soft
In computer science, soft is used to describe things that are intangible. For example, you cannot touch software. It’s like music — you can see musical scores and touch CDs and tapes, but the music itself is intangible. Similarly, you can see software instructions (programs), and touch floppy disks on which the programs are stored, but the software itself is intangible.
Soft is also used to describe things that are easily changed or impermanent. In contrast, hard is used to describe things that are immutable.
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- soft boot
Same as warm boot.
- soft bounce
When e-mailing, soft bounce is used to describe an e-mail that has bounced back to the sender undelivered after it has already been accepted by the recipient’s mail server. Compare with hard bounce.
- soft error
An error occurence in a computer’s memory system that changes an instruction in a program or a data value. Soft errors typically can be remedied by cold booting the computer. A soft error will not damage a system’s hardware; the only damage is to the data that is being processed. There are two types of […]
- soft font
A font that is copied from a computer’s disk to a printer’s memory. Soft fonts can be erased, unlike resident fonts (fonts that are built into the printer) or font cartridges. Soft fonts are generated by a font program in the computer. You can control the program to specify the font size and other characteristics. […]
- soft phone
(sâft fMn) (n.) Also spelled as softphone, an application that enables a desktop, laptop or workstation computer to function as a telephone via Voice over IP technology that uses the cables of a computer network as the medium for transmitting telephone service. Equipped with a headset or a hand-held device, and using the numbers on […]