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Glossary
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American National Standards Institute (ANSI) character set: The set of
characters available in Microsoft Windows (or other operating
system). The character set includes letters, numbers, symbols and
foreign language characters.
American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII): A set of
256 binary codes that represent the most commonly used letters,
numbers and symbols. See also binary.
animation: A technique of imparting motion to items, either drawings or
inert objects.
application: A computer program that you use to perform tasks of a
specific type. Applications include word processors, spreadsheets
and database management systems. See also program.
asynchronous: A type of data transmission in which information is sent
at variable time intervals. To indicate when a transmitted character
begins and ends, it is preceded by a start bit and followed by an
optional parity bit and one or two stop bits. See also synchronous.
B
baud (baud rate): The speed at which communications devices such as
printers, terminals, and modems transmit information. Information
travels as a series of electronic signals. The baud rate measures the
rate of change in these signals. This is not necessarily the same as
bits per second, although the two are related. It is named for Emil
Baudot, a pioneer in printing telegraphy. See also bits per second.
Bell Standard: A series of communication procedures for telephone lines
and other analog data transmission lines standardized by AT&T
(American Telephone & Telegraph).
bit: The basic unit of information used by the computer, a bit may be
either 1 or 0. While an individual bit cannot contain a significant
amount of information, by combining bits into larger units, such as
bytes (a group of eight connected bits), your computer can deal with
huge blocks of data. See also byte.
bits per second (BPS): A way of measuring the speed at which
information is passed between two devices. This is the basic
measure used in modem communications. This is similar, but not
identical, to the baud rate. See also baud.