Glossary

Drag To move the mouse (and hence the pointer on the screen) while holding down one or more of its buttons. This process specifies two separate locations on the screen for those operations that require two: the location when the mouse button is pressed, and the location when it is released. This is used, for example, to initiate a file-copy by pressing the mouse button on the file to be copied, dragging the file’s icon to the destination window, and releasing the mouse button there. Another common using of dragging is to specify the upper-left and lower-right corners of a new window or similar rectangle See also drop.

Drive See CD-ROM drive, DDS tape drive, floppy drive, hard disk drive

Drop To release the mouse button after having moved the mouse with its button held down, in order to position an icon or other object that has been “dragged” to a new position See also drag.

E

EEPROM. Electronically erasable read-only memory. Usually bytes or words can be erased and

reprogrammed individually during system operations. The EEPROM is used for storing configuration information that will be “remembered” after a reboot and AC power loss.

Environment The conditions in which your commands or programs are executed. These conditions include your workstation characteristics, home directory, and default search paths See also environment variables.

Environment variables The set of defined shell variables (some of which are PATH, TERM, SHELL, EXINIT, and HOME) that define the conditions in which, or values with which, your commands are executed. These conditions and values include your workstation characteristics, home directory, and default search paths See also environment.

Ethernet The LAN developed jointly by Digital Equipment Corporation, Intel, and Xerox Corporation, upon which the IEEE 802.3 network is based.

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