mi from FOLDOC

MIB

MIB Variable

A managed object that is defined in a Management Information Base (MIB). The object is defined by a textual name and a corresponding object identifier, a syntax, an access mode, a status, and a description of the semantics of the managed object. The MIB Variable contains pertinent management information that is accessible as defined by the access mode.

Last updated: 1995-03-22

MIC

Many Integrated Core Architecture

Mic-1

Microprogramming language, used in Andrew Tanenbaum's book.

See Mac-1.

[Structured Computer Organization, A.S. Tanenbaum, 3rd ed, P-H 1989, Sect 4.4, 4.5].

Mic-2

Microprogramming language, used in Tanenbaum's book.

See Mac-1.

[Structured Computer Organization, A.S. Tanenbaum, 3rd ed, P-H 1989, Sect 4.4, 4.5].

MICE

Multimedia Integrated Conferencing for European Researchers

mice

mouse

Michigan Algorithm Decoder

<language>

(MAD) An early programming language, based on IAL, developed at the University of Michigan by R. Graham, Bruce Arden, and Bernard Galler in 1959. MAD was one of the first extensible languages: the user could define his own operators and data types.

MAD ran on the IBM 704, IBM 709 and IBM 7090. It was ported to the IBM 7040 at the City College of New York by Robert Teitel and also to Philco, Univac and CDC computers.

Mad/1 was a later version.

["Michigan Algorithm Decoder (The MAD Manual)", U Michigan Computing Center, 1966].

[Sammet 1969, p. 205].

Last updated: 2005-02-09

mickey

<unit, humour>

The unit of resolution of mouse movement.

It has been suggested that the "disney" will become a benchmark unit for animation graphics performance.

[Jargon File]

Last updated: 1999-06-30

mickey mouse program

<jargon>

The North American equivalent of a "noddy program", i.e. trivial. The term doesn't necessarily have the belittling connotations of mainstream slang "Oh, that's just mickey mouse stuff!"; sometimes trivial programs can be very useful.

[Jargon File]

Last updated: 1995-04-10

MICR

Magnetic Ink Character Recognition

micro

microprocessor

micro-

prefix

microarray

A technique for performing many DNA experiments in parallel. Nothing to do with computers.

Last updated: 2007-05-14

Micro Assembly Language

<language>

(MAL) A microprogramming language with high-level syntax, used in the reference below.

microcentury

One CS professor used to characterise the standard length of his lectures as a microcentury - that is, about 52.6 minutes (see also attoparsec, nanoacre, and especially microfortnight).

Micro Channel Architecture

<architecture>

(MCA) IBM's proprietary 32-bit bus, used in high-end PS/2 personal computers. Micro Channel is designed for multiprocessing. It eliminates potential conflicts that arise when installing new peripheral devices. MCA is *not* compatible with either EISA or XT bus architecture so older cards cannot be used with it.

As with the ROM BIOS in the first IBM PCs, figuring out the Micro Channel's secrets has been an arduous task of reverse engineering ever since the PS/2 line was announced. Consequently, the MCA has never become as wide spread as the competing EISA standard.

Last updated: 1996-08-16

microchip art

<hardware>

(chip art, chip graffiti) Images etched on integrated circuits purely for decoration, visible only under a microscope.

Smithsonian Institute Chip Art.

microcode

<programming>

A technique for implementing the instruction set of a processor as a sequence of microcode instructions ("microinstructions"), each of which typically consists of a (large) number of bit fields and the address of the next microinstruction to execute. Each bit field controls some specific part of the processor's operation, such as a gate which allows some functional unit to drive a value onto the bus or the operation to be performed by the ALU. Several microinstructions will usually be required to fetch, decode and execute each machine code instruction ("macroinstruction"). The microcode may also be responsible for polling for hardware interrupts between each macroinstruction. Writing microcode is known as "microprogramming".

Microcode may be classified as "horizontally encoded" or "vertically encoded". Horizontal microcode is as described above where there is a fairly direct correspondence between the bit fields in a microinstruction and the control signals sent to the various parts of the CPU. Not all combinations of bits will be valid (e.g. two units driving the bus at once). Vertical microcode is closer to machine code because a bit field value may pass through some intermediate combinatory logic which generates the actual control signals. This allows a few bits of a microinstruction to determine several control signals and ensure that only valid combinations of those signals are generated (e.g. a field may be decoded to determine which unit drives the bus). The disadvantage with vertical encoding is that the encoding is usually fixed and takes extra time compared with horizontal encoding which allows any combination of signals to be generated and takes no time to decode.

The alternative to a microcoded processor is a hard-wired one where the control signals are generated directly from the bits of the machine code instruction. This is more common in modern RISC architectures because it is faster.

Microcode is usually stored in ROM chips though some processors (e.g. the Orion) use fast RAM, making them dynamically microprogrammable.

Last updated: 1996-11-26

Microcom Networking Protocol

(MNP) One of the most common modem protocols with compression. Also the name of a product.

[Details? On-line spec?]

Last updated: 1995-01-31

microcomputer

A computer based on a microprocessor.

Contrast with minicomputer, mainframe.

Last updated: 1995-02-07

microcontroller

<processor>

A microprocessor on a single integrated circuit intended to operate as an embedded system. As well as a CPU, a microcontroller typically includes small amounts of RAM and PROM and timers and I/O ports.

An example is the Intel 8751.

Last updated: 1995-04-22

MicroDroid

[Usenet] A Microsoft employee, especially one who posts to various operating-system advocacy newsgroups. MicroDroids post follow-ups to any messages critical of Microsoft's operating systems, and often end up sounding like visiting Mormon missionaries.

[Jargon File]

microelectromechanical system

<hardware>

(MEMS) The integration of mechanical structures (moving parts) with microelectronics. MEMS devices are "custom" designed for a purpose which requires a mechanical action to be controlled by a computer.

Applications include sensors, medical devices, process controls.

http://mems.mcnc.org/.

Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation

<body>

(MCC) One of the first, and now one of the largest, US computer industry research and development consortia.

Founded in late 1982 by major computer and semiconductor manufacturers, MCC's membership has diversified to include a broad range of high-profile corporations from electronics, computers, aerospace, semiconductors, and related industries, reflecting the full range of companies vital to the life cycle of Information Technology products. Active involvement of small- and medium-sized firms and technology users, along with well-established alliances with government research and development agencies and leading universities, allows MCC's partners to maximise the benefit of scarce research and development resources.

Some of the technical areas in which MCC has distinguished itself are:

System Architecture and Design (optimise hardware and software design, provide for scalability and interoperability, allow rapid prototyping for improved time-to-market, and support the re-engineering of existing systems for open systems).

Advanced Microelectronics Packaging and Interconnection (smaller, faster, more powerful, and cost-competitive).

Hardware Systems Engineering (tools and methodologies for cost-efficient, up-front design of advanced electronic systems, including modelling and design-for-test techniques to improve cost, yield, quality, and time-to-market).

Environmentally Conscious Technologies (process control and optimisation tools, information management and analysis capabilities, and non-hazardous material alternatives supporting cost-efficient production, waste minimisation, and reduced environmental impact).

Distributed Information Technology (managing and maintaining physically distributed corporate information resources on different platforms, building blocks for the national information infrastructure, networking tools and services for integration within and between companies, and electronic commerce).

