Glossary
[A][B][C] [D][E][F] [G][H][I] [J][K][L] [M][N][O] [P][Q][R] [S][T][U] [V][W][X] [Y][Z]
The following items come from BG-BASE's on-line glossary as well as from the Guide to the information technology resources at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (Walter, 1996b); thus, not all definitions are directly relevant to this home page.
| 24-bit color | a method of representing over 16.7 million colors by assigning 2+3+3+34 bits (3 bytes) to each pixel on the screen |
| A | |
| Advanced Revelation (AREV) | a particularly powerful relational database management system (RDBMS) that has been used as a platform to create both BG-BASE and PANDORA, as well as several other large biological applications; its particular strengths are its use of variable-length fields and records, as well as its ability to handle multivalue fields |
| America On Line (AOL) | a commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP) |
| analog | not digital; refers to data that occur in the form of a continuous flow; compare to digital |
| analog line | voice grade telecommunications line used for telephones; computers communicate over analog lines by using modems at each end of the connection to convert digital information to analog then back to digital |
| analog signal | continuous but varying waveforms, as in the voice tones carried by the telephone line; cf digital |
| anonymous ftp | a public ftp server that can be accessed by any users of the Internet; files can be retrieved from the site without having to establish an account and password on the other site |
| ANSI | acronym for American National Standards Institute; see also ISO |
| applet | a small program or application downloaded from the Internet and used by a browser; see Java |
| application | software that performs a particular function (such as a word processing or graphics package, BG-BASE, PANDORA, Pegasus, etc.) |
| Archie | a program for locating files that are publicly available by anonymous ftp |
| ARPA | acronym for the Advanced Research Projects Agency; an agency of the U.S. Department of Defense that developed an early prototype of the Internet |
| ARPAnet | an experimental network designed in the U.S. in the 1970s that served as a test for the software on which the Internet is now based; this network no longer exists |
| ASCII | acronym for the American Standard Code for Information Interchange; the character mapping used by virtually all PCS, in which each character (such as an "a", "7", "?") is assigned a number (in this case, 97, 55, and 63, respectively). It is these internal number that the computer actually manipulates (and transmits to other computers). The standard (or 7-bit) ASCII character set defines 128 different characters (2 to the 7th power = 128) and can handle all letters, numbers, and punctuation marks shown on a standard PC keyboard. There are also extended ASCII character sets (or 8-bit ASCII; 2 to the 8th power = 256 characters) which includes another 128 characters, but these extended ASCII characters are not universally agreed, and these extended ASCII characters (those above the standard 128 characters) cannot be sent over the Internet without first being encoded; internally, all ASCII characters are stored as bytes composed of bits; thus "Joe" is represented internally as 0011010, 0111100, 01010011 |
| AT-commands | a set of commands, originated by Hayes for controlling their modems, now widely used in electronic communication via modems |
| attachment | in email systems, an attachment is another file, a graphic, or other data structure that is sent with a message; attachments can be extracted into files on your disk |
| AUP | acronym for Acceptable Use Policies, which are set forth by providers of Internet resources |
| authentication | a security feature that determines a user's identify and legitimacy |
| AUTOEXEC.BAT | a batch file that is automatically executed when a machine is turned on or rebooted; this file, working in conjunction with the CONFIG.SYS file, is responsible for setting many of the parameters that configure your computer |
| AVI | acronym for Audio/Video Interleaved, Microsoft's format for encoding video and audio for digital transmission |
| B | |
| background indexing | a mechanism employed by Advanced Revelation to update database indexes using "spare" time on one or more workstations on the network |
| bandwidth | the carrying capacity of a communication link (often a wire or optical fiber) linking one computer to another; the range of transmission frequencies that a network can use; the greater the bandwidth, the greater the amount of data that the network can carry; bandwidth is measured in "bits per second" (bps) for digital signals, or in hertz (Hz) for analog signals |
| Basic Recording Unit | see BRU |
| batch file | a DOS file that contains a series of commands that are issued in sequence; batch files end with the extension .BAT; in order to execute a batch file, you type the name of the file (minus the .BAT extension); the best-known batch file is AUTOEXEC.BAT |
| baud | a method of describing the speed of a modem; the number of times the medium's "state" changes per second; thus, a 14.4K baud modem can change the state (from a 0 to a 1 or vice versa) of the signal it sends to the telephone line 14,400 times a second; since each change in state can correspond to more than one bit of data, the actual bit rate may exceed the baud rate. The higher the baud rate, the quicker a modem can transmit data. |
| bbs | acronym for Bulletin Board Service (or System), a method of setting up stand-alone computers in a way that others can call in via a modem to exchange information; there are over 10,000 bbs systems in the U.S. alone. These systems are becoming increasingly connected to the Internet. |
| binary | the system of numbering used in computing, employing only ones and zeros |
| binary file | a file that is in machine-readable form and that can only be read by a software application, not by a human; some email and communications software have to send binary files differently from "ordinary" files |
| BIOS | acronym for Basic Input/Output System; basic instructions that control the computer hardware; normally BIOS is not able to be changed but flash BIOS can be |
| bit | abbreviation for binary digit, the smallest unit of information that a computer can manipulate; bits are either on (1) or off (0); eight bits make up a byte |
| bitmapped image | see raster image |
| bits per second (bps) | the speed at which bits are transmitted over a telephone line or other communication medium |
| BG-BASE | a software application designed to manage information in botanic gardens and other holders of biological information; it has been used since July 1990 to manage the living collections at RBGE, and RBGE is now one of two international development and support centers for the 50+ institutions using it |
