The New Penguin Dictionary of Computing by Dick Pountain, Penguin, 拢14.99, ISBN 0140514376
YOU might ask whether anyone really needs a computer dictionary, given that all this stuff is on the Web. Well, just last week I spent an hour trying to find a definition of dual-domain in-plane switching. A dictionary is quick and always available, and Dick Pountain has given us a reliable one.
It鈥檚 probably not a good idea, however, to mark the back of such a beast 鈥渦p-to-date鈥�. Nothing in print is ever timely any more. And there鈥檚 nothing in this volume about the fact that the American restrictions on exporting cryptography software stronger than 56 bits were eased in mid-2000.
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Still, Pountain, who has worked on Personal Computer World and Byte magazines, has done a pretty good job of assembling a solid book full of readable explanations of all sorts of terms from ARM (the technology and the company) to robots. Exactly how the entries were chosen is confusing: why Pipex (first commercial British ISP) and not Demon (first domestic British ISP)? Why RIP (raster image processor) and RIP (routing information protocol) but not RIP (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act)? Why accessibility options (as in Microsoft Windows) but not dual-domain in-plane switching? Still looking鈥