R

race condition
An undesirable condition when two or more operations may be attempted simultaneously, and the system behaviour depends on which is processed first.

RAM Disk
A simulated disk drive whose data is actually stored in RAM. Preserved over warm resets.

Rcomp
The filename of the resource compiler.
See also: resource compiler

read-only
A file or directory attribute. Indicates that the file or directory cannot be modified or deleted, but a read-only directory may have its contents modified or deleted.
See also: attribute

read-only data file
When used in the context of the world server, the term read-only file refers to the file used as the main source for the world database arrays. It is usually stored in ROM, but may be overwritten by a file in RAM, C:\Resource\worldserver\Wld_Data.dbz.

real name
The name used to store a file on disk. For some file systems, this may not be the same as the name used by most file system calls.

receiver
For Bluetooth, the device that receives a communications request from an initiator.

recognizer
Plug-in code that can examine sample data, and return, if recognized, its data type. A data type is also commonly known as a MIME type.
See also: MIME

rectangle
A rectangle specified in terms of its top-left corner and the co-ordinate below and to the right of its bottom-right corner.
See also: point, region

redraw
Part or all of a window must be redrawn if either the window server causes it to be invalidated, or the application model changes, requiring an update.
See also: window, invalid

redraw event
An event from the window server indicating that part of a window must be redrawn.
See also: redraw, window server

reference city
Searches for the city nearest to a specified map co-ordinate are always started from a reference city.

reference counting object
An object which can track concurrent references to itself, and which arranges automatic destruction of itself when the final reference is removed.

reference designs
User interface designs for Symbian OS delivered to Symbian licensees.

region
A region used, for example, in clipping or maintaining the invalid region of a window. Implemented as a list of rectangles.
See also: rectangle, window

registered alarm
A CAgnAlarm object that handles the interface between the agenda model and the alarm server.

registry
A Message Server abstraction that provides facilities to locate and load particular MTM components.

remote file system
A file system that mediates access to files that are remote from the machine (perhaps linked by a network), and which may not use native machine formats. The remote file system is responsible for translating the non-native format into the correct form required for all File Server Client Side API calls. Must be an installable file system.
See also: file system

releasable
A separately built item (executable, library, device driver etc.) which forms part of a component.

renderer
A supplementary application that controls the drawing of surface
content to the surface of a component. A renderer describes how pixels are
written to the screen.

repeat details
The definition of the dates on which a repeating entry occurs, made up of a repeat algorithm and exceptions.
See also: repeating entry

repeating entry
An agenda entry which has its repeat details set.
See also: repeat details

repro, reproing
The act of erasing what was on the flash memory, and re-programming it with a new ROM image. Also the name of the tool used to do this.

request function
A function provided by an asynchronous service provider to initiate an asynchronous service.
Requests are indicated by function calls with a TRequestStatus reference parameter.
See also: asynchronous service provider, cancel function

request semaphore
A semaphore created when a thread is created and is used to indicate the completion of an asynchronous request; the request status is used to distinguish between different requests.
See also: asynchronous request, request status. semaphore

request status
An object that indicates the completion status of a request represented by TRequestStatus.
See also: asynchronous request

requisite
A file that must be present for an application to run, for example a DLL.

reschedule
The operation of changing the currently executing thread. This involves saving the register contents of the currently executing thread and restoring those of the newly executing thread. If the new thread is in a different process, there is a context switch too.

residual stub file
Remains of installation file (sis file) stored in system directory to prevent over-writing and assist in application removal.
See also: sis file, Makesis

resolver
For communications, turns a symbolic address into an actual address. The best known resolver is the Domain Name Service (DNS) for TCP/IP.

resource
Data defined in a resource file, externally to a program. The resource file contains language-dependent string text and specifications of user interface elements.
See also: resource file, resource compiler, Rcomp

resource compiler
A tool for creating a resource file from text input.
See also: resource, Rcomp

resource file
The file containing the resources for a particular program.

resource header file
A file containing a definition of all the resources used by a particular control. It can be #included in a resource file and has the extension .rh.
See also: Rcomp, resource file, resource

review alarm
Alarms that are set to activate at some time in the past, for example, as a result of a change to daylight saving time.
See also: Timed alarm, untimed alarm, orphan alarm, clock alarm, snoozed alarm

RFC
Request For Comments: an IETF standard.

RFCOMM
An interface that allows an application to treat a Bluetooth link in a similar way as if it were communicating over a serial port.

rich text
Editable text with character and paragraph format attributes that may be different for each character and paragraph of the text object.
See also: editable text, text object, format attribute, picture

rich text object
A text object containing rich text.
See also: rich text, text object

right adjust
The number of pixels to move after displaying a character.
See also: left adjust

RLP
Radio Link Protocol. A protocol used over the air interface.

RNG
Ring Indicate. An RS232 input line that is generally held high by a modem while the telephone is ringing.
See also: RS232

rollback
Undoing a change in such a way that the net effect is that no change in the state of an application or its data can be perceived.
In the context of DBMS, this means to abandon a transaction and restore the previous state of the database.
In the context of exception handling, this is normally a requirement of cleanup after an exception has occurred.
See also: transaction, commit, leave, cleanup

ROM file system
The ROM contains files which may be read and executed in place, but not written. It holds code and data that must persist when the phone is switched off. On Symbian OS, it is usually identified as the Z:drive.
See also: file system

root certificate
A self-signed certificate: the root of a certification hierarchy.

root folder
A folder name selector will display all folders beneath this folder.
See also: folder name selector

root stream
A stream in a persistent store from which all other streams within that store can be found.
See also: stream id, UID

root stream dictionary
The stream dictionary stored in the root stream of a document: each entry in the dictionary is a main stream of the document's data.
See also: document head stream, stream dictionary, root stream

row
Data from a database; described by a column set.
See also: database, rowset, column set

rowset
A set of rows returned by a database, as a result of an SQL query or opening a table.
See also: row, database, SQL, table, cursor

RS232
This is the standard for serial data transmission using cables, normally carrying between ±5V and ±12V on both data and control signal lines.

rss file
Resource source file, for input to the resource compiler.

rtf
Rich text file.

rtf source file
Contains text, conveyed in styled markup, for a help file. This includes the category (application) name, help file UID and the topic titles, context terms, synonyms, index terms, and body text. See also: CS help compiler

RTS
Request To Send. An RS232 output line that can be held high to indicate we are able to receive data.
See also: RS232

RVCT
ARM's RealView Compilation Tools