| BMP file | abbreviation for "bitmap", a type of graphic file format advocated by MS Windows® |
| bookmark | the electronic equivalent of a real bookmark; allowing you to return to a certain point in a word processing document, to a particular WWW site, etc. |
| boot | the process of starting or restarting a computer; a "cold boot" involves turning the machine off and on, a "warm boot' can be accomplished by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del together |
| BPH | acronym for Botanico-Periodicum-Huntianum, which contains standard abbreviations for titles of periodicals |
| BPH/S | acronym for Botanico-Periodicum-Huntianum, Supplementum which contains standard abbreviations for titles of periodicals |
| browser | a program, such as Netscape's Navigator or Microsoft's Internet Explorer, used to view information on the world wide web |
| BRU | acronym for Basic Recording Unit (or Biological Recording Unit), a 4-tier hierarchical scheme for storing information on plant distributions |
| buffer | a portion of computer memory used to store data before it is used by an application; for instance in BG-BASE, there is a "cut and paste" buffer that allows you to move data from one field to another |
| burst | to send data in a large package all at once, as opposed to in smaller packages over a long time |
| bus | a connection between two different parts of a computer |
| byte | the basic unit of information managed by computers; bytes are made of up 8 bits |
| C | |
| cache | a location in memory where data are stored for easy and fast retrieval, or he process of storing these data; Internet browsers also store recently viewed information in caches, which are composed of files on your hard disk |
| case-insensitive | lowercase and CAPITAL letters are treated identically; by default, all BG-BASE index queries are case-insensitive |
| case-sensitive | lowercase and CAPITAL letters are treated differently (UNIX is case-sensitive) |
| CD-ROM | acronym for Compact Disk-Read Only Memory; CD-ROMs are optical disk of the same size as a music CD that holds information and/or programs; these disks cannot be written to, only read from |
| CERN | the European Particle Physics Laboratory located in Geneva, Switzerland; hypertext technology developed at CERN has provided the basis for the World Wide Web |
| cgi | acronym for common gateway interface, a standard set of rules for interaction between a web server and an external program or script prepared to meet a specific need |
| client | a software application that extracts some service from a server that is located somewhere on the network (either the LAN or the Internet) |
| client/server | a model for distributing computing transactions between client software, residing on a user's workstation, and server software, residing on a host computer; the client handles most of the presentation of the information and the server handles most of the database functions |
| close box | an area in the upper-left of Advanced Revelation windows (as well as MS Windows® windows) on which you can click to close the active window |
| COM | acronym for Component Object Module, a type of file that can be run from the DOS prompt; .COM files are generally smaller than .EXE files |
| compiler | a program that translates human-readable programming languages into machine language |
| communication software | special-purpose software designed to allow computers to connect to one another (usually over a telephone line); common examples are ProComm® and SmartCom®. RBGE uses RLINK® to connect the Specialist Gardens to the computer network at Inverleith |
| CompuServe | an enormous commercial on-line information service, with thousands of specialist forums on virtually any topic; CompuServe customers can get access to the Internet through their accounts |
| CONFIG.SYS | a special text file that contains configuration commands used when a computer is started; these commands control various system features, set limits on resources, load device drivers, etc. |
| cpi | acronym for characters per inch; in a fixed-pitched font such as Courier, the number of characters that will occupy one horizontal inch (proportional space fonts such as Arial and Times are measured in points, not cpi); the old typewriters usually printed a 10 cpi or 12 cpi |
| CPU | acronym for Central Processing Unit, the "brains" of the computer; most institutions now use either 486 or Pentium CPU chips |
| cursor | the blinking box or underscore character that indicates the position of what you are about to type; see also insertion point; also used to refer to a select list in Advanced Revelation |
| cyberspace | a generic term for all parts of the Internet, not just the world wide web |
| D | |
| DAT | acronym for Digital Audio Tape; DAT cartridges hold an enormous amount of data, and so are often used as tape backup systems, as is true at RBGE; a single DAT cartridge, which is only the size of a typical audio cassette, holds 2 gigabytes |
| data | anything that is recorded or used for processing; although there is not universal agreement on this, there is a useful distinction between "data" and "information" - when managed in a structured manner and placed in context, data becomes information (thus, "database" should really be "information base") |
| database | a kind of computer application in which data are stored in one or more structured files |
| DDS | acronym for Direct Digital Signal |
| dedicated file server | a computer attached to a network that contains the network operating system and controls access to files and network resources; unlike a non-dedicated file server, this machine is not used for other tasks, such as data entry |
| dedicated line | a private telephone line that is permanently connected between two locations; usually used to connect a moderate-sized location to an Internet service provider (RBGE uses a microwave link, not a dedicated line, to the University of Edinburgh for its Internet access) |
| default | a selection provided automatically by the software unless the user makes another selection |
| DELTA | acronym for DEscriptive Language for TAxonomists, a method of storing and manipulating descriptive information for any taxon; see the DELTA home page |
| dGT | acronym for database Graphics Toolkit, software used by BG-BASE to display/print images |
| dialog box | a window that appears temporarily and asks for information from the user |
| dialup | to connect to a computer by calling it on the telephone using a modem |
| dialup account | a kind of Internet connection that operates over standard telephone lines; such accounts are either shell accounts (in which you normally use a communications program to dial the Internet host and log in; although cheap and easy to use, this does not allow you to use Netscape to search the World Wide Web) and PPP/SLIP accounts (which allows a high-speed modem and actually makes your computer part of the Internet; allows you to use Netscape) |
