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
n. In IBM personal computers and compatibles, a circuit that processes input signals at a game port. Devices such as joysticks and game paddles use potentiometers to represent their positions as varying voltage levels; the Game Control Adapter converts these levels to numbers using an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). See also analog-to-digital converter, game port, potentiometer.
n. In IBM personal computers and compatibles, an I/O port for devices such as joysticks and game paddles. The game port is often included with other I/O ports on a single expansion card. See also Game Control Adapter.
n. A bar chart that shows individual parts of a project as bars against a horizontal time scale. Gantt charts are used as a project-planning tool for developing schedules. Most project-planning software can produce Gantt charts.
n. A type of flat-panel display, used on some portable computers, containing neon between a horizontal and a vertical set of electrodes. When one electrode in each set is charged, the neon glows (as in a neon lamp) where the two electrodes intersect, representing a pixel. Also called gas-plasma display. See also flat-panel display, pixel.
n. A device that connects networks using different communications protocols so that information can be passed from one to the other. A gateway both transfers information and converts it to a form compatible with the protocols used by the receiving network. Compare bridge.
n. Acronym for Graphical Device Interface. In Microsoft Windows, a graphics display system used by applications to display or print bitmapped text (TrueType fonts), images, and other graphical elements. The GDI is responsible for drawing dialog boxes, buttons, and other elements in a consistent style on screen by calling the appropriate screen drivers and passing them the information on the item to be drawn. The GDI also works with GDI printers, which have limited ability to prepare a page for printing. Instead, the GDI handles that task by calling the appropriate printer drivers and moving the image or document directly to the printer, rather than reformatting the image or document in PostScript or another printer language. See also bitmapped font, dialog box, driver, PostScript.
n. A device for joining two connectors that are either both male (having pins) or both female (having sockets). Also called gender bender.
n. The error condition that occurs in an 80386 or higher processor running in protected mode (such as Windows 3.1) when an application attempts to access memory outside of its authorized memory space or an invalid instruction is issued. See also protected mode. Acronym: GPF.
n. The agreement under which software, such as the GNU (GNU's Not UNIX) utilities, is distributed by the Free Software Foundation. Anyone who has a copy of such a program may redistribute it to another party and may charge for distribution and support services, but may not restrict the other party from doing the same. A user may modify the program, but if the modified version is distributed, it must be clearly identified as such and is also covered under the General Public License. A distributor must also either provide source code or indicate where source code can be obtained. Also called copyleft. See also free software, Free Software Foundation, GNU.
n. A graphical image used to represent a program or application. The icon is not normally associated with the particular executable.
n. An FTP command that instructs the server to transfer a specified file to the client. See also FTP client, FTP commands, FTP server.
n. A dim, secondary image that is displaced slightly from the primary image on a video display (due to signal reflection in transmission) or on a printout (due to unstable printing elements).
vb. 1. To produce a duplicate, such as duplicating an application in memory. See also screen saver. 2. To display an option on a menu or on a submenu in faint type to show that it cannot be selected at the present time.
n. 1. Acronym for Graphics Interchange Format. A graphics file format developed by CompuServe and used for transmitting raster images on the Internet. An image may contain up to 256 colors, including a transparent color. The size of the file depends on the number of colors actually used. The LZW compression method is used to reduce the file size still further. See also raster graphics. 2. A graphic stored as a file in the GIF format.
prefix 1. One billion (1,000 million, 109). 2. In data storage, 1,024 × 1,048,576 (230) or 1,000 × 1,048,576. See also gigabyte, gigaflops, gigahertz, kilo-, mega-.
n. The IEEE standard dubbed 802.3z, which includes support for transmission rates of 1,000 megabits per second (Mbps) over an Ethernet network. The usual Ethernet standard (802.3) supports only up to 100 Mbps. Compare Ethernet/802.3.
n. A measurement of data transfer speed, as on a network, in multiples of 1,073,741,824 (230) bits. Acronym: Gbps.
n. 1. 1,024 megabytes (1,024 × 1,048,576, [230] bytes). 2. One thousand megabytes (1,000 × 1,048,576 bytes). Acronym: GB.
n. short for Graphical Kernel System.
n. 1. A problem, usually minor. 2. A brief surge in electrical power.
n. Acronym for GNU's Not UNIX. A collection of software based on the UNIX operating system maintained by the Free Software Foundation. GNU is distributed under the GNU General Public License, which requires that anyone who distributes GNU or a program based on GNU may charge only for distribution and support and must allow the user to modify and redistribute the code on the same terms. See also Free Software Foundation, General Public License. Compare Linux.
n. A purported e-mail virus alluded to in a warning that has been propagated widely across the Internet, as well as by fax and standard mail. The letter claims that reading an e-mail message with the subject "Good Times" will cause damage to the user's system. In fact, it is currently impossible to harm a system by reading an e-mail message, although it is possible to include a virus in a file that is attached to an e-mail message. Some consider the chain letter itself to be the "virus" that wastes Internet bandwidth and the reader's time. Information on such hoaxes and on real viruses can be obtained from CERT (http://www.cert.org/). See also urban legend, virus.
