Computer Terms Glossary

Basic

application & app

An application (often called "app" for short) is simply a program with a GUI. Note that it is different from an applet.

boot

Starting up an OS is booting it. If the computer is already running, it is more often called  rebooting.

browser

A browser is a program used to browse the web. Some common browsers include Netscape, MSIE (Microsoft Internet Explorer), Safari, Lynx, Mosaic, Amaya, Arena, Chimera, Opera, Cyberdog, HotJava, etc.

bug

A bug is a mistake in the design of something, especially software. A really severe bug can cause something to crash.

chat

Chatting is like e-mail, only it is done instantaneously and can directly involve multiple people at once. While e-mail now relies on one more or less standard protocol, chatting still has a couple competing ones. Of particular note are IRC and Instant Messenger. One step beyond chatting is called MUDding.

click

To press a mouse button. When done twice in rapid succession, it is referred to as a double-click.

cursor

A point of attention on the computer screen, often marked with a flashing line or block.

Text typed into the computer will usually appear at the cursor.

database

A database is a collection of data, typically organized to make common retrievals easy and efficient. Some common database programs include Oracle, Sybase, Postgres, Informix, Filemaker, Adabas, etc.

desktop

A desktop system is a computer designed to sit in one position on a desk somewhere and not move around. Most general purpose computers are desktop systems. Calling a system a desktop implies nothing about its platform. The fastest desktop system at any given time is typically either an Alpha or PowerPC based system, but the SPARC and PA-RISCbased systems are also often in the running. Industrial strength desktops are typically called workstations. directory

Also called "folder", a directory is a collection of files typically created for organizational purposes. Note that a directory is itself a file, so a directory can generally contain other directories. It differs in this way from a partition.

disk

A disk is a physical object used for storing data. It will not forget its data when it loses power. It is always used in conjunction with a disk drive. Some disks can be removed from their drives, some cannot. Generally it is possible to write new information to a disk in addition to reading data from it, but this is not always the case.

drive

A device for storing and/or retrieving data. Some drives (such as disk drives, zip drives, and tape drives) are typically capable of having new data written to them, but some others (like CD-ROMs or DVD-ROMs) are not. Some drives have random access (like disk drives, zip drives, CD-ROMs, and DVD-ROMs), while others only have sequential access (like tape drives).

e-book

The concept behind an e-book is that it should provide all the functionality of an ordinary book but in a manner that is (overall) less expensive and more environmentally friendly. The actual term e-book is somewhat confusingly used to refer to a variety of things: custom software to play e-book titles, dedicated hardware to play e-book titles, and the ebook titles themselves. Individual e-book titles can be free or commercial (but will always be less expensive than their printed counterparts) and have to be loaded into a player to be read. Players vary wildly in capability level. Basic ones allow simple reading and bookmarking; better ones include various features like hypertext, illustrations, audio, and even limited video. Other optional features allow the user to mark-up sections of text, leave notes, circle or diagram things, highlight passages, program or customize settings, and even use interactive fiction. There are many types of e-book; a couple popular ones include the Newton book and Palm DOC.

e-mail

E-mail is short for electronic mail. It allows for the transfer of information from one computer to another, provided that they are hooked up via some sort of network (often the Internet. E-mail works similarly to FAXing, but its contents typically get printed out on the other end only on demand, not immediately and automatically as with FAX. A machine receiving e-mail will also not reject other incoming mail messages as a busy FAX machine will; rather they will instead be queued up to be received after the current batch has been completed. E-mail is only seven-bit clean, meaning that you should not expect anything other than ASCII data to go through uncorrupted without prior conversion via something like uucode or bcode. Some mailers will do some conversion automatically, but unless you know your mailer is one of them, you may want to do the encoding manually.

file

A file is a unit of (usually named) information stored on a computer.

firmware

Sort of in-between hardware and software, firmware consists of modifiable programsembedded in hardware. Firmware updates should be treated with care since they can literally destroy the underlying hardware if done improperly. There are also cases where neglecting to apply a firmware update can destroy the underlying hardware, so userbeware.

floppy

An extremely common type of removable disk. Floppies do not hold too much data, but most computers are capable of reading them. Note though that there are different competing format used for floppies, so that a floppy written by one type of computer might not directly work on another. Also sometimes called "diskette".

format

The manner in which data is stored; its organization. For example, VHS, SVHS, and Beta are three different formats of video tape. They are not 100% compatible with each other, but information can be transferred from one to the other with the proper equipment (but not always without loss; SVHS contains more information than either of the other two). Computer information can be stored in literally hundreds of different formats, and can represent text, sounds, graphics, animations, etc. Computer information can be exchanged via different computer types provided both computers can interpret the format used.

function keys

On a computer keyboard, the keys that start with an "F" that are usually (but not always) found on the top row. They are meant to perform user-defined tasks.

graphics

Anything visually displayed on a computer that is not text.

hardware

The physical portion of the computer.

hypertext

A hypertext document is like a text document with the ability to contain pointers to other regions of (possibly other) hypertext documents.

Internet

The Internet is the world-wide network of computers. There is only one Internet, and thus it is typically capitalized (although it is sometimes referred to as "the 'net"). It is different from an intranet.

keyboard

A keyboard on a computer is almost identical to a keyboard on a typewriter. Computer keyboards will typically have extra keys, however. Some of these keys (common examples include Control, Alt, and Meta) are meant to be used in conjunction with other keys just like shift on a regular typewriter. Other keys (common examples include Insert, Delete, Home, End, Help, function keys,etc.) are meant to be used independently and often perform editing tasks. Keyboards on different platforms will often look slightly different and have somewhat different collections of keys. Some keyboards even have independent shift lock and caps lock keys. Smaller keyboards with only math-related keys are typically called "keypads".

language

Computer programs can be written in a variety of different languages. Different languages are optimized for different tasks. Common languages include Java, C, C++, ForTran, Pascal, Lisp, and BASIC. Some people classify anguages into two categories, higher-level and lower-level. These people would consider assembly language and machine language lower-level languages and all other languages higher-level. In general, higher-level languages can be either interpreted or compiled; many languages allow both, but some are restricted to one or the other. Many people do not consider machine language and assembly language at all when talking about programming languages.

laptop

A laptop is any computer designed to do pretty much anything a desktop system can do but run for a short time (usually two to five hours) on batteries. They are designed to be carried around but are not particularly convenient to carry around. They are significantly more expensive than desktop systems and have far worse battery life than PDAs. Calling a system a laptop implies nothing about its platform. By far the fastest laptops are the PowerPC based Macintoshes.

memory

Computer memory is used to temporarily store data. In reality, computer memory is only capable of remembering sequences of zeros and ones, but by utilizing the binary number system it is possible to produce arbitrary rational numbers and through clever formattingall manner of representations of pictures, sounds, and animations. The most common types of memory are RAM, ROM, and flash.

modem

A modem allows two computers to communicate over ordinary phone lines. It derives its name from modulate / demodulate, the process by which it converts digital computer data back and forth for use with an analog phone line.

monitor

The screen for viewing computer information is called a monitor.

mouse

In computer parlance a mouse can be both the physical object moved around to control a pointer on the screen, and the pointer itself. Unlike the animal, the proper plural of computer mouse is "mouses".

multimedia

This originally indicated a capability to work with and integrate various types of things including audio, still graphics, and especially video. Now it is more of a marketing term and has little real meaning. Historically the Amiga was the first multimedia machine.

Today in addition to AmigaOS, IRIX and Solaris are popular choices for high-end multimedia work. NCThe term network computer refers to any (usually desktop) computer system that is designed to work as part of a network rather than as a stand-alone machine. This saves money on hardware, software, and maintenance by taking advantage of facilities already available on the network. The term "Internet appliance" is often used interchangeably with NC.

network

A network (as applied to computers) typically means a group of computers working together. It can also refer to the physical wire etc. connecting the computers.

notebook

A notebook is a small laptop with similar price, performance, and battery life.

organizer

An organizer is a tiny computer used primarily to store names, addresses, phone numbers, and date book information. They usually have some ability to exchange information with desktop systems. They boast even better battery life than PDAs but are far less capable.

They are extremely inexpensive but are typically incapable of running any special purpose applications and are thus of limited use.

OS

The operating system is the program that manages a computer's resources. Common OSes include Windows '95, MacOS, Linux, Solaris, AmigaOS, AIX, Windows NT, etc.

PC

The term personal computer properly refers to any desktop, laptop, or notebook computer system. Its use is inconsistent, though, and some use it to specifically refer to x86 based systems running MS-DOS, MS-Windows, GEOS, or OS/2. This latter use is similar to what is meant by a WinTel system.

PDA

A personal digital assistant is a small battery-powered computer intended to be carried around by the user rather than left on a desk. This means that the processor used ought tobe power-efficient as well as fast, and the OS ought to be optimized for hand-held use. PDAs typically have an instant-on feature (they would be useless without it) and most are grayscale rather than color because of battery life issues. Most have a pen interface and come with a detachable stylus. None use mouses. All have some ability to exchange data with desktop systems. In terms of raw capabilities, a PDA is more capable than an organizer and less capable than a laptop (although some high-end PDAs beat out some low-end laptops). By far the most popular PDA is the Pilot, but other common types include Newtons, Psions, Zauri, Zoomers, and Windows CE hand-helds. By far thefastest current PDA is the Newton (based around a StrongARM RISC processor). Other PDAs are optimized for other tasks; few computers are as personal as PDAs and care must be taken in their purchase. Feneric's PDA / Handheld Comparison Page is perhaps the most detailed comparison of PDAs and handheld computers to be found anywhere on the web.

platform

Roughly speaking, a platform represents a computer's family. It is defined by both the processor type on the hardware side and the OS type on the software side. Computers belonging to different platforms cannot typically run each other's programs (unless the programs are written in a language like Java).

portable

If something is portable it can be easily moved from one type of computer to another. The verb "to port" indicates the moving itself.

printer

A printer is a piece of hardware that will print computer information onto paper.

processor

The processor (also called central processing unit, or CPU) is the part of the computer that actually works with the data and runs the programs. There are two main processor types in common usage today: CISC and RISC. Some computers have more than one processor and are thus called "multiprocessor". This is distinct from multitasking. Advertisers often use megahertz numbers as a means of showing a processor's speed. This is often extremely misleading; megahertz numbers are more or less meaningless when compared across different types of processors.

program

A program is a series of instructions for a computer, telling it what to do or how to behave. The terms "application" and "app" mean almost the same thing (albeit applications generally have GUIs). It is however different from an applet. Program is also the verb that means to create a program, and a programmer is one who programs.

run

Running a program is how it is made to do something. The term "execute" means the same thing.

software

The non-physical portion of the computer; the part that exists only as data; the programs. Another term meaning much the same is "code".

spreadsheet

An program used to perform various calculations. It is especially popular for financial applications. Some common spreadsheets include Lotus 123, Excel, OpenOffice Spreadsheet, Octave, Gnumeric, AppleWorks Spreadsheet, Oleo, and GeoCalc.

user

The operator of a computer.

word processor

A program designed to help with the production of textual documents, like letters andmemos. Heavier duty work can be done with a desktop publisher. Some common word processors include MS-Word, OpenOffice Write, WordPerfect, AbiWord, AppleWorks Write, and GeoWrite.

www

The World-Wide-Web refers more or less to all the publically accessable documents on the Internet. It is used quite loosely, and sometimes indicates only HTML files and sometimes FTP and Gopher files, too. It is also sometimes just referred to as "the web". Reference

65xx

The 65xx series of processors includes the 6502, 65C02, 6510, 8502, 65C816, 65C816S, etc. It is a CISC design and is not being used in too many new stand-alone computer systems, but is still being used in embedded systems, game systems (such as the Super NES), and processor enhancement add-ons for older systems. It was originally designed by MOS Technologies, but is now produced by The Western Design Center, Inc. It was the primary processor for many extremely popular systems no longer being produced, including the Commodore 64, the Commodore 128, and all the Apple ][ series machines.

