Terminology

Definitions for various terms that are used regularly to describe parts of the Alarm service.

General

Ethereum Alarm Clock
Alarm
Alarm Service
Generic terms for the service as a whole.
Scheduler Contract
The solidity contract responsible for scheduling a function call.
Call Contract
The solidity contract that is deployed for each scheduled call. This contract handles execution of the call, registration of call data, gas reimbursment, and payment and fee dispursment.
Scheduled Call
A contract function call that has been registered with the Alarm service to be executed at a specified time in the future (currently denoted by a block number).

Calls and Call Scheduling

Scheduler
The account which scheduled the function call.
Executor
The account which initiates the transaction which executes a scheduled function call.
Target Block
The first block number that a scheduled call can be called.
Grace Period
The number of blocks after the target block that a scheduled call can be be called.
Freeze Window
The 10 blocks directly preceeding the target block for a call
Claim Window
The 255 block window prior to the Freeze Window during which the call may be claimed for exclusive rights to execution during the first 16 blocks of the call window.
Call Window
Used to refer to either the full window of blocks during which a scheduled call can be executed, or a portion of this window that has been designated to a specific caller.
Payment
The ethereum amount that is paid to the executor of the scheduled call.
Fee
The ethereum amount that is paid to the creator of the Alarm service.
Anchor Gas Price
The gas price that was used when scheduling the scheduled call.
Gas Price Scalar
A number ranging from 0 - 2 that is derived from the difference between the gas price of the executing transaction and the anchor gas grice. This number equals 1 when the two numbers are equal. It approaches 2 as the executing gas grice drops below the anchor gas price. It approaches zero as the executing gas price rises above the anchor gas price. This multiplier is applied to the payment and fee values, intending to motivate the executor to use a reasonable gas price.