| dialup link | low-cost connection to the Internet through a non-dedicated communications line; also called a switched line |
| digital | as opposed to analog, digital signals vary in discrete units; thus a modem translates digital (on/off) data in a computer to an analogue signal that is carried over the telephone lines, and the receiving modem converts it back into digital form that the receiving computer can understand and manipulate |
| DIP switch | acronym for Dual In-line Package; many computers and computer components have dip switches that must be set in order for the hardware to function properly |
| directory | a subdivision of a hard disk or a floppy disk in which files are stored; typing TREE at the root directory of a disk displays the directory structure of that disk; also called a 'folder' |
| DNS | acronym for Domain Name System - a distributed database system for translating computer names (such as rbge.org.uk) into numeric Internet addresses called IP numbers (RBGE's numeric address, or IP number, is 193.62.154.1) and vice versa; DNS allows you to use the Internet without having to remember long lists of numbers |
| DNS server | a server that contains IP addressing information |
| domain | the highest subdivision of the Internet; domains are usually by country or type of entity (for example, commercial (.com), education (.edu), or government (.gov) |
| download | to transfer data or programs from a remote machine to your local system; the ftp program is often used to download information |
| DOS | acronym for Disk Operating System, the underlying operating system of virtually all PCS at RBGE; DOS is produced by Microsoft (MSDOS) or IBM (PCDOS) as well as by Novell (DRDOS) and comes in several versions; other operating systems include System 7® (for Apples), OS/2®, and Unix |
| dpi | acronym for dots per inch; as the number of dots per inch increases on a printer, the resolution increases; most laser printers print at either 300 dpi or 600 dpi |
| drive | a hard disk, a floppy disk, or an optical disk on which data and/or programs are stored; most machines used at RBGE have one floppy disk drive (whose drive letter is A) and one hard disk drive (whose drive letter is usually C, drive letter B being reserved for a second floppy drive); machines that are networked also have access to network drives (drive letters F-Z) |
| driver | software that controls how a computer communicates with peripheral devices such as printers, LAN adapter cards, modems, monitors, etc. |
| duplex printing | printing on both sides of a piece of paper; cf simplex printing |
| E | |
| EBCDIC | acronym for Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code, a coding system often used on mainframes that is similar to, but incompatible with, ASCII |
| ECMA | acronym for European Computer Manufacturer's Association, an organization that sets computer standards throughout Europe |
| electronic mail, sent either over a local area network, via a commercial carrier (such as CompuServe®), or over the Internet | |
| encryption | a method of changing information to make it unreadable until it has been decrypted; often used to protect passwords and other sensitive information on a network |
| entry window | an area within Advanced Revelation applications such as bg-base and pandora that allows the user to enter, modify, and delete information in the database |
| Ethernet | a specification for how machines connected to one another on a LAN "decide" whose turn it is to talk; Ethernet networks can be connected by means of several different types of cables, permitting between 2 and 20 million bits of information to be passed per second (RBGE's Ethernet network uses STP cabling and is capable of transmitting 10 million bits per second) |
| expanded memory | memory in addition to conventional memory (the first 1 Mb of ram) that is used by some applications such as Advanced Revelation; cf extended memory |
| extended memory | memory beyond 1 Mb used by MS Windows® but not typically available to DOS applications; applications such as Advanced Revelation that require expanded memory can be run under Windows since Windows can turn extended memory into expanded memory |
| F | |
| FAT | acronym for File Allocation Table, the table of contents in a directory that tells the computer what is in the directory |
| FAQ | acronym for Frequently Asked Questions, or a list of frequently asked questions along with their answers; many USENET news groups maintain FAQs |
| fiber optic | a type of cable used for high-speed data transmission, which works by pushing (modulating) a light wave across a series of very narrow glass strands |
| field (database) | a type of information common to all records in a particular database file; an example is the genus field in the names file |
| file (database) | a series of records all of which have the same field structure |
| file server | a computer that "runs" a LAN; file servers contain all the programs and data that are "on" the LAN, and thus are generally high-spec machines with a great deal of memory and large, fast hard disks; every time you request a piece of information from the network, a file server must process the request and supply that information, and if other too many other users are making demands on the server, system performance can suffer; RBGE uses two file serves, RBG_2 and RBG_3 (RBG_1 was decommissioned in 1994 when the new network was installed), the former serving Administration and the latter serving Science, Horticulture, and the Library |
| Finger | a program that provides detailed information about a particular user on a remote host |
| finger server | a program running on an Internet site that provides information about users at that site |
| firewall | a means by which an Internet site may be protected against being accessed by unauthorized users; sites behind firewalls may not be accessible or even visible using standard tools |
| fixed-length field | a method of storing data in a database in which a field has a set length for every record, whether or not the information is longer or shorter than the defined length; data that are longer than the defined length are truncated, and data that are shorter are padded; cf variable length field |
| floppy disk | a disk that can be inserted into and removed from a floppy disk drive; floppy disks are usually either 5 1/4" (storing up to 1.2 Mb) or 3.5" (storing up to 1.44 Mb); cf hard disk |
| font | a set of letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and symbols that are of a set size and design; people often incorrectly use "font" when they mean "typeface" |
