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`PUBLISHED BY
`Microsoft Press
`
`A Division of Microsoft Corporation
`One Microsoft Way
`Redmond, Washington 98052—6399
`
`Copyright © 2002 by Microsoft Corporation
`
`All rights reserved. N0 part of the contents of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
`or by any means without the written permission of the publisher.
`
`Library of Congress Cataloging—in—Publication Data
`Microsoft Computer Dictionary.-—5th ed.
`p. cm.
`ISBN 0-7356-1495—4
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`l. Computers——Dictionaries.
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`2. Microcomputers--Dictionaries.
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`AQ76.5. M52267
`004'.03—-d021
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`2002
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`200219714
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`Printed and bound in the United States of America.
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`23456789 QWT 765432
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`Distributed in Canada by H.B. Penn and Company Ltd.
`
`A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
`
`Microsoft Press books are available through booksellers and distributors worldwide. For further informa-
`tion about international editions, contact your local Microsoft Corporation office or contact Microsoft
`Press International directly at fax (425) 936-7329. Visit our Web site at www.microsoft.com/mspress.
`Send comments to mspinput@micr0s0ft.c0m.
`
`Active Desktop, Active Directory, ActiveMovie, ActiveStore, ActiveSync, ActiveX, Authenticode,
`BackOffice, BizTalk, ClearType, Direct3D, DirectAnimation, DirectDraw, Directlnput, DirectMusic,
`DirectPlay, DirectShow, DirectSound, DirectX, Entourage, FoxPro, FrontPage, Hotmail, IntelliEye,
`IntelliMouse, lntelliSense, JScript, MapPoint, Microsoft, Microsoft Press, Mobile Explorer, MS-DOS,
`MSN, Music Central, NetMeeting, Outlook, PhotoDraW, PowerPoint, SharePoint, UltimateTV, Visio,
`Visual Basic, Visual C++, Visual FoxPro, Visual lnterDev, Visual J++, Visual SourceSafe, Visual Studio
`Win32, Win325, Windows, Windows Media, Windows NT, Xbox are either registered trademarks or
`trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other product and
`company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
`
`a
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`The example companies, organizations, products, domain names, e-mail addresses, logos, people, places,
`and events depicted herein are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product,
`domain name, e—mail address, logo, person, place, or event is intended or should be inferred.
`
`Acquisitions Editor: Alex Blanton
`Project Editor: Sandra Haynes
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`Body Part No. X08-4l929
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`ectail
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`eventoriven prQCeSSin
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`European Computer Manufacturers Association
`It. See ECMA.
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`European Laboratory for Particle Physics 71. See CERN
`EUV lithography n. Acronym for Extreme UltraViolet
`lithography. Manufacturing process allowing smaller on
`cuits to be etched onto chips than is possible with tradi~
`tional lithographic techniques. With this process, it is
`possible to economically produce chips that are much
`faster than those that are created using traditional pro-
`cesses. In EUV lithography, the image of a map of Circuits
`to appear on a chip is bounced off a series of mirrors that
`condense the image. The condensed image is projected
`onto wafers containing layers of metal, silicon, and photo.
`sensitive material. Because EUV light has a short wave-
`length, extremely intricate circuit patterns can be created
`on the wafers.
`
`ratings for computer games and other interactive products
`such as Web sites, online games, and interactive chat.
`e-tail It. See e—commerce.
`
`e—text 11. Short for electronic text. A book or other
`text-based work that is available on line in an electronic
`media format. An e-text can be read online or downloaded
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`to a user’s computer for offline reading. See also e-zine.
`Ethernet n. 1. The IEEE 802.3 standard for contention
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`networks. Ethernet uses a bus or star topology and relies
`on the form of access known as Carrier Sense Multiple
`Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) to regulate
`communication line traffic. Network nodes are linked by
`coaxial cable, by fiberoptic cable, or by twisted—pair wir—
`ing. Data is transmitted in variable-length frames contain—
`ing delivery and control information and up to 1500 bytes
`of data. The Ethernet standard provides for baseband
`transmission at 10 megabits (10 million bits) per second
`and is available in various forms, including those known
`as Thin Ethernet, Thick Ethernet, lOBaseZ, lOBaseS,
`lOBase—F, and lOBase-T. The IEEE standard dubbed
`802.32, or Gigabit Ethernet, operates at 10 times 100
`Mbps speed. See also ALOHAnet, baseband, bus network,
`coaxial cable, contention, CSMA/CD, Gigabit Ethernet,
`IEEE 802 standards, twisted—pair cable. 2. A widely used
`local area network system developed by Xerox in 1976,
`from which the IEEE 802.3 standard was developed.
`
`Ethernet/802.3 71. The IEEE standard for 10— or
`lOO-Mbps transmissions over an Ethernet network. Ether—
`net/802.3 defines both hardware and data packet construc—
`tion specifications. See also Ethernet.
`E—time n. See execution time.
`
`etiquette It. See netiquette.
`ETX n. See end—of—text.
`
`Eudora n. An e-mail client program originally developed
`as freeware for Macintosh computers by Steve Dorner at
`the University of Illinois, now maintained in both freeware
`and commercial versions for both Macintosh and Win-
`
`dows by Qualcomm, Inc.
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`EULA n. See End—User License Agreement.
`
`Euphoria n. Acronym for End User Programming with
`Hierarchical Objects for Robust Interpreted Applications.
`An interpreted programming language intended for gen-
`eral application development and game programming on
`MS-DOS, Windows, and Linux platforms.
