Engine

Why Trust Techopedia

What Does Engine Mean?

An engine is a type of software that generates source code or markup and produces elements that begin another process, allowing real-time maintenance of software requirements. In other words, an engine is the self-actualizing element of a complete process and is, therefore, the driving motive behind the original process.

Advertisements

An engine also may be defined as software that facilitates automated processes, in which different software elements work interactively to minimize human intervention.

Techopedia Explains Engine

A software engine produces code that is concurrently executed by its originally invoked process. The process is entirely automatic and, unlike some computer programs, is not managed by daemons or dynamic database triggers.

An Internet form component is a perfect example of a software engine. In this case, a user opens a Web browser and completes a form, and user-provided input is displayed several pages later. The software engine generates HTML code, ordering the Web browser to schedule the display of these details on a new page.

A game engine, or set of programming modules engineered to generate and develop video games, is another example of a software engine. Game engines offer packages of visual development and reusable software elements that are typically offered in a built-in platform, enabling efficient, data-driven game development.

Advertisements

Related Terms

Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.