tool
<tool>
1. A program used primarily to create, manipulate, modify, or analyse other programs, such as a compiler or an editor or a cross-referencing program. Opposite: app, operating system.
2. A Unix application program with a simple, "transparent" (typically text-stream) interface designed specifically to be used in programmed combination with other tools (see filter, plumbing).<jargon>
3. (MIT: general to students there) To work; to study (connotes tedium). The TMRC Dictionary defined this as "to set one's brain to the grindstone". See hack.
4. (MIT) A student who studies too much and hacks too little. MIT's student humour magazine rejoices in the name "Tool and Die".
[Jargon File]Last updated: 1996-12-12
toolbar
A common graphical user interface component, consisting of a permanently visible row of button icons that, when clicked with the mouse, cause the program to perform some action such as printing the current document or changing the mode of operation.
The toolbar buttons often invoke functions accessible via menus but they are easier to use since they are permanently visible. A typical use would be in a paint program where the toolbar allows the users to select one of the various painting "tools" - brush, pencil, bucket etc. Some application programs under some operating systems may allow the user to customise the functions accessible via toolbars; in others, the choice is fixed by the programmer.Last updated: 2003-10-24
toolbook
<tool>
A Microsoft Windows utility to make easy-to-use applications with a graphical user interface. E.g. a guided tour of some software.
Last updated: 1995-03-14
Toolbuilder
Tool Builder KitTool Builder Kit
<tool>
(TBK) A product from IPSYS which allows users to develop CASE tools appropriate to any software engineering methodology.
Last updated: 1996-05-08
Tool Command Language
<language>
/tik*l/ (Tcl) An interpreted string processing language for issuing commands to interactive programs, developed by John Ousterhout at UCB. Each application program can extend tcl with its own set of commands.
Tcl is like a text-oriented Lisp, but lets you write algebraic expressions for simplicity and to avoid scaring people away. Though originally designed to be a "scripting language" rather than for serious programming, Tcl has been used successfully for programs with hundreds of thousands of lines. It has a peculiar but simple syntax. It may be used as an embedded interpreter in application programs. It has exceptions and packages (called libraries), name-spaces for procedures and variables, and provide/require. It supports dynamic loading of object code. It is eight-bit clean. It has only three variable types: strings, lists and associative arrays but no structures. Tcl and its associated GUI toolkit, Tk run on all flavors of Unix, Microsoft Windows, Macintosh and VMS. Tcl runs on the Amiga and many other platforms. See also expect (control interactive programs and pattern match on their output), Cygnus Tcl Tools, [incr Tcl] (adds classes and inheritence to Tcl), Scriptics (John Ousterhout's company that is the home of Tcl development and the TclPro tool suite), Tcl Consortium (a non-profit agency dedicated to promoting Tcl), tclhttpd (an embeddable Tcl-based web server), tclx (adds many commands to Tcl), tcl-debug. comp.lang.tcl FAQ at MIT. or at purl.org. Scriptics downloads. Kanji. Usenet newsgroups: comp.lang.tcl.announce, comp.lang.tcl. ["Tcl: An Embeddable Command Language", J. Ousterhout, Proc 1990 Winter USENIX Conf].Last updated: 1998-11-27
TOOLS
Technology of Object-Oriented Languages and Systemstoolsmith
The software equivalent of a tool-and-die specialist; one who specialises in making the tools with which other programmers create applications. Many hackers consider this more fun than applications per se; to understand why, see uninteresting. Jon Bentley, in the "Bumper-Sticker Computer Science" chapter of his book "More Programming Pearls", quotes Dick Sites from DEC as saying "I'd rather write programs to write programs than write programs". [Jargon File]Nearby terms:
Tom Knight ♦ tone ♦ Tony Hoare ♦ tool ♦ toolbar ♦ toolbook ♦ Toolbuilder
Try this search on Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Google, OneLook.