| foreign key | in a relational database system such as BG-BASE, each database table is uniquely identified by a key field; if a record in one table needs to be linked to a record in another table, this is done by using a foreign key; for example, in the NAMES table, NAME.NUM is the key field, and in the ACCESSIONS table, ACC.NUM is the key field; the NAME.NUM field in the ACCESSIONS table is a foreign key because it serves to link that particular accession back to a record in the NAMES table (where NAME.NUM is the key field); diagram |
| fragmentation | the process by which files on a floppy disk or a hard disk are split into non-contiguous areas of the disk; the more a disk is used and its files modified, created, and erased, the more fragmentation usually occurs and the slower the disk access becomes; disk defragmentation programs should be used periodically to save wear and tear on a disk drive as well as to speed up access |
| ftp | acronym for file transfer protocol - a protocol defining how to transfer files from one computer to another; also used to describe an application program that moves files using this protocol |
| full-text search | the ability of some programs to search for any string of letters, numbers, or symbols within a record or file; BG-BASE allows you to do full text searching of all records in a file by using the special field called WHOLE.RECORD |
| G | |
| Gb | acronym for gigabyte, 1 billion (1,000 million) bytes; a unit used to specify the storage capacity of a hard disk or a magnetic tape |
| GIF file | acronym for Graphics Interchange Format, a type of still-image raster file format originally promoted by CompuServe and now widely used to display images on the Internet and elsewhere; GIF images can have transparent backgrounds and can show simple animation |
| GIGO | acronym for Garbage In, Garbage Out; especially relevant in databases - the best you can get out of a database is what you (or someone else) has put into it in the first place |
| Gopher | a popular protocol that allows clients to access files and directories across the Internet; a gopher client can search and retrieve information from gopher servers; it is characterized by its relatively simple menus and ease of implementation |
| Gopherspace | all Gopher documents and openly accessible Gopher servers taken as a whole |
| Gopher server | a machine running Gopher software |
| Gray (Card) Index | a database of all names of plants native to the New World (North, Central and South America) along with their place of publication; unlike Index Kewensis, the Gray Index has always covered species as well as infraspecies (subspecies, varieties, etc.); it also is a "cleaner" dataset than that released on the Index Kewensis CD; it is available on the Internet via email (graycard@huh.harvard.edu) or via Gopher (huh.harvard.edu 70) or via the Web (http://www.herbaria.harvard.edu/Data/Gray/search.html) |
| Group Format Error (GFE) | a corruption in a database table in an Advanced Revelation or OpenInsight database application such as BG-BASE. GFEs are usually caused by faulty hardware or improper installation on a network, but no matter what their cause, they should be fixed as soon as they are discovered. Both Advanced Revelation and OpenInsight have tools to fix GFEs. |
| GUI | acronym for graphical user interface; MS Windows® is based on a GUI front end, DOS is not |
| H | |
| hard disk | a (generally) non-removable disk drive that stores data and programs; hard disks are much faster than are floppy disks, and they store much more data (usually 300 Mb up to several Gb) |
| hardware | the physical components of a computing system that you can touch, such as the CPU case, monitors, printers, modems, cabling, etc; cf software |
| header (file) | a portion of a file that explains the rest of the file, such as in a graphics file or a word processing document |
| helper application | an application used by a browser to manipulate a program or data set downloaded from the Internet |
| home page | the initial page on a World Wide Web server (or HTTP server); usually used to refer to the root document that describes the organization or individual offered via the Web; the BG-BASE home page is http://www.rbge.org.uk/bgbase |
| host | a computer that allows users to communicate with other computers on the Internet |
| HPGL | acronym for Hewlett Packard Graphics Language, a language built into many laser printers that can be used to print graphics (as opposed to text) data |
| HTML | acronym for hypertext mark-up language, a standard method of marking a text file so that it can be used on the World Wide Web; programs such as Netscape read these html files and display the information on the screen as it should appear, as well as permit hypertext linkages |
| HTTP | acronym for hypertext transport protocol; the network protocol used by the World Wide Web |
| HTTP server | another name for a World Wide Web server |
| hypertext | a scheme for supporting embedded links within documents; while browsing a hypertext document, you can select one of these links to quickly jump to another part of this or another document; used extensively in the World Wide Web, as well as in MS Windows® help files |
| I | |
| icon | a small image that acts as an activation link when clicked on |
| information | data that is being stored or managed in a structured manner; see data |
| INI file | a text file used by MS Windows® and other programs to store user-defined configuration information |
| Index Kewensis | a series of published volumes, and now available on CD ROM, listing names of plants (for most of its long history, only going as far down as the species level, cf Gray Index), who published the name, and where the name was published |
| insertion point | a thin, vertical bar used in MS Windows® programs to show where the next character will be inserted; see also cursor |
| Internet (the) | the world wide "network of networks" providing file transfer, remote login, electronic mail, remote database queries, and other services |
| Internet Service Provider (ISP) | a company or other organization that offers connections to the Internet through its own computers, which are part of the Internet |
| interrupt | a signal sent to the computer when a device is ready to accept or receive information |
| IPX | acronym for Internetwork packet exchange, the default protocol used by NetWare systems to route information packets over a local or wide area network; IPX has the same function as TCP/IP |
| IRQ | abbreviation for Interrupt Request lines; hardware lines over which devices send interrupts; typically each device is connected to the computer on a separate IRQ |
| IP number | acronym for the Internet Protocol number, that number that uniquely identifies a particular machine on the Internet; IP numbers are composed of four parts, each separated by a period (or full stop), and each ranging from 0 to 255; this scheme allows for over 2 billion unique addresses to be assigned; when a computer network or a stand-alone PC is first connected to the Internet, it is assigned a unique IP number by an organization that provides such numbers; RBGE's IP number is 193.62.154.1 |