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`evaluation n. The determination, by a program, of the
`value of an expression or the action that a program state—
`ment specifies. Evaluation can take place at compile time
`or at run time.
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`even parity r1. See parity.
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`event It. An action or occurrence, often generated by the
`user, to which a program might respond—for example,
`key presses, button clicks, or mouse movements. See also
`event—driven programming.
`
`event-driven adj. Of, pertaining to, or being software that
`accomplishes its purpose by responding to externally
`caused events, such as the user pressing a key or clicking a
`button on a mouse. For example, an event-driven data
`entry form will allow the user to click on and edit any field
`at any time rather than forcing the user to step through a
`fixed sequence of prompts.
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`event-driven processing n. A program feature belong—
`ing to more advanced operating—system architectures such
`as the Apple Macintosh operating system, Windows, and
`UNIX. In times past, programs were required to interro—
`gate, and effectively anticipate, every device that was
`expected to interact with the program, such as the key—
`board, mouse, printer, disk drive, and serial port. Often,
`unless sophisticated programming techniques were used,
`one of two events happening at the same instant would be
`lost. Event processing solves this problem through the cre—
`ation and maintenance of an event queue. Most common
`events that occur are appended to the event queue for the
`program to process in turn; however, certain types of
`events can preempt others if they have a higher priority.
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`

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`open shop
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`operator associativity
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`achieve personalization and privacy concomitantly, OPS is
`based on the concept of a Personal Profile, which is stored
`on the individual's computer and contains the user's
`unique identification, demographic and contact data, and
`possibly content preferences. This information remains
`under the user's control and can be released wholly or in
`part to the requesting site. Acronym: OPS. See also
`cookie, digital certificate.
`
`open shop n. A computer facility that is open to users
`and not restricted to programmers or other personnel. An
`open shop is one in which people can work on or attempt
`to solve computer problems on their own rather than hand(cid:173)
`ing them over to a specialist.
`
`Open Shortest Path First n. See OSPF.
`
`Open Software Foundation n. See OSF.
`
`open source n. The practice of making the source code
`(program instructions) for a software product freely avail(cid:173)
`able, at no cost, to interested users and developers, even
`though they were not involved in creating the original
`product. The distributors of open source software expect
`and encourage users and outside programmers to examine
`the code in order to identify problems, and to modify the
`code with suggested improvements and enhancements.
`Widely used open source products include the Linux oper(cid:173)
`ating system and the Apache Web server.
`
`open standard n. A publicly available set of specifica(cid:173)
`tions describing the characteristics of a hardware device or
`software program. Open standards are published to
`encourage interoperability and thereby help popularize
`new technologies. See also standard (definition 2).
`
`open system n. 1. In communications, a computer net(cid:173)
`work designed to incorporate all devices-regardless of
`the manufacturer or model-that \:an use the same com(cid:173)
`munications facilities and protocols. 2. In reference to
`computer hardware or software, a system that can accept
`add-ons produced by third-party suppliers. See also open
`architecture (definition 1).
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`Open Systems Interconnection reference model n.
`See ISO/OSI reference model.
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`Open Type n. A collaborative initiative by Microsoft and
`Adobe to unify support for Microsoft True Type and
`Adobe PostScript Type 1 fonts. The Open Type font format
`enables font creators and users to work with the font type
`that best suits their needs without having to worry about
`
`whether the font is based on True Type or PostScript tech,
`nology. Also called: TrueType Open version 2. See also
`PostScript font, True Type.
`
`Opera n. A Web browser developed by Opera Software
`S/A. Opera is notable for its strict W3C standards supp011
`Opera is often chosen by Web developers to test Web
`·
`sites for W3C compliance. See also W3C, Web browser.
`
`operand n. The object of a mathematical operation or a
`computer instruction.
`operating system n. The software that controls the an0 _
`cation and usage of hardware resources such as memory,
`central processing unit (CPU) time, disk space, and
`pe1ipheral devices. The operating system is the foundation
`software on which applications depend. Popular operating
`systems include Windows 98, Windows NT, Mac OS, and
`UNIX. A cronym: OS. Also called: executive.
`
`operation n. 1. A specific action carried out by a com(cid:173)
`puter in the process of executing a program. 2. In mathe(cid:173)
`matics, an action performed on a set of entities that
`produces a new entity. Examples of mathematical opera(cid:173)
`tions are addition and subtraction.
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`operation code n. The portion of a machine language or
`assembly language instruction that specifies the type of
`instruction and the structure of the data on which it oper(cid:173)
`ates. Also called: opcode. See also assembly language,
`machine code.
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`operations research n. The use of mathematical and sci(cid:173)
`entific approaches to analyze and improve efficiency in
`business, management, government, and other areas.
`Developed around the beginning of World War II, opera(cid:173)
`tions research was initially used to improve military oper(cid:173)
`ations during the war. The practice later spread to business
`and industry as a means of breaking down systems and
`procedures and studying their parts and interactions to
`improve overall performance. Operations research
`involves use of the critical path method, statistics, proba(cid:173)
`bility, and information theory.
`
`operator n. 1. In mathematics and in programming and
`computer applications, a symbol or other character indi(cid:173)
`cating an operation that acts on one or more elements. See
`also binary1, unary. 2. A person who controls a machine
`or system such as a computer or telephone switchboard.
`
`operator associativity n. A characteristic of operators
`that determines the order of evaluation in an expression
`
`378
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`See
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