Intelligent Systems (systems that "intelligently" support business processes and enhance performance, including decision support, data management, forecasting and prediction).

http://mcc.com/.

Address: Austin, Texas, USA.

Last updated: 1995-04-25

MicroEmacs

(uemacs) A simple, portable text editor with versions for most microcomputers and many other computers. It is both relatively easy for the novice to use, but also very powerful in the hands of an expert. MicroEmacs can be extensibly customised.

Most versions use only a screen and keyboard - mouse and windowing facilities are not standard.

MicroEmacs was written by Dave G Conroy, Steve Wilhite, George Jones, and for nearly ten years: Daniel Lawrence.

Version: 3.11.

ftp://midas.mgmt.purdue.edu/dist/.

[FTP? Differences from GNU Emacs?]

Last updated: 1995-01-05

microfloppies

3.5-inch floppies, as opposed to 5.25-inch vanilla or mini-floppies and the now-obsolete 8-inch variety. This term may be headed for obsolescence as 5.25-inchers pass out of use, only to be revived if anybody floats a sub-3-inch floppy standard. See stiffy, minifloppies.

[Jargon File]

microfortnight

One millionth of the fundamental unit of time in the Furlong/Firkin/Fortnight system of measurement; 1.2096 sec. (A furlong is 1/8th of a mile; a firkin is 1/4th of a barrel; the mass unit of the system is taken to be a firkin of water).

The VMS operating system has a lot of tuning parameters that you can set with the SYSGEN utility, and one of these is TIMEPROMPTWAIT, the time the system will wait for an operator to set the correct date and time at boot if it realises that the current value is bogus. This time is specified in microfortnights!

Multiple uses of the millifortnight (about 20 minutes) and nanofortnight have also been reported.

MicroGnuEmacs

<text, tool>

(mg) A Public Domain Emacs-style editor modified from MicroEmacs to be more compatible with GNU Emacs. mg is essentially free, it is not associated with the GNU project, and does not have the GNU copyright restrictions. It is a small, fast, portable editor for people who can't run real Emacs thing for one reason or another. It has few if any of the MicroEmacs features that were incompatible with GNU Emacs and adds missing features that seemed essential.

MicroGnuEmacs is derived from, and aims to replace, v30 of MicroEmacs, the latest version from the original MicroEmacs author Dave Conroy. The chief contributors were Mike Meyer <[email protected]>, Mic Kaczmarczik <[email protected]>, Bob Larson, and Dave Brower <[email protected]>.

mg version 1a of 1986-11-16 works with 4.2BSD, 4.3BSD, Ultrix-32, OS9/68k, VMS, Amiga, System V, Eunice. It is included in base OpenBSD. It should also support MS-DOS, PC-DOS and the Rainbow.

http://www.isc.org/index.pl?/sources/editors.

Last updated: 2007-05-25

Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems

<company>

(MITS) The company which made the Altair 8800 micrcomputer kit. They also made instrumentation kits for model rockets and RC vehicles. Ed Roberts owned MITS for a few years until he sold out, moved to Georgia, and went to med school.

Address: Albuquerque NM, USA.

Last updated: 2002-06-17

Micro Interpreter for Knowledge Engineering

<artificial intelligence, tool>

(MIKE) An expert system shell for teaching purposes, with forward chaining, backward chaining, and user-definable conflict resolution strategies. MIKE is written in Edinburgh Prolog.

Version 2.03.

[BYTE, Oct 1990].

ftp://hcrl.open.ac.uk/pub/software/src/MIKE-v2.03.

Contact: Marc Eisenstadt, HCRL, Open University.

Last updated: 1995-01-10

microkernel

<operating system>

An approach to operating system design emphasising small modules that implement the basic features of the system kernel and can be flexibly configured.

Last updated: 1999-08-02

microLenat

/mi:"-kroh-len"-*t/ The unit of bogosity, written uL; the consensus is that this is the largest unit practical for everyday use. The microLenat, originally invented by David Jefferson, was promulgated as an attack against noted computer scientist Doug Lenat by a tenured graduate student at CMU. Doug had failed the student on an important exam for giving only "AI is bogus" as his answer to the questions. The slur is generally considered unmerited, but it has become a running gag nevertheless. Some of Doug's friends argue that *of course* a microLenat is bogus, since it is only one millionth of a Lenat. Others have suggested that the unit should be redesignated after the grad student, as the microReid.

[Jargon File]

microlog

<architecture>

A section of non-volitile memory used to record state information. Often used for retaining crash information after a reboot in embedded systems.

["before" a reboot?]

Last updated: 2004-02-24

micrometre

<unit>

(Or "micron") One millionth of a metre. The symbol is a Greek letter mu followed by "m".

Features on modern integrated circuits are typically measured in microns. The smallest features in 1999 are around 0.1 microns across.

Last updated: 1999-09-28

Micro ML

(uML) An interpreter for a subset of SML. Runs on MS-DOS. Written at the University of Umea, Sweden.

ftp://ftp.cs.umu.se/pub/umlexe01.zoo.

Micron

Micron Electronics, Inc.

micron

micrometre

Micron Electronics, Inc.

<company>

An electronics company that develops, markets, manufactures, and supports high-performance notebook computers, desktop personal computers, PC servers and related hardware and software products.

Last updated: 1997-03-10

Micronetics Standard MUMPS

(MSM) A version of MUMPS for the IBM PC RT and R6000.

[Address?]

Last updated: 1995-01-10

Micro$oft

<abuse, company>

Microsoft written with a dollar sign, as though there was any doubt that they are a money-making enterprise. This little witticism was probably created before Microsoft's founder, Bill Gates established the philanthropic Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Why I hate Microsoft.

Last updated: 2013-12-30

microperation

<processor>

An elementary operation performed on data stored in registers or in memory. Microperations are classified as transfer, arithmetic, logic, or shift/rotate.

[Relationship with microcode?]

Last updated: 2003-12-29

microphone

<hardware, audio>

Any electromechanical device designed to convert sound into an electrical signal.

A microphone converts an acoustic waveform consisting of alternating high and low air pressure travelling through the air into a voltage. To do this it uses some kind of pressure or movement sensor. The simplest kind of microphone is actually very similar in construction to a loudspeaker.

The analogue electrical signal can be fed into a computer's sound card where it is amplified and sampled to convert it into a digital waveform for storage or transmission.

Last updated: 2002-11-04

microPLANNER

A subset of PLANNER, implemented in Lisp by Gerald Sussman et al at MIT. Its important features were goal-oriented, pattern-directed procedure invocation, an embedded knowledge base, and automatic backtracking.

microPLANNER was superseded by Conniver.

["microPLANNER Reference Manual", G.J. Sussman et al, AI Memo 203, MIT AI Lab, 1970].

Last updated: 1995-01-10

microprocesor

<spelling>

It's spelled microprocessor.

Last updated: 1997-02-13

microprocessor

<architecture>

(Or "micro") A computer whose entire CPU is contained on one (or a small number of) integrated circuits.

The important characteristics of a microprocessor are the widths of its internal and external address bus and data bus (and instruction), its clock rate and its instruction set. Processors are also often classified as either RISC or CISC.