or gopher n. An Internet utility for finding textual information and presenting it to the user in the form of hierarchical menus, from which the user selects submenus or files that can be downloaded and displayed. One Gopher client may access all available Gopher servers, so the user accesses a common "Gopherspace." The name of the program is a three-way pun: it is designed to go for desired information; it tunnels through the Internet and digs the information up; and it was developed at the University of Minnesota (whose athletic teams are named the Golden Gophers). Gopher is being subsumed by the World Wide Web.
n. The software that provides menus and files to a Gopher user. See also Gopher.
n. A computer on the Internet on which a Gopher server runs. See also Gopher, Gopher server.
n. 1. A device for capturing graphical image data from a video camera or another full-motion video source and putting it into memory. Also called frame grabber, video digitizer. 2. Any device for capturing data. 3. Software that takes a "snapshot" of the currently displayed screen image by transferring a portion of video memory to a file on disk. 4. In some graphics-based applications, a special type of mouse pointer.
n. A software accessory that checks text for errors in grammatical construction.
n. In programming, a data structure consisting of zero or more nodes and zero or more edges, which connect pairs of nodes. If any two nodes in a graph can be connected by a path along edges, the graph is said to be connected. A subgraph is a subset of the nodes and edges within a graph. A graph is directed (a digraph) if each edge links two nodes together only in one direction. A graph is weighted if each edge has some value associated with it. See also node (definition 3), tree.
n. Acronym GKS. A computer graphics standard, recognized by ANSI and ISO, that specifies methods of describing, manipulating, storing, and transferring graphical images. It functions at the application level rather than the hardware level and deals with logical workstations (combinations of input and output devices such as keyboard, mouse, and monitor) rather than with individual devices. Graphical Kernel System was developed in 1978 to handle two-dimensional graphics; the later modification, GKS-3D, extended the standard to three-dimensional graphics. See also ANSI, ISO.
n. A type of environment that represents programs, files, and options by means of icons, menus, and dialog boxes on the screen. The user can select and activate these options by pointing and clicking with a mouse or, often, with the keyboard. A particular item (such as a scroll bar) works the same way to the user in all applications, because the graphical user interface provides standard software routines to handle these elements and report the user's actions (such as a mouse click on a particular icon or at a particular location in text, or a key press); applications call these routines with specific parameters rather than attempting to reproduce them from scratch. Acronym: GUI.
n. A video adapter that contains a graphics coprocessor. A graphics accelerator can update the video display much more quickly than the CPU can, and it frees the CPU for other tasks. A graphics accelerator is a necessity for modern software such as graphical user interfaces and multimedia applications. See also graphics coprocessor, video adapter.
n. A video adapter capable of displaying graphics as well as alphanumeric characters. Almost all video adapters in common use today are graphics adapters.
n. A specialized microprocessor, included in some video adapters, that can generate graphical images such as lines and filled areas in response to instructions from the CPU, freeing the CPU for other work.
n. 1. A display adapter that handles high-speed graphics-related processing, freeing the CPU for other tasks. Also called graphics accelerator, video accelerator. 2. Software that, based on commands from an application, sends instructions for creating graphic images to the hardware that actually creates the images. Examples are Macintosh QuickDraw and Windows Graphics Device Interface (GDI).
n. A printer, such as a laser, ink-jet, or dot-matrix impact printer, that can produce graphics formed pixel by pixel and not merely text characters. Nearly all printers presently used with personal computers are graphics printers; daisy-wheel printers are the exception. Compare character printer.
n. A sequence of shades ranging from black through white, used in computer graphics to add detail to images or to represent a color image on a monochrome output device. Like the number of colors in a color image, the number of shades of gray depends on the number of bits stored per pixel. Grays may be represented by actual gray shades, by halftone dots, or by dithering. See also dithering, halftone.
n. A computer system designed to conserve energy. For example, some computers shut off power to nonessential systems when no input has been detected for a certain amount of time, a condition known as sleep mode. Green PCs may also be distinguished by the use of minimal packaging materials and replaceable components, such as toner cartridges, that are recyclable.
n. A collection of elements that can be treated as a whole, such as a collection of records in a database report, or a collection of objects that can be moved and transformed as a single object in a drawing program. In various multiuser operating systems, a group is a set of user accounts, sometimes called members; privileges can be specified for the group, and each member will then have those privileges. See also built-in groups, global group, local group, user account.
vb. In a drawing program, to transform a number of objects into a group. See also drawing program.
n. Software intended to enable a group of users on a network to collaborate on a particular project. Groupware may provide services for communication (such as e-mail), collaborative document development, scheduling, and tracking. Documents may include text, images, or other forms of information.
n. See graphical user interface.
