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High Sierra format Hierarchical hierarchical arranged in such a way that some items are above or below others in a tree-like structure. Examples of hierarchies include the orga- nizational chart of a corporation, the arrangement of directories on a disk, and the arrangement of windows on a screen (because some of the windows are within [...]

Heuristic FIGURE 128. Helvetica (normal weight) Heuristic heuristic a method of solving problems that involves intelligent trial and error. By contrast, an algorithmic solution method is a clearly specified procedure that is guaranteed to give the correct answer. (See ALGO- RITHM.) For example, there is no known algorithm that tells how to play a perfect [...]

Hard Copy hard copy a printout on paper of computer output. Contrast SOFT COPY, which is a copy that is only viewable on the screen. Hard Disk hard disk a data storage medium using rigid aluminum disks coated with iron oxide. The read-write head travels across the disk on a thin cushion of air without [...]

Green PC grayscale FIGURE 122. Graphics tablet (Photo courtesy of Wacom Technology) 1. a series of boxes filled with a range of black tints from pure white to 100% black. A grayscale is used to test a printer, monitor, scanner, or printing press. 2. (scanner terminology) the range of grays in an image as measured [...]

Graphics Card raster graphics or bitmap graphics, in which the screen or plotting area is divided into a rectangular array of points (called pixels, from “picture cells”), and the computer is told what color each point should be. Computer screens and printers are raster devices, but some graphics soft- ware uses vector-style instructions internally so [...]

Graphics (linear) or have the blend radiate from a central point (radial). See also FOUNTAIN FILL; UNIFORM FILL. FIGURE 120. Gradient fill tool (from Adobe PhotoShop) Grammar Checker grammar checker a part of a word processing program that flags sentences that violate rules of grammar. For example, in Microsoft Word, if you type “They is [...]

Full duplex cedure is to give anonymous as your user name and then type your e-mail address in place of the password. Also remember to use the command binary if the file you are transferring is anything other than plain ASCII text. Figure 119 shows an example of an anonymous FTP session. C:\> ftp ftp> [...]

Free Software Figure 118 shows the appearance of this page when displayed by the browser. If the right-hand frame did contain a large amount of text, the user could scroll through it while the links on the left-hand side always stayed in the same place, making it easier to jump to other sections of the [...]

Fragmentation Fractal fractal a shape that contains an infinite amount of fine detail. That is, no matter how much a fractal is enlarged, there is still more detail to be revealed by enlarging it further. Fractals are common in nature; they are the shapes of clouds, coastlines, broken rocks, the edges of torn pieces of [...]

Forward  Compared  to  FORTRAN  IV,  FORTRAN  77,  and  FORTRAN  90 include more sophisticated input-output statements, especially for file handling, the ability to process character-string data, and block-struc- tured IF-ELSE-ENDIF statements to facilitate structured programming. See STRUCTURED PROGRAMMING. forward to send a piece of e-mail on to another person, with an indication that you received it [...]

FORTRAN them, a FORTH interpreter can run very fast; in fact, there is little dif- ference between an interpreter and a compiler for FORTH. C FORTRAN IV program to C find sum of integers 1-100 INTEGER I, SUM SUM=0 DO 1 I=1, 100 1 SUM =SUM + I WRITE (6,2) SUM 2 FORMAT(1X,I5) STOP END [...]

Formal Parameter FIGURE 113. Form, HTML (as displayed on screen) Formal Parameter formal parameter a name used within a function or subroutine for a value that will be passed to it from the calling program. Contrast ACTUAL PARAMETER. Format format any method of arranging information that is to be stored or dis- played. The word [...]

Form, HTML The ACTION command of this form will simply e-mail the result of the form to the specified address. It is also possible to specify a CGI script as the ACTION. This script needs to be specially written to process the results of the form once they are sent back to the server. The [...]

For FIGURE 111. Font (Times New Roman) Foot foot the bottom of the page. Contrast HEAD. Footer footer text that is placed at the bottom of each page of a printed document. Contrast HEAD (definition 2). Footnote footnote a short comment placed at the bottom (FOOT) of a page that pro- vides a citation or [...]

Focal Length focal length the distance from a lens to the focal plane, or in the case of a multi-element lens, the focal length of a simple lens that would form the same size image. A longer focal length produces a larger image and covers a narrower field. On a 35-mm camera, a “normal” lens [...]