The first commercial microprocessor was the Intel 4004 which appeared in 1971. This was the CPU member of a set of four LSI integrated circuits called the MCS-4, which was originally designed for use in a calculator but was marketed as "programmable controller for logic replacement". The 4004 is referred to as a 4-bit microprocessor since it processed only 4 bits of data at a time. This very short word size is due mainly to the limitations imposed by the maximum integrated circuit density then achievable.

As integrated circuit densities increased with the rapid development of integrated circuit manufacturing technology, the power and performance of the microprocessors also increased. This is reflected in the increase in the CPU word size to 4, 8, 16, and by mid-1980s, 32 bits. The smaller microprocessors have relatively simple instruction sets, e.g., no floating point instructions, but they are nevertheless suitable as controllers for a very wide range of applications such as car engines and microwave ovens.

The Intel 4004 was followed with, among others the 4040, 8008, 8080, 8086, 80186, 80286, 80386, 486 and Pentium. Other families include the Motorola 6800 and 680x0 families, National Semiconductor 16000 and National Semiconductor 32000, SPARC, ARM, MIPS, Zilog Z8000, PowerPC and the Inmos Transputer family.

The larger, more recent microprocessors families have gradually acquired most of the features of large computers. As the microprocessor industry has matured, several families of microprocessors have evolved into de facto industrial standards with multiple manufacturers and numerous "support" chips including RAM, ROM, I/O controllers etc.

A single chip microprocessor may include other components such as memory (RAM, ROM, PROM), memory management, caches, floating-point unit, input/output ports and timers. Such devices are also known as microcontrollers.

The one-chip microcomputer is in many respects, a landmark development in computer technology because it reduces the computer to a small, inexpensive, and easily replaceable design component.

Microcomputers have given rise to a new class of general-purpose machines called personal computers. These are small low cost computers that are designed to sit on an ordinary office desk or to be portable and fuelled the computer boom of the late 1980s. The most widespread example is the also IBM PC, based on microprocessors from Intel Corporation. Apple Computers, Inc. have also produced a range of personal computers, as have several other companies.

Last updated: 2002-07-16

Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipeline Stages

<processor>

(MIPS) A project at Stanford University intended to simplify processor design by eliminating hardware interlocks between the five pipeline stages. This means that only single execution cycle instructions can access the thirty two 32-bit general registers, so that the compiler can schedule them to avoid conflicts. This also means that LOAD/STORE and branch instructions have a one-cycle delay to account for. However, because of the importance of multiply and divide instructions, a special HI/LO pair of multiply/divide registers exist which do have hardware interlocks, since these take several cycles to execute and complicate instruction scheduling.

The project eventually lead to the commercial MIPS R2000 processor.

Last updated: 1995-02-09

microprogramming

microcode

microReid

/mi:'kroh-reed/ See bogosity.

[Jargon File]

MICRO SAINT

<simulation>

A general purpose simulation tool from US company Micro Analysis and Design.

Last updated: 2007-03-22

microsecond

<unit>

One millionth (10^-6) of a second.

Last updated: 1995-03-14

Microserf

<jargon>

Wired magazine's term for a Microsoft employee.

Last updated: 1995-03-02

Microslop

<company, abuse>

A derisive synonym for Microsoft Corporation. It refers to the sloppy, bug-ridden "x.0" versions of MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows and other Microsoft products.

Last updated: 1995-12-28

Microsloth Windows

<abuse, operating system>

/mi:'kroh-sloth" win"dohz/ (Or "Windoze", /win'dohz/) A derogatory term for Microsoft Windows which is so limited by bug-for-bug compatibility with mess-dos that it is agonisingly slow on anything less than a fast 486. Also called just "Windoze", with the implication that you can fall asleep waiting for it to do anything; the latter term is extremely common on Usenet.

Compare X, sun-stools.

[Jargon File]

Last updated: 1996-10-08

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation

Microsoft Access

<database>

1. A relational database running under Microsoft Windows. Data is stored as a number of "tables", e.g. "Stock". Each table consists of a number of "records" (e.g. for different items) and each record contains a number of "fields", e.g. "Product code", "Supplier", "Quantity in stock".

Access allows the user to create "forms" and "reports". A form shows one record in a user-designed format and allows the user to step through records one at a time. A report shows selected records in a user-designed format, possibly grouped into sections with different kinds of total (including sum, minimum, maximum, average).

There are also facilities to use links ("joins") between tables which share a common field and to filter records according to certain criteria or search for particular field values.

Version: 2 (date?).

Usenet newsgroup: comp.databases.ms-access.

<communications>

2. A communications program from Microsoft, meant to compete with ProComm and other programs. It sucked and was dropped. Years later they reused the name for their database.

[Date?]

Last updated: 1997-07-20

Microsoft Basic

<language>

(MS-BASIC) A dialect of BASIC from Microsoft, originally developed by Bill Gates in a garage back in the CP/M days. It was originally known as GWBasic, then QBASIC and finally MS-BASIC.

When the MS-DOS operating system came out, it incorporated the GWBASIC.EXE or BASICA.EXE interpreters. GWBASIC ("Gee Whiz") incorporated graphics and a screen editor and was compatible with earlier BASICs.

QBASIC was more sophisticated. Version 4.5 had a full screen editor, debugger and compiler. The compiler could also produce executable files but to run these a utility program (BRUN44.EXE) had to be present. Thus source code could be kept private.

From DOS 5.0 or 6.0 onward, MS-BASIC was standard.

Version 1.1 produced stand-alone executables and could display graphics.

Usenet newsgroup: comp.lang.basic.misc.

[Relationship to BASIC in ROM on first IBM PC?]

Last updated: 1995-05-12

Microsoft Certified Application Developer

<programming, education>

(MCAD) Microsoft's qualification signifying ability to build applications with Microsoft Visual Studio .NET and web services on Microsoft .NET Framework 1.0 and 1.1. MCAD can no longer be earned.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/in/certification/mcad.aspx

Last updated: 2013-04-21

Microsoft Certified Database Administrator

<educational>

(MCDBA) Microsoft's certification of ability to design, implement and manage SQL Server 2000 databases. The qualification was retired on 2012-09-30.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/mcdba-certification.aspx.

Last updated: 2013-06-15

Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician

<education>

(MCDST) Microsoft's qualification signifying ability to troubleshoot Windows XP desktop environments and to solve hardware and software operation and application problems on Windows XP. MCDST can no longer be earned.

Last updated: 2013-05-23

Microsoft Certified Professional Developer

<educational, job>

(MCPD) Microsoft's certification intended to show comprehensive skills designing, developing and deploying applications for a particular job role.

Last updated: 2013-07-21

Microsoft Certified Solution Developer

<programming, education>

(MCSD) A course for the VAR or software developer. Candidates must pass three core exams and an elective exam. The core exams cover systems analysis, and desktop and distributed development.

http://microsoft.com/mcsd.

Last updated: 2001-05-20

Microsoft Certified System Engineer

<education>

(MCSE) A qualification obtained by passing Microsoft's system engineer certification exams.

http://microsoft.com/mcse.

Last updated: 2002-07-02

Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator

<education>

(MCSA) Microsoft's qualification for people who administer network and system environments based on Windows operating systems. Specializations include Messaging and Security.

