flex scanner generator retargeted to C++ by Alain Coetmeur . Version 3.0.
(ftp://iecc.com/pub/file/flex++.tar.gz). (ftp://iecc.com/pub/file/misc++.tar.gz). (ftp://ftp.th-darmstadt.de/pub/programming/languages/C++/tools/flex++-3.0.tar.gz).
(1993-07-08)