B
backed-up window
A window whose contents are backed up, so that the window never becomes invalid, and therefore never needs to be redrawn except at application request.
See also: redraw, invalid, window
background colour
The colour with which to fill the parts of the view rectangle in which text (and paragraph fill colour, if one has been set) cannot appear. Examples of such areas are below the last line of the document and in the label and line cursor margins. May also be used to fill the left text margin, if one has been set.
See also: text area, paragraph fill colour, line cursor margin, label margin, left text margin, line
backup
Process of safeguarding data on the device by copying it to PC. Symbian OS has a backup and restore framework which applications should use to ensure that system backups can happen effectively.
backward compatibility
Updating a component in such a way that client code which used the original version can continue to work with the updated version.
See also forward compatibility
BAFL
Basic Application Framework Library, a collection of various utilities.
See also: Engine Utilities
band
Printing : Horizontal portions of a page whose height depends on the size of the memory buffer of the printer device in use.
See also: printer device
bandwidth
Bandwidth is commonly used to refer to the amount of data that can be passed along a communications channel in a given period of time. To be more accurate, both bandwidth and the speed of a connection determine the rate at which a computer or network sends or receives data. As a good measure of performance, Internet 'bandwidth' connections are usually rated in terms of how many bits they pass per second (bit/s).
bank
An area of physical address space reserved for a particular type of memory (for example, RAM, ROM, I/O) and which may be empty or only partially filled
baseband
The band of frequencies of a signal before it is modulated for transmission at another frequency. A baseband processor refers to dedicated processor in a mobile phone to handle communication functions.
base station
A base station is a fixed transceiver that acts as the link between a mobile phone and the landline network. Mobile phone networks are composed of an array of base stations that in combination provide coverage of a network's geographic area. Each base station's range of reception is determined by the area it covers and the number of calls that it is likely to process. In remote areas, a base station is likely to forgo power for increased area of transmission.
base year
Application Engines : In an anniversary entry, this allows the application to display a number of years between the base year and the current anniversary.
based-on link
Text Content : A pointer to the format layer whose attributes are inherited by another layer. To find out a character or paragraph's effective formatting, all based-on links must be examined, beginning at the format layer upon which all other layers are based.
See also: format layer, effective format
baseline
The baseline of a character is the notional line that splits the descent of a character from its ascent.
See also: character cell ascent, character cell descent
baseline offset
The perpendicular distance from the baseline of a font to another parallel line, such as the underline, strikethrough, superscript or subscript position.
See also: baseline
BDB
Bank Descriptor Block, a list of entries describing banks.
bdf file
Binary distribution format - used in font definition files.
See also: Fontcomp
bearer
A telephone network used to carry a call.
bearer name
The type of data service, for example, Asynchronous or Synchronous.
BER
Bit error rate.
binary compatibility
Modifying a library in such a way that code which linked against the previous version can continue to run with the new version without needing recompilation.
binary mode
When a file is open in binary mode, the data bytes in the file are read and written without any intervention by the file system.
See also: text mode
BIO
BIO stands for Bearer Independent Object
BITGDI
The screen and bitmap-specific graphics drawing component.
See also: bitmap
bitmap
Provides the pixel patterns used by pictures, icons and masks, sprites and brush styles for filling areas of the display.
See also: mbm
bitmap converter tool
Converts bitmaps between MS Windows to Symbian bitmap format and vice versa.
See also: multi-bitmap file format
bitmap mask
A bitmap whose pixels are used to hinder or allow the individual pixels of another bitmap to be written to a graphics device.
See also: icon, bitmap
bitmap primitive
A graphics operation to draw a bitmap.
See also: graphics operation, bitmap
bldmake tool
SBSv1 build tool. It processes the component description file (bld.inf) in the current directory, and generates a batch file (abld.bat) and several build batch makefiles (.make.abld) which are used to build the component.
See also: abld.bat batch file
blit
Block transfer copy of pixel data from memory to a graphics device.
See also: stretch blit
BLOB
Binary Large OBject: a collection of binary data held in a file store or database. Commonly used to represent multimedia objects such as images, sounds and video.
Bluetooth® wireless technology
A short-range radio communications technology, standardised by the Bluetooth SIG (Special Interest Group) in the form of the Bluetooth Specification, for wireless communications of data and voice between both mobile and stationary devices. For instance, it specifies how mobile phones, computers and PDAs interconnect with each other, with computers, and with office or home phones. The first generation of Bluetooth® wireless technology permits exchange of data up to a rate of 1 Mbps per second, even in areas with much electromagnetic disturbance. It transmits and receives via a short-range radio link using a globally available frequency band (2.4 GHz ISM band).
Bmconv
Tool that converts bitmaps between Windows and Symbian OS bitmap formats.
bmp file
Extension for a Windows bitmap file.
See also: windows bitmap
bootloader
Optional code which runs immediately on reset, before the bootstrap.This is also referred to as the core loader, or just the loader.
bootstrap
A short program, often written in assembler, which gains control when the machine is first powered on. The bootstrap sets up an environment that allows the Kernel to continue to boot Symbian OS (for example, setting up memory, I/O devices and creating virtual memory space).
bps
Bits per second: a way of quantifying data transmission throughput. It is the number of pieces of information (bits) transmitted or received per second.
brush
The brush is used, in basic graphics functions, for filling areas drawn with the shape primitives, and also for text background fills.
See also: pen, graphics context, brush attribute
brush attribute
Brush attributes, in basic graphics functions, are: brush colour, brush origin, brush style.
See also: brush, brush origin, brush style
brush colour
The colour which the brush uses for fills.
See also: brush attribute
brush origin
The point at which the top left corner of the pattern reference tile is positioned.
See also: brush attribute
brush style
The style with which the brush fills fillables. This may be null, solid colour, a built-in pattern or a bitmap pattern.
See also: brush attribute
Brutus
Development board for the StrongArm SA-1100.
BSS
A section in an executable's disk image that denotes how much uninitialised data the executable needs to run.
buffer
An area of memory designated to contain a portion of data awaiting processing.
See also: dynamic buffer, descriptor
buffer position
The position of a byte within a segmented or flat buffer: bytes are numbered from zero, and the address of the byte indexed by a given buffer position is calculated each time the buffer is accessed.
See also: flat buffer, segmented buffer
built-in type
Data types which are part of the C++ language; for example, unsigned int, unsigned char.
button co-ordinator
An object which co-ordinates the behaviour of a group of option buttons. It keeps track of the current chosen option button.
See also: option button
