18 lines
1014 B
Plaintext
18 lines
1014 B
Plaintext
background
|
|
|
|
n.,adj.,vt. [common] To do a task in background is to do it whenever
|
|
foreground matters are not claiming your undivided attention, and to
|
|
background something means to relegate it to a lower priority. For now,
|
|
we'll just print a list of nodes and links; I'm working on the
|
|
graph-printing problem in background. Note that this implies ongoing
|
|
activity but at a reduced level or in spare time, in contrast to mainstream
|
|
back burner (which connotes benign neglect until some future resumption of
|
|
activity). Some people prefer to use the term for processing that they have
|
|
queued up for their unconscious minds (a tack that one can often fruitfully
|
|
take upon encountering an obstacle in creative work). Compare amp off ,
|
|
slopsucker. Technically, a task running in background is detached from the
|
|
terminal where it was started (and often running at a lower priority);
|
|
oppose foreground. Nowadays this term is primarily associated with Unix ,
|
|
but it appears to have been first used in this sense on OS/360.
|
|
|