68xx

The 68xx series of processors includes the 6800, 6805, 6809, 68000, 68020, 68030, 68040, 68060, etc. It is a CISC design and is not being used in too many new stand-alone computer systems, but is still being used heavily in embedded systems. It was originally designed by Motorola and was the primary processor for older generations of many current machines, including Macintoshes, Amigas, Sun workstations, HP workstations, etc. and the primary processor for many systems no longer being produced, such as the TRS-80. The PowerPC was designed in part to be its replacement.

ADA

An object-oriented language at one point popular for military and some academic software. Lately C++ and Java have been getting more attention.

AI

Artificial intelligence is the concept of making computers do tasks once considered to require thinking. AI makes computers play chess, recognize handwriting and speech, helps suggest prescriptions to doctors for patients based on imput symptoms, and many other tasks, both mundane and not.

AIX

The industrial strength OS designed by IBM to run on PowerPC and x86 based machines. It is a variant of UNIX and is meant to provide more power than OS/2.

AJaX

AJaX is a little like DHTML, but it adds asynchronous communication between the browser and Web site via either XML or JSON to achieve performance that often rivals desktop applications.

Alpha

An Alpha is a RISC processor invented by Digital and currently produced by Digital/Compaq and Samsung. A few different OSes run on Alpha based machines including Digital UNIX, Windows NT, Linux, NetBSD, and AmigaOS. Historically, at any given time, the fastest processor in the world has usually been either an Alpha or a PowerPC (with sometimes SPARCs and PA-RISCs making the list), but Compaq has recently announced that there will be no further development of this superb processor instead banking on the release of the somewhat suspect Merced. AltiVecAltiVec (also called the "Velocity Engine") is a special extension built into some PowerPC CPUs to provide better performance for certain operations, most notably graphics and sound. It is similar to MMX on the x86 CPUs. Like MMX, it requires special software for full performance benefits to be realized.

Amiga

A platform originally created and only produced by Commodore, but now owned by Gateway 2000 and produced by it and a few smaller companies. It was historically the first multimedia machine and gave the world of computing many innovations. It is now primarily used for audio / video applications; in fact, a decent Amiga system is less expensive than a less capable video editing system. Many music videos were created on Amigas, and a few television series and movies had their special effects generated on Amigas. Also, Amigas can be readily synchronized with video cameras, so typicallywhen a computer screen appears on television or in a movie and it is not flickering wildly, it is probably an Amiga in disguise. Furthermore, many coin-operated arcade games are really Amigas packaged in stand-up boxes. Amigas have AmigaOS for their OS. New Amigas have either a PowerPC or an Alpha for their main processor and a 68xxprocessor dedicated to graphics manipulation. Older (and low end) Amigas do everything with just a 68xx processor.

AmigaOS

The OS used by Amigas. AmigaOS combines the functionality of an OS and a window manager and is fully multitasking. AmigaOS boasts a pretty good selection of games (many arcade games are in fact written on Amigas) but has limited driver support. AmigaOS will run on 68xx, Alpha, and PowerPC based machines.

Apple ][

The Apple ][ computer sold millions of units and is generally considered to have been the first home computer with a 1977 release date. It is based on the 65xx family of processors. The earlier Apple I was only available as a build-it-yourself kit.

AppleScript

A scripting language for Mac OS computers.

applet

An applet differs from an application in that is not meant to be run stand-alone but rather with the assistance of another program, usually a browser.

AppleTalk

AppleTalk is a protocol for computer networks. It is arguably inferior to TCP/IP.

Aqua

The default window manager for Mac OS X.

Archie

Archie is a system for searching through FTP archives for particular files. It tends not to be used too much anymore as more general modern search engines are significantly more capable.

ARM

An ARM is a RISC processor invented by Advanced RISC Machines, currently owned by Intel, and currently produced by both the above and Digital/Compaq. ARMs aredifferent from most other processors in that they were not designed to maximize speed but rather to maximize speed per power consumed. Thus ARMs find most of their use on hand-held machines and PDAs. A few different OSes run on ARM based machines including Newton OS, JavaOS, and (soon) Windows CE and Linux. The StrongARM is a more recent design of the original ARM, and it is both faster and more power efficient than the original.

ASCII

The ASCII character set is the most popular one in common use. People will often refer to a bare text file without complicated embedded format instructions as an ASCII file, and such files can usually be transferred from one computer system to another with relative ease. Unfortunately there are a few minor variations of it that pop up here and there, and if you receive a text file that seems subtly messed up with punctuation marks altered or upper and lower case reversed, you are probably encountering one of the ASCII variants. It is usually fairly straightforward to translate from one ASCII variant toanother, though. The ASCII character set is seven bit while pure binary is usually eight bit, so transferring a binary file through ASCII channels will result in corruption and loss of data. Note also that the ASCII character set is a subset of the Unicode character set.

ASK

A protocol for an infrared communications port on a device. It predates the IrDAcompliant infrared communications protocol and is not compatible with it. Many devices with infrared communications support both, but some only support one or the other.

assembly language

Assembly language is essentially machine language that has had some of the numbers replaced by somewhat easier to remember mnemonics in an attempt to make it more human-readable. The program that converts assembly language to machine language is called an assembler. While assembly language predates FORTRAN, it is not typically what people think of when they discuss computer languages.

Atom

Atom is an intended replacement for RSS and like it is used for syndicating a web site's content. It is currently not nearly as popular or well-supported by software applications, however.

authoring system

Any GUIs method of designing new software can be called an authoring system. Any computer language name with the word "visual" in front of it is probably a version of that language built with some authoring system capabilities. It appears that the first serious effort to produce a commercial quality authoring system took place in the mid eighties for the Amiga.

AWK

AWK is an interpreted language developed in 1977 by Aho, Weinberger, & Kernighan. It gets its name from its creators' initials. It is not particularly fast, but it was designed for creating small throwaway programs rather than full-blown applications -- it is designed to make the writing of the program fast, not the program itself. It is quite portable with ersions existing for numerous platforms, including a free GNU version. Plus, virtually every version of UNIX in the world comes with AWK built-in.

BASIC

The Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code is a computer language developed by Kemeny & Kurtz in 1964. Although it is traditionally interpreted, compilersexist for many platforms. While the interpreted form is typically fairly slow, the compiled form is often quite fast, usually faster than Pascal. The biggest problem with BASIC is portability; versions for different machines are often completely unlike each other; Amiga BASIC at first glance looks more like Pascal, for example. Portability problems actually go beyond even the cross platform level; in fact, most machines have multiple versions of incompatible BASICs available for use. The most popular version of BASIC today is called Visual BASIC. Like all BASICs it has portability issues, but it has some of the advantages of an authoring system so it is relatively easy to use.

baud

A measure of communications speed, used typically for modems indicating how many bits per second can be transmitted.

BBS

A bulletin board system is a computer that can be directly connected to via modem and

provides various services like e-mail, chatting, newsgroups, and file downloading. BBSs

have waned in popularity as more and more people are instead connecting to the Internet,

but they are still used for product support and local area access. Most current BBSs

provide some sort of gateway connection to the Internet.

bcode

Identical in intent to uucode, bcode is slightly more efficient and more portable across

different computer types. It is the preferred method used by MIME.

BeOS

A lightweight OS available for both PowerPC and x86 based machines. It is often

referred to simply as "Be".

beta

A beta version of something is not yet ready for prime time but still possibly useful to

related developers and other interested parties. Expect beta software to crash more than

properly released software does. Traditionally beta versions (of commercial software) are

distributed only to selected testers who are often then given a discount on the proper

version after its release in exchange for their testing work. Beta versions of noncommercial software are more often freely available to anyone who has an interest.

binaryThere are two meanings for binary in common computer usage. The first is the name of

the number system in which there are only zeros and ones. This is important to computers

because all computer data is ultimately a series of zeros and ones, and thus can be

represented by binary numbers. The second is an offshoot of the first; data that is not

meant to be intepreted through a common character set (like ASCII) is typically referred

to as binary data. Pure binary data is typically eight bit data, and transferring a binary file

through ASCII channels without prior modification will result in corruption and loss of

data. Binary data can be turned into ASCII data via uucoding or bcoding.

bit

A bit can either be on or off; one or zero. All computer data can ultimately be reduced to

a series of bits. The term is also used as a (very rough) measure of sound quality, color

quality, and even processor capability by considering the fact that series of bits can

represent binary numbers. For example (without getting too technical), an eight bit image

can contain at most 256 distinct colors while a sixteen bit image can contain at most

65,536 distinct colors.

bitmap

A bitmap is a simplistic representation of an image on a computer, simply indicating

whether or not pixels are on or off, and sometimes indicating their color. Often fonts are

represented as bitmaps. The term "pixmap" is sometimes used similarly; typically when a

distinction is made, pixmap refers to color images and bitmap refers to monochrome

images.

blog

Short for web log, a blog (or weblog, or less commonly, 'blog) is a web site containing

periodic (usually frequent) posts. Blogs are usually syndicated via either some type of

RSS or Atom and often supports TrackBacks. It is not uncommon for blogs to function

much like newspaper columns. A blogger is someone who writes for and maintains a

blog.

boolean

Boolean algebra is the mathematics of base two numbers. Since base two numbers have

only two values, zero and one, there is a good analogy between base two numbers and the

logical values "true" & "false". In common usage, booleans are therefore considered to be

simple logical values like true & false and the operations that relate them, most typically

"and", "or" and "not". Since everyone has a basic understanding of the concepts of true &

false and basic conjunctions, everyone also has a basic understanding of boolean

concepts -- they just may not realize it.

byte

A byte is a grouping of bits. It is typically eight bits, but there are those who use nonstandard byte sizes. Bytes are usually measured in large groups, and the term "kilobyte"

(often abbreviated as K) means one-thousand twenty-four (1024) bytes; the term

"megabyte" (often abbreviated as M) means one-thousand twenty-four (1024) K; the term

gigabyte (often abbreviated as G) means one-thousand twenty-four (1024) M; and the

term "terabyte" (often abbreviated as T) means one-thousand twenty-four (1024) G.

Memory is typically measured in kilobytes or megabytes, and disk space is typically measured in megabytes or gigabytes. Note that the multipliers here are 1024 instead of

the more common 1000 as would be used in the metric system. This is to make it easier

to work with the binary number system. Note also that some hardware manufacturers will

use the smaller 1000 multiplier on M & G quantities to make their disk drives seem larger

than they really are; buyer beware.

bytecode

Sometimes computer languages that are said to be either interpreted or compiled are in

fact neither and are more accurately said to be somewhere in between. Such languages

are compiled into bytecode which is then interpreted on the target system. Bytecode tends

to be binary but will work on any machine with the appropriate runtime environment (or

virtual machine) for it.