| ISDN | acronym for Integrated Services Digital Network, a telecommunications standard being introduced by telephone companies that enables transmission of voice, data, and certain images over telephone lines through end-to-end digital circuits |
| ISO | acronym for International Standards Organization, a body that sets various standards for international use; an example of such a standard is ISO 3166 - Codes for the Representation of Names of Countries, which provides standard codes for all countries of the world (these codes are used in BG-BASE's COUNTRIES table) |
| ISO-646 | a 128-character set used to encode all English letters (no accents), letters, and punctuation; also known as standard ASCII |
| ISO-8859 | a ste of 10 diffrent 256-character sets used to represent a large set of the alphabetic languages used in the West, as designed by ECMA and included in the Internet charset register for use with MIME identification; the first half (character positions 000 to 127) are is identical to ISO-646 (standard ASCII) |
| ISO-8859-1 | the 'official' name for ISO-Latin |
| ISO-Latin | a 256-character set used to represent all major western European languages – Afrikaans, Basque, Catalan, Danish, Dutch, English, Faeroese, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Icelandic, Irish, Italian, Norwegian, Portugues, Spanish and Swedish (it does not address languages used in the Far East); ISO-8859-1 is the character set used for HTTP (the transport protocol for Web documents); officially known as ISO-8859-1 |
| J | |
| Java | an increasingly popular object-oriented programming language developed at Sun Microsystems; Java "applets" are small programs delivered over the Internet and used by a browser |
| Java script | a programming language very similar to Java that allows for more interaction with the viewer |
| JPEG file | acronym for Joint Photographic Experts Group; a raster image file format that allows for compression when stored; JPEG files are often considerably smaller than comparable GIF files |
| K | |
| Kb | abbreviation for kilobyte, 1024 bytes |
| key field | the field in a database table that uniquely identifies a row in that table; unlike other fields in a database table, the key field must be unique within that table; for example, in the NAMES table, the key field is NAME.NUM, a number assigned by the system to uniquely identify a name of a taxon; in the ACCESSIONS table, the key field is ACC.NUM (in the ACCESSIONS table, the field NAME.NUM is not the key field, since there may be several different accessions of the same taxon in the ACCESSIONS table, NAME.NUM is called a "foreign key"); diagram |
| L | |
| LAN | acronym for Local Area Network, a combination of computers, cabling, and special software to link them together, allowing them to share resources such as printers, plotters, modems, as well as to communicate with one another; RBGE's LAN is based on Novell's NetWare, the most widely used LAN software |
| LAN WorkPlace | a suite of programs supplied by Novell Corporation to facilitate communication with other computers via the Internet; these programs run under Microsoft Windows® |
| landscape orientation | printing on a piece of paper such that the words are parallel to the long side of the paper, as opposed to the "normal" portrait orientation in which the words are parallel with the short side |
| linear hash file | a type of filing system used by Advanced Revelation to store its data; the full name of the AREV version is "linear hash with two partial expansions, separate chaining, distributed control, and variable-length rows"; the benefits of a linear hash architecture over a "normal" database architecture are: 1) rapid access to records, reducing the total number of data accesses required (this is especially important as database tables grow in size); 2) economical storage of character string data; 3) maintenance is distributed across the network, each workstation doing a small amount of work; 4) locking can be done on a "group" not to the entire table |
| LISTSERV | a mailing list program, popular on bitnet, and generally running only on IBM mainframes; although it is capable of doing much more, listserv is usually only used for people to subscribe and unsubscribe to mailing lists |
| local computer | the computer that the users is operating, as opposed to a remote computer to which the local computer is connected via the Internet or some other communications means |
| login name | the name under which a user logs into a computing system and by which the person is "known" by the system; login name must be unique within a particular system |
| logon name | see login name |
| log out | the process by which you disconnect from a computing system; you should always make sure that you have logged out of the network before you turn off your machine |
| M | |
| machine name | optional part of an Internet address used by large corporations and Internet sites that have many separate machines connected to the Internet (the Internet address does not use a machine name) |
| memory | a temporary storage area for information and applications; see also ram, rom, expanded memory, extended memory |
| menu | a series of choices offered by a computer application from which the user can choose to undertake a task; menus that have numbered selections or highlighted letters can often be operated by pressing the number or letter; if not, highlighted the desired options and press the Enter key |
| Mb | abbreviation for megabyte; a unit of measure for the size of a hard disk, floppy disk, or memory; a 500 Mb disk can hold 500 million characters |
| MHz | abbreviation for megahertz; a unit of measure for determining the speed of a computer's CPU (the higher the MHz, the faster the machine); a CPU rated at 50 MHz has 50,000,000 clock cycles per second |
| MIDI | acronym for Music Instrument Digital Interface, a standard mechanism whereby computers can store and replay a musical instrument's sounds |
| modem | abbreviation for modulator / demodulator; a device that connects a computer to an analog telephone line and changes the digital signals from the computer to analog signals that the telephone system transmits; at the other end, another modem is responsible for converting the analog signals into digital signals that the receiving computer can manipulate; RBGE uses a series of several modems to connect the Specialist Gardens to the network at Inverleith |
| modem server | a computer that functions to control one or more modems that are connected to a LAN |
| Mosaic | the first Web browser that had a consistent user interface for the Macintosh, Windows® and Unix; although now mostly surpassed by other programs, its popularity was largely responsible for the success of the world wide web |