Replaced by Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate.

Last updated: 2013-09-02

Microsoft Certified Systems Developer

<spelling>

Do you mean Microsoft Certified Solution Developer or Microsoft Certified System Engineer?

Last updated: 2001-05-20

Microsoft Corporation

<company>

The biggest supplier of operating systems and other software for IBM PC compatibles. Software products include MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows, Windows NT, Microsoft Access, LAN Manager, MS Client, SQL Server, Open Data Base Connectivity (ODBC), MS Mail, and SNA Server for Windows NT.

Microsoft was founded as "Micro-soft" in 1975 by Bill Gates (now CEO) and his high school pal Paul Allen. Their first product was a version of BASIC for the new Altair computer [which one?]. In 1980, IBM chose Microsoft to supply the operating system for the IBM PC.

On the UK television program "The Net" in May 1994, Bill Gates said he was betting his company on the information highway".

Quarterly sales $1293M, profits $362M (Aug 1994).

http://microsoft.com/. ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/.

Interesting Info and Other Microsoft WWW Servers.

Microsoft Windows Developer Information.

Microsoft Research Group Information.

Win_News. maintained by the Personal Operating Systems Division to distribute information on Microsoft Windows, MS-DOS and Windows 95.

Last updated: 1998-11-06

Microsoft Data Access Components

<database>

(MDAC) Microsoft's umbrella term for their ActiveX Data Objects (ADO), OLE DB, and Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) libraries. Together, these provide access to a variety of data sources, both relational (SQL) and nonrelational. MDAC is the technology that supports Universal Data Access, Microsoft's strategy for providing access to information across the enterprise.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/mdacsdk/htm/mdacstartpage1.asp.

Last updated: 2004-02-17

Microsoft Disc Operating System

<spelling>

Microsoft Disk Operating System

<operating system>

/M S doss/ (Or "MS-DOS", "PC-DOS", "MS-DOG", "mess-dos") Microsoft Corporation's clone of the CP/M disk operating system for the 8088 crufted together in 6 weeks by hacker Tim Paterson, who is said to have regretted it ever since.

MS-DOS is a single user operating system that runs one program at a time and is limited to working with one megabyte of memory, 640 kilobytes of which is usable for the application program. Special add-on EMS memory boards allow EMS-compliant software to exceed the 1 MB limit. Add-ons to DOS, such as Microsoft Windows and DESQview, take advantage of EMS and allow the user to have multiple applications loaded at once and switch between them.

Numerous features, including vaguely Unix-like but rather broken support for subdirectories, I/O redirection and pipelines, were hacked into MS-DOS 2.0 and subsequent versions; as a result, there are two or more incompatible versions of many system calls, and MS-DOS programmers can never agree on basic things like what character to use as an option switch ("-" or "/"). The resulting mess became the highest-unit-volume operating system in history. It was used on many Intel 16 and 32 bit microprocessors and IBM PC compatibles.

Many of the original DOS functions were calls to BASIC (in ROM on the original IBM PC), e.g. Format and Mode. People with non-IBM PCs had to buy MS-Basic (later called GWBasic). Most version of DOS came with some version of BASIC.

Also know as PC-DOS or simply DOS, ignoring the fact that there were many other OSes with that name, starting in the mid-1960s with IBM's first disk operating system for the IBM 360.

[Jargon File]

Last updated: 2007-05-21

Microsoft DOS

Microsoft Disk Operating System

Microsoft Excel

<tool>

A spreadsheet program from Microsoft, part of their Microsoft Office suite of productivity tools for Microsoft Windows and Macintosh. Excel is probably the most widely used spreadsheet in the world.

http://microsoft.com/msexcel/.

[Feature summary? History?]

Last updated: 1997-01-14

Microsoft Exchange

<messaging>

Microsoft's messaging and enterprise collaboration server. Exchange's primary role is as an electronic mail message store but it can also store calendars, task lists, contact details, and other data.

[Better descripton? URL?]

Last updated: 1999-09-17

Microsoft Extended

<computer>

(MSX) A Range of computers created in an attempt by the industry to create a standard for home computers, similar to VHS did with home video.

The basic MSX machine contained a Z80 CPU working at 3.58MHz.

MSX machines were produced by such giants as Sony, Yamaha, Panasonic, Toshiba, Daewoo, and Philips.

The MSX standard was designed by a company called ASCII in cooperation with Microsoft who provided a firmware version of its BASIC for the machine. Because this BASIC version was an extended version of MicroSoft Basic, it was called "MicroSoft eXtended BASIC"; Hence "MSX".

Microsoft also produced MSX-DOS - a stripped-down version of MS-DOS.

Extensions to the MSX included MSX2, MSX2+ and TurboR.

FAQ.

Last updated: 1999-02-26

Microsoft Foundation Classes

<programming>

(MFC) Software structures in C++, the Windows base classes which can respond to messages, make windows, and from which application specific classes can be derived.

Last updated: 1995-11-17

Microsoft IIS

Internet Information Server

Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer

<hardware>

An optical mouse from Microsoft.

http://microsoft.com/presspass/features/1999/04-19mouse.htm.

Last updated: 1999-07-21

Microsoft Internet Information Server

Internet Information Server

Microsoft Mail

<messaging, tool>

(MS Mail) A Microsoft Windows electronic mail program.

[Features? Version?]

Last updated: 1996-08-26

Microsoft Mail Application Program Interface

Messaging Application Programming Interface

Microsoft Network

The Microsoft Network

Microsoft Networking

<networking>

Microsoft's name for the networking subsystems of Windows 95 and later. Not to be confused with The Microsoft Network.

Microsoft networking uses the SMB file sharing protocol. It is implemented as file system drivers i.e. "installable file systems" (IFS).

The network redirector "Client for Microsoft Networks", is implemented in the VREDIR.VXD virtual device driver. Peer resource sharing is provided by "File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks" (VSERVER.VXD).

Windows 95's support for Netware (NCP) networks is provided in a similar way via NWREDIR.VXD and NWSERVER.VXD.

Last updated: 1999-08-08

Microsoft Office

<product>

Microsoft's bundles of productivity tools including Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Powerpoint, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft Front Page, Microsoft Team Manager, Microsoft Project, Microsoft Schedule+, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Small Business Financial Manager, Automap Streets Plus.

Editions of Office include Microsoft Office Professional Edition, Microsoft Office Standard Edition, Microsoft Office Small Business Edition, Microsoft Office Developer Edition. Different editions contain different subsets of the above applications.

Current version, as of 2004-08-30: Office 2003.

http://microsoft.com/office.

Last updated: 2004-08-30

Microsoft Office Small Business Edition

<application>

(SBE) Editions of Microsoft Office 97, 2003, and probably other versions, targetted at small businesses. Small Business Edition includes Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Outlook with Business Contact Manager and Microsoft Publisher. SBE 2003 doesn't include Microsoft Access or the addtional XML, IRM and Visual Studio support found in Microsoft Office Professional Edition, though the new user price is the same.

Office Editions.

Last updated: 2004-08-31

Microsoft Point to Point Encryption

<protocol>

(MPPE) An encryption protocol that may be used with PPTP to provide an encrypted connection.