C

C is one of the most popular computer languages in the world, and quite possibly the

most popular. It is a compiled language widely supported on many platforms. It tends to

be more portable than FORTRAN but less portable than Java; it has been standardized by

ANSI as "ANSI C" -- older versions are called either "K&R C" or "Kernighan and

Ritchie C" (in honor of C's creators), or sometimes just "classic C". Fast and simple, it

can be applied to all manner of general purpose tasks. C compilers are made by several

companies, but the free GNU version (gcc) is still considered one of the best. Newer Clike object-oriented languages include both Java and C++.

C++

C++ is a compiled object-oriented language. Based heavily on C, C++ is nearly as fast

and can often be thought of as being just C with added features. It is currently probably

the second most popular object-oriented language, but it has the drawback of being fairly

complex -- the much simpler but somewhat slower Java is probably the most popular

object-oriented language. Note that C++ was developed independently of the somewhat

similar Objective-C; it is however related to Objective-C++.

C64/128

The Commodore 64 computer to this day holds the record for being the most successful

model of computer ever made with even the lowest estimates being in the tens of

millions. Its big brother, the Commodore 128, was not quite as popular but still sold

several million units. Both units sported ROM-based BASIC and used it as a default

"OS". The C128 also came with CP/M (it was a not-often-exercised option on the C64).

In their later days they were also packaged with GEOS. Both are based on 65xx family

processors. They are still in use today and boast a friendly and surprisingly active user

community. There is even a current effort to port Linux to the C64 and C128 machines.

CDE

The common desktop environment is a popular commercial window manager (and much

more -- as its name touts, it is more of a desktop environment) that runs under XWindows. Free work-alike versions are also available.

chainSome computer devices support chaining, the ability to string multiple devices in a

sequence plugged into just one computer port. Often, but not always, such a chain will

require some sort of terminator to mark the end. For an example, a SCSI scanner may be

plugged into a SCSI CD-ROM drive that is plugged into a SCSI hard drive that is in turn

plugged into the main computer. For all these components to work properly, the scanner

would also have to have a proper terminator in use. Device chaining has been around a

long time, and it is interesting to note that C64/128 serial devices supported it from the

very beginning. Today the most common low-cost chainable devices in use support USB

while the fastest low-cost chainable devices in use support FireWire.

character set

Since in reality all a computer can store are series of zeros and ones, representing

common things like text takes a little work. The solution is to view the series of zeros and

ones instead as a sequence of bytes, and map each one to a particular letter, number, or

symbol. The full mapping is called a character set. The most popular character set is

commonly referred to as ASCII. The second most popular character set these days is

Unicode (and it will probably eventually surpass ASCII). Other fairly common character

sets include EBCDIC and PETSCII. They are generally quite different from one another;

programs exist to convert between them on most platforms, though. Usually EBCDIC is

only found on really old machines.

CISC

Complex instruction set computing is one of the two main types of processor design in

use today. It is slowly losing popularity to RISC designs; currently all the fastest

processors in the world are RISC. The most popular current CISC processor is the x86,

but there are also still some 68xx, 65xx, and Z80s in use.

CLI

A command-line interface is a text-based means of communicating with a program,

especially an OS. This is the sort of interface used by MS-DOS, or a UNIX shell window.

COBOL

The Common Business Oriented Language is a language developed back in 1959 and

still used by some businesses. While it is relatively portable, it is still disliked by many

professional programmers simply because COBOL programs tend to be physically longer

than equivalent programs written in almost any other language in common use.

compiled

If a program is compiled, its original human-readable source has been converted into a

form more easily used by a computer prior to it being run. Such programs will generally

run more quickly than interpreted programs, because time was pre-spent in the

compilation phase. A program that compiles other programs is called a compiler.

compression

It is often possible to remove redundant information or capitalize on patterns in data to

make a file smaller. Usually when a file has been compressed, it cannot be used until it is

uncompressed. Image files are common exceptions, though, as many popular image file

formats have compression built-in. cookie

A cookie is a small file that a web page on another machine writes to your personal

machine's disk to store various bits of information. Many people strongly detest cookies

and the whole idea of them, and most browsers allow the reception of cookies to be

disabled or at least selectively disabled, but it should be noted that both Netscape and

MSIE have silent cookie reception enabled by default. Sites that maintain shopping carts

or remember a reader's last position have legitimate uses for cookies. Sites without such

functionality that still spew cookies with distant (or worse, non-existent) expiration dates

should perhaps be treated with a little caution.

CP/M

An early DOS for desktops, CP/M runs on both Z80 and the x86 based machines. CP/M

provides only a CLI and there really is not any standard way to get a window manager to

run on top of it. It is fairly complex and tricky to use. In spite of all this, CP/M was once

the most popular DOS and is still in use today.

crash

If a bug in a program is severe enough, it can cause that program to crash, or to become

inoperable without being restarted. On machines that are not multitasking, the entire

machine will crash and have to be rebooted. On machines that are only partially

multitasking the entire machine will sometimes crash and have to be rebooted. On

machines that are fully multitasking, the machine should never crash and require a

reboot.

Cray

A Cray is a high-end computer used for research and frequently heavy-duty graphics

applications. Modern Crays typically have Solaris for their OS and sport sixty-four RISC

processors; older ones had various other configurations. Current top-of-the-line Crays can

have over 2000 processors.

crippleware

Crippleware is a variant of shareware that will either self-destruct after its trial period or

has built-in limitations to its functionality that get removed after its purchase.

CSS

Cascading style sheets are used in conjunction with HTML and XHTML to define the

layout of web pages. While CSS is how current web pages declare how they should be

displayed, it tends not to be supported well (if at all) by ancient browsers. XSL performs

this same function more generally.

desktop publisher

A program for creating newspapers, magazines, books, etc. Some common desktop

publishing programs include FrameMaker, PageMaker, InDesign, and GeoPublish.

DHTML

Dynamic HTML is simply the combined use of both CSS and JavaScript together in the

same document; a more extreme form is called AJaX. Note that DHTML is quite

different from the similarly named DTML.

dict

A protocol used for looking up definitions across a network (in particular the Internet).

digital camera

A digital camera looks and behaves like a regular camera, except instead of using film, it

stores the image it sees in memory as a file for later transfer to a computer. Many digital

cameras offer additional storage besides their own internal memory; a few sport some

sort of disk but the majority utilize some sort of flash card. Digital cameras currently lack

the resolution and color palette of real cameras, but are usually much more convenient for

computer applications. Another related device is called a scanner.

DIMM

A physical component used to add RAM to a computer. Similar to, but incompatible

with, SIMMs.

DNS

Domain name service is the means by which a name (like www.saugus.net or

ftp.saugus.net) gets converted into a real Internet address that points to a particular

machine.

DoS

In a denial of service attack, many individual (usually compromised) computers are used

to try and simultaneously access the same public resource with the intent of

overburdening it so that it will not be able to adequately serve its normal users.

DOS

A disk operating system manages disks and other system resources. Sort of a subset of

OSes, sort of an archaic term for the same. MS-DOS is the most popular program

currently calling itself a DOS. CP/M was the most popular prior to MS-DOS.

download

To download a file is to copy it from a remote computer to your own. The opposite is

upload.

DR-DOS

The DOS currently produced by Caldera (originally produced by Design Research as a

successor to CP/M) designed to work like MS-DOS. While similar to CP/M in many

ways, it utilizes simpler commands. It provides only a CLI, but either Windows 3.1 or

GEOS may be run on top of it to provide a GUI. It only runs on x86 based machines.

driver

A driver is a piece of software that works with the OS to control a particular piece of

hardware, like a printer or a scanner or a mouse or whatever.

DRM

Depending upon whom you ask, DRM can stand for either Digital Rights Management or

Digital Restrictions Management. In either case, DRM is used to place restrictions upon

the usage of digital media ranging from software to music to video. DTML

The Document Template Mark-up Language is a subset of SGML and a superset of

HTML used for creating documents that dynamically adapt to external conditions using

its own custom tags and a little bit of Python. Note that it is quite different from the

similarly named DHTML.

EDBIC

The EDBIC character set is similar to (but less popular than) the ASCII character set in

concept, but is significantly different in layout. It tends to be found only on old

machines..

emacs

Emacs is both one of the most powerful and one of the most popular text editing

programs in existence. Versions can be found for most platforms, and in fact multiple

companies make versions, so for a given platform there might even be a choice. There is

even a free GNU version available. The drawback with emacs is that it is not in the least

bit lightweight. In fact, it goes so far in the other direction that even its advocates will

occasionally joke about it. It is however extremely capable. Almost anything that one

would need to relating to text can be done with emacs and is probably built-in. Even if

one manages to find something that emacs was not built to do, emacs has a built-in Lisp

interpreter capable of not only extending its text editing capabilities, but even of being

used as a scripting language in its own right.

embedded

An embedded system is a computer that lives inside another device and acts as a

component of that device. For example, current cars have an embedded computer under

the hood that helps regulate much of their day to day operation.

An embedded file is a file that lives inside another and acts as a portion of that file. This

is frequently seen with HTML files having embedded audio files; audio files often

embedded in HTML include AU files, MIDI files, SID files, WAV files, AIFF files, and

MOD files. Most browsers will ignore these files unless an appropriate plug-in is present.

emulator

An emulator is a program that allows one computer platform to mimic another for the

purposes of running its software. Typically (but not always) running a program through

an emulator will not be quite as pleasant an experience as running it on the real system.

endian

A processor will be either "big endian" or "little endian" based upon the manner in which

it encodes multiple byte values. There is no difference in performance between the two

encoding methods, but it is one of the sources of difficulty when reading binary data on

different platforms.

environment

An environment (sometimes also called a runtime environment) is a collection of external

variable items or parameters that a program can access when run. Information about the

computer's hardware and the user can often be found in the environment. EPOC

EPOC is a lightweight OS. It is most commonly found on the Psion PDA.

extension

Filename extensions originate back in the days of CP/M and basically allow a very rough

grouping of different file types by putting a tag at the end of the name. To further

complicate matters, the tag is sometimes separated by the name proper by a period "." and

sometimes by a tab. While extensions are semi-enforced on CP/M, MS-DOS, and MSWindows, they have no real meaning aside from convention on other platforms and are

only optional.

FAQ

A frequently asked questions file attempts to provide answers for all commonly asked

questions related to a given topic.

FireWire

An incredibly fast type of serial port that offers many of the best features of SCSI at a

lower price. Faster than most types of parallel port, a single FireWire port is capable of

chaining many devices without the need of a terminator. FireWire is similar in many

respects to USB but is significantly faster and somewhat more expensive. It is heavily

used for connecting audio/video devices to computers, but is also used for connecting

storage devices like drives and other assorted devices like printers and scanners.

fixed width

As applied to a font, fixed width means that every character takes up the same amount of

space. That is, an "i" will be just as wide as an "m" with empty space being used for

padding. The opposite is variable width. The most common fixed width font is Courier.

flash

Flash memory is similar to RAM. It has one significant advantage: it does not lose its

contents when power is lost; it has two main disadvantages: it is slower, and it eventually

wears out. Flash memory is frequently found in PCMCIA cards.

font

In a simplistic sense, a font can be thought of as the physical description of a character

set. While the character set will define what sets of bits map to what letters, numbers, and

other symbols, the font will define what each letter, number, and other symbol looks like.

