Glossary

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Pick Term

'English' Equivilent

Description




















































Record or Item

Data Item

Data (File in WIndows)

Attribute or Field

Attribute

A field of data e.g. Name

Multivalue

Set of values within an attribute/field

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Subvalue

Set of values within a Multivalue

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WHO

Who am I or Who is Session x

Port and Account Logged In

WHAT

What am I

System base Information

WHERE



LISTU



LIST-GFE-LOG



POVF



SYSPROG



SYSTEM


















4mm DAT tape drive

4mm DAT tape drive

A type of tape drive that uses DAT (Digital Audio Tape) technology to store large quantities of data in a small tape cartridge.

8mm tape drive

8mm tape drive

A type of tape drive that uses eight millimetre videotape technology to store large quantities of data in a small tape cartridge. 8mm cartridges are slightly larger and hold more data than 4mm DAT cartridges.




A-item

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A data definition item used by the ACCESS processor to define the structure of data in the data section of a file.

Abort


The termination of a computer function in the event of a hardware or software malfunction.

ABS

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Absolute Binary Segment. An area of disk-drive frames containing the system object code that the machine executes

ACCESS (INFO/ACCESS)

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The information retrieval language of the MultiValue system.

Access time

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The time taken to reference a piece of information.

Account

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A group of files and verbs defined by a Master Dictionary (MD). A user gains access to an account when logging on.

Address

Address

A way of referencing a memory location or a part of a disk.

ADF

ADF

Adapter Description File. A MS-DOS file that resides on the Reference diskette. It contains information about the boards in the slots of the machine.

Administrator

Administrator

Maintains the system for the benefit of users. Administration may take place at the operating system level, the applications level, or both

Administration Utility

Administration Utility

The utility used to administer tasks such as configuration, and setting environment variables.

Algorithm

Algorithm

A set of rules for solving a task.

Alphanumeric

Alphanumeric

A string of characters which can contain any combination of letters, numbers and symbols.

AM

Pick Specific

Abbreviation for Attribute Mark.

AMC

Pick Specific

Attribute mark count, or attribute number.

ANSI

ANSI

An acronym for American National Standards Institute.

Applications

Applications

Software programs that perform specific tasks such as accounting, stock control, etc.

Argument

Argument

The particular occurrence of a parameter.

Array (or Matrix)

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A whole set of variables identified by a single name.

ASCII

ASCII

‘American Standard Code for Information Interchange.’ One of the standards used to represent alphanumeric characters.

Asynchronous

Asynchronous

A means of communication between terminals and the computer, sometimes referred to as ‘async.’

Attribute

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A structure that contains one or more data values. Attributes can be subdivided to comprise MultiValues and multiple subvalues. An attribute is analogous to a "field" used on other systems.

Attribute mark

Pick Specific (See also SVM)

A system delimiter used to separate attributes. It is ASCII value 254 (hexadecimal FE).

Authorization

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The process by which the mvBase Server confirms the quantity of licenses and the maximum number of simultaneous connections.




Background

Background Task

The foreground task has the highest priority in a situation where several tasks are run concurrently at a terminal. The other tasks are known as background tasks.

Back up

Backup

The means of copying the database to be able to recover its contents in the event of a hardware or software malfunction.

Backup Media (or Medium)

Backup Media


Any device, such as a tape drive or diskette, disk, cd, dvd, physical or virtual that servers for data backup - this includes the operating asystem

Base

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that serves for data backup.e frame ID of the first group of a file. It is specified by Attribute 2 of a File Definition item.

Base FID

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The first of a block of frames making up a file. (FID represents the File IDentifier)

BASIC

BASIC

BatchAn abbreviation of ‘Beginners All-PurpBaudose Symbolic Instruction Code,’a pBinaryopular and easy-to-learn programming language. BASIC consists of a language compiler and a run-time package. mvBase uses a customized version of BASIC called mvBASIC.

Batch

Batch

A method of processing data in which work is grouped together in batches for processing, rather than each item being worked on individually in an interactive way.

Baud

Baud

The capacity of a communications line, often synonymous with bits per second. Terminals and printers typically operate at a speed of 9600 baud.

Binary

Binary

Contraction of the words ‘binary digit.’

Bit

Bit

This is the lowest level of data storage in the computer, each bit being represented as either a ‘0’ or a ‘1’.

Boolean

Boolean

A system of mathematical logic dealing with classes, propositions, on-off circuits, etc.

Boot

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The process of loading the operating system into main memory to make the computer ready to use.

Boot diskette, disk, usb, dvd, cd, etc.

Boot Disk

A diskette, disk, usb, dvd, cd, etc. that contains operating system software (or any software) that the computer uses to run itself.

Bootstrap

Pick Specific

The process of starting a computer from powerup.

Buffer

Buffer

A place where information can be stored temporarily.

Bug

Bug

An error of programming logic. Originally caused by Jardware faults

Byte

Byte

A character of data made up of eight bits.




CD-ROM



Channel



Checksum



Coldstart



Command



Concatenate



Connect Time



Connection



Console



Contiguous



Control characters



Controller



Conversions



Correlative



CPS



CPU



CRT



Cursor