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Zeus Lexicon

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T

target platform - the miniumum playback platform which your product will support, as in "The target platform is a Pentium with 16 MB or RAM and a 4X CD-ROM."

TBD - To Be Determined.

TCIITM - The Check Is In The Mail, an excuse you can't use with e-mail. See snail mail, USPS, Fed Ex.

temporary variable - so-called because it exists temporarily, specifically only while a handler is being executed. Synonymous with local variable. See variable, global variable.

TEOTWAWKI - The End Of The World As We Know It.

terminal - 1. not a requirement of your condition for Dr. Kervorkian to accomodate your suicide request; 2. where you board a train or airplane; 3. a computer monitor and keyboard oten with a simple processor, hooked to a mainframe, mini-computer or other server. See dumb terminal.

terminal emulation - a terminal emulator is software that allows a computer to behave like a particular type of terminal. For example, terminal emulation software allows a Macintosh to behave like a VT100 terminal when communicating with a VAX.

terminal velocity - the maximum speed at which your terminal will fall when tonked from the roof of a very tall building..

TIA - Thanks In Advance 1. commonly used e-mail abbreviation included at the end of a question, considered to be proper netiquette; 2. a synonym for "please help me, I am polite and harmless"; 3. a synonym for "I know you are busy so I won't clutter your in-box with a separate "Thank You" if you answer my question. (Lengthy assistance may still warrant a separate Thank You). See YWIA.

Tick, The - superhero, and namesake of his own TV show, The Tick.

TIF - the TLE for TIFF files.

TIFF - Tagged Image File Format (pronounced "tiff"), a common graphic file format. See TIF, PICT, BMP.

Tigger - (Tee-Eye-Double Grr-Ur) - The wonderful thing about Tiggers, the Tigger's a wonderful thing. Their tops are made of the rubber, their bottoms are made of the springs. They're bouncy, flouncy, trouncy, pouncy, fun, fun, fun, fun fun! But the most wonderful thing about Tiggers is I'm the only one. See Pooh, Disney, Gopher.

TLE - a Three-Letter Extension typically used in DOS file names. Refer to the TechNote, "File Types, Creator Codes and Extensions. See eight-dot-three.

toast - 1. cooked bread, thrown an University of Pennsylvania football games. 2. to congratulate with words and libations 3. to inebriate 4. What you'll be if you miss your deadline.

Toast - popular software for use with CD-ROM Burners, made by Astarte.

TOC - Table of Contents

token - 1. adj. describing a single item, individual or deed, often used for show, such as a token individual of color in an otherwise homogeneously white organization. 2. a small gift or act to indicate acknowledgement, as in a "token gesture". 3. an ersatz coin used to pay for a subway or other toll. 4. an "entity" in programming, such as the next word being read from a file. 5. a programming "marker" used to indicate ownership or some sort of state. See cookie.

tokenize - to convert Lingo source code into a format that is quickly and easily read by the Lingo interpreter at run-time.

Token Ring - a network topolgy in which a token is passed among the computers on the network.

tonk - to throw out, especially out of the window of a tall building, and with gusto.

Tool Xtras plug-ins for Director (and other Macromedia products) which add functionality to Director's interface. A Tool Xtra might allow you to examine the properties of sprites during development. Tool Xtras are not available to Projectors. See Lingo Xtras, Sprite Xtras, and Transition Xtras.

TOS - Terms of Service.

Toy Story - 1. the first full-length computer generated animated motion picture, created by Pixar, distributed by Disney. 2. one floor of a toy building.

TPFIC - Tongue Planted Firmly In Cheek, not-so-common e-mail abbreviation, indicating that a joke is being made.

TPLE - The Problem Lies Elsewhere indicates that the area which you are examining is not the source of the problem, and you must expand your search to encompass other possibilities, as in "Your car won't start, but there is plenty of gas in the tank, so the problem lies elsewhere."

Transition Xtra - plug-ins for Director and Authorware which add new visual transitions beyond those that are included with Director for use in the Transition channel of the score. Zeus's TranZtions are Transition Xtras. See Lingo Xtras, Sprite Xtras, and Tool Xtras.

Trash - 1. n. uncouth citizenry 2. v. to deprecate, often verbally (as in trash-talk); 3. v. to inebriate or otherwise destroy, as in "This place is trashed"; 4. v. to delete a file, especially on the Macintosh, by dragging it to the Trach can icon usually located in the lower right of the desktop, as in "Try trashing your preferences file"; 5. n. the Trash can icon itself. In one of the worst decisions in the Macintosh interface, dragging a file to the trash will delete the file, but dragging a disk to the trsh will dismount or eject the disk.

triple-wuh - the preferred pronunciation for "www", coined by BAE on March 27, 1997, 9:32 a.m. EST.

trouble-shoot - to diagnose and fix a problem. See debug.

TRUE - a Lingo constant with a value of one (1). See FALSE.

TrueType - a brand name for a collection of fonts.

TSR - Terminate and Stay Resident, a term used to describe utility software that would remain active in a DOS session and could be called up quickly from the background. No longer applies because Windows is multi-tasking.

TTFN - Tah Tah For Now (see Tigger)

Tute - Massachusetts InstiTute of Technology. See IHTFP.

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