<programming> A geopolitical place or area, especially in the
	context of configuring an {operating system} or {application
	program} with its {character sets}, date and time formats,
	currency formats etc.

	Locales are significant for {internationalisation} and
	{localisation}.

	(1999-06-09)

1. {application program}.

	2. {function application}.

<language, compiler> (JDK) A free {Sun Microsystems} product
	which provides the {environment} required for programming in
	{Java}.  The JDK is available for a variety of {platforms},
	but most notably {Sun Solaris} and {Microsoft Windows}.

	{Home (http://java.sun.com/products/jdk/1.1/index.html)}.

	[Version?]

	(1997-09-04)

<programming> A computer system or process that requests a
	service of another computer system or process (a "{server}")
	using some kind of {protocol} and accepts the server's
	responses.  A client is part of a {client-server} software
	architecture.

	For example, a {workstation} requesting the contents of a file
	from a {file server} is a client of the file server.

	(1997-10-27)

1. <programming> A common name for the {integer} data type.
	In {C} for example, it means a (signed) integer of the
	computer's native {word length}.

	2. <networking> The {top-level domain} for international
	organisations.

	(1999-01-26)

1. <language, programming> {programming language}.

	2. <human language> {natural language}.

	(1998-09-07)

<file system> An element of data storage in a {file system}.

	The history of computing is rich in varied kinds of files and
	{file systems}, whether ornate (e.g., {Macintosh file system}
	for a well-known case) or deficient (e.g., many simple
	pre-1980s file systems don't allow {directories}).

	However, the prototypical file has these characteristics:

	* It is a single sequence of bytes (but consider {Macintosh}
	{resource forks}).

	* It has a finite length, unlike, e.g. a {Unix} {device}.

	* It is stored in a {non-volatile storage} medium (but see
	{ramdrive}).

	* It exists (nominally) in a {directory}.

	* It has a name that it can be referred to by in file
	operations, possibly in combination with its {path}.

	Additionally, a file system may associate other information
	with a file, such as {permission} bits or other {file
	attributes}; timestamps for file creation, last revision, and
	last access; revision numbers (a` la VMS), and other kinds of
	{magic}.

	Compare: {document}.

	(1997-04-08)

<programming> A sequence of {data} values, usually {bytes},
	which usually stand for {characters} (a "character string").
	The {mapping} between values and characters is determined by
	the {character set} which is itself specified implcitly or
	explicitly by the environment in which the string is being
	interpreted.

	The most common character set is {ASCII} but, since the late
	1990s, there has been increased interest in larger character
	sets such as {Unicode} where each character is represented by
	more than eight {bits}.

	Most programming languages consider strings (e.g.
	"124:shabooya:\n", "hello world") basically distinct from
	numbers which are typically stored in fixed-length {binary} or
	{floating-point} representation.

	A {bit string} is a sequence of {bits}.

	(1999-12-21)

<operating system> (GUI) The use of pictures rather than just
	words to represent the input and output of a program.  A
	program with a GUI runs under some {windowing system}
	(e.g. The {X Window System}, {MacOS}, {Microsoft Windows},
	{Acorn} {RISC OS}, {NEXTSTEP}).  The program displays certain
	{icons}, {buttons}, {dialogue boxes}, etc. in its {windows} on
	the screen and the user controls it mainly by moving a
	{pointer} on the screen (typically controlled by a {mouse})
	and selecting certain objects by pressing buttons on the mouse
	while the pointer is pointing at them.  This contrasts with a
	{command line interface} where communication is by exchange of
	strings of text.

	Windowing systems started with the first {real}-time graphic
	display systems for computers, namely the {SAGE} Project
	[Dates?] and {Ivan Sutherland}'s {Sketchpad} (1963).  {Douglas
	Engelbart}'s {Augmentation of Human Intellect} project at
	{SRI} in the 1960s developed the {On-Line System}, which
	incorporated a mouse-driven cursor and multiple windows.
	Several people from Engelbart's project went to Xerox PARC in
	the early 1970s, most importantly his senior engineer, {Bill
	English}.  The Xerox PARC team established the {WIMP} concept,
	which appeared commercially in the {Xerox 8010} (Star) system
	in 1981.

	Beginning in 1980(?), led by {Jef Raskin}, the {Macintosh}
	team at {Apple Computer} (which included former members of the
	Xerox PARC group) continued to develop such ideas in the first
	commercially successful product to use a GUI, the Apple
	Macintosh, released in January 1984.  In 2001 Apple introduced
	{Mac OS X}.