| mouse | a pointing device used by many applications such as BG-BASE and Windows® that allows the user to click on certain portions of the screen to undertake a task; a mouse usually has two (sometimes three) buttons, the left one of which is normally used (some applications also use the right mouse to do other tasks) |
| MPEG | acronym for Motion Picture Experts Group; a format to make, view, and transfer both digital audio and digital video files |
| multivalue field | a database field that allows more than one piece of information to be stored there in any particular record; an example of a multivalue field in BG-BASE is the author field in the data sources file, in which you can enter as many authors as necessary (to a maximum of ca 32,000) |
| N | |
| NetWare® | the most commonly used network operating system (NOS) in use around the world; RBGE uses version 3.12 and has a license to connect up to 100 devices (computers, printers, file servers, modems, etc.) to its network |
| network name | optional element in an Internet address that specifies the network within an Internet site; used in large corporations and Internet sites that have many separate local networks (the RBGE Internet address does not employ a network name) |
| newsgroup | a discussion forum in the network news system |
| NSF | acronym for the U.S. National Science Foundation, an organization that supports much of the research in the U.S.; NSF heavily funded the development of the U.S. backbone of the Internet |
| NSFnet | a high-speed network connecting supercomputers in the U.S., funded by the National Science Foundation |
| O | |
| ODBC | acronym for Open DataBase Connectivity, a Microsoft API (Application Program Interface) that acts as an intermediate between a client and a server and allows greater connectivity between different pieces of software |
| OLE | acronym for Object Linking and Embedding, a mechanism whereby objects can be linked or embedded from another application; when the data for that object change, the OLE object changes automatically |
| OOP | an acronym for Object-Oriented Program; a larger program that is made up of smaller "objects" |
| operating system | the underlying program that controls the computer hardware and acts as an interface between the hardware and the software; examples include dos, NetWare, OS/2®, and Windows® |
| OS/2® | a graphically based operating system marketed by IBM; most DOS and Windows® applications will run under OS/2, but OS/2 also offers programmers the ability to write highly efficient 32-bit applications specifically for OS/2 |
| P | |
| parallel port | an input/output device through which data are received 8 bits at a time; cf serial port; used for devices such as printers |
| parity | error-checking procedure in which the number of 1's must always be the same (either even or odd) for each group of bits transmitted without error |
| password | a word (which can normally contain letters or numbers, or a combination thereof) that you select to identify yourself to a computer; the computer network will not give you access unless you provide a correct login name/password combination; on many systems passwords must be a certain minimum length, and some systems (such as RBGE's) force you to periodically change your password for security reasons |
| path | specifies the location of a file within the directory tree of a disk; thus, the path that specifies the location of a file called system.ini in the windows subdirectory on drive c is c:\windows\system.ini |
| PC | acronym for Personal Computer; also a BG-BASE TCL command that temporarily suspends BG-BASE and takes you to DOS (you must type the word EXIT at the DOS prompt to return to BG-BASE) |
| PCL | acronym for Printer Control Language, a widely used language for controlling laser printers made by Hewlett Packard and other companies; cf Postscript |
| PCX file | a type of graphics file format for storing raster images |
| PIF file | acronym for Program Information File, a file that is used by MS Windows® to store application-specific details about a program |
| pixel | a word meaning "picture element"; the unit of measure of the resolution of a computer screen, the higher the numbers, the sharper the image; VGA resolution is usually 640 x 480 pixels (640 dots across and 480 dots down) while SVGA resolutions can be as high as 1260 by 1024 pixels |
| plug-and-play | a technique whereby new hardware can be connected to a computer and the computer will determine how to configure the new device |
| plug-in | a program that a browse uses to manipulate a downloaded file; it differs from a helper application in that a plug-in works within the browser's window, and a helper application does not |
| point of presence | the regional hub used by an Internet Service Provider to connect networks |
| POP | acronym for Post Office Protocol; used to transfer email between Internet hosts; this protocol is beginning to replace the long-established SMTP |
| popup | a list of items from which a selection can be made; also known as a "pick list" |
| port | the part of a computer through which a peripheral device (such as a printer) may communicate (e.g., parallel port or serial port) |
| portrait orientation | orientation on a printed page so that the length is greater than the width; cf landscape orientation |
| Postscript® | a page description language widely used by Apple Macintosh computers as well as by many phototypesetters; cf pcl |
| PPP | acronym for Point to Point Protocol; a protocol that allows computers to connect to the Internet with a standard telephone line and modem rather than using a dedicated Internet connection |
| printer queue | a holding area for print jobs that have been submitted to a networked printer; a single networked printer can be configure to handle one or more queues |
| prompt | a character or message provided by a computer to tell the user that the system is ready to accept input |
| protocol | the method by which computers communicate with one another |
| Q | |
| query | a request for information from a database; Advanced Revelation has a powerful English-like query language (R/LIST) |
| R | |
| RAID | acronym for Redundant Array of Independent Disks, a technique whereby several disks operate together as a single, logical unit, providing greater speed and reliability |
| RAM | acronym for Random Access Memory, the type of memory used by a computer to run programs and perform calculations; RAM is "volatile" meaning that it disappears when the power to a computer is turned off; modern PCs usually have between 4 and 16 Mb (million characters) of RAM; see also video RAM |
| RAM disk | a technique whereby a portion of a computer's RAM emulates a disk drive, providing much greater speed than accessing the same data on a physical hard disk or diskette |
| raster image | a type of image composed of a collection of colored dots; unlike vector images, there are no separate objects that can be re-sized, moved, or rotated; magnifying a raster image only enlarges the size of the dots, it does not display more detail; also known as a bitmapped image |
