B

B               A systems language written by Ken Thompson in 1970 for Unix on
                the PDP-11. B was derived from BCPL and was very similar to it
                except for syntax. B was the predecessor of C. It was used as
                the systems language on Honeywell's GCOS-3.
B               A simple interactive programming language by Lambert Meertens 
                and Steven Pemberton. B was the predecessor of ABC.
B2H		Binary To Hexadecimal.
B-1700          A 24-bit minicomputer by Burroughs Corporation (circa 1976)
                with a writable control store.
B-5500          An early execution-stack architecture (circa 1965) by
                Burroughs Corporation; predecessor of the B6700.
B6700           A Burroughs Corporation execution-stack machine (circa 1970)
                that had a tagged architecture and provided multiprogramming,
                segmentation, and direct hardware support for ALGOL and other
                block-structured programming languages.
BABT            British Approval Boards for Telecommunications. 
BACAIC          Boeing Airplane Company Algebraic Interpreter Coding system. A
                pre-FORTRAN system on the IBM 701 and IBM 650.
BAD             Broken As Designed. Said of a program that is bogus because of
                bad design and misfeatures rather than because of bugginess. 
.BAK		Backup. File name extension.
BAK		Binary Adaptation Kit.
BAL             Basic Assembly Language. What most people called IBM 360 
                assembly language. See ALC.
BALGOL          ALGOL on Burroughs 220.
BALM            Block And List Manipulation. Harrison, 1970. Extensible 
                language with LISP-like features and ALGOL-like syntax, for 
                CDC 6600.
BALUN		BALanced UNbalanced.
BAM             Basic Access Method.
BAM             Bidirectional Associative Memory.
BAM		Boyan Action Module.
BAP             Brain Aid Prolog. A parallel Prolog environment for transputer
                systems by Frank Bergmann, Martin Ostermann, and Guido von
                Walter of Brain Aid Systems GbR. It is based on a model of 
                communicating sequential Prolog processes. The runtime system 
                consists of a multi-process operating system with support for 
                several applications running concurrently.
BARTS		Bell Atlantic Regional TimeSharing.
.BAS		BASic language. File name extension.
BAS             Block of Assignment Statement. The term BAS is a special
                example of a basic block.
BASIC           Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. A
                programming language originally designed as a means of
                teaching FORTRAN.  There are many variations of BASIC with
                differing capabilities; the majority are interpreted but
                compiled BASIC is becoming more popular.  All genuine IBM
                personal computers (including the latest PS/2 models) come
                equipped with a cassette-based BASIC interpreter in ROM.
.BAT		BATch processing. File name extension.
BAT		Block Address Translation.
BAWK            An Awk-like pattern-matching language by Bob Brodt, distributed
                with Minix.
BBC             British Broadcasting Corporation. The UK state television and 
                radio company. They commissioned the "BBC Micro" from Acorn 
                Computers for use in a television series about using computers.
                They also run the BBC Networking Club.
BBL             Be Back Later. 
BBN             Bolt, Beranek, and Newman. A company in Cambridge, 
                Massachusetts, USA. They were awarded the original contract to
                build the ARPANET and have been extensively involved in 
                Internet development. They are responsible for managing NNSC, 
                CSNET, and NEARnet. 
BBS             Bulletin Board System. Used for exchanging files, electronic
                mail and messages.
BC              Branch on Condition.
BCC             Block Check Character. At the completion of a transmission,
                the receiving station sends its BCC to the transmitting
                station to check the accuracy of received data.
BCD             Binary Coded Decimal. A method of data storage where two
                decimal digits are stored in each byte, one in the upper four
                bits and the other in the lower four bits.  Since only the
                values 0 through 9 are used in each half of a byte, BCD
                values can be read as decimal numbers on a hexadecimal display
                of memory or a file.
BCL		Batch Command Language.
BCL             The successor to Atlas Commercial Language.
BCNF            Boyce-Codd Normal Form. A relational schema exists of
                functional dependencies. These FD's should be normalized and
                the "4th" normalization is the BCNF.
BCNU            Be seein' you. Often used on chatlines.
BCP		Bulk Copy Program.
BCPL            Basic Combined Programming Language. British systems language, 
                a descendant of CPL (Combined Programming Language) and the 
                inspiration for B and C. BCPL is low-level, typeless and 
                block-structured, and provides only one-dimensional arrays. 
                Case is not significant, but conventionally reserved words
                begin with a capital. Flow control: If-Then, Test-Then-Else, 
                Unless-Do, While-Do, Until-Do, Repeat, Repeatwhile, 
                Repeatuntil, For-to-By-Do, Loop, Break and 
                Switchon-Into-Case-Default-Endcase. BCPL has conditional 
                expressions, pointers, and manifest constants. BCPL had both 
                procedures: 'Let foo(bar) Be command' and functions: 
                'Let foo(bar) = expression'. 'Valof $(..Resultis..$)' causes a
                compound command to produce a value. Parameters are 
                call-by-value.