Fonts can be either fixed width or variable width and independently, either bitmapped or

vectored. The size of the large characters in a font is typically measured in points.

Forth

A language developed in 1970 by Moore. Forth is fairly portable and has versions on

many different platforms. While it is no longer an very popular language, many of its

ideas and concepts have been carried into other computer programs. In particular, some

programs for doing heavy-duty mathematical and engineering work use Forth-like

interfaces.

FORTRAN

FORTRAN stands for formula translation and is the oldest computer language in the

world. It is typically compiled and is quite fast. Its primary drawbacks are portability and

ease-of-use -- often different FORTRAN compilers on different platforms behave quite

differently in spite of standardization efforts in 1966 (FORTRAN 66 or FORTRAN IV),

1978 (FORTRAN 77), and 1991 (FORTRAN 90). Today languages like C and Java are

more popular, but FORTRAN is still heavily used in military software. It is somewhat

amusing to note that when FORTRAN was first released back in 1958 its advocates

thought that it would mean the end of software bugs. In truth of course by making the

creation of more complex software practical, computer languages have merely created

new types of software bugs.

FreeBSD

A free variant of Berkeley UNIX available for Alpha and x86 based machines. It is not as

popular as Linux.

freeware

Freeware is software that is available for free with no strings attached. The quality is

often superb as the authors are also generally users.

FTP

The file transfer protocol is one of the most commonly used methods of copying files

across the Internet. It has its origins on UNIX machines, but has been adapted to almost

every type of computer in existence and is built into many browsers. Most FTP programs

have two modes of operation, ASCII, and binary. Transmitting an ASCII file via the

ASCII mode of operation is more efficient and cleaner. Transmitting a binary file via the

ASCII mode of operation will result in a broken binary file. Thus the FTP programs that

do not support both modes of operation will typically only do the binary mode, as binary

transfers are capable of transferring both kinds of data without corruption.

gateway

A gateway connects otherwise separate computer networks.

GEOS

The graphic environment operating system is a lightweight OS with a GUI. It runs on

several different processors, including the 65xx (different versions for different machines

-- there are versions for the C64, the C128, and the Apple ][, each utilizing the relevant

custom chip sets), the x86 (although the x86 version is made to run on top of MS-DOS

(or PC-DOS or DR-DOS) and is not strictly a full OS or a window manager, rather it is

somewhat in between, like Windows 3.1) and numerous different PDAs, embedded

devices, and hand-held machines. It was originally designed by Berkeley Softworks (no

real relation to the Berkeley of UNIX fame) but is currently in a more interesting state:

the company GeoWorks develops and promotes development of GEOS for hand-held

devices, PDAs, & and embedded devices and owns (but has ceased further development

on) the x86 version. The other versions are owned (and possibly still being developed) by

the company CMD.

GlulxA virtual machine optimized for running interactive fiction, interactive tutorials, and

other interactive things of a primarily textual nature. Glulx has been ported to several

platforms, and in many ways an upgrade to the Z-machine.

GNOME

The GNU network object model environment is a popular free window manager (and

much more -- as its name touts, it is more of a desktop environment) that runs under XWindows. It is a part of the GNU project.

GNU

GNU stands for GNU's not UNIX and is thus a recursive acronym (and unlike the animal

name, the "G" here is pronounced). At any rate, the GNU project is an effort by the Free

Software Foundation (FSF) to make all of the traditional UNIX utilities free for whoever

wants them. The Free Software Foundation programmers know their stuff, and the quality

of the GNU software is on par with the best produced commercially, and often better. All

of the GNU software can be downloaded for free or obtained on CD-ROM for a small

service fee. Documentation for all GNU software can be downloaded for free or obtained

in book form for a small service fee. The Free Software Foundation pays its bills from the

collection of service fees and the sale of T-shirts, and exists mostly through volunteer

effort. It is based in Cambridge, MA.

gopher

Though not as popular as FTP or http, the gopher protocol is implemented by many

browsers and numerous other programs and allows the transfer of files across networks.

In some respects it can be thought of as a hybrid between FTP and http, although it tends

not to be as good at raw file transfer as FTP and is not as flexible as http. The collection

of documents available through gopher is often called "gopherspace", and it should be

noted that gopherspace is older than the web. It should also be noted that gopher is not

getting as much attention as it once did, and surfing through gopherspace is a little like

exploring a ghost town, but there is an interesting VR interface available for it, and some

things in gopherspace still have not been copied onto the web.

GUI

A graphical user interface is a graphics-based means of communicating with a program,

especially an OS or window manager. In fact, a window manager can be thought of as a

GUI for a CLI OS.

HP-UX

HP-UX is the version of UNIX designed by Hewlett-Packard to work with their PARISC and 68xx based machines.

HTML

The Hypertext Mark-up Language is the language currently most frequently used to

express web pages (although it is rapidly being replaced by XHTML). Every browser has

the built-in ability to understand HTML. Some browsers can additionally understand Java

and browse FTP areas. HTML is a proper subset of SGML.

httpThe hypertext transfer protocol is the native protocol of browsers and is most typically

used to transfer HTML formatted files. The secure version is called "https".

Hurd

The Hurd is the official GNU OS. It is still in development and is not yet supported on

too many different processors, but promises to be the most powerful OS available. It (like

all the GNU software) is free.

i18n

Commonly used to abbreviate the word "internationalization". There are eighteen letters

between the "i" and the "n". Similar to (and often used along with) i18n.

iCalendar

The iCalendar standard refers to the format used to store calendar type information

(including events, to-do items, and journal entries) on the Internet. iCalendar data can be

found on some World-Wide-Web pages or attached to e-mail messages.

icon

A small graphical display representing an object, action, or modifier of some sort.

IDE

Loosely speaking, a disk format sometimes used by MS-Windows, Mac OS, AmigaOS,

and (rarely) UNIX. EIDE is enhanced IDE; it is much faster. Generally IDE is inferior

(but less expensive) to SCSI, but it varies somewhat with system load and the individual

IDE and SCSI components themselves. The quick rundown is that: SCSI-I and SCSI-II

will almost always outperform IDE; EIDE will almost always outperform SCSI-I and

SCSI-II; SCSI-III and UltraSCSI will almost always outperform EIDE; and heavy system

loads give an advantage to SCSI. Note that although loosely speaking it is just a format

difference, it is deep down a hardware difference.

Inform

A compiled, object-oriented language optimized for creating interactive fiction.

infrared communications

A device with an infrared port can communicate with other devices at a distance by

beaming infrared light signals. Two incompatible protocols are used for infrared

communications: IrDA and ASK. Many devices support both.

Instant Messenger

AOL's Instant Messenger is a means of chatting over the Internet in real-time. It allows

both open group discussions and private conversations. Instant Messenger uses a

different, proprietary protocol from the more standard IRC, and is not supported on as

many platforms.

interactive fiction

Interactive fiction (often abbreviated "IF" or "I-F") is a form of literature unique to the

computer. While the reader cannot influence the direction of a typical story, the reader

plays a more active role in an interactive fiction story and completely controls its

direction. Interactive fiction works come in all the sizes and genres available to standard fiction, and in fact are not always even fiction per se (interactive tutorials exist and are

slowly becoming more common).

interpreted

If a program is interpreted, its actual human-readable source is read as it is run by the

computer. This is generally a slower process than if the program being run has already

been compiled.

intranet

An intranet is a private network. There are many intranets scattered all over the world.

Some are connected to the Internet via gateways.

IP

IP is the family of protocols that makes up the Internet. The two most common flavors

are TCP/IP and UDP/IP.

IRC

Internet relay chat is a means of chatting over the Internet in real-time. It allows both

open group discussions and private conversations. IRC programs are provided by many

different companies and will work on many different platforms. AOL's Instant Messenger

utilizes a separate incompatible protocol but is otherwise very similar.

IrDA

The Infrared Data Association (IrDA) is a voluntary organization of various

manufacturers working together to ensure that the infrared communications between

different computers, PDAs, printers, digital cameras, remote controls, etc. are all

compatible with each other regardless of brand. The term is also often used to designate

an IrDA compliant infrared communications port on a device. Informally, a device able

to communicate via IrDA compliant infrared is sometimes simply said to "have IrDA".

There is also an earlier, incompatible, and usually slower type of infrared

communications still in use called ASK.

IRIX

The variant of UNIX designed by Silicon Graphics, Inc. IRIX machines are known for

their graphics capabilities and were initially optimized for multimedia applications.

ISDN

An integrated service digital network line can be simply looked at as a digital phone line.

ISDN connections to the Internet can be four times faster than the fastest regular phone

connection, and because it is a digital connection a modem is not needed. Any computer

hooked up to ISDN will typically require other special equipment in lieu of the modem,

however. Also, both phone companies and ISPs charge more for ISDN connections than

regular modem connections.

ISP

An Internet service provider is a company that provides Internet support for other

entities. AOL (America Online) is a well-known ISP.

JavaA computer language designed to be both fairly lightweight and extremely portable. It is

tightly bound to the web as it is the primary language for web applets. There has also

been an OS based on Java for use on small hand-held, embedded, and network

computers. It is called JavaOS. Java can be either interpreted or compiled. For web applet

use it is almost always interpreted. While its interpreted form tends not to be very fast, its

compiled form can often rival languages like C++ for speed. It is important to note

however that speed is not Java's primary purpose -- raw speed is considered secondary to

portability and ease of use.

JavaScript

JavaScript (in spite of its name) has nothing whatsoever to do with Java (in fact, it's

arguably more like Newton Script than Java). JavaScript is an interpreted language built

into a browser to provide a relatively simple means of adding interactivity to web pages.

It is only supported on a few different browsers, and tends not to work exactly the same

on different versions. Thus its use on the Internet is somewhat restricted to fairly simple

programs. On intranets where there are usually fewer browser versions in use, JavaScript

has been used to implement much more complex and impressive programs.

jiffy

A jiffy is 1/60 of a second. Jiffies are to seconds as seconds are to minutes.

joystick

A joystick is a physical device typically used to control objects on a computer screen. It

is frequently used for games and sometimes used in place of a mouse.

JSON

The JSON is used for data interchange between programs, an area in which the

ubiquitous XML is not too well-suited. JSON is lightweight and works extremely cleanly

with languages including JavaScript, Python, Java, C++, and many others.

JSON-RPC

JSON-RPC is like XML-RPC but is significantly more lightweight since it uses JSON in

lieu of XML.

KDE

The K desktop environment is a popular free window manager (and much more -- as its

name touts, it is more of a desktop environment) that runs under X-Windows.

Kerberos

Kerberos is a network authentication protocol. Basically it preserves the integrity of

passwords in any untrusted network (like the Internet). Kerberized applications work

hand-in-hand with sites that support Kerberos to ensure that passwords cannot be stolen.

kernel

The very heart of an OS is often called its kernel. It will usually (at minimum) provide

some libraries that give programmers access to its various features.

l10nCommonly used to abbreviate the word "localization". There are ten letters between the

"l" and the "n". Similar to (and often used along with) i18n.

library

A selection of routines used by programmers to make computers do particular things.

lightweight

Something that is lightweight will not consume computer resources (such as RAM and

disk space) too much and will thus run on less expensive computer systems.