| read-only access | a person with read-only access can see the contents of a file (for instance, a database file), but cannot make any changes, additions, or deletions to this information; cf read-write access |
| read-only file | a file may be marked read-only by the operating system; if so, no one can make any changes to it, nor can it be deleted |
| reboot | to start a computer again; see also boot |
| record | a unit within a database file; a database file may contain many records, and each record is itself divided into discrete fields |
| relational database management system (RDBMS) | a database system that allows the designer to create a series of database files (or tables) that are related to one another through shared fields; both BG-BASE and PANDORA utilize the relational database model |
| remote computer | a computer on which you are not physically working but to which your computer is electronically connected |
| ROM | acronym for Read-Only Memory; memory that can be read from but not written to and that remains intact even when the computer is turned off; cf ram |
| root directory | the top-level directory of a disk, which is created when the disk is formatted; from the root directory you can create files and other directories |
| RS232 port | see serial port |
| S | |
| scanner | a device used to capture an image in electronic form; flatbed scanners operate much as do photocopiers except that the image is stored digitally, not placed on a piece of paper; hand scanners can be used to scan in rather narrow (usually ca 4") band (these bands can be electronically "stitched together"); with OCR software, a scanned image of a text page can be turned into text for input into another program, thus doing away with the need to re-type the text |
| screen saver | a program that "wakes up" after a certain amount of time has elapsed with no keyboard or mouse activity and blanks the screen or displays various moving objects across the screen; these are used to prevent your screen from getting "burn in" |
| serial | the consecutive occurrence of two items in the same channel or communication link; compare to parallel |
| serial port | an input/output device through which data are received 1 bit at a time; cf parallel port; used for devices such as modems and mice |
| server | a computer set up to distribute services or resources; it provides access to information from "clients," or requesting computers |
| shareware | an application that a programmer makes available to users for a set amount of time and then asks for a donation; when the user pays for the software, a registration number is often provided that activates other parts of the program |
| shell | a program that sets parameters and acts as a series of boundaries within which an application can run |
| simplex printing | printing on one side of a piece of paper; cf duplex printing |
| SLIP | acronym for Serial Line Internet Protocol; an older (and more widely used) protocol than PPP that allows computers to connect to the Internet using standard telephone lines and modems rather than having a dedicated Internet connection |
| SMTP | acronym for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol; a protocol used to transfer email between Internet hosts; being replaced by POP |
| soft font | a series of descriptions (either mathematical formulae or raster-based) used to define the shape of letters, punctuation, and symbols |
| softkey | in Advanced Revelation (and, therefore, BG-BASE), a function key (alt-F1 through alt-F10 or shift-F1 through shift-F10) defined to do a specific task within an entry window; unlike the F2 (options) key, which are field-specific, softkeys are window-specific, meaning that they work everywhere in an entry window (but the same softkey might do different things in different entry windows) |
| software | the parts of a computing system that you cannot see or touch; the programs that control the hardware; cf hardware |
| Soutron | the library cataloguing system used by RBGE |
| spool | a special area of memory or a disk that is used to store information prior to its being sent to a printer |
| SQL | acronym for Structured Query Language, a relational database language developed by IBM that allows users to query a database with near-English syntax |
| store-and-forward | a mechanism used by some email hosts that are not permanently connected or even by some older systems that are permanently connected; such email may take hours or even days to reach its destination |
| STP | acronym for shielded twisted pair, a type of network cabling (the kind used at RBGE; each networked office has one or more data jacks that look virtually identical to phone jacks) |
| SVGA | acronym for Super Video Graphics Adapter; compare to VGA |
| symbolic field | in Advanced Revelation database applications such as BG-BASE, a field that displays, manipulates, or calculates information stored in other fields; in some database systems these are called "calculated fields" |
| System 7® | the operating system used by Macintosh computers; cf DOS, MS Windows® |
| system file | a file that is used by the operating system and generally not available to a user |
| T | |
| TCP/IP | two connecting protocols (TCP = Transmission Control Protocol and IP = Internet Protocol), which together allow disparate machines to communicate over the Internet by allowing packets of information to traverse multiple networks (sometimes dozens of them) on their way from the sender to the recipient; the protocols upon which the Internet is based |
| TDWG | acronym for Taxonomic Databases Working Group, a part of the International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS) devoted to setting standards for storing and exchanging information used in botany and related fields |
| telnet | a protocol used to log into a remote computer |
| telnet server | a computer that supports telnet remote telnet sessions |
| terabyte | a trillion bytes (1,009,511,627,776 types); a thousand times larger than a megabyte |
| terminal | a keyboard/display (or in the past a keyboard/printer) device used to interact with a computer |
| terminal emulation software | software that allows a computer to behave as though it was connected to a host |
| TIFF file | acronym for Tagged Image File Format, a graphics file format for storing raster images |
| TL2 | acronym for Taxonomic Literature, ed. 2 by Stafleu & Cowen (1976-) |
| top-level domain name | other than the country code (which will be the right-most element of Internet addresses outside of the US), the right-most element of an Internet address, usually something like ".com" (commercial), ".edu" (education), ".gov" (government), ".mil" (military), ".net" (network services), or ".org" (organization) |
