Computer Terms

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• Home directory: The place where a user ends up when they logon to a UNIX system. This is the place where they store there files. This path is normally stored in the environment variable $HOME.
• email INBOX: This is the place where e-mail is usually put. It's location is in /var/mail. The name of the file is the user id of the user.
• user id: This is the name you use to logon with.
• uid: The numeric user id. This is a number assigned to each user.
• gid: Group id. This is a numeric quantity assigned to each group.
• Group: This is a UNIX concept. users are placed in groups so that they may work together.
• account deactivation: When an account's password is removed. This stops a user from logging in and from checking mail. mail keeps coming, the user just can't read it.
• mount: The place where UNIX puts a hard drive in the file system.
• Novell network: This is a non-UNIX based network system to provide file and print services to the departmental PCs. Students and faculty may have accounts on this system.
• Process: UNIX talk for a running program.
• CPU: Thingy that does the thinking in a computer.
• RAM: Memory where user data and processes live.
• virtual memory: When a computer uses its disk drives to fake real RAM. Very slow.
• Ethernet: A form of networking. It is what we use.
• nice and renice: This is what a system administrator can do to a process to make it use fewer resources. It is actually much more complex than the traditional "nice" and "renice" found in old UNIX systems.
• X-terminal: A computer designed to run an X-window server. These computers are connected to a UNIX box. They are always running the server.
• X-window: A windowing system built on a client server model in a TCP/IP environment. This is the windowing system most popular in UNIX environments.
• Window Manager: The program that allows a user to change the size and position of windows on a X-server screen. This is the program that supplies the root menu and the decorations on windows(scroll bars and handles).
• fvwm: One of the most popular window managers for X Window. This is one of the most flexible window managers. It provides a 3D look and feel rather like MWM.
• olwm: The open look window manager. This is the window manager than SUN Microsystems supported for years. Now they use CDE and MWM type tools. This is a resource hog; don't use it.
• Evil Empire: See Microsoft.
• X server: This is the program that runs on the user side of the X Window system. This program draws the windows and performs all tasks required to draw on the screen and accept user input.
• Emacs: The editor that God used to write the source code for the universe.
• TeX, LaTeX: State of the art typesetting software that has found a niche for typesetting mathematics. The defacto standard.
• Pine: E-mail program. Began as a simple e-mail interface, and has grownup into a rather sophisticated e-mail package.
• Mathematica: Symbolic manipulation package primarily used by physicist. Most math folk think Maple is better.
• Maple: The symbolic math package of choice for most mathematicians. Some people use Mathematica for the same sort of stuff.
• xlock: Program for locking a screen. Do not use this program on an X-terminal in your office. Use it sparingly in MS421.
• netscape: The premier WWW browser. We will never support internet explorer.
• internet explorer: WWW browser developed by the evil empire(Microsoft). We will never support this browser. We use netscape.
• Microsoft: See Evil Empire.
• ghostscript and ghostview: Programs to work with and display postscript documents.
• postscript: The defacto standard in page description languages.
• dvi: A file format produced by TeX. It stands for "device independent". It is a way for pages to be described. This format is normally converted to postscript before it is printed.
• Sun Microsystems: One of the largest makers of UNIX based workstations in the world. They have always held a large share of the academic market.
• sysadmin,sysmgr, root, superuser,goduser: This is the person or people that takes care of a UNIX system This person has full access to all system resources.
• system V: An AT&T thing. It is just a version of unix.
• BSD: Another type of UNIX. It think of it a a unix flavor. The other big one is System V.
• SunOS: What we call the UNIX that Sun Microsystems created before we called it Solaris. SunOS 4.x is a BSD type of UNIX. Solaris is sometimes called SunOS 5.x.
• Solaris:What we call modern versions of SunOS. Solaris 2.x conforms to SunOS 5.x. Solaris is an AT&T System V type of UNIX. This version of UNIX is much different than SunOS 4.x.

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This page was last updated January 7, 1999. Questions, suggestions, and general grumpings should be sent to webmaster@math.okstate.edu.