DICTIONARY
`OF
`COMPUTER
`WORDS
`
`Revised Edition
`
`4t
`
`..
`
`Houghton Mifflin Company
`Boston • New York
`
`Petitioners Amazon
`Ex. 1011, p. 1
`
`

`

`Words included in this Dictionary that are known to have current trademark regis(cid:173)
`trations are shown with initial capital and are also identified as trademarks. No
`investigation has been made of common-law trademark rights in any word, because
`such investigation is impracticable. The inclusion of any word in this Dictionary is
`not, however, an expression of the Publisher's opinion as to whether or not it is
`subject to proprietary rights. Indeed, no definition in this Dictionary is to be regard(cid:173)
`ed as affecting the validity of any trademark.
`
`Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
`
`No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
`means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any
`information storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of
`Houghton Mifflin Company unless such copying is expressly permitted by federal
`· copyright law. Address inquiries to Reference Permissions, 222 Berkeley Street,
`Boston, Massachusetts 02116.
`
`For information about this and other Houghton Mifflin trade and reference book~
`and multimedia products, visit The Bookstore at Houghton Mifflin on the World
`Wide Web at http://www.hmco.com/trade/.
`
`Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
`
`Dictionary of computer words. - Rev. ed.
`p. cm.
`Includes index.
`ISBN 0-395-72834-7 (acid-free paper)
`1. Computers-Dictionaries.
`QA76.15.D5259 1995
`004'.03-dc20
`95-1175
`CIP
`
`Manufactured in the United States of America
`
`DOH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
`
`Book design by Anne Chalmers
`
`ART CREDITS: Apple Computer: desktop, dialog box, keyboard (Apple Adjustable), ·
`toolbar; Fountain Hills Systems Inc.: keyboard
`menu, overlaid windows,
`(Ergonomic Keyboard); Lexmark International, Inc.: keyboard (Select-Ease);
`Library of Congress: pixel (photograph); Lotus Development Corporation: spread(cid:173)
`sheet; Maureen Wilken/Cheryl Snyder: range; Microsoft Corporation: screen shots
`at the entries alert box, character-based, graphical user interface, and range reprint(cid:173)
`ed with permission from Microsoft Corporation; illustration of the Natural Key(cid:173)
`board at the entry keyboard reproduced with permission from Microsoft Corpora(cid:173)
`tion; Tech-Graphics: antialiasing, Bezier curve, chip, computer, connector, DIP
`switch, Dvorak keyboard, floppy disk, hard disk, hierarchical, landscape, letter(cid:173)
`quality, mouse, network, outline font, overlaid windows, pixel, printed circuit
`board, QWERTY keyboard, sector, sine wave, software, trackball, write-protect;
`U.S. Enviwnmental Protection Agency: Energy Star.
`
`Petitioners Amazon
`Ex. 1011, p. 2
`
`

`

`back up
`
`20
`
`back up To copy files from one storage area, especially a hard
`disk, to another to prevent their loss in case of disk failure.
`For today's personal computers, where a typical hard disk can
`easily contain 500 megabytes to 1.2 gigabytes of data, regular
`backups are crucial. Many professionals recommend that you
`make at least two backups and keep the extra backup in
`another location in case of fire or theft. Files can be backed up
`by using operating system commands or a backup utility pro(cid:173)
`gram. Backup utilities are faster and usually compress the
`data so that fewer disks or tapes are required.
`
`backward compatible See downward compatible.
`
`bad break
`In word processing and desktop publishing, a place
`where a word, line, or page is improperly divided. Examples
`include setting the second part of a hyphenated word at the
`beginning of a left-hand page, hyphenating "minute" at the
`end of a line as "min-ute" when the word in a document is
`actually "mi-nute," and leaving a section title stranded at the
`very bottom of a page.
`
`bad sector A sector of a hard disk or floppy disk that cannot be
`used for reading and writing information because of a manu(cid:173)
`facturing defect or a flaw in the surface. It is normal for a new
`hard disk to have a small number of bad sectors; the operating
`system or a disk utility program can locate and mark these
`areas so they will not be used. As a hard disk gets older, more
`sectors may occasionally fail, but if this happens frequently it
`is a sign of a malfunctioning disk drive or impending disk fail(cid:173)
`ure. If bad sectors appear on a floppy disk, some data will usu(cid:173)
`ally be lost and the entire disk may become unusable; the
`safest policy generally is to copy the remaining files to a fresh
`disk, if possible, and discard the one that has failed. See also
`disk, format, head crash, sector.
`
`bandwidth A measure of the amount of data that can be
`passed by a communications channel in a given amount of
`time. For analog devices, bandwidth is the range of frequen-
`
`' l
`
`Petitioners Amazon
`Ex. 1011, p. 3
`
`

`

`.I I
`i
`! l !
`
`21
`
`batch file
`
`cies that can be transmitted and is expressed in hertz (cycles
`per second). A standard telephone line, for example, has a
`usable bandwidth of about 3,000 Hz. For digital devices, band(cid:173)
`width is often measured in bps (bits per second). In general,
`the bandwidth of a channel directly affects the speed of data
`transfer -
`the wider the bandwidth, the faster data can be
`sent.
`
`base font
`In word p'rocessing, the default font that is used in
`a document wherever a different font is not specifically se(cid:173)
`lected.
`
`BASIC
`[BAY-sik] Acronym for Beginners' All-purpose Sym(cid:173)
`bolic Instruction Code. A simple, widely used high-level
`programming language. It was first developed in the mid-
`1960s by John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz of Dartmouth
`College, and many other versions with proprietary extensions
`have also been developed over the years. Despite being criti(cid:173)
`cized by professional programmers for its unwieldiness, BASIC
`is still widely taught to students as a first programming lan(cid:173)
`guage. Visual Basic is based on BASIC.
`
`basic input/output system See BIOS.
`
`bakh file A text fl.le that consists of a number of commands to
`be executed one after the other. Batch files offer a convenient
`way to carry out a frequently executed sequence of commands
`by simply typing the name of the batch file. They are easy to
`create and can include a small number of programming func(cid:173)
`tions, such as IF ... THEN, GOTO, and FOR ... IN ... DO
`constructs, which make the command line interface much
`faster and more powerful. It is also possible to call one batch
`file from within another, executing the second file and then
`returning control to the first. All batch files in DOS have the
`extension .BAT; hence they are often called BAT files.
`As the last step in the boot-up sequence, most DOS-based
`computers automatically run the file AUTOEXEC.BAT,
`which can be used to set a number of system parameters and
`install device drivers and terminate and stay resident pro-
`
`Petitioners Amazon
`Ex. 1011, p. 4
`
`