User's Manual

Glossary
DLL
Acronym for “dynamic link library”. DLLs are special
program routines that are not loaded from the program library
until they are actually needed. This reduces the amount of
main memory occupied by a program.
Drag and drop
This method of interaction in Windows (originally developed
by Apple) allows, for example, part of a text document to be
marked with the mouse, after which it can be pulled into a
different window by clicking the selected text with the left
mouse button and releasing the button when the pointer is
over the desired location. The selected text is then inserted at
the location of the mouse pointer. This is called dragging and
dropping, and is the easiest way to exchange data between
programs or to move objects within a user interface.
Driver
A program that integrates peripheral devices into the system
so that they can function properly.
FAT
Short for “File Allocation Table”. The operating system
stores the exact locations of all files on a disk in this file.
File allocation table
Called FAT for short, this is a special file that is used by the
operating system to store all information about the exact
location of all files on a disk.
File attribute
The attributes that can be assigned to a file depend on the
operating system. MS-DOS, for example, supports the
following attributes: archive, read only, system and hidden.
File extension
A suffix at the end of a file name, located after the dot. Many
programs identify the file type by means of this extension, for
example files with the extension “.doc” are normally
associated with Microsoft Word.
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