	{Microsoft} modeled the first version of {Windows}, released
	in 1985, on Mac OS.  Windows was a GUI for {MS-DOS} that had
	been shipped with {IBM PC} and compatible computers since
	1981.  Apple sued Microsoft over infringement of the
	look-and-feel of the MacOS.  The court case ran for many
	years.

	[Wikipedia].

	(2002-03-25)

(FYI) A subseries of {RFCs} that are not technical {standards}
	or descriptions of {protocols}.  FYIs convey general
	information about topics related to {TCP/IP} or the
	{Internet}.

	See also {STD}.

	(1994-10-26)

1. A person who knows how a complex piece of software or
	hardware works (that is, who {groks} it); especially someone
	who can find and fix bugs quickly in an emergency.  Someone is
	a {hacker} if he or she has general hacking ability, but is a
	wizard with respect to something only if he or she has
	specific detailed knowledge of that thing.  A good hacker
	could become a wizard for something given the time to study
	it.

	2. A person who is permitted to do things forbidden to
	ordinary people; one who has {wheel} privileges on a system.

	3. A Unix expert, especially a Unix systems programmer.  This
	usage is well enough established that "Unix Wizard" is a
	recognised job title at some corporations and to most
	headhunters.

	See {guru}, {lord high fixer}.  See also {deep magic}, {heavy
	wizardry}, {incantation}, {magic}, {mutter}, {rain dance},
	{voodoo programming}, {wave a dead chicken}.

	4. An interactive help utility that guides the user through a
	potentially complex task, such as configuring a {PPP} driver
	to work with a new {modem}.  Wizards are often implemented as
	a sequence of {dialog boxes} which the user can move forward
	and backward through, filling in the details required.  The
	implication is that the expertise of a human wizard in one of
	the above senses is encapsulated in the software wizard,
	allowing the average user to perform expertly.

	[{Jargon File}]

	(1998-09-07)

1. <hardware> A generic term for a {display device} that shows
	text and/or images on a roughly flat rectangular surface.  The
	most common type is usually refered to as a "{monitor}" and is
	based on a {cathode-ray tube}, though {flat panel} displays
	have, since around 2000, become increasingly competitive in
	price and performance.

	(2005-07-28)

	2. A {screen multiplexer} utility which lets you run multiple
	{interactive} {terminal sessions} (and {curses} programs)
	through a single terminal connection (on one {virtual
	console}, one terminal, through one {modem} link, {telnet}
	session or {xterm}).

	Screen can detach processes from one terminal and attach them
	to another.  "Auto-detach" lets you continue working after
	being disconnected and reconnected.  It supports keyboard
	driven cut and paste from any text and/or curses application
	(like {Lynx}) to any other (like {xemacs}).

	Screen comes with many {Linux} distributions and is available
	(free) on many other {Unix} {platforms}.

	(2005-07-29)

<World-Wide Web> The {World-Wide Web} {search engine} that
	indexes the greatest number of web pages - over two billion by
	December 2001 and provides a free service that searches this
	index in less than a second.

	The site's name is apparently derived from "{googol}", but
	note the difference in spelling.

	The "Google" spelling is also used in "The Hitchhikers Guide
	to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams, in which one of Deep
	Thought's designers asks, "And are you not," said Fook,
	leaning anxiously foward, "a greater analyst than the
	Googleplex Star Thinker in the Seventh Galaxy of Light and
	Ingenuity which can calculate the trajectory of every single
	dust particle throughout a five-week Dangrabad Beta sand
	blizzard?"

	{Home (http://www.google.com/)}.

	(2001-12-28)

<software> Instructions for a computer in some programming
	language, often {machine language}.  The word "code" is often
	used to distinguish instructions from {data} (e.g. "The code
	is marked 'read-only'") whereas "{software}" is used in
	contrast with "{hardware}" and may consist of more than just
	code.

	(2000-04-08)

1. <hardware> An electrical conductor.  For distances larger
	than a breadbox, a single line may consist of two electrical
	conductors in twisted, parallel, or concentric arrangement
	used to transport one logical signal.

	By extension, a (usually physical) medium such as an {optical
	fibre} which carries a signal.

	(1995-09-29)

1. <storage> Integrated Drive Electronics, see {Advanced
	Technology Attachment}.

	2. <programming, tool> {integrated development environment}.

	3. <company> {Interactive Development Environments}.

	(2002-04-14)

<operating system> See {Microsoft Windows}, {Windows NT}.

	(1997-11-23)