Linux

Believe it or not, one of the fastest, most robust, and powerful multitasking OSes is

available for free. Linux can be downloaded for free or be purchased on CD-ROM for a

small service charge. A handful of companies distribute Linux including Red Hat,

Debian, Caldera, and many others. Linux is also possibly available for more hardware

combinations than any other OS (with the possible exception of NetBSD. Supported

processors include: Alpha, PowerPC, SPARC, x86, and 68xx. Most processors currently

not supported are currently works-in-progress or even available in beta. For example,

work is currently underway to provide support for PA-RISC, 65xx, StrongARM, and

Z80. People have even successfully gotten Linux working on PDAs. As you may have

guessed, Linux can be made quite lightweight. Linux is a variant of UNIX and as such,

most of the traditional UNIX software will run on Linux. This especially includes the

GNU software, most of which comes with the majority of Linux distributions. Fast,

reliable, stable, and inexpensive, Linux is popular with ISPs, software developers, and

home hobbyists alike.

Lisp

Lisp stands for list processing and is the second oldest computer language in the world.

Being developed in 1959, it lost the title to FORTRAN by only a few months. It is

typically interpreted, but compilers are available for some platforms. Attempts were

made to standardize the language, and the standard version is called "Common Lisp".

There have also been efforts to simplify the language, and the results of these efforts is

another language called Scheme. Lisp is a fairly portable language, but is not particularly

fast. Today, Lisp is most widely used with AI software.

load

There are two popular meanings for load. The first means to fetch some data or a

program from a disk and store it in memory. The second indicates the amount of work a

component (especially a processor) is being made to do.

Logo

Logo is an interpreted language designed by Papert in 1966 to be a tool for helping

people (especially kids) learn computer programming concepts. In addition to being used

for that purpose, it is often used as a language for controlling mechanical robots and other

similar devices. Logo interfaces even exist for building block / toy robot sets. Logo uses a

special graphics cursor called "the turtle", and Logo is itself sometimes called "Turtle

Graphics". Logo is quite portable but not particularly fast. Versions can be found on

almost every computer platform in the world. Additionally, some other languages (notably some Pascal versions) provide Logo-like interfaces for graphics-intensive

programming.

lossy

If a process is lossy, it means that a little quality is lost when it is performed. If a format

is lossy, it means that putting data into that format (or possibly even manipulating it in

that format) will cause some slight loss. Lossy processes and formats are typically used

for performance or resource utilization reasons. The opposite of lossy is lossless.

Lua

Lua is a simple interpreted language. It is extremely portable, and free versions exist for

most platforms.

Mac OS

Mac OS is the OS used on Macintosh computers. There are two distinctively different

versions of it; everything prior to version 10 (sometimes called Mac OS Classic) and

everything version 10 or later (called Mac OS X).

Mac OS Classic

The OS created by Apple and originally used by Macs is frequently (albeit slightly

incorrectly) referred to as Mac OS Classic (officially Mac OS Classic is this original OS

running under the modern Mac OS X in emulation. Mac OS combines the functionality

of both an OS and a window manager and is often considered to be the easiest OS to use.

It is partially multitasking but will still sometimes crash when dealing with a buggy

program. It is probably the second most popular OS, next only to Windows 'XP (although

it is quickly losing ground to Mac OS X) and has excellent driver support and boasts a

fair selection of games. Mac OS will run on PowerPC and 68xx based machines.

Mac OS X

Mac OS X (originally called Rhapsody) is the industrial strength OS produced by Apple

to run on both PowerPC and x86 systems (replacing what is often referred to as Mac OS

Classic. Mac OS X is at its heart a variant of UNIX and possesses its underlying power

(and the ability to run many of the traditional UNIX tools, including the GNU tools). It

also was designed to mimic other OSes on demand via what it originally referred to as

"boxes" (actually high-performance emulators); it has the built-in capability to run

programs written for older Mac OS (via its "BlueBox", officially called Mac OS Classic)

and work was started on making it also run Windows '95 / '98 / ME software (via what

was called its "YellowBox"). There are also a few rumors going around that future

versions may even be able to run Newton software (via the "GreenBox"). It provides a

selection of two window managers built-in: Aqua and X-Windows (with Aqua being the

default).

machine language

Machine language consists of the raw numbers that can be directly understood by a

particular processor. Each processor's machine language will be different from other

processors' machine language. Although called "machine language", it is not usually what

people think of when talking about computer languages. Machine language dressed up

with mnemonics to make it a bit more human-readable is called assembly language. Macintosh

A Macintosh (or a Mac for short) is a computer system that has Mac OS for its OS. There

are a few different companies that produce Macs, but by far the largest is Apple. Older

Macs are based on the 68xx processor, newer Macs on the PowerPC processor. The

Macintosh was really the first general purpose computer to employ a GUI.

mainframe

A mainframe is any computer larger than a small piece of furniture. A modern mainframe

is more powerful than a modern workstation, but more expensive and more difficult to

maintain.

MathML

The Math Mark-up Language is a subset of XML used to represent mathematical

formulae and equations. Typically it is found embedded within XHTML documents,

although as of this writing not all popular browsers support it.

megahertz

A million cycles per second, abbreviated MHz. This is often used misleadingly to

indicate processor speed, because while one might expect that a higher number would

indicate a faster processor, that logic only holds true within a given type of processors as

different types of processors are capable of doing different amounts of work within a

cycle. For a current example, either a 200 MHz PowerPC or a 270 MHz SPARC will

outperform a 300 MHz Pentium.

Merced

The Merced is a RISC processor developed by Intel with help from Hewlett-Packard and

possibly Sun. It is just starting to be released, but is intended to eventually replace both

the x86 and PA-RISC processors. Curiously, HP is recommending that everyone hold off

using the first release and instead wait for the second one. It is expected some day to be

roughly as fast as an Alpha or PowerPC. It is expected to be supported by future versions

of Solaris, Windows-NT, HP-UX, Mac OS X, and Linux. The current semi-available

Merced processor is called the Itanium. Its overall schedule is way behind, and some

analysts predict that it never will really be released in significant quantities.

MFM

Loosely speaking, An old disk format sometimes used by CP/M, MS-DOS, and MSWindows. No longer too common as it cannot deliver close to the performance of either

SCSI or IDE.

middleware

Software designed to sit in between an OS and applications. Common examples are Java

and Tcl/Tk.

MIME

The multi-purpose Internet mail extensions specification describes a means of sending

non-ASCII data (such as images, sounds, foreign symbols, etc.) through e-mail. It

commonly utilizes bcode.

MMXMultimedia extensions were built into some x86 CPUs to provide better performance for

certain operations, most notably graphics and sound. It is similar to AltiVec on the

PowerPC CPUs. Like AltiVec, it requires special software for full performance benefits

to be realized.

MOB

A movable object is a graphical object that is manipulated separately from the

background. These are seen all the time in computer games. When implemented in

hardware, MOBs are sometimes called sprites.

Modula-2

Modula-2 is an object-oriented language based on Pascal by its original author in 1977.

Modula-3 is a further enhanced form. Both versions are compiled languages.

MOTD

A message of the day. Many computers (particularly more capable ones) are configured

to display a MOTD when accessed remotely.

Motif

Motif is a popular commercial window manager that runs under X-Windows. Free workalike versions are also available.

MS-DOS

The DOS produced by Microsoft. Early versions of it bear striking similarities to the

earlier CP/M, but it utilizes simpler commands. It provides only a CLI, but either OS/2,

Windows 3.1, Windows '95, Windows '98, Windows ME, or GEOS may be run on top of

it to provide a GUI. It only runs on x86 based machines.

MS-Windows

MS-Windows is the name collectively given to several somewhat incompatible OSes all

produced by Microsoft. They are: Windows CE, Windows NT, Windows 3.1, Windows

'95, Windows '98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, and Windows XP.

MUD

A multi-user dimension (also sometimes called multi-user dungeon, but in either case

abbreviated to "MUD") is sort of a combination between the online chatting abilities

provided by something like IRC and a role-playing game. A MUD built with object

oriented principles in mind is called a "Multi-user dimension object-oriented", or MOO.

Yet another variant is called a "multi-user shell", or MUSH. Still other variants are called

multi-user role-playing environments (MURPE) and multi-user environments (MUSE).

There are probably more. In all cases the differences will be mostly academic to the

regular user, as the same software is used to connect to all of them. Software to connect

to MUDs can be found for most platforms, and there are even Java based ones that can

run from within a browser.

multitasking

Some OSes have built into them the ability to do several things at once. This is called

multitasking, and has been in use since the late sixties / early seventies. Since this ability

is built into the software, the overall system will be slower running two things at once than it will be running just one thing. A system may have more than one processor built

into it though, and such a system will be capable of running multiple things at once with

less of a performance hit.

nagware

Nagware is a variant of shareware that will frequently remind its users to register.

NetBSD

A free variant of Berkeley UNIX available for Alpha, x86, 68xx, PA-RISC, SPARC,

PowerPC, ARM, and many other types of machines. Its emphasis is on portability.

netiquette

The established conventions of online politeness are called netiquette. Some conventions

vary from site to site or online medium to online medium; others are pretty standard

everywhere. Newbies are often unfamiliar with the conventional rules of netiquette and

sometimes embarrass themselves accordingly. Be sure not to send that incredibly

important e-mail message before reading about netiquette.

newbie

A newbie is a novice to the online world or computers in general.

news

Usenet news can generally be thought of as public e-mail as that is generally the way it

behaves. In reality, it is implemented by different software and is often accessed by

different programs. Different newsgroups adhere to different topics, and some are

"moderated", meaning that humans will try to manually remove off-topic posts,

especially spam. Most established newsgroups have a FAQ, and people are strongly

encouraged to read the FAQ prior to posting.

Newton

Although Newton is officially the name of the lightweight OS developed by Apple to run

on its MessagePad line of PDAs, it is often used to mean the MessagePads (and

compatible PDAs) themselves and thus the term "Newton OS" is often used for clarity.

The Newton OS is remarkably powerful; it is fully multitasking in spite of the fact that it

was designed for small machines. It is optimized for hand-held use, but will readily

transfer data to all manner of desktop machines. Historically it was the first PDA.

Recently Apple announced that it will discontinue further development of the Newton

platform, but will instead work to base future hand-held devices on either Mac OS or

Mac OS X with some effort dedicated to making the new devices capable of running

current Newton programs.

Newton book

Newton books provide all the functionality of ordinary books but add searching and

hypertext capabilities. The format was invented for the Newton to provide a means of

making volumes of data portable, and is particularly popular in the medical community as

most medical references are available as Newton books and carrying around a one pound

Newton is preferable to carrying around twenty pounds of books, especially when it

comes to looking up something. In addition to medical books, numerous references, most of the classics, and many contemporary works of fiction are available as Newton books.

Most fiction is available for free, most references cost money. Newton books are

somewhat more capable than the similar Palm DOC; both are specific types of eBooks.

Newton Script

A intepreted, object-oriented language for Newton MessagePad computers.

nybble

A nybble is half a byte, or four bits. It is a case of computer whimsy; it only stands to

reason that a small byte should be called a nybble. Some authors spell it with an "i"

instead of the "y", but the "y" is the original form.

object-oriented

While the specifics are well beyond the scope of this document, the term "objectoriented" applies to a philosophy of software creation. Often this philosophy is referred to

as object-oriented design (sometimes abbreviated as OOD), and programs written with it

in mind are referred to as object-oriented programs (often abbreviated OOP).