BCR		Byte Count Register.
BCS             Basic Combined Subset.
BCS             British Computer Society. 
BCS             Binary Compatibility Standard. 
BDA		Bios Data Area.
BDOS		Basic Disk Operating System.
BE		Below or Equal.
BEA             Basic programming Environment for interactive-graphical 
                Applications, from Siemens-Nixdorf.
BEGL            Back End Generator Language. A code generator description 
                language. The input language for the back end generator BEG.
BEL		BELl.
BELLCORE	BELL COmmunications REsearch.
BER             Basic Encoding Rules. Standard rules for encoding data units 
                described in Abstract Syntax Notation 1 (ASN.1). The BER 
                provide a universal (contiguous) representation of data values.
                They are sometimes incorrectly lumped under the term ASN.1, 
                which properly refers only to the abstract syntax description
                language, not the encoding technique.
BERT		Bit Error Rate Test/Tester.
BF		Bad Flag.
B/F		Background/Foreground.
BFF		Binary File Format.
BFIM            BeFore IMage. A recovery strategy, known as shadowing, writes
                a new item at a different disk location, so multiple copies
                of a data item can be maintained. In general, the old value
                of the data item before updating is called the BFIM, and the
                new value after updating is called the AFIM. See also AFIM.
BFPF            Boltzmann Firing Probability Function.
BFT		Binary File Transfer.
BGA             Baal Grid Array.
BGE		Branch if Greater or Equal.
.BGI		Borland Graphic Interface. File name extension.
BGP		Border Gateway Protocol. An Exterior Gateway Protocol defined 
		in RFC 1267 and RFC 1268. Its design is based on experience 
		gained with Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP), as defined in 
		STD 18, RFC 904 and EGP usage in the NSFNet backbone, as 
		described in RFCs 1092 and 1093.
BGT		Branch if Greater Than.
BHC		Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem code. An error detection and 
		correction technique based on Cyclic Redundancy Code, used
		in telecommunications applications.
BHI		Branch if HIgher.
BHIS		Branch if HIgher or Same.
BI		Binary Input.
.BIB		BIBliography. File name extension.
BIBOP		BIg Bag Of Pages. Where data objects are tagged with some kind 
		of descriptor (giving their size or type for example) memory 
		can be saved by storing objects with the same descriptor in 
		one "page" of memory. The most significant bits of an object's
		address are used as the BIBOP page number. This is looked up 
		in a BIBOP table to find the descriptor for all objects in that
		page.
BiDi		BI-DIrectional.
BIFET           BIpolar Field-Effect Transistor.
BIM             Beginning-of-Information Marker.
.BIN		BINary. File name extension.
BINAC		BINary Automatic Computer.
BIND		Berkeley Internet Name Domain.  Implementation of a DNS server 
		developed and distributed by the University of California at
		Berkeley. Many Internet hosts run BIND, and it is the ancestor 
		of many commercial BIND implementations.
BIOS            Basic Input-Output System. That part of the I/O-system on a
                PC or similar processor that directly controls the hardware
                interface devices (e.g. PPIs and UARTs); usually found in ROM.
BIPS		Billion (10^9) Instructions Per Second.
BIS		Business Information System.
BISAM           Basic Indexed Sequential Access Method.
BISDN		Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network.
BIST		Built-in Self Test. The technique of designing circuits with 
		additional logic which can be used to test proper operation of
	 	the primary (functional) logic.
BiSYNC          Binary Synchronous Communication.  An earlier protocol
                developed by IBM for software applications and communicating
                devices operating in synchronous environment. The protocol
                defines operations at the link level of communications, for
                example, the format of data frames exchanged between modems
                over a phone line.
BIT		BInary digiT.
BITNET		Because It's Time NETwork. An academic and research computer 
		network connecting approximately 2500 computers. BITNET 
		provides interactive, electronic mail and file transfer 
		services, using a store-and-forward protocol, based on IBM 
		Network Job Entry protocols
BITNIC		BITnet Network Information Center.
BIU		Bus Interface Unit.
BIX		Byte Information eXchange.
BJC4000		Bubble Jet Color. A colour bubble jet printer from Canon. 
		Released in September 1994. It features 720 x 360 dots per inch
 		in black and white mode and 360 x 360 in colour. It has two 
		cartridges: one for black and one for the three primary 
		colours so it prints true black when printing in colour.