Last updated: 1998-09-24

Microsoft Project

<product>

A Microsoft Windows program offering various project management tools.

http://microsoft.com/office/project/.

Last updated: 2003-07-02

Microsoft SQL Server

<database>

A relational database management system (RDBMS) which is part of Microsoft's BackOffice family of servers. SQL Server was designed for client/server use and is accessed by applications using SQL. It runs on Windows NT version 3.5 or higher and is compliant with the ANSI SQL-92 and FIPS 127-2 SQL standards.

SQL Server supports symmetric multiprocessing hardware; SNMP, ODBC, and major open standard communications protocols. It has Internet integration, data replication, and data warehousing features.

Microsoft SQL Server was originally developed by Sybase Corporation but the cooperation was broken sometime [when?] before version 6.0.

http://microsoft.com/sql.

Usenet newsgroup: comp.databases.ms-sqlserver.

Last updated: 2001-04-27

Microsoft Windows

<operating system>

Microsoft's proprietary window system and user interface software released in 1985 to run on top of MS-DOS. Widely criticised for being too slow (hence "Windoze", "Microsloth Windows") on the machines available then.

The 1996 market share of operating systems was:

 DOS/Windows  70%
 Windows 95   15%
 Windows NT    2%
 Other        13%

Versions include 1985 Windows 1, 1987 Windows 2, 1987 Windows/386, 1990 Windows 3.0, 1992 Windows 3.1, 1992 Windows for Workgroups 3.1, 1993 Windows 3.11, 1993 Windows for Workgroups 3.11, 1993 Windows NT 3.1, 1994 Windows NT 3.5, 1995 Windows 95, 199? Windows NT 4, 1998 Windows 98, Windows NT 5, Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8.

Last updated: 2015-03-07

Microsoft Word

<text, tool, product>

A popular word processor, part of the Microsoft Office suite. The original Word (versions 1.0 to 4.?/5.0?) was originally text-based (non-GUI) and ran under MS-DOS. Then Microsoft released Word for Windows 1.0 and 2.0. Later they produced new versions for each OS, both numbered 6.0.

http://microsoft.com/catalog/products/word/.

[Features?]

Last updated: 1997-02-11

MicroStation

<application>

A full-featured 2-D and 3-D CAD program for MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows, Macintosh, and Unix workstations from Bentley Systems, Inc. Created in 1984, MicroStation is a high-end package used worldwide in environments where many designers work on large, complex projects. MicroStation Modeler is a superset of MicroStation that provides solid modelling, and MasterPiece is MicroStation's rendering and animation program.

Last updated: 2001-04-19

microtape

<hardware, storage>

/mi:'kroh-tayp/ Occasionally used to mean a DECtape, as opposed to a macrotape.

Apparently the term "microtape" was actually the official term used within DEC for these tapes until someone coined the word "DECtape", which, of course, sounded sexier to the marketroids. Another version of the story holds that someone discovered a conflict with another company's "microtape" trademark.

[Jargon File]

Last updated: 1995-03-16

Microware Corporation

Authors of OS-9.

Address: Des Moines, Iowa, USA.

Last updated: 1995-02-02

Microwave Hardware Description Language

<language, hardware>

(MHDL) A Hardware Description Language by David Barton[?] from Intermetrics incorporating Haskell 1.2.

Not to be confused with other MHDLs.

Last updated: 2000-11-14

MIDAS

A digital simulation language.

[Sammet 1969, p.627].

Midas

A Motif-based toolkit for interactive data analysis by T. Johnson, SLAC. The basis for the Midas-WWW browser.

Midas-WWW

<web>

A Motif-based browser for WWW based on the Midas toolkit.

Last updated: 1998-08-09

middle-endian

<data, architecture>

Neither big-endian nor little-endian. Used of perverse byte orders such as 3-4-1-2 or 2-1-4-3, occasionally found in the packed decimal formats of some minicomputer manufacturers.

See -endian.

[Jargon File]

Last updated: 1998-08-09

middleware

Software that mediates between an application program and a network. It manages the interaction between disparate applications across the heterogeneous computing platforms. The Object Request Broker (ORB), software that manages communication between objects, is an example of a middleware program.

MIDI

Musical Instrument Digital Interface

mid-level network

<networking>

(Or "regional network") In hierarchical routing, a network that carries Internet traffic between at least two other networks (stub networks).

A mid-level network that also has hosts connected to it is known as a transit network.

A big (international or trans-continental) network is called a backbone network.

Last updated: 2017-12-02

MIF

Maker Interchange Format

MIG

Mach Interface Generator

MIGRAINES

<tool>

A graphical user interface for evaluating and interacting with the Aspirin neural network simulation.

Utilities exist for moving quickly from an Aspirin description of a network directly to an executable program for simulating and evaluating that network. MIGRAINES has been kept separate from Aspirin so that its limitations do not restrict the performance of Aspirin. However, in practice, they are used together. This combination allows for simple specification and creation of efficient neural network systems that can be graphically analysed and tested.

Last updated: 1995-03-07

MII

<body>

1. A consortium of Microsoft, IBM, and Intel.

[When? What did it do?]

<storage>

2. A broadcast component video tape format licensed by Panasonic.

Last updated: 1998-11-15

MIIS

<language>

/Meese/ An interpreted language with one-letter keywords.

[Details? Similar to MUMPS?]

Last updated: 1995-01-10

MIKE

Micro Interpreter for Knowledge Engineering

mil

<networking>

The top-level domain for entities affiliated with US armed forces.

Last updated: 1999-01-26

Milarepa

<tool>

A Perl BNF parser generator by Jeffrey Kegler <[email protected]>. Milarepa takes a source grammar written in a mixture of BNF and Perl and generates Perl source, which, when enclosed in a simple wrapper, parses the language described by the grammar. Milarepa is not restricted to LRn grammars, and the parse logic follows directly from the BNF. It handles ambiguous grammars, ambiguous tokens (tokens which were not positively identified by the lexer) and allows the programmer to change the start symbol. The grammar may not be left recursive. The input must be divided into sentences of a finite maximum length. There is no fixed distinction between terminals and non-terminals, that is, a symbol can both match the input AND be on the left hand side of a production. Multiple Marpa grammars are allowed in a single Perl program.

Version: Prototype 1.0.

Posted to comp.lang.perl.

The author is seeking an FTP site to hold the software.

Last updated: 1993-03-17

MILITRAN

A discrete simulation system for military applications produced by the Sys Res Group at ONR in 1964.

[Sammet 1969, p. 657].

Last updated: 1994-11-11

mill

Arithmetic and Logic Unit

millennium bug

Year 2000

millennium meltdown

Year 2000

milli-

prefix

millihelen

<unit, humour>

The amount of beauty required to launch one ship.

Last updated: 2002-03-19

milliLampson

/mil'*-lamp"sn/ A unit of talking speed, abbreviated mL. Most people run about 200 milliLampsons. The eponymous Butler Lampson (a CS theorist and systems implementor highly regarded among hackers) goes at 1000. A few people speak faster. This unit is sometimes used to compare the (sometimes widely disparate) rates at which people can generate ideas and actually emit them in speech. For example, noted computer architect C. Gordon Bell (designer of the PDP-11) is said, with some awe, to think at about 1200 mL but only talk at about 300; he is frequently reduced to fragments of sentences as his mouth tries to keep up with his speeding brain.

