Glossary B
- background process
- On Tru64 UNIX and Linux systems, a process for which the command interpreter
is not waiting. Its process group differs from that of its
controlling terminal, so it is blocked from most terminal access.
Contrast with foreground process.
- background
window
- Any window created by a thread other than the foreground thread.
- batch process
- On OpenVMS systems, a process that runs without user interaction.
Contrast with interactive process.
- big endian
- A method of data storage in which the least significant bit of a numeric
value spanning multiple bytes is in the highest addressed byte. Contrast
with little endian.
- binary constant
- A constant that is a string of binary (base 2) digits (0 or 1) enclosed
by apostrophes or quotation marks and preceded by the letter B.
- binary operator
- An operator that acts on a pair of operands. The exponentiation, multiplication,
division, and concatenation operators are binary operators.
- bit constant
- A constant that is a binary, octal, or hexadecimal number.
- bit field
- A contiguous group of bits within a binary pattern; they are specified
by a starting bit position and length. Some intrinsic functions (for example,
IBSET and BTEST)
and the intrinsic subroutine MVBITS operate on bit fields.
- bitmap
- An array of bits that contains data that describes the colors found
in a rectangular region on the screen (or the rectangular region found
on a page of printer paper).
- blank common
- A common block (one or more contiguous areas of storage) without a
name. Common blocks are defined by a COMMON statement.
- block
- A group of statements or constructs that is treated as an integral
unit. For example, a block can be a group of constructs or statements that
perform a task; the task can be executed once, repeatedly, or not at all.
- block
data program unit
- A program unit, containing a BLOCK DATA statement
and its associated
specification statements, that establishes common blocks and assigns initial
values to the variables in named common blocks. In FORTRAN 77, this was
called a block data subprogram.
- bounds
- The range of subscript values for elements of an array. The lower bound
is the smallest subscript value in a dimension, and the upper bound is
the largest subscript value in that dimension. Array bounds can be positive,
zero, or negative.
These bounds are specified in an array specification. See also
array specification.
- brush
- A bitmap that is used to fill the interior of closed shapes, polygons,
ellipses, and paths.
- brush origin
- A coordinate that specifies the location of one of the pixels in a
brush's bitmap. The Windows system maps this pixel to the upper left corner of the
window that contains the object to be painted. See also bitmap.
- byte-order mark
- A special Unicode character (0xFEFF) that is placed at the beginning
of Unicode text files to indicate that the text is in Unicode format.
- byte reversed
- A Unicode file in which the most significant byte is first (as on Motorola
architectures).