| TrueType | a font format widely used in MS Windows® |
| TSR | acronym for a Terminate-and-Stay-Resident program, usually a small program that is loaded into your computer's memory and stays there, no matter what application you are running, until you turn off your machine; examples of TSRs are screen savers, various electronic calendars that "wake up" to remind you of appointments, and so on |
| TWAIN | acronym for Technology Without An Interesting Name; often used to refer to scanners |
| typeface | a set of letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and symbols of a set design; different sizes within a typeface are properly called fonts |
| U | |
| UART | acronym for Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transceiver, an integrated circuit that controls the serial port of a PC by changing the parallel data stream within the computer into the serial data stream used in asynchronous communications; this chip is responsible for the ultimate speed of a PC's serial port |
| Unicode | a 16-bit encoding system for representing characters in computing systems and allowing 65,536 (2 8) distinct characters to be unambiguously represented; unlike current 8-bit encoding systems that only allow 256 characters to be defined at a time, there is no ambiguity when coding languages in Unicode; the proposed successor to ISO-8859-1 for use on the Internet |
| Unix | the multi-tasking operating system on which much of the Internet is based; originally developed by AT&T but now with many variants on the market |
| upload | to transfer data or programs from your local system to a remote machine; the ftp program is often used to upload information |
| URL | acronym for Universal Resource Locator, a method of describing the location of any file held on any WWW server |
| Usenet | a distributed, Internet-wide bulletin board system that is the basis of network news |
| UTF-8 | acronym for Universal character set Translation Format, 8-bit form, a format using variable lengths of the current standard single-byte characters to represent Unicode character code points |
| UTP | acronym for unshielded twisted pair, a type of network cabling; each networked office has one or more data jacks that look virtually identical to phone jacks) |
| UUCP | acronym for Unix to Unix copy protocol, a means whereby two Unix machines that are connected via a modem can exchanges files with one another |
| UUDECODE | a piece of software that decodes a UUENCODEd message |
| UUENCODE | a piece of software that encodes 8-bit data, as is commonly found on computers, to 7-bit data, thus allowing those data to be passed through the Internet; RBGE's mail system (Pegasus) UUENCODEs and UUDECODEs messages automatically |
| V | |
| value | the information entered into a field in a database record |
| variable-length field | most databases are designed using a fixed-length field structure in which each field (and therefore each record) in a database is exactly the same size; in systems employing variable-length fields, such as Advanced Revelation, each field and each record can vary in length to accept the data that is stored there; this saves on disk space, since no characters are used to "pad out" the values that are shorter than the defined field length, and no values are truncated because they are too long for the defined field |
| vector image | a type of graphic image composed of a description of objects; each object in a vector image is autonomous and can be re-sized, moved, rotated, colored, etc., independently; vector images are device independent, meaning that an application will display them on a screen or on paper to the best of the output device's capabilities; they can be magnified to show greater detail; see raster image or bitmapped image |
| Veronica | adjunct to Gopher servers that can search through Gopherspace for information based on a word (or words) that you supply |
| VGA | acronym for Video Graphics Array, a type of monitor; cf svga |
| video RAM | random access memory that is devoted to controlling the computer's monitor; video cards often come with 512 Kb to 2 Mb of video RAM; the more video RAM in your machine, the more detailed images you can view on your screen |
| virus (computer) | a program written specifically to "infect" another computer; usually transmitted by using infected diskettes and/or via email attachments or downloaded programs |
| virus checker | software designed to detect and eliminate viruses from a computer; virus checking software must be upgraded regularly (usually monthly) to keep up with new viruses that are being written |
| VRML | acronym for Virtual Reality Modeling Language; using VRML, you can give a 3-D effect to pictures, sometimes allowing you to "move" through them |
| VT100 | a type of terminal; some communications program require a VT100 emulation (which involves assigning keystrokes to perform certain control functions, etc.) |
| VT220 | a type of terminal; some communications program require a VT220 emulation (which involves assigning keystrokes to perform certain control functions, etc.) |
| VT52 | a type of terminal; some communications program require a VT52 emulation (which involves assigning keystrokes to perform certain control functions, etc.) |
| W | |
| WAN | acronym for Wide-Area Network |
| WAV | abbreviation for waveform sound format; Microsoft's format for encoding sound files |
| Windows® | a piece of software designed by Microsoft to provide a graphics-based, multi-tasking operating system; the current version is 3.1 |
| workgroup | a group of people sharing files and data |
| workstation | most correctly applied to a high-powered computer usually running under Unix and often used to perform computationally-intensive tasks such as graphics; often used less accurately to refer to a PC; in either case, this applies to a machine on your desk, as opposed to a file server, a minicomputer, or a mainframe |
| WORM | acronym for Write Once, Read Many, referring to optical disk drives that can write once to an optical disk that can then be read many times, but not changed, after it is written |
| World Wide Web (WWW) | a very popular protocol that allows users to browse fully formatted pages of information, including embedded fonts, images, and sounds |
| World Wide Web (WWW) server | a server used to host a Web site |
| WPG file | acronym for WordPerfect Graphics format, a popular graphics file format |
| WYSIWYG | acronym for What You See Is What You Get, referring to applications, especially word processors that show a document on screen exactly as it will be printed; MS Windows® applications are usually WYSIWYG, and many DOS applications have print preview features |
| Z | |
| ZIP | acronym for Zone Information Protocol, a popular method of compressing files, often used before they are transferred from one computer to another |
© Copyright BG-BASE, Inc., 1997-.
Last updated: 27 September 2001