[Jargon File]

millisecond

<unit>

(ms) One thousandth of a second, one thousand microseconds. A long time for a modern computer.

Last updated: 1995-08-18

MILNET

Military Network. Part of the Defense Data Network (DDN) and of the Internet. Managed by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA).

[Location? Number of hosts? Purpose?]

MIMD

Multiple Instruction/Multiple Data

MIME

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions

mimencode

(Originally distributed as "mmencode"). A replacement for uuencode for use in electronic mail and news. Part of MIME. uuencode uses characters that don"t translate well across all mail gateways (particularly those which convert between ASCII and EBCDIC). Also, different variants of uuencode encode data in different and incompatible ways, with no standard. Finally, few uuencode variants work well in a pipe. Mimencode implements the encodings which were defined for MIME as uuencode replacements, and should be considerably more robust for e-mail use. Written by Nathaniel S. Borenstein of Bell Communications Research, Inc. (Bellcore) in 1991.

Mimer SQL

<database>

A relational database management system, free for non-commercial use, developed by the Swedish company Upright Database Technology AB.

Mimer Home.

Last updated: 2002-06-03

MIME type

<file format, protocol, multimedia>

The unique identifier used for different file types when conveyed across a MIME-based protocol such as MIME e-mail or HTTP.

Registration of MIME types is explained in RFC 2048.

Official MIME types.

Last updated: 1998-02-10

MIMIC

<language>

An early language designed by J.H. Andrews of the NIH in 1967 for solving engineering problems such as differential equations that would otherwise have been done on an analog computer.

["MIMIC, An Alternative Programming Language for Industrial Dynamics, N.D. Peterson, Socio-Econ Plan Sci. 6, Pergamon 1972].

Last updated: 1995-01-19

MIMOLA

Operational hardware specification language.

["A Retargetable Compiler for a High-Level Microprogramming Language", 17th Ann Workshop on Microprogramming, P. Marwedel, IEEE 1984, pp. 267-274].

mind mouse

<hardware>

A pointing device (unlike a mouse in design, but serving the same purpose) which works via sensors in contact with the user's skin. The sensors are built into a plastic base which fits on one finger and which is similar in shape to a finger cast.

The principle of operation is presumably myoelectric, not psionic, contrary to what the name implies.

As of the time of writing (1996), mind mice are not accurate enough to be anything but novelties.

[Availability?]

Last updated: 1997-04-07

mind uploading

<application>

The science fiction concept of copying one's mind into an artificial body or computer.

Home.

Last updated: 1995-04-10

Minerva software

A company producing software for the Acorn Archimedes.

http://zynet.co.uk/minerva/.

Last updated: 1995-01-31

Minesweeper, Chess, Solitaire Expert

<humour>

(MCSE) A humourous expansion of MCSE suggesting a more realistic summary of a person's computer expertise.

Last updated: 2013-03-16

minicomputer

<computer>

A computer built between about 1963 and 1987, smaller and less powerful than a mainframe, typically about the size and shape of a wardrobe, mounted in a single tall rack.

Minicomputers were characterised by short word lengths of 8 to 32 bits, limited hardware and software facilities and small physical size. Their low cost made them suitable for a wide variety of applications such as industrial control, where a small, dedicated computer which is permanently assigned to one application, is needed. In recent years, improvements in device technology have resulted in minicomputers which are comparable in performance to large second generation computers and greatly exceed the performance of first generation computers.

The processor was typically built using low integration logic integrated circuits - TTL or maybe ECL, thus distinguishing it from a microcomputer which is built around a microprocessor - a processor on a single (or maybe a few) ICs.

DEC's PDP-1 was the first minicomputer and their PDP-11 was the most successful, closely followed (in both time and success) by the VAX (which DEC called a "super minicomputer").

Another early minicomputer was the LINC developed at MIT in 1963.

Other minicomputers were the AS/400, the PRIME series, the AP-3, Olivetti's Audit 7 and the Interdata 8/32.

[Others?]

Last updated: 2004-05-12

Mini Disc

<storage, music>

A music medium designed by Sony as a portable replacement for music Compact Discs. In 1994 Sony announced a data version which can hold 140 MB or about 100 MB using error correction. These will be competitive with 128 MB magneto-optical disks. Mini Discs may be either a re-writable or mass-produced read-only type. Sony have also announced a standard data format.

The transfer rate is similar to CD-ROM which is slow compared to the current magneto-optical drives (which are similar to an old hard disk, with writing noticeably slower than reading). Pre-recorded read-only Mini Discs can be mass manufactured on a modified CD press - this and the standard format mean it could take off as a software distribution medium.

An article in the December 1994 PCW quotes access times of about 300 ms and data transfer rate of about 150 kb/s (i.e. about single spin CD rate).

Last updated: 1994-12-13

minifloppy

<storage>

5.25-inch vanilla floppy disks, as opposed to 3.5-inch or microfloppies and the now-obsolescent 8-inch variety.

At one time, this term was a trademark of Shugart Associates for their SA-400 minifloppy drive. Nobody paid any attention.

See stiffy.

Last updated: 1996-05-03

minimal automaton

<theory>

An automaton possessing with redundant states.

Last updated: 1996-05-03

minimax

<games>

An algorithm for choosing the next move in a two player game. A player moves so as to maximise the minimum value of his opponent's possible following moves. If it is my turn to move, I give a value to each legal move I might make. If the result of a move is an immediate win for me I give it positive infinity and, if it is an immediate win for you, negative infinity. The value to me of any other move is the minimum of the values resulting from each of your possible replies.

The above algorithm will give every move a value of positive or negative infinity since the value of every move will be the value of some final winning or losing move. This can be extended if we can supply a heuristic evaluation function which gives values to non-final game states without considering all possible following complete sequences. We can then limit the minimax algorithm to look only a certain number of moves ahead. This number is called the "look-ahead" or "ply".

Mini-ML

["A Simple Applicative Language: Mini-ML", D. Clement et al, Proc 1986 ACM Conf on LISP and Functional Prog, (Aug 1986)].

minimum seek time

<storage>

(Or track-to-track seek time) The time it takes to move the head of a disk drive from one track to the next. The minimum seek time gives a good measure of the speed of the drive in a single-user/single-process environment where successive read/write request are largely correlated and thus if correlated data is stored in nearby cylinders most seeks are from one cylinder to the next.

Last updated: 1997-07-15

Mini PL/I

A commercial PL/I subset for the Olivetti Audit 7 minicomputer.

Ministra

<company>

(Previosly "Stalker") The set-top box software company that created the stalker_portal.

Last updated: 2023-04-01

MINITAB II

A system for interactive solution of small statistical problems.

["MINITAB Student Handbook", T.A. Ryan et al, Duxbury Press 1976].

Last updated: 1994-10-31

MINIX

<operating system>

/MIN-ix/ A small operating system that is very similar to UNIX. MINIX was written for educational purposes by Prof. Andrew S. Tanenbaum of Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam.

MINIX has been written from scratch and contains no AT&T code -- neither in the kernel, the compiler, the utilities, nor the libraries. Although copyrighted by Prentice-Hall, all sources, binaries and documentation can be obtained via Internet for educational or research purposes.