Programming languages designed to help facilitate it are called object-oriented languages

(sometimes abbreviated as OOL) and databases built with it in mind are called objectoriented databases (sometimes abbreviated as OODB or less fortunately OOD). The

general notion is that an object-oriented approach to creating software starts with

modeling the real-world problems trying to be solved in familiar real-world ways, and

carries the analogy all the way down to structure of the program. This is of course a great

over-simplification. Numerous object-oriented programming languages exist including:

Java, C++, Modula-2, Newton Script, and ADA.

Objective-C & ObjC

Objective-C (often called "ObjC" for short) is a compiled object-oriented language.

Based heavily on C, Objective-C is nearly as fast and can often be thought of as being

just C with added features. Note that it was developed independently of C++; its objectoriented extensions are more in the style of Smalltalk. It is however related to ObjectiveC++.

Objective-C++ & ObjC++

Objective-C++ (often called "ObjC++" for short) is a curious hybrid of Objective-C and

C++, allowing the syntax of both to coexist in the same source files.

office suite

An office suite is a collection of programs including at minimum a word processor,

spreadsheet, drawing program, and minimal database program. Some common office

suites include MS-Office, AppleWorks, ClarisWorks, GeoWorks, Applixware, Corel

Office, and StarOffice.

open source

Open source software goes one step beyond freeware. Not only does it provide the

software for free, it provides the original source code used to create the software. Thus,

curious users can poke around with it to see how it works, and advanced users can modify it to make it work better for them. By its nature, open souce software is pretty

well immune to all types of computer virus.

OpenBSD

A free variant of Berkeley UNIX available for Alpha, x86, 68xx, PA-RISC, SPARC, and

PowerPC based machines. Its emphasis is on security.

OpenDocument & ODF

OpenDocument (or ODF for short) is the suite of open, XML-based office suite

application formats defined by the OASIS consortium. It defines a platform-neutral, nonproprietary way of storing documents.

OpenGL

A low-level 3D graphics library with an emphasis on speed developed by SGI.

OS/2

OS/2 is the OS designed by IBM to run on x86 based machines. It is semi-compatible

with MS-Windows. IBM's more industrial strength OS is called AIX.

PA-RISC

The PA-RISC is a RISC processor developed by Hewlett-Packard. It is currently

produced only by HP. At the moment only one OS runs on PA-RISC based machines:

HP-UX. There is an effort underway to port Linux to them, though.

Palm DOC

Palm DOC files are quite similar to (but slightly less capable than) Newton books. They

were designed for Palm Pilots but can now be read on a couple other platforms, too. They

are a specific type of eBook.

Palm Pilot

The Palm Pilot (also called both just Palm and just Pilot, officially now just Palm) is the

most popular PDA currently in use. It is one of the least capable PDAs, but it is also one

of the smallest and least expensive. While not as full featured as many of the other PDAs

(such as the Newton) it performs what features it does have quite well and still remains

truly pocket-sized.

parallel

Loosely speaking, parallel implies a situation where multiple things can be done

simultaneously, like having multiple check-out lines each serving people all at once.

Parallel connections are by their nature more expensive than serial ones, but usually

faster. Also, in a related use of the word, often multitasking computers are said to be

capable of running multiple programs in parallel.

partition

Sometimes due to hardware limitations, disks have to be divided into smaller pieces.

These pieces are called partitions.

PascalNamed after the mathematician Blaise Pascal, Pascal is a language designed by Niklaus

Wirth originally in 1968 (and heavily revised in 1972) mostly for purposes of education

and training people how to write computer programs. It is a typically compiled language

but is still usually slower than C or FORTRAN. Wirth also created a more powerful

object-oriented Pascal-like language called Modula-2.

PC-DOS

The DOS produced by IBM designed to work like MS-DOS. Early versions of it bear

striking similarities to the earlier CP/M, but it utilizes simpler commands. It provides

only a CLI, but either Windows 3.1 or GEOS may be run on top of it to provide a GUI. It

only runs on x86 based machines.

PCMCIA

The Personal Computer Memory Card International Association is a standards body that

concern themselves with PC Card technology. Often the PC Cards themselves are

referred to as "PCMCIA cards". Frequently flash memory can be found in PC card form.

Perl

Perl is an interpreted language extremely popular for web applications.

PET

The Commodore PET (Personal Electronic Transactor) is an early (circa 1977-1980,

around the same time as the Apple][) home computer featuring a ROM-based BASIC

developed by Microsoft which it uses as a default "OS". It is based on the 65xx family of

processors and is the precursor to the VIC-20.

PETSCII

The PETSCII character set gets its name from "PET ASCII; it is a variant of the ASCII

character set originally developed for the Commodore PET that swaps the upper and

lower case characters and adds over a hundred graphic characters in addition to other

small changes. If you encounter some text that seems to have uppercase where lowercase

is expected and vice-versa, it is probably a PETSCII file.

PHP

Named with a recursive acronym (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor), PHP provides a means

of creating web pages that dynamically modify themselves on the fly.

ping

Ping is a protocol designed to check across a network to see if a particular computer is

"alive" or not. Computers that recognize the ping will report back their status. Computers

that are down will not report back anything at all.

pixel

The smallest distinct point on a computer display is called a pixel.

plug-in

A plug-in is a piece of software designed not to run on its own but rather work in

cooperation with a separate application to increase that application's abilities. point

There are two common meanings for this word. The first is in the geometric sense; a

position in space without size. Of course as applied to computers it must take up some

space in practice (even if not in theory) and it is thus sometimes synonymous with pixel.

The other meaning is related most typically to fonts and regards size. The exact meaning

of it in this sense will unfortunately vary somewhat from person to person, but will often

mean 1/72 of an inch. Even when it does not exactly mean 1/72 of an inch, larger point

sizes always indicate larger fonts.

PowerPC

The PowerPC is a RISC processor developed in a collaborative effort between IBM,

Apple, and Motorola. It is currently produced by a few different companies, of course

including its original developers. A few different OSes run on PowerPC based machines,

including Mac OS, AIX, Solaris, Windows NT, Linux, Mac OS X, BeOS, and AmigaOS.

At any given time, the fastest processor in the world is usually either a PowerPC or an

Alpha, but sometimes SPARCs and PA-RISCs make the list, too.

proprietary

This simply means to be supplied by only one vendor. It is commonly misused.

Currently, most processors are non-proprietary, some systems are non-proprietary, and

every OS (except for arguably Linux) is proprietary.

protocol

A protocol is a means of communication used between computers. As long as both

computers recognize the same protocol, they can communicate without too much

difficulty over the same network or even via a simple direct modem connection

regardless whether or not they are themselves of the same type. This means that WinTel

boxes, Macs, Amigas, UNIX machines, etc., can all talk with one another provided they

agree on a common protocol first.

Psion

The Psion is a fairly popular brand of PDA. Generally, it is in between a Palm and a

Newton in capability. It runs the EPOC OS.

Python

Python is an interpreted, object-oriented language popular for Internet applications. It is

extremely portable with free versions existing for virtually every platform.

queue

A queue is a waiting list of things to be processed. Many computers provide printing

queues, for example. If something is being printed and the user requests that another item

be printed, the second item will sit in the printer queue until the first item finishes

printing at which point it will be removed from the queue and get printed itself.

QuickDraw

A high-level 3D graphics library with an emphasis on quick development time created by

Apple.

RAMRandom access memory is the short-term memory of a computer. Any information

stored in RAM will be lost if power goes out, but the computer can read from RAM far

more quickly than from a drive.

random access

Also called "dynamic access" this indicates that data can be selected without having to

skip over earlier data first. This is the way that a CD, record, laserdisc, or DVD will

behave -- it is easy to selectively play a particular track without having to fast forward

through earlier tracks. The other common behavior is called sequential access.

RDF

The Resource Description Framework is built upon an XML base and provides a more

modern means of accessing data from Internet resources. It can provide metadata

(including annotations) for web pages making (among other things) searching more

capable. It is also being used to refashion some existing formats like RSS and iCalendar;

in the former case it is already in place (at least for newer RSS versions), but it is still

experimental in the latter case.

real-time

Something that happens in real-time will keep up with the events around it and never give

any sort of "please wait" message.

Rexx

The Restructured Extended Executor is an interpreted language designed primarily to be

embedded in other applications in order to make them consistently programmable, but

also to be easy to learn and understand.

RISC

Reduced instruction set computing is one of the two main types of processor design in

use today, the other being CISC. The fastest processors in the world today are all RISC

designs. There are several popular RISC processors, including Alphas, ARMs, PARISCs, PowerPCs, and SPARCs.

robot

A robot (or 'bot for short) in the computer sense is a program designed to automate some

task, often just sending messages or collecting information. A spider is a type of robot

designed to traverse the web performing some task (usually collecting data).

robust

The adjective robust is used to describe programs that are better designed, have fewer

bugs, and are less likely to crash.

ROM

Read-only memory is similar to RAM only cannot be altered and does not lose its

contents when power is removed.

RSS

RSS stands for either Rich Site Summary, Really Simple Syndication, or RDF Site

Summary, depending upon whom you ask. The general idea is that it can provide brief summaries of articles that appear in full on a web site. It is well-formed XML, and newer

versions are even more specifically well-formed RDF.

Ruby

Ruby is an interpreted, object-oriented language. Ruby was fairly heavily influenced by

Perl, so people familiar with that language can typically transition to Ruby easily.

scanner

A scanner is a piece of hardware that will examine a picture and produce a computer file

that represents what it sees. A digital camera is a related device. Each has its own

limitations.

Scheme

Scheme is a typically interpreted computer language. It was created in 1975 in an attempt

to make Lisp simpler and more consistent. Scheme is a fairly portable language, but is

not particularly fast.

script

A script is a series of OS commands. The term "batch file" means much the same thing,

but is a bit dated. Typically the same sort of situations in which one would say DOS

instead of OS, it would also be appropriate to say batch file instead of script. Scripts can

be run like programs, but tend to perform simpler tasks. When a script is run, it is always

interpreted.

SCSI

Loosely speaking, a disk format sometimes used by MS-Windows, Mac OS, AmigaOS,

and (almost always) UNIX. Generally SCSI is superior (but more expensive) to IDE, but

it varies somewhat with system load and the individual SCSI and IDE components

themselves. The quick rundown is that: SCSI-I and SCSI-II will almost always

outperform IDE; EIDE will almost always outperform SCSI-I and SCSI-II; SCSI-III and

UltraSCSI will almost always outperform EIDE; and heavy system loads give an

advantage to SCSI. Note that although loosely speaking it is just a format difference, it is

deep down a hardware difference.

sequential access

This indicates that data cannot be selected without having to skip over earlier data first.

This is the way that a cassette or video tape will behave. The other common behavior is

called random access.

serial

Loosely speaking, serial implies something that has to be done linearly, one at a time, like

people being served in a single check-out line. Serial connections are by their nature less

expensive than parallel connections (including things like SCSI) but are typically slower.

server

A server is a computer designed to provide various services for an entire network. It is

typically either a workstation or a mainframe because it will usually be expected to

handle far greater loads than ordinary desktop systems. The load placed on servers also

necessitates that they utilize robust OSes, as a crash on a system that is currently being used by many people is far worse than a crash on a system that is only being used by one

person.

SGML

The Standard Generalized Mark-up Language provides an extremely generalized level of

mark-up. More common mark-up languages like HTML and XML are actually just

popular subsets of SGML.

shareware

Shareware is software made for profit that allows a trial period before purchase.