.BK!		BacKup. File name extension of WordPerfect.
BKSP		BacKSPace.
BL		BackLit.
BL              Bus Link.
BLAST		BLocked ASynchronous Transmission protocol.
.BLD		basic BLoad Graphics. File name extension.
BLE		Branch if Less or Equal.
BLISS		Basic Language for Implementation of System Software. An 
		expression language, block-structured, and typeless, with 
		exception handling facilities, coroutines, a macro system, and
		a highly optimising compiler. One of the first non-assembly
		languages for operating system implementation. Gained fame for
 		its lack of a goto. Also lacks implicit dereferencing: all 
		symbols stand for addresses, not values.
BLK		BLocK.
BLMC		Buried Logic MacroCell.
BLOB            Binary Large Object. In recent database applications, the
                need may arise for storing data items that consist of large
                unstructured objects, which represent images, digitized
                video and audio streams or free text. These are referred as
                the BLOBs. Normally, a BLOB data item is stored separately
                from its record in a pool of disk blocks and a pointer to the
                BLOB is included in the record.
BLOS		Branch if Lower Or Same.
BMASF		Basic Module Algebra Specification Language.
BMDP		BioMeDical Package. A statistical language developed at UCB in
 		1961, first implemented in FORTRAN for the IBM 7090.
BMF		Bird-Meertens Formalism. A calculus for derivation of 
		functional programs from a specification. It consists of a set
		of higher-order functions that operate on lists including map,
		fold, scan, filter, inits, tails, cross product and function 
		composition.
BMI		Branch if MInus.
BMIC		BusMaster Interface Controller.
BMP		Batch Message Processing program.
.BMP		BitMaP. File extension.
BNC		Bayonet Navy Connector, British Naval Connector, or Bayonet
		Neill Concelman. A connector for coaxial cable such as that 
		used for some video connections and RG58(?) ethernet 
		("cheapernet") connections. A BNC connector has a bayonet-type
 		shell with two small knobs on the female connector which lock 
		into spiral slots in the male connector when it is twisted on.
BNE		Branch if Not Equal.
BNF		Backus-Naur Form. A formal meta-syntax used to express 
		context-free grammars. Backus Normal Form was renamed 
		Backus-Naur Form at the suggestion of Donald Knuth. BNF is one 
		of the most commonly used metasyntactic notations for 
		specifying the syntax of programming languages, command sets, 
		and the like. It is widely used for language descriptions but
		seldom documented anywhere (how do you document a metasyntax?),
	 	so that it must usually be learned by osmosis.
BNS             Backbone Network Service.
BO		Binary Output.
BOB             Big Oracle Blocks.
BoB		Break-Out Box
BOCS		Berard Object and Class Specifier. An Object-oriented CASE 
		tool from Berard Software Engineering.
BOF		Birds Of a Feather. An informal discussion group, scheduled on 
		a conference program or formed ad hoc, to consider a specific 
		issue or subject. It is not clear where or when this term 
		originated, but it is now associated with the USENIX 
		conferences for Unix techies and was already established there 
		by 1984. It was used earlier than that at DECUS conferences 
		and is reported to have been common at SHARE meetings as far 
		back as the early 1960s.
BOM		Beginning Of Message.
BOOTP		BOOTstrap Protocol. A protocol described in RFCs 951 and 1084 
		and used for booting diskless workstations.
BORPQU		BORland Pro QUattro.
BORQU		BORland QUattro.
BOS		Basic Object System. A C-callable library that implements the 
		notion of object and which uses Tcl as its interpreter for 
		interpreted methods (you can have "compiled" methods in C, and 
		mix compiled and interpreted methods in the same object, plus 
		lots more stuff). I regularly (a) subclass and (b) mixin 
		existing objects using BOS to extend, among other things, the 
		set of tk widgets (I have all tk widgets wrapped with BOS 
		"classes"). BOS is a class-free object system, also called a 
		prototype-based object system; it is modelled loosely on the 
		Self system from Stanford University.
BOSS		Bridgport Operating System Software. A derivative of the 
		ISO 1054 numerical machine control language for milling, etc.
BOT		Beginning Of Table.
BOT             Beginning-Of-Tape marker.
BP              Base Pointer. A base register in the 8088 microprocessor.
BPB             BIOS Parameter Block. The BIOS Parameter Block stores the
                low-level layout of a drive.
BPI		Bits Per Inch. A measure of the recording density of a 
		magnetic tape or disk.
BPL		Branch if Plus.
BPS             Bits Per Second.(Binary bits).
BQS		Berkeley Quality Software. Term used in a pejorative sense to 
		refer to software that was apparently created by rather 
		spaced-out hackers late at night to solve some unique problem.
