Glossary - S
4 A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P R T U V W X
Scan Code: The physical code for a key on the PC keyboard. For the
original U.S. English keyboard layout the scan code represents the
physical position of the key, starting with 1 for the key in the upper
left corner (Esc), and increasing from left to right and top to bottom.
This order will vary for more recent keyboards or those designed for
other countries or languages.
Search Path: See PATH.
Secondary Shell: A copy of the command processor which is started by
another program, rather than by the operating system.
Session: A general term for the individual windows or tasks started by a
multitasking system. For example, under OS/2 you might run a DOS
application in one session, and CMD.EXE in another.
Shell: See Command Processor. Also used to refer to a program which
gives access to operating system functions and commands through a menu- or
mouse-driven system, or which replaces the primary user interface of the
operating system.
Size Range: A CMD.EXE feature which allows you to select files based on
their size.
Source: In file processing commands (e.g. COPY or MOVE), the original
files before any copying or modification has taken place, i.e., those
specified earlier on the command line. See also Destination.
Stack: An area of memory used by any program to store temporary data
while the program is running; more generally, any such storage area where
the last item stored is normally the first one removed.
Standard Error, Standard Input, and Standard Output: The file(s) or
character device(s) where a program respectively displays error messages,
obtains its normal input, and displays its normal output. Standard error,
standard input, and standard output normally refer to the console, unless
redirection is used.
Subdirectory: Any directory other than the root directory.
Subtree: See Directory Tree.
Swap File: A disk file created by an operating system or a program to
store unused information on disk, and thereby free up memory for other
purposes.
Switch: A parameter for an internal command or application which
specifies a particular behavior or setting. For example, the command "DIR
/P" might be referred to as "having the /P switch set".
System: A file attribute indicating that the file belongs to the
operating system or command processor, and should not be accessed by other
programs.
Created using Inf-PHP v.2 (c) 2003 Yuri Prokushev
Created using Inf-HTML v.0.9b (c) 1995 Peter Childs