COPS from FOLDOC

copious free time

(Apple; originally from the introduction to Tom Lehrer's song "It Makes A Fellow Proud To Be A Soldier") Used ironically to indicate the speaker's lack of the quantity in question; a mythical schedule slot for accomplishing tasks held to be unlikely or impossible. Sometimes used to indicate that the speaker is interested in accomplishing the task, but believes that the opportunity will not arise. "I'll implement the automatic layout stuff in my copious free time."

The phrase is also used for time reserved for bogus or otherwise idiotic tasks, such as implementation of bad chrome, or the stroking of suits. "I'll get back to him on that feature in my copious free time."

[Jargon File]

Last updated: 1994-11-30

copper

<hardware>

Conventional electrical network cable with a core conductor of copper (or aluminium!), as opposed to other kinds of connection like a light pipe or microwave link.

[Jargon File]

Last updated: 1994-11-30

Copper Distributed Data Interface

<networking>

(CDDI) FDDI running over conventional copper cables. A Cisco/Crescendo copyright term(?). All FDDI connections, single-attached or dual-attached, can be either optical fibre or copper.

Last updated: 1994-12-14

coprocessor

<architecture>

(Or "accelerator") Hardware, often an integrated circuit, which assists the main processor (the "CPU") by performing specific functions faster than the main processor could.

The most common example is a floating point coprocessor (or "FPU"), others are graphics (GPU) and networking.

The coprocessor may decode instructions in parallel with the main processor and execute only those instructions intended for it.

Last updated: 1995-01-05

copy and paste

<text>

(Or "cut and paste", after the paper, scissors and glue method of document production) The system supported by most document editing applications (e.g. text editors) and most operating systems that allows you to select a part of the document and then save it in a temporary buffer (known variously as the "clipboard", "cut buffer", "kill ring"). A "copy" leaves the document unchanged whereas a "cut" deletes the selected part.

A "paste" inserts the data from the clipboard at the current position in the document (usually replacing any currently selected data). This may be done more than once, in more than one position and in different documents.

More sophisticated operating systems support copy and paste of different data types between different applications, possibly with automatic format conversion, e.g from rich text to plain ASCII.

GNU Emacs uses the terms "kill" instead of "cut" and "yank" instead of "paste" and data is stored in the "kill ring".

[Origin? Macintosh? Xerox?]

Last updated: 1998-07-01

copybook

<programming, library>

(Or "copy member", "copy module") A common piece of source code designed to be copied into many source programs, used mainly in IBM DOS mainframe programming.

In mainframe DOS (DOS/VS, DOS/VSE, etc.), the copybook was stored as a "book" in a source library. A library was comprised of "books", prefixed with a letter designating the language, e.g., A.name for Assembler, C.name for Cobol, etc., because DOS didn't support multiple libraries, private libraries, or anything. This term is commonly used by COBOL programmers but is supported by most mainframe languages. The IBM OS series did not use the term "copybook", instead it referred to such files as "libraries" implemented as "partitioned data sets" or PDS.

Copybooks are functionally equivalent to C and C++ include files.

Last updated: 1997-07-31

copybroke

<security>

/kop'ee-brohk/ (Or "copywronged" - a play on "copyright") 1. Used to describe an instance of a copy-protected program that has been "broken"; that is, a copy with the copy-protection scheme disabled or removed.

2. Copy-protected software which is unusable because of some bit-rot or bug that has confused the copy protection.

3. Used to describe data damaged because of a side effect of a copy protection system.

[Jargon File]

Last updated: 1997-03-16

copying garbage collection

<storage>

A garbage collection method where memory is divided into two equal halves, known as the "from space" and "to space". Garbage collection copies active cells from the from space to the to space and leaves behind an invisible pointer (an "indirection") from the old position to the new copy. Once all active cells have been copied in one direction, the spaces are swapped and the process repeated in the opposite direction.

Last updated: 2022-10-30

copyleft

<legal>

/kop'ee-left/ (A play on "copyright") The copyright notice and General Public License applying to the works of the Free Software Foundation, granting reuse and reproduction rights to everyone.

Typically copyrights take away freedoms; copyleft preserves them. It is a legal instrument that requires those who pass on a program to include the rights to use, modify, and redistribute the code; the code and the freedoms become legally inseparable.

The copyleft used by the GNU Project combines a regular copyright notice and the "GNU General Public License" (GPL). The GPL is a copying license which basically says that you have the aforementioned freedoms. The license is included in each GNU source code distribution and manual.

copy member

copybook

copy module

copybook

copy protection

<security>

Any technique designed to prevent unauthorised copying of software. Such techniques will only hinder the most incompetant attempts at software theft but often prevent legitimate customers from using products they have paid for in the way they want. Considered silly.

[Jargon File]

Last updated: 2010-02-03

copyright

<legal>

The exclusive rights of the owner of the copyright on a work to make and distribute copies, prepare derivative works, and perform and display the work in public (these last two mainly apply to plays, films, dances and the like, but could also apply to software).

A work, including a piece of software, is under copyright by default in most coutries, whether of not it displays a copyright notice. However, a copyright notice may make it easier to assert ownership. The copyright owner is the person or company whose name appears in the copyright notice on the box, or the disk or the screen or wherever. Most countries have agreed to uphold each others' copyrights.

A copyright notice has three parts. The first can be either the copyright symbol (a letter C in a circle), the word "Copyright" or the abbreviation "Copr". Only the first of these is recognised internationally and the common ASCII rendering "(C)" is not valid anywhere. This is followed by the name of the copyright holder and the year of publication. The year should be the year of _first_ publication, it is not necessary as some believe to update this every year to the current year. Copyright protection in most countries extends for 50 years after the author's death.

Originally, most of the computer industry assumed that only the program's underlying instructions were protected under copyright law but, beginning in the early 1980s, a series of lawsuits involving the video screens of game programs extended protections to the appearance of programs.

Use of copyright to restrict redistribution is immoral, unethical and illegitimate. It is a result of brainwashing by monopolists and corporate interests and it violates everyone's rights. Such use of copyrights and patents hamper technological progress by making a naturally abundant resource scarce. Many, from communists to right wing libertarians, are trying to abolish intellectual property myths.

See also public domain, copyleft, software law.

Universal Copyright Convention.

US Copyright Office.

Usenet newsgroup: misc.legal.computing.

[Is this definition correct in the UK? In the US? Anywhere?]

Last updated: 2014-01-08

copyright symbol

<character, legal>

"©" The internationally recognised symbol required to introduce a copyright notice, a letter C with a circle around it. This can be encoded in ISO 8859-1 as character code decimal 169, hexadecimal A9, in HTML as ©, © or ©.

A "c" in parentheses: "(c)" is sometimes used in documents stored in a coded character set such as ASCII that does not include the C in a circle, but this has no legal meaning.

Last updated: 2009-01-06

copywronged

copybroke

Nearby terms:

coordination language ♦ copious free time ♦ copper ♦ Copper Distributed Data Interface

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