Flush The flowchart in Figure 108 shows how to calculate the cube root of a number a using Newton’s method, where x is the guess for the cube root of a, and δ indicates how accurate the result must be. The procedure will follow around the loop until |x3 – a| < δ. “Start” and [...]

Flowchart FIGURE 106. Flip-flop constructed from NAND gates flip horizontal a command that creates a mirror image of the original object. The image still appears right-side-up, but left and right are reversed. FIGURE 107. Flip horizontal; flip vertical Flip Vertical flip vertical a command that turns an image upside down, but maintains the image’s left-right [...]

Flash Memory FIGURE 103. Fit text to path Fixed Disk fixed disk a disk drive that cannot be removed from the computer in nor- mal use. See HARD DISK. Fixed-Pitch Type fixed-pitch type type in which all letters are the same width (e.g., I is the same width as M). Most typewriters and older printers [...]

Film, Digital FIGURE 102. Fills film, digital see DIGITAL FILM. Filter 1. in paint programs, a tool for modifying the image. See IMAGE PROCESSING and its cross-references. 2. a program that reads a file, byte by byte, and creates another file from it in some way. For example, the Windows sort command can be used [...]

Eyedropper Extranet extranet a network using Internet protocols that allows a company to share information with other companies (such as suppliers and customers) but with security features preventing access to others. See VPN; PROTOCOL. Contrast INTRANET. Extreme Programming Extreme Programming (or eXtreme Programming, abbreviated XP) a programming methodology introduced by Kent Beck and others in [...]

Exponent FRACTIONs). It is assumed that someone using such a font will have the know- how and the software to be able to set the special characters. Not every type- face has a matching expert set; you may have to take this into consideration when selecting a typeface for a particular job or when purchasing [...]

Ellipsis FIGURE 93. Eliza in action ellipsis typographic convention of using three dots (. . . ) to indicate the trailing off of a thought. In Windows, the ellipsis is typed by holding down Alt while keying 133 on the numeric keypad. Macintosh users can type an ellipsis by holding down Option and typing : [...]

Electronic Document FIGURE 92. Electronic circuit diagram symbols Electronic Document electronic document a document intended to be read as it is displayed on a monitor. An electronic document can use HYPERTEXT to create an inter- active environment for the reader. It can also use special effects such as animation, sounds, and music. Unlike with traditional [...]

Drum tent is subject to being copied by the right hardware). Also, DRM sys- tems may be too restrictive by preventing content purchasers from exer- cising rights that are allowed under copyright law. Libraries and museums are concerned that in the future, they may not be able to play today’s media, even though suitable equipment [...]

Drill Down popular draw programs include Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw, and Macromedia Freehand. Contrast PAINT PROGRAM. FIGURE 86. Draw program drill down (informal) to follow a series of menus or otherwise reach a piece of information through a series of steps. drive see DISK DRIVE. Drive Bay drive bay a space in a computer enclosure that [...]

DMCA shades of gray or colors on a printer or screen that cannot produce them directly. FIGURE 83. Dithering patterns DL DL (describing a DVD or similar disc) double-layer; recorded in two lay- ers from the same side, giving twice as much capacity as a single layer. DLL DLL (Dynamic Link Library) a file containing [...]

Directory FIGURE 79. DIP (dual in-line package) integrated circuits Dir dir the command, under Windows command line, that makes the computer display all the files in a particular directory. For example, dir by itself lists the files in the current directory of the current disk. Here are some other examples: dir a: Current directory of [...]

Default For example, multiplying power by 2 is equivalent to adding about 3 decibels; multiplying power by 10 is equivalent to adding 10 deci- bels; and multiplying by 100 is equivalent to adding 20 decibels. 2. to express the ratio of two voltage levels: first voltage level dB = 20 log10 second voltage level Because [...]

De Dazed and Confused. Dazed and confused… an error message displayed by some versions of LINUX upon encountering an apparent hardware failure. dB dB abbreviation for DECIBEL. DB-9, DB-15, DB-25 designations for the kind of connectors commonly used on serial ports, video cards, and parallel ports respectively, with 9, 15, or 25 pins. For pictures [...]

Database Management OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING, user-defined types can have procedures (called METHODs) associated with them. Database database a collection of data stored on a computer storage medium, such as a disk, that can be used for more than one purpose. For example, a firm that maintains a database containing information on its employees will be able [...]