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`PUBLISHED BY
`Microsoft Press
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`A Division of Microsoft Corporation
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`Copyright © 1997 by Microsoft Corporation
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`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.
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`Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
`Microsoft Press Computer Dictionary. -- 3rd ed.
`p.
`em.
`ISBN 1-57231-446-X
`
`1. Computers--Dictionaries.
`I. Microsoft Press.
`
`2. Microcomputers--Dictionaries.
`
`QA76.15.M54 1997
`004".03--de2 1
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`97-15489
`CIP
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`Printed and bound in the United States of America.
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`123456789 QMQM 210987
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`Distributed to the book trade in Canada by Macmillan of Canada, a division of Canada Publishing
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`

` bubble memory \bub’] mem‘er-é\ #. Memory
`
`formed by aseries 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 memory 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 powerfailure. The
`use of and demand for bubble memory hasall but
`disappeared because ofthe introduction offlash
`memory, whichis less expensive and easier to pro-
`duce. See also flash memory, nonvolatile memory.
`bubble sort
`\bub1l sdrt\ 7. A sorting algorithm
`that starts at the end ofa list with # elements and
`movesall 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 — 1
`itemsin the list,
`and soon,until the list is completely sorted, with
`the largest value at the endofthelist. A bubblesort
`is so named because the“lightest” item in a list (the
`smallest) will figuratively “bubble up” to the top of
`thelist first; then the next-lightest item bubbles up
`to its position, andsoon.Seetheillustration, Also
`called exchangesort. See also algorithm,sort. Com-
`pare insertion sort, merge sort, qu icksort.
`
`List to be sorted
`3
`4
`
`Compared last ¢
`
`List afterfirst
`pass
`1
`
`List after second
`pass
`1
`
`bubble storage \bub1 stéraj\ . See bubble
`memory.
`bucket \buk‘at\ 7. A region of memory thatis
`addressable as an entity and can be used as a
`receptacle to holddata. See also bit bucket.
`buffer! \buf’ar\ 7. A region of memory reserved
`for use as an intermediate repository in whichdata
`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 buffer to
`store data awaiting transfer to the computer or
`processing by the device.
`buffer? \buf‘ar\ vb. To use a region of memory to
`hold data that is waiting to be transferred, espe-
`cially to or from input/output (1/O) devices such
`as disk drives and serial ports.
`buffer pool \buf’ar pol'\ n. A group of memory
`or storage-device locations that are allocated for
`temporarystorage, especially during transfer oper-
`ations.
`buffer storage \buf’or stor aj\ 7. 1. The use of a
`special area in memory tohold data temporarily
`for processing until a program or operating system
`is ready to deal with it. 2. An area of storage that
`is usedto hold data to be passed between devices
`that are not synchronized or have different bit
`transfer rates.
`bug \bug\ #. 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 be found
`and corrected by the process known as debug:
`ging. Because of the potential risk to important
`data, commercial application programs are tested
`
`