		It usually has nonexistent, incomplete, or incorrect 
		documentation, has been tested on at least two examples, and
		core dumps when anyone else attempts to use it. This term was 
		frequently applied to early versions of the "dbx(1)" debugger.
BR		Bad Register.
BR              Boot Record. The instructions that allow the computer's hard 
                disk to load the operating system. The boot record is a 
                favorite target for a virus infection because it is run each 
                time the computer is run.
BRB		Be Right Back. Used on chat lines.
B-REP		Boundary REPresentation.
BRGC		Binary Reflected Gray Code.
BRI             Basic Rate Interface. A kind of Integrated Services Digital
 		Binary To HexadecimaNetwork channel consisting of two 64 Kbit 
		per second "bearer" (B) channels for user-data transfer plus 
		a 16 kbps "delta" (D) channel for control and signaling 
		information. A BRI provides a total data rate of 144 kilobits 
		per second. The B channels are used for voice or data, and the 
		D channel is used for signaling and/or X.25 packet networking. 
		BRI is the kind of ISDN interface most likely to be found in 
		residential service.
BRI		Brain Response Interface.
BRS		Big Red Switch. The power switch on a computer, especially the
 		"Emergency Pull" switch on an IBM mainframe or the power 
		switch on an IBM PC where it really is large and red.
BRUIN		BRown University Interactive Language. A simple interactive 
		language with PL/I-like syntax, for IBM 360.
BS              BackSpace.
BSA             Business Software Alliance.
BSAM            Basic Sequential Assess Method.
BSC             Binary Synchronous Communication. See BISYNC.
BSC             Binary Synchronous Control (Communication). The name used by 
                IBM for the ISO Basic Mode protocol.
.BSC		Boyan SCript. File name extension.
BSCS		Bachelor of Science in Computer Science.
BSD		Berkely Software/Standard Distribution.
BSD		Berkeley System Distribution. A family of Unix versions for 
		the DEC VAX and PDP-11, developed by Bill Joy and others at
		the University of California at Berkeley. BSD Unix 
		incorporates paged virtual memory, TCP/IP networking 
		enhancements, and many other features.
BSF		Bit Scan Forward.
BSI             British Standards Institute. This is the national standards 
                organization concerned with the production of standards for 
                use by all forms of manufacturing and consumer industries. It 
                is the British member of ISO and acts as a source for all 
                their documents.
BSP             Burroughs Scientific Processor.
BSR		Bit Scan Reverse.
BSS		Block Started by Symbol. The uninitialised data segment 
		produced by Unix linkers. The other segments are the "text"
		segment which contains the program code and the "data" segment
 		contains initialised data. Objects in the bss segment have 
		only a name and a size but no value.
BSV		basic BSave Graphics. File name extension.
BSY		BuSY.
BSYNC		See BiSYNC.
BT		Bit Test.
BTAM            Basic Telecommunications Access Method.
BTB             Branch Target Buffer. 
BTC		Bit Test and Complement.
BTOA		Binary To ASCII.
BTP		Batch Transfer Program.
BTR		Bit Test and Reset.
BTRL		British Telecom Research Laboratories. The laboratories where 
		British Telecom develops many of its new Network services.
BTS		Bit Test and Set.
BTT             Block Tranfer Time. Once the read/write head is at the
                beginning of the required block, some time is needed to
                transfer the data in the block. This block transfer time
                depends on the block size, the track size, and the rotational
                speed.
BTW		By The Way.
BU		Branch Unit.
BUAF		Big Ugly ASCII Font. A special form of ASCII art. Various 
		programs exist for rendering text strings into block, bloob, 
		and pseudo-script fonts in cells between four and six 
		character cells on a side; this is smaller than the letters 
		generated by older banner programs. These are sometimes used 
		to render one's name in a sig block, and are critically 
		referred to as "BUAF"s.
BUAG		Big Ugly ASCII Graphic. Pejorative term for ugly ASCII ART, 
		especially as found in sig blocks. For some reason, mutations 
		of the head of Bart Simpson are particularly common in the
		least imaginative sig blocks.
BUF		BUFfer.
BUGS            Better to Use Genetic Systems
BUSEN           BUS ENable.
BWM		Block-Write Mode.
BWQ		Buzz Word Quotient. The percentage of buzzwords in a speech or 
		documents. Usually roughly proportional to bogosity. See TLA.
BX              Base Register. A register that holds a base address.
BYACC		Berkeley Yet Another Compiler Compiler. Probably the best 
		variant of the Yacc parser generator. Written by Robert 
		Corbett. BYACC was previously known as Zoo, and before that, 
		as Zeus.
BYTE		Binary Element String. = 8 bits.
