14 lines
2.5 KiB
HTML
14 lines
2.5 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>foreground</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../F.html" title="F"/><link rel="previous" href="fora.html" title="fora"/><link rel="next" href="fork.html" title="fork"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">foreground</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="fora.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">F</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="fork.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="foreground"/><dt xmlns="" id="foreground"><b>foreground</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">vt.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> [Unix; common] To bring a task to the top of one's
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<a href="../S/stack.html"><i class="glossterm">stack</i></a> for immediate processing, and hackers often
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use it in this sense for non-computer tasks. “<span class="quote">If your presentation is
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due next week, I guess I'd better foreground writing up the design
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document.</span>”</p><p>Technically, on a timesharing system, a task executing in foreground
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is one able to accept input from and return output to the user; oppose
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<a href="../B/background.html"><i class="glossterm">background</i></a>. Nowadays this term is primarily
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associated with <a href="../U/Unix.html"><i class="glossterm">Unix</i></a>, but it appears first to have
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been used in this sense on OS/360. Normally, there is only one foreground
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task per terminal (or terminal window); having multiple processes
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simultaneously reading the keyboard is a good way to
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<a href="../L/lose.html"><i class="glossterm">lose</i></a>.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="fora.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../F.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="fork.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">fora </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> fork</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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