Current versions as of 1996-11-15:

MINIX 2.0 - Intel CPUs from Intel 8088 to Pentium

MINIX 1.5 - Intel, Macintosh (MacMinix), Amiga, Atari ST, Sun SPARC.

http://cs.vu.nl/~ast/minix.html.

Last updated: 1997-06-16

Minnesota Internet Users Essential Tool

<networking, tool>

(Minuet) An integrated package for IBM PC that includes modules for electronic mail (using the POP protocol), Gopher, telnet, Usenet news and FTP. Minuet provides an easy-to-use, mouse-driven graphical user interface via the TurboVision libraries. It is a TCP/IP client that runs over any type of TCP/IP network including Ethernet and SLIP. It will work with either static IP addresses or dynamic IP addresses (bootp).

FAQ. ftp://boombox.micro.umn.edu/pub/pc/minuet/beta16/minuarc.exe.

Last updated: 1995-04-10

MINT

Mint Is Not TRAC

MiNT

<operating system>

(MinT is not TOS - a recursive acronym) A freeware, open source operating system for the Atari ST range of computers. MiNT was originally based on a port of BSD to Atari ST computers by Eric R. Smith. MiNT gave the Atari access to BSD's many network applications. A short (1992-94) romance between MiNT and Atari Corp., who decided to convert the system to the MultiTOS kernel, produced a unique TOS/Unix hybrid, which provides simultaneous access to both GEM and BSD application libraries.

Since MiNT is MultiTOS's kernel, it has kept all the features described above and, if an AES replacement is installed, it can show you a new face of MultiTOS. Unlike MultiTOS however, MiNT is based on a different file system, that is faster and more flexible than TOS's. Furthermore, thanks to the network support, MiNT allows an Atari to be an Internet server that can still run GEM and TOS applications! This has won MiNT many devotees ("MiNTquisitors"), making it the main competitor for ASH's MagiC.

Unlike Linux, MiNT can run on a Motorola 68000 with no FPU. It needs at least 4 MB of RAM, more to run multiuser or to run GEM applications at the same time.

http://orient.uw.edu.pl/~conradus/docs/mint.html.

Last updated: 1999-07-20

Mint Is Not TRAC

<text, tool>

(MINT) A version of TRAC used as the extension language in the Freemacs editor.

ftp://sun.soe.clarkson.edu/pub/freemacs.

Last updated: 1994-10-31

Minuet

<networking>

Minnesota Internet Users Essential Tool.

MINUIT

A program for function minimisation and error analysis.

Last updated: 1994-10-31

minus

Common: dash; ITU-T: hyphen; ITU-T: minus. Rare: INTERCAL: worm; option; dak; bithorpe.

minus infinity

The most negative value, not necessarily or even usually the simple negation of plus infinity. In N bit twos-complement arithmetic, infinity is 2^(N-1) - 1 but minus infinity is -(2^(N-1)), not -(2^(N-1) - 1).

MIPS

<unit, benchmark>

1. Million instructions per second.

The unit commonly used to give the rate at which a processor executes instructions.

Often rendered by hackers as "Meaningless Indication of Processor Speed" or in other unflattering ways. This expresses a nearly universal attitude about the value of most benchmark claims, said attitude being one of the great cultural divides between hackers and marketroids.

The etymologically incorrect singular "1 MIP" is sometimes heard.

MIPS project

Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipeline Stages

MIPS R2000

<processor>

The R2000 design came, in about 1987, from the Stanford MIPS project, which stood for Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipeline Stages.

Like the AMD 29000, the R2000 has no condition code register considering it a potential bottleneck. The program counter can be read like other registers.

The CPU includes an MMU that can also control a cache, and the CPU can operate as big-endian or little-endian. There is a FPU, the R2010.

Versions include the MIPS R3000 and MIPS R4000.

Last updated: 1995-02-09

MIPS R2010

A FPU for the MIPS R2000.

Last updated: 1995-02-09

MIPS R3000

A version of the MIPS R2000 with improved cache control.

Last updated: 1995-02-09

MIPS R4000

A 64-bit version of the MIPS R3000 with has more pipeline stages for a higher clock rate and performance.

Last updated: 1995-02-09

MIPS Technologies, Inc.

<company>

A company which designs, develops, and licenses reduced instruction set computer (RISC) microprocessors and compilers. MIPS Technologies, Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Silicon Graphics, Inc. and operates as an independent unit. MIPS is the successor to the processor business of MIPS Computer Systems which was founded in 1984 and merged with Silicon Graphics on 29 June 1992.

MIPS Technologies developed the world's first RISC VLSI microprocessors (1985) (or was it the ARM?), the first commercial 64-bit microprocessor (MIPS R4000, 1992), announced MIPS R4300i - the first 64-bit RISC processor designed for interactive consumer applications (April 1995). They announced the MIPS R10000 - the next generation general-purpose MIPS microprocessor and the most powerful processor in the world (October 1994).

MIPS' semiconductor company partners participate in the design and development of MIPS processors and software and then produce, market, and support the processors. MIPS itself does not fabricate or sell products. MIPS' semiconductor partners are: Integrated Device Technology, LSI Logic Corporation, NEC Corporation, NKK Corporation, Philips Semiconductors, Siemens AG, and Toshiba Corporation.

MIPS' products include:

R4000 - 100 MHz; 1.35M transistors, primary i/d cache 8KB/8KB, SPECint92 58.3/ SPECfp92 61.4.

R4300i - 133 MHZ, 1.35M transistors; primary i/d cache, 16KB/8KB, SPECint92 80, SPECfp92 60.

R4400 - 250 MHz, 2.3M transistors, primary i/d cache 16KB/16KB, SPECint92 175.8, SPECfp92 164.4.

R4600 - 133 MHz, 1.9M transistors, primary i/d cache 16KB/16KB, SPECint92 85, SPECfp92 75.

R8000/R8010 - 90 MHz, 2.6M, .83M transistors, primary i/d cache, 16KB/16KB, SPECint92 132, SPECfp92 396.

R10000 - 200 MHz, 6.7M transistors, primary i/d cache 32KB/32KB, SPECint92 >300, SPECfp92 >600.

MIPS' processor chips were used in the DEC 3100 series of workstations.

http://mips.com/.

Usenet newsgroup: comp.sys.mips.

Last updated: 1996-03-01

Miracula

An implementation of a subset of Miranda by Stefan Kahrs <[email protected]>, LFCS, no modules or files. Can be interactively switched between eager and lazy evaluation. Portable source in C from the author.

Miranda

<language>

(From the Latin for "admirable", also the heroine of Shakespeare's "Tempest") A lazy purely functional programming language and interpreter designed by David Turner of the University of Kent in the early 1980s and implemented as a product of his company, Research Software Limited. Miranda combines the main features of KRC and SASL with strong typing similar to that of ML.

It features terse syntax using the offside rule for indentation. The type of an expression is inferred from the source by the compiler but explicit type declarations are also allowed. It has nested pattern-matching, list comprehensions and modules. It uses operator sections rather than lambda abstractions. User types are algebraic, and in early versions could be constrained by laws.

It is implemented using SKI combinator reduction. Originally implemented for Unix, there are versions for most UNIX-like platforms including Intel PC under Linux. The KAOS operating system is written entirely in Miranda.