Typically shareware can be freely downloaded, used for a period of weeks (or sometimes

even months), and either purchased or discarded after it has been learned whether or not

it will satisfy the user's needs.

shell

A CLI designed to simplify complex OS commands. Some OSes (like AmigaOS, the

Hurd, and UNIX) have built-in support to make the concurrent use of multiple shells

easy. Common shells include the Korn Shell (ksh), the Bourne Shell (sh or bsh), the

Bourne-Again Shell, (bash or bsh), the C-Shell (csh), etc.

SIMM

A physical component used to add RAM to a computer. Similar to, but incompatible

with, DIMMs.

Smalltalk

Smalltalk is an efficient language for writing computer programs. Historically it is one of

the first object-oriented languages, and is not only used today in its pure form but shows

its influence in other languages like Objective-C.

Solaris

Solaris is the commercial variant of UNIX currently produced by Sun. It is an industrial

strength, nigh bulletproof, powerful multitasking OS that will run on SPARC, x86, and

PowerPC based machines.

spam

Generally spam is unwanted, unrequested e-mail or Usenet news. It is typically sent out

in bulk to huge address lists that were automatically generated by various robots

endlessly searching the Internet and newsgroups for things that resemble e-mail

addresses. The legality of spam is a topic of much debate; it is at best only borderline

legal, and spammers have been successfully persecuted in some states.

SPARC

The SPARC is a RISC processor developed by Sun. The design was more or less released

to the world, and it is currently produced by around a dozen different companies too

numerous to even bother mentioning. It is worth noting that even computers made by Sun

typically sport SPARCs made by other companies. A couple different OSes run on

SPARC based machines, including Solaris, SunOS, and Linux. Some of the newer

SPARC models are called UltraSPARCs. sprite

A sprite is a small MOB, usually implemented in hardware.

SunOS

SunOS is the commercial variant of UNIX formerly produced (but still supported) by

Sun.

SVG

Scalable Vector Graphics data is an XML file that is used to hold graphical data that can

be resized without loss of quality. SVG data can be kept in its own file, or even

embedded within a web page (although not all browsers are capable of displaying such

data).

Tcl/Tk

The Tool Command Language is a portable interpreted computer language designed to

be easy to use. Tk is a GUI toolkit for Tcl. Tcl is a fairly popular language for both

integrating existing applications and for creating Web applets (note that applets written in

Tcl are often called Tcklets). Tcl/Tk is available for free for most platforms, and plug-ins

are available to enable many browsers to play Tcklets.

TCP/IP

TCP/IP is a protocol for computer networks. The Internet is largely built on top of

TCP/IP (it is the more reliable of the two primary Internet Protocols -- TCP stands for

Transmission Control Protocol).

terminator

A terminator is a dedicated device used to mark the end of a device chain (as is most

typically found with SCSI devices). If such a chain is not properly terminated, weird

results can occur.

TEX

TEX (pronounced "tek") is a freely available, industrial strength typesetting program that

can be run on many different platforms. These qualities make it exceptionally popular in

schools, and frequently software developed at a university will have its documentation in

TEX format. TEX is not limited to educational use, though; many professional books

were typeset with TEX. TEX's primary drawback is that it can be quite difficult to set up

initially.

TrackBack

TrackBacks essentially provide a means whereby different web sites can post messages to

one another not just to inform each other about citations, but also to alert one another of

related resources. Typically, a blog may display quotations from another blog through the

use of TrackBacks.

UDP/IP

UDP/IP is a protocol for computer networks. It is the faster of the two primary Internet

Protocols. UDP stands for User Datagram Protocol.

UnicodeThe Unicode character set is a superset of the ASCII character set with provisions made

for handling international symbols and characters from other languages. Unicode is

sixteen bit, so takes up roughly twice the space as simple ASCII, but is correspondingly

more flexible.

UNIX

UNIX is a family of OSes, each being made by a different company or organization but

all offering a very similar look and feel. It can not quite be considered non-proprietary,

however, as the differences between different vendor's versions can be significant (it is

still generally possible to switch from one vendor's UNIX to another without too much

effort; today the differences between different UNIXes are similar to the differences

between the different MS-Windows; historically there were two different UNIX camps,

Berkeley / BSD and AT&T / System V, but the assorted vendors have worked together to

minimize the differences). The free variant Linux is one of the closest things to a current,

non-proprietary OS; its development is controlled by a non-profit organization and its

distribution is provided by several companies. UNIX is powerful; it is fully multitasking

and can do pretty much anything that any OS can do (look to the Hurd if you need a more

powerful OS). With power comes complexity, however, and UNIX tends not to be overly

friendly to beginners (although those who think UNIX is difficult or cryptic apparently

have not used CP/M). Window managers are available for UNIX (running under XWindows) and once properly configured common operations will be almost as simple on

a UNIX machine as on a Mac. Out of all the OSes in current use, UNIX has the greatest

range of hardware support. It will run on machines built around many different

processors. Lightweight versions of UNIX have been made to run on PDAs, and in the

other direction, full featured versions make full advantage of all the resources on large,

multi-processor machines. Some different UNIX versions include Solaris, Linux, IRIX,

AIX, SunOS, FreeBSD, Digital UNIX, HP-UX, NetBSD, OpenBSD, etc.

upload

To upload a file is to copy it from your computer to a remote computer. The opposite is

download.

UPS

An uninterrupted power supply uses heavy duty batteries to help smooth out its input

power source.

URI

A Uniform Resource Identifier is basically just a unique address for almost any type of

resource. It is similar to but more general than a URL; in fact, it may also be a URN.

URL

A Uniform Resource Locator is basically just an address for a file that can be given to a

browser. It starts with a protocol type (such as http, ftp, or gopher) and is followed by a

colon, machine name, and file name in UNIX style. Optionally an octothorpe character

"#" and arguments will follow the file name; this can be used to further define position

within a page and perform a few other tricks. Similar to but less general than a URI.

URNA Uniform Resource Name is basically just a unique address for almost any type of

resource unlike a URL it will probably not resolve with a browser.

USB

A really fast type of serial port that offers many of the best features of SCSI without the

price. Faster than many types of parallel port, a single USB port is capable of chaining

many devices without the need of a terminator. USB is much slower (but somewhat less

expensive) than FireWire.

uucode

The point of uucode is to allow 8-bit binary data to be transferred through the more

common 7-bit ASCII channels (most especially e-mail). The facilities for dealing with

uucoded files exist for many different machine types, and the most common programs are

called "uuencode" for encoding the original binary file into a 7-bit file and "uudecode"

for restoring the original binary file from the encoded one. Sometimes different uuencode

and uudecode programs will work in subtly different manners causing annoying

compatibility problems. Bcode was invented to provide the same service as uucode but to

maintain a tighter standard.

variable width

As applied to a font, variable width means that different characters will have different

widths as appropriate. For example, an "i" will take up much less space than an "m". The

opposite of variable width is fixed width. The terms "proportional width" and

"proportionally spaced" mean the same thing as variable width. Some common variable

width fonts include Times, Helvetica, and Bookman.

VAX

The VAX is a computer platform developed by Digital. Its plural is VAXen. VAXen are

large expensive machines that were once quite popular in large businesses; today modern

UNIX workstations have all the capability of VAXen but take up much less space. Their

OS is called VMS.

vector

This term has two common meanings. The first is in the geometric sense: a vector defines

a direction and magnitude. The second concerns the formatting of fonts and images. If a

font is a vector font or an image is a vector image, it is defined as lines of relative size

and direction rather than as collections of pixels (the method used in bitmapped fonts and

images). This makes it easier to change the size of the font or image, but puts a bigger

load on the device that has to display the font or image. The term "outline font" means

the same thing as vector font.

Veronica & Veronica2

Although traditionally written as a proper name, Veronica is actually an acronym for

"very easy rodent-oriented netwide index to computerized archives", where the "rodent"

refers to gopher. The acronym was obviously a little forced to go along with the preexisting (and now largely unused) Archie, in order to have a little fun with a comic book

reference. Regardless, Veronica (or these days more likely Veronica2) is essentially a

search engine for gopher resources. VIC-20

The Commodore VIC-20 computer sold millions of units and is generally considered to

have been the first affordable home computer. It features a ROM-based BASIC and uses

it as a default "OS". It is based on the 65xx family of processors. VIC (in case you are

wondering) can stand for either video interface c or video interface computer. The VIC-

20 is the precursor to the C64/128.

virtual machine

A virtual machine is a machine completely defined and implemented in software rather

than hardware. It is often referred to as a "runtime environment"; code compiled for such

a machine is typically called bytecode.

virtual memory

This is a scheme by which disk space is made to substitute for the more expensive RAM

space. Using it will often enable a computer to do things it could not do without it, but it

will also often result in an overall slowing down of the system. The concept of swap

space is very similar.

virtual reality

Virtual reality (often called VR for short) is generally speaking an attempt to provide

more natural, human interfaces to software. It can be as simple as a pseudo 3D interface

or as elaborate as an isolated room in which the computer can control the user's senses of

vision, hearing, and even smell and touch.

virus

A virus is a program that will seek to duplicate itself in memory and on disks, but in a

subtle way that will not immediately be noticed. A computer on the same network as an

infected computer or that uses an infected disk (even a floppy) or that downloads and

runs an infected program can itself become infected. A virus can only spread to

computers of the same platform. For example, on a network consisting of a WinTel box,

a Mac, and a Linux box, if one machine acquires a virus the other two will probably still

be safe. Note also that different platforms have different general levels of resistance;

UNIX machines are almost immune, Win '95 / '98 / ME / XP is quite vulnerable, and

most others lie somewhere in between.

VMS

The industrial strength OS that runs on VAXen.

VoIP

VoIP means "Voice over IP" and it is quite simply a way of utilizing the Internet (or even

in some cases intranets) for telephone conversations. The primary motivations for doing

so are cost and convenience as VoIP is significantly less expensive than typical telephone

long distance packages, plus one high speed Internet connection can serve for multiple

phone lines.

VRML

A Virtual Reality Modeling Language file is used to represent VR objects. It has

essentially been superseded by X3D. W3C

The World Wide Web Consortium (usually abbreviated W3C) is a non-profit, advisory

body that makes suggestions on the future direction of the World Wide Web, HTML,

CSS, and browsers.

Waba

An extremely lightweight subset of Java optimized for use on PDAs.

WebDAV

WebDAV stands for Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning, and is designed

to provide a way of editing Web-based resources in place. It serves as a more modern

(and often more secure) replacement for FTP in many cases.

WebTV

A WebTV box hooks up to an ordinary television set and displays web pages. It will not

display them as well as a dedicated computer.

window manager

A window manager is a program that acts as a graphical go-between for a user and an

OS. It provides a GUI for the OS. Some OSes incorporate the window manager into their

own internal code, but many do not for reasons of efficiency. Some OSes partially make

the division. Some common true window managers include CDE (Common Desktop

Environment), OpenWindows, Motif, FVWM, GNOME, and Enlightenment. Some

common hybrid window managers with OS extensions include Windows ME, Windows

98, Windows 95, Windows 3.1, OS/2 and GEOS.

