Network Chico Computer
terms glossary
Some definitions from the Sharpened Glossary
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OCR: "Optical Character
Recognition" This technology is what allows you to scan
that paper you lost on your hard drive, but fortunately printed
out, back into your computer. When a page of text is scanned
into a computer without OCR software all the computer sees is
a bunch graphical bits, or an image. In other words, it has no
idea that there is text on the page, much less what the text
says. However an OCR program can convert the characters on the
page into a text document that can be read by a word processing
program. More advanced OCR programs can even keep the formatting
of the document in the conversion.
OEM: "Original Equipment
Manufacturer" This refers to a company that produces hardware
to be marketed under another company's brand name. For example,
if Sony makes a monitor that will marketed by Dell, a "Dell"
label will get stuck on the front, but the OEM of the monitor
is Sony. You can also use the term as a verb, such as "That
Dell monitor over there is OEM'd by Sony."
OpenGL: OpenGL, or the
Open Graphics Library, is a 3D graphics language developed by
Silicon Graphics. Before OpenGL was available software developers
had to write unique 3D graphics code for each operating system
platform as well as different graphics hardware. With OpenGL
developers can create graphics and special effects that will
appear nearly identical on any operating system and any hardware
that supports OpenGL. This makes it much easier for developers
of 3D games and programs to port their software to multiple platforms.
So how exactly does OpenGL work? When programmers write OpenGL
code they specify a set of commands. Each command executes a
drawing action or creates a special effect. Using hundreds or
even thousands of these OpenGL commands programmers can create
3D worlds which can include special effects such as texture mapping,
transparency (alpha blending), hidden surface removal, antialiasing,
fog, and lighting effects. An unlimited amount of viewing and
modeling transformations can be applied to the OpenGL objects
giving developers an infinite amount of possibilities.
Operating system: Also
known as an "OS" this is the software that communicates
with computer hardware on the most basic level. Without an operating
system no software programs can run. The OS is what allocates
memory, processes tasks, accesses disks and peripherals, and
serves as the user interface. With an operating system, like
Windows, the Mac OS, or Linux, developers can write code using
a standard programming interface (known as an API). Without an
operating system programmers would have to write about ten times
as much code to get the same results. Of course, some computer
geniuses have to program the operating system itself.
Network Chico Computer
terms glossary
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