There are translators from Miranda to Haskell mira2hs and to LML mira2lml. Non-commercial near-equivalents of Miranda include Miracula and Orwell.

http://miranda.org.uk/.

["Miranda: A Non Strict Functional Language with Polymorphic Types", D.A. Turner, in Functional Programming Languages and Computer Architecture, LNCS 201, Springer 1985].

["An Overview of Miranda", D. A. Turner, SIGPLAN Notices, 21(12):158--166, December 1986].

["Functional Programming with Miranda", Ian Holyer, Pitman Press 0-273-03453-7].

Last updated: 2007-03-22

MIRFAC

Mathematics in Recognizable Form Automatically Compiled

mirror

<hardware, storage>

1. Writing duplicate data to more than one device (usually two hard disks), in order to protect against loss of data in the event of device failure. This technique may be implemented in either hardware (sharing a disk controller and cables) or in software. It is a common feature of RAID systems.

Several operating systems support software disk mirroring or disk-duplexing, e.g. Novell NetWare.

Interestingly, when this technique is used with magnetic tape storage systems, it is usually called "twinning".

A less expensive alternative, which only limits the amount of data loss, is to make regular backups from a single disk to magnetic tape.

2. mirror site.

Last updated: 1998-06-11

mirroring

mirror

mirror site

<networking>

An archive site or website which keeps a copy of some or all files at another site so as to make them more quickly available and to reduce the load on the source site.

It is generally best to use the mirror that is physically closest to you as this will usually give the fastest download.

Such mirroring is usually done for specific whole directories or files on a specific remote server as opposed to a cache or proxy server which keeps copies of everything that is requested via it.

For example, src.doc.ic.ac.uk is the main UK mirror for the GNU archive at gnu.org.

Last updated: 2006-10-16

MIS

Management Information System

misbug

/mis-buhg/ [MIT] An unintended property of a program that turns out to be useful; something that should have been a bug but turns out to be a feature. Usage: rare. Compare green lightning. See miswart.

[Jargon File]

MIS Director

Chief Information Officer

misfeature

/mis-fee'chr/ or /mis'fee"chr/ A feature that eventually causes lossage, possibly because it is not adequate for a new situation that has evolved. Since it results from a deliberate and properly implemented feature, a misfeature is not a bug. Nor is it a simple unforeseen side effect; the term implies that the feature in question was carefully planned, but its long-term consequences were not accurately or adequately predicted (which is quite different from not having thought ahead at all). A misfeature can be a particularly stubborn problem to resolve, because fixing it usually involves a substantial philosophical change to the structure of the system involved.

Many misfeatures (especially in user-interface design) arise because the designers/implementors mistake their personal tastes for laws of nature. Often a former feature becomes a misfeature because trade-offs were made whose parameters subsequently change (possibly only in the judgment of the implementors). "Well, yeah, it is kind of a misfeature that file names are limited to six characters, but the original implementors wanted to save directory space and we"re stuck with it for now."

MISHAP

<language>

An early system on the IBM 1130.

[Listed in CACM 2(5):16, May 1959].

Last updated: 2004-09-14

Missed'em-five

<operating system, abuse>

(Or "SysVile" /sis-vi:l'/) A pejorative hackerism for AT&T System V Unix, generally used by BSD partisans in a bigoted mood.

See software bloat, Berzerkeley.

[Jargon File]

Last updated: 1998-07-01

missile address

ICBM address

missing

Missing definition

miswart

/mis-wort/ [By analogy with misbug] A feature that superficially appears to be a wart but has been determined to be the Right Thing. For example, in some versions of the Emacs text editor, the "transpose characters" command exchanges the character under the cursor with the one before it on the screen, *except* when the cursor is at the end of a line, in which case the two characters before the cursor are exchanged. While this behaviour is perhaps surprising, and certainly inconsistent, it has been found through extensive experimentation to be what most users want. This feature is a miswart.

[Jargon File]

MIT

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

MIT AI Lab

<body>

(Massachusetts Institute of Technology artificial intelligence laboratory) Workplace of many famous AI researchers at MIT including GLS and RMS.

http://ai.mit.edu/.

Address: 545 Technology Sq., Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

Last updated: 2003-02-28

MITI

SQRIBE

MITILAC

<language>

An early system on the IBM 650.

[Listed in CACM 2(5):16, May 1959].

Last updated: 1998-09-24

MIT Licence

<spelling>

It's american and they spell the noun and the verb "license", so MIT License.

Last updated: 2014-11-27

MIT License

<legal, software>

A popular open source software license. The MIT License is very permissive, allowing "any person ... to deal in the Software without restriction" as long as they preserve the copyright notice and the license itself. It also includes the usual disclaimers.

MIT License home.

Last updated: 2014-11-27

MIT Lisp Machine

Lisp Machine

MITRE Corporation

<body>

A US federally funded R&D center, spun off in 1958 from the MIT Lincoln Laboratory (also an FFRDC). MITRE is a non-profit corporation chartered to do R&D in the public interest.

MITRE were responsible for system engineering and implementation oversight of SAGE.

MITRE does not stand for MIT Research and Engineering, though it could have.

http://mitre.org/.

Last updated: 1999-12-16

MIT Research Laboratory for Electronics

<body>

See also Jay Forrester, core memory, the Whirlwind computer, MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

[Summary?]

Last updated: 1999-12-16

MITS

Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems

MIT Scheme

<language>

(Previously "C-Scheme") A Scheme implementation by the MIT Scheme Team (Chris Hanson, Jim Miller, Bill Rozas, and many others) with a rich set of utilities, a compiler called Liar and an editor called Edwin.

MIT Scheme includes an interpreter, large run-time library, Emacs macros, native-code compiler, emacs-like editor, and a source-level debugger.

MIT Scheme conforms fully with R4RS and almost with the IEEE Scheme standard. It runs on Motorola 68000: HP9000, Sun-3, NeXT; MIPS: Decstation, Sony, SGI; HP-PA: 600, 700, 800; VAX: Ultrix, BSD, DEC Alpha: OSF; Intel i386: MS-DOS, MS Windows, and various other Unix systems.

MIX

Knuth's hypothetical machine, used in The Art of Computer Programming v.1, Donald Knuth, A-W 1969.

MIXAL

MIX Assembly Language.

The assembly language for Donald Knuth's hypothetical MIX machine.

Last updated: 1995-01-05

MIX Communications

(MIX) Providers of Internet access and presentation services for businesses and individuals in the Milwaukee, WI, USA metropolitan area. MIX started providing Internet access services to the Milwaukee area in 1990. It was the first business in Milwaukee to provide Internet access services to the public.

MIX Communications is owned and operated by Dean Roth.

http://mixcom.com/.

E-mail: <[email protected]>.

Telephone: +1 (414) 351 1868 (Office), +1 (414) 351 1139 (BBS). Address: MIX Communications, P.O. Box 17166, Milwaukee, WI 53217, USA.

Last updated: 1995-01-05

Nearby terms:

mh ♦ MHDL ♦ MHEG ♦ MHS ♦ MHz ♦ MIB ♦ MIB Variable ♦ MIC ♦ Mic-1 ♦ Mic-2 ♦ MICE

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