Windows '95

Windows '95 is currently the second most popular variant of MS-Windows. It was

designed to be the replacement Windows 3.1 but has not yet done so completely partly

because of suspected security problems but even more because it is not as lightweight and

will not work on all the machines that Windows 3.1 will. It is more capable than

Windows 3.1 though and now has excellent driver support and more games available for

it than any other platform. It is made to run on top of MS-DOS and will not do much of

anything if MS-DOS is not on the system. It is thus not strictly an OS per se, but nor is it

a true window manager either; rather the combination of MS-DOS and Windows '95

result in a full OS with GUI. It is partially multitasking but has a much greater chance of

crashing than Windows NT does (or probably even Mac OS) if faced with a buggy

program. Windows '95 runs only on x86 based machines. Currently Windows '95 has

several Y2K issues, some of which have patches that can be downloaded for free, and

some of which do not yet have fixes at all.

Windows '98

Windows '98 is quite possibly the second most popular form of MS-Windows, in spite of

the fact that its official release is currently a point of legal debate with at least nineteen

states, the federal government, and a handful of foreign countries as it has a few

questionable features that might restrict the novice computer user and/or unfairly

compete with other computer companies. It also has some specific issues with the version

of Java that comes prepackaged with it that has never been adequately fixed, and it still has several Y2K issues, most of which have patches that can be downloaded for free (in

fact, Microsoft guarantees that it will work properly through 2000 with the proper

patches), but some of which do not yet have fixes at all (it won't work properly through

2001 at this point). In any case, it was designed to replace Windows '95.

Windows 2000

Windows 2000 was the intended replacement for Windows NT and in that capacity

received relatively lukewarm support. Being based on Windows NT, it inherits some of

its driver support problems. Originally it was also supposed to replace Windows '98, but

Windows ME was made to do that instead, and the merger between Windows NT and

Windows '98 was postponed until Windows XP.

Windows 3.1

Windows 3.1 remains a surprisingly popular variant of MS-Windows. It is lighter weight

than either Windows '95 or Windows NT (but not lighter weight than GEOS) but less

capable than the other two. It is made to run on top of MS-DOS and will not do much of

anything if MS-DOS is not on the system. It is thus not strictly an OS per se, but nor is it

a true window manager, either; rather the combination of MS-DOS and Windows 3.1

result in a full OS with GUI. Its driver support is good, but its game selection is limited.

Windows 3.1 runs only on x86 based machines. It has some severe Y2K issues that may

or may not be fixed.

Windows CE

Windows CE is the lightweight variant of MS-Windows. It offers the general look and

feel of Windows '95 but is targeted primarily for hand-held devices, PDAs, NCs, and

embedded devices. It does not have all the features of either Windows '95 or Windows

NT and is very different from Windows 3.1. In particular, it will not run any software

made for any of the other versions of MS-Windows. Special versions of each program

must be made. Furthermore, there are actually a few slightly different variants of

Windows CE, and no variant is guaranteed to be able to run software made specifically

for another one. Driver support is also fairly poor for all types, and few games are made

for it. Windows CE will run on a few different processor types, including the x86 and

several different processors dedicated to PDAs, embedded systems, and hand-held

devices.

Windows ME

Windows ME is yet another flavor of MS-Windows (specifically the planned

replacement for Windows '98). Windows ME currently runs only on the x86 processor.

Windows NT

Windows NT is the industrial-strength variant of MS-Windows. Current revisions offer

the look and feel of Windows '95 and older revisions offer the look and feel of Windows

3.1. It is the most robust flavor of MS-Windows and is fully multitasking. It is also by far

the most expensive flavor of MS-Windows and has far less software available for it than

Windows '95 or '98. In particular, do not expect to play many games on a Windows NT

machine, and expect some difficulty in obtaining good drivers. Windows NT will run on

a few different processor types, including the x86, the Alpha, and the PowerPC. Plans are

in place to port Windows NT to the Merced when it becomes available. Windows Vista

Windows Vista is the newest flavor of MS-Windows (specifically the planned

replacement for Windows XP). Windows Vista (originally known as Longhorn) currently

only runs on x86 processors.

Windows XP

Windows XP is yet another flavor of MS-Windows (specifically the planned replacement

for both Windows ME and Windows 2000). Windows XP currently only runs on the x86

processors. Windows XP is currently the most popular form of MS-Windows.

WinTel

An x86 based system running some flavor of MS-Windows.

workstation

Depending upon whom you ask, a workstation is either an industrial strength desktop

computer or its own category above the desktops. Workstations typically have some

flavor of UNIX for their OS, but there has been a recent trend to call high-end Windows

NT and Windows 2000 machines workstations, too.

WYSIWYG

What you see is what you get; an adjective applied to a program that attempts to exactly

represent printed output on the screen. Related to WYSIWYM but quite different.

WYSIWYM

What you see is what you mean; an adjective applied to a program that does not attempt

to exactly represent printed output on the screen, but rather defines how things are used

and so will adapt to different paper sizes, etc. Related to WYSIWYG but quite different.

X-Face

X-Faces are small monochrome images embedded in headers for both provides a e-mail

and news messages. Better mail and news applications will display them (sometimes

automatically, sometimes only per request).

X-Windows

X-Windows provides a GUI for most UNIX systems, but can also be found as an add-on

library for other computers. Numerous window managers run on top of it. It is often just

called "X".

X3D

Extensible 3D Graphics data is an XML file that is used to hold three-dimensional

graphical data. It is the successor to VRML.

x86

The x86 series of processors includes the Pentium, Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III,

Celeron, and Athlon as well as the 786, 686, 586, 486, 386, 286, 8086, 8088, etc. It is an

exceptionally popular design (by far the most popular CISC series) in spite of the fact

that even its fastest model is significantly slower than the assorted RISC processors.

Many different OSes run on machines built around x86 processors, including MS-DOS,

Windows 3.1, Windows '95, Windows '98, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows CE, Windows XP, GEOS, Linux, Solaris, OpenBSD, NetBSD, FreeBSD, Mac

OS X, OS/2, BeOS, CP/M, etc. A couple different companies produce x86 processors,

but the bulk of them are produced by Intel. It is expected that this processor will

eventually be completely replaced by the Merced, but the Merced development schedule

is somewhat behind. Also, it should be noted that the Pentium III processor has stirred

some controversy by including a "fingerprint" that will enable individual computer usage

of web pages etc. to be accurately tracked.

XBL

An XML Binding Language document is used to associate executable content with an

XML tag. It is itself an XML file, and is used most frequently (although not exclusively)

in conjunction with XUL.

XHTML

The Extensible Hypertext Mark-up Language is essentially a cleaner, stricter version of

HTML. It is a proper subset of XML.

XML

The Extensible Mark-up Language is a subset of SGML and a superset of XHTML. It is

used for numerous things including (among many others) RSS and RDF.

XML-RPC

XML-RPC provides a fairly lightweight means by which one computer can execute a

program on a co-operating machine across a network like the Internet. It is based on

XML and is used for everything from fetching stock quotes to checking weather

forecasts.

XSL

The Extensible Stylesheet Language is like CSS for XML. It provides a means of

describing how an XML resource should be displayed.

XSLT

XSL Transformations are used to transform one type of XML into another. It is a

component of XSL that can be (and often is) used independently.

XUL

An XML User-Interface Language document is used to define a user interface for an

application using XML to specify the individual controls as well as the overall layout.

Y2K

The general class of problems resulting from the wrapping of computers' internal date

timers is given this label in honor of the most obvious occurrence -- when the year

changes from 1999 to 2000 (abbreviated in some programs as 99 to 00 indicating a

backwards time movement). Contrary to popular belief, these problems will not all

manifest themselves on the first day of 2000, but will in fact happen over a range of dates

extending out beyond 2075. A computer that does not have problems prior to the

beginning of 2001 is considered "Y2K compliant", and a computer that does not have

problems within the next ten years or so is considered for all practical purposes to be

"Y2K clean". Whether or not a given computer is "clean" depends upon both its OS and its applications (and in some unfortunate cases, its hardware). The quick rundown on

common home / small business machines (roughly from best to worst) is that:

All Mac OS systems are okay until at least the year 2040. By that time a patch

should be available.

All BeOS systems are okay until the year 2040 (2038?). By that time a patch

should be available.

Most UNIX versions are either okay or currently have free fixes available (and

typically would not have major problems until 2038 or later in any case).

NewtonOS has a problem with the year 2010, but has a free fix available.

Newer AmigaOS systems are okay; older ones have a problem with the year 2000

but have a free fix available. They also have a year 2077 problem that does not

yet have a free fix.

Some OS/2 systems have a year 2000 problem, but free fixes are available.

All CP/M versions have a year 2000 problem, but free fixes are available.

PC-DOS has a year 2000 problem, but a free fix is available.

DR-DOS has a year 2000 problem, but a free fix is available.

Different versions of GEOS have different problems ranging from minor year

2000 problems (with fixes in the works) to larger year 2080 problems (that do not

have fixes yet). The only problem that may not have a fix in time is the year 2000

problem on the Apple ][ version of GEOS; not only was that version discontinued,

unlike the other GEOS versions it no longer has a parent company to take care of

it.

All MS-Windows versions (except possibly Windows 2000 and Windows ME)

have multiple problems with the year 2000 and/or 2001, most of which have free

fixes but some of which still lack free fixes as of this writing. Even new machines

off the shelf that are labeled "Y2K Compliant" usually are not unless additional

software is purchased and installed. Basically WinNT and WinCE can be properly

patched, Windows '98 can be patched to work properly through 2000 (possibly

not 2001), Windows '95 can be at least partially patched for 2000 (but not 2001)

but is not being guaranteed by Microsoft, and Windows 3.1 cannot be fully

patched.

MS-DOS has problems with at least the year 2000 (and probably more). None of

its problems have been addressed as of this writing. Possible fixes are to change

over to either PC-DOS or DR-DOS.

Results vary wildly for common applications, so it is better to be safe than sorry and

check out the ones that you use. It should also be noted that some of the biggest expected

Y2K problems will be at the two ends of the computer spectrum with older legacy

mainframes (such as power some large banks) and some of the various tiny embedded

computers (such as power most burglar alarms and many assorted appliances). Finally, it

should also be mentioned that some older WinTel boxes and Amigas may have Y2K

problems in their hardware requiring a card addition or replacement.

Z-Machine

A virtual machine optimized for running interactive fiction, interactive tutorials, and

other interactive things of a primarily textual nature. Z-Machines have been ported to almost every platform in use today. Z-machine bytecode is usually called Z-code. The

Glulx virtual machine is of the same idea but somewhat more modern in concept.

Z80

The Z80 series of processors is a CISC design and is not being used in too many new

stand-alone computer systems, but can still be occasionally found in embedded systems.

It is the most popular processor for CP/M machines.

Zaurus

The Zaurus is a brand of PDA. It is generally in between a Palm and a Newton in

capability.

zip

There are three common zips in the computer world that are completely different from

one another. One is a type of removable removable disk slightly larger (physically) and

vastly larger (capacity) than a floppy. The second is a group of programs used for running

interactive fiction. The third is a group of programs used for compression.

Zoomer

The Zoomer is a type of PDA. Zoomers all use GEOS for their OS and are / were

produced by numerous different companies and are thus found under numerous different

names. The "classic" Zoomers are known as the Z-7000, the Z-PDA, and the GRiDpad

and were made by Casio, Tandy, and AST respectively. Newer Zoomers include HP's

OmniGo models, Hyundai's Gulliver (which may not have actually been released to the

general public), and Nokia's Communicator line of PDA / cell phone hybrids.

Source: www.saugus.net