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`The Ultimate Computer Reference
`
`(‘60
`CD35},
`lnuiudec
`
`The Comprehensive Standard for
`Business, School, Library, and Home
`
`
`
`11.:_-1- ' Over 300 illustrations and diagrams
`
`- Extensive Internet coverage
`° Featured in Microsoft" Bookshelf
`
`- Covers software, hardware, concepts,
`and more!
`
`Microsoft Press
`
`_ s
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`.__.___._________j
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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
`Microsoft Press Computer Dictionary. -- 3rd ed.
`p.
`cm.
`ISBN l—5723l—446—X
`
`l. Computers——Dictionaries,
`I. Microsoft Press.
`
`2. Microcomputers--Dictionaries.
`
`QA76.15.M54 I997
`004’.03—-dc2]
`
`97—15489
`CIP
`
`Printed and bound in the United States of America.
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`[23456789 QMQM 2|0987
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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
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`Inc. lntel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation. Directlnput. DirectX. Microsoft, Microsoft
`Press. MS—DOS. Visual Basic. Visual CH. Win32. Win325. Windows. Windows NT, and XENIX are
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`registered trademarks and ActiveMovie. ActiveX. and Visual J ++ are 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 respective owners.
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`Acquisitions Editor: Kim Fryer
`Project Editor: 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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`
` bubble memory \hul)’| mentor—a in. Memory
`
`) Compared third
`
`List after first
`pass
`1
`
`List after second
`pass
`l
`
`formed by a series of persistent magnetic “bubbles”
`in a thin film substrate. in contrast to ROM,
`infor—
`mation can be written to bubble memory. In contrast
`to RAM. data written to bubble memory remains
`there until it is changed, even when the computer
`is turned off. For this reason, bubble men'tory has
`had some application in environments in which a
`computer system must be able to recover with min—
`imal data loss in the event of a power failure. The
`use of and demand for bubble memory has all but
`disappeared because of the introduction of flash
`memory. which is less expensive and easier to pro—
`duce. See also flash memory. nonvolatile memory.
`bubble sort
`\bub'l sort‘\
`rt. A sorting algorithm
`that starts at the end of a list with it elements and
`moves all the way through. testing the value of each
`adjacent pair of items and swapping them if they
`aren‘t in the right order. The entire process is then
`repeated for the remaining it — 1 items in the list,
`and so on. until the list is completely sorted. with
`the largest value at the end of the list. A bubble. sort
`is so named because the "lightest“ item in a list (the
`smallest) will figuratively “bubble up" to the top of
`the list first; then the next—lightest item bubbles up
`to its position. and so on. See the illustration. Also
`called exchange son. See also algorithm, sort. Com—
`pare insertion sort. merge sort, quicksort.
`
`Compared last i
`
`List to be sorted
`5
`)1
`2
`
`stor‘aj\
`
`it. See bubble
`
`bubble storage \buh‘l
`memory.
`is
`rt. A region of memory that
`bucket \buk'ar\
`addressable as an entity and can be used as a
`receptacle to hold data. See also hit bucket.
`bufferl \l)uf’ar\ H. A region of memory reserved
`for use as an intermediate repository in which data
`is temporarily held while waiting to be transferred
`between two locations. as between an applica-
`tion's data area and an input/output device. A
`device or its adapter may in turn use a butler to
`store data awaiting transfer to the computer or
`processing by the device.
`buffet; \liuf'or\ t-‘b. To use a region of memory to
`hold data that is waiting to be transferred. espe—
`cially to or from inputi’output t'l/O) devices such
`as disk drives and serial ports.
`buffer pool \buf’ar ptT’oH it. A group of memory
`or storage—device locations that are allocated for
`temporary storage. especially during transfer oper—
`ations.
`
`buffer storage \buf’ar stor‘ai\ n. l. The use of a
`special area in memory to hold data temporarily
`for processing until a program or operating system
`is ready to deal with it. 2. An area of storage that
`is used to hold data to he passed between devices
`that are not synchronized or have different bit
`transfer rates.
`
`bug \l)ug\ n. 1. An error in coding or logic that
`causes a program to malfunction or to produce
`incorrect results. Minor bugs. such as a cursor
`that does not behave as expected. can be incon-
`venient or frustrating, but do not damage infor-
`mation. More severe bugs can require the user to
`restart the program or the computer. losing what-
`ever previous work had not been saved. Worse
`yet are bugs that damage saved data without
`alerting the user. All such errors must he found
`and corrected by the process known as debug
`grog. Because of the potential risk to important
`data. commercial application programs are tested
`
`