`ti~f ittll.11
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`Third Edition
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`Microsoft® Press
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`APPLE 1020
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`PUBLISHED BY
`Microsoft Press
`A Division of Microsoft Corporation
`One Microsoft Way
`Redmond, Washington 98052-6399
`
`Copyright © 1997 by Microsoft Corporation
`
`All rights reserved. No 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 pending.
`
`ISBN 1-57231-743-4
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`Printed and bound in the United States of America.
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`1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 QMQM 2 1 0 9 8 7
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`Distributed to the book trade in Canada by Macmillan of Canada, a division of Canada
`Publishing Corporation.
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`A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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`Microsoft Press books are available through booksellers and distributors worldwide. For further
`information 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
`mspress.microsoft.com.
`Macintosh, Power Macintosh, QuickTimc, and TrueType fonts are registered trademarks of
`Apple Computer, Inc. Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation. Directlnput, DirectX,
`Microsoft, Microsoft Press, MS-DOS, Visual Basic, Visual C++, Win32, Win32s, Windows,
`Windows NT, and XENIX are registered trademarks and ActiveMovic, ActiveX, and Visual
`J++ arc trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Java is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.
`Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respec-
`tive owners.
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`Acquisitions Editor: Kim Fryer
`Project Editors: Maureen Williams Zimmerman, Anne Taussig
`Technical Editors: Dail Magee Jr., Gary Nelson, Jean Ross, Jim Fuchs, John Conrow,
`Kurt Meyer, Robert Lyon, Roslyn Lutsch
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`2
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`rag \rag\ 11. Irregularity along the left or right edge
`of a set of lines of text on a printed page. Rag com(cid:173)
`plements justification, in which one or both edges
`of the text form a straight vertical line. See the
`illustration. See also justify, ragged left, ragged
`right.
`
`Ragged right
`
`Justified
`
`Ragged left
`
`Rag.
`
`ragged left \rag'dd left'\ adj. Of, relating to, or
`being lines of text whose left ends are not verti(cid:173)
`cally aligned but form an irregular edge. Text may
`be right-justified and have a ragged left margin.
`Ragged-left text is used infrequently-typically, for
`visual effect in advertisements. See also rag, right(cid:173)
`justify.
`1·aggecl right \rag'dd riY\ adj. Of, relating to, or
`being lines of text whose right ends arc not verti(cid:173)
`cally aligned but form an irregular edge. Letters and
`other word-processed documents are commonly
`left-justified, with ragged-right margins. See also
`left-justify, rag.
`RAID \rad, R'A-I-D'\ n. Acronym for redundant
`array of independent disks
`(formerly called
`redundant array of inexpensive disks). A data
`storage method in which data, along with informa(cid:173)
`tion used for error correction, such as parity bits or
`Hamming codes, is distributed among two or more
`hard disk drives in order to improve performance
`and reliability. The hard disk array is governed by
`array management software and a disk controller,
`which handles the error correction. H.AID is gener(cid:173)
`ally used on network servers. Several defined lev(cid:173)
`els of RAID offer differing trade-offs among access
`speed, reliability, and cost. See also disk controller,
`error-correction coding, Hamming code, hard
`disk, parity bit, server (definition 1).
`RAID array \rad' d-ra', R'A-I-D'\ n. See RAID.
`RAM \ram, R'A-M'\
`11. Acronym for random
`access inemory. Semiconductor··basecl memory
`
`that can be read and written by the central pro(cid:173)
`cessing unit (CPU) or other hardware devices. The
`storage locations can be accessed in any order.
`Note that the various types of ROM memory arc
`capable of random access but cannot be written
`to. The term RAIW, however, is generally under(cid:173)
`stood to refer to volatile memory that can be writ(cid:173)
`ten to as well as read. Compare core, EPROM,
`flash memory, PROM, ROM (definition 2).
`RAM cache \ram' kash, R'A-M'\ n. Cache mem(cid:173)
`ory that is used by the system to store and retrieve
`data from the RAM. Frequently accessed segments
`of data may be stored in the cache for quicker
`access compared with secondary storage devices
`such as disks. See also cache, RAM.
`RAM card \ram' kard, R'A-M'\ n. An add-in cir(cid:173)
`cuit board containing R.AM memory and the inter(cid:173)
`face logic necessary to decode memory addresses.
`RAi\1 cal'tddge \ram' kar'trij,
`IfA-M'\ n. See
`memory cartridge.
`RAM chip \ram' chip, R'A-M'\ n. A semiconduc(cid:173)
`tor storage device. RAM chips can be either
`dynamic or static memory. See also dynamic RAM,
`l~AM, static RAM.
`RAM cotnpression \ram' kdm-presh';::m, R-A-M'\
`n. Short for 1·anclom access 1nem01y comp1·cs(cid:173)
`sion. This technology was an attempt by a number
`of software vendors to solve the problem of run(cid:173)
`ning out of global memory under Windows 3.x.
`Compression of the usual contents of RAM may
`lessen the system's need to read or write to virtual
`(hard disk-based) memory and thus speed up the
`system, as virtual memory is much slower than
`physical RAM. Because of the falling prices of RAiVI
`and the introduction of Windows 95 and Windows
`NT, which handle RAM more effectively, RMv1 com(cid:173)
`pression is generally used only on older PCs. See
`also compression, RAM, Windows, \X!indows 95.
`RAMDAC \ram'dak, R-A-M'D-A-C\ n. Acronym
`for random access 1nemory digital-to-analog con(cid:173)
`verter. A chip built into some VGA and SVGJ\.
`video adapters that translates the digital represen(cid:173)
`tation of a pixel into the analog information
`needed by the monitor to display it. The presence
`of a RAMDAC chip generally enhances overall
`video performance. See also SVGA, VGA.
`RAM disk \ram' disk, R'A-M'\ n. Short for ran(cid:173)
`dom access 1nemory disk. A simulated disk drive
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