:engine: n. 1. A piece of hardware that encapsulates some function
but can't be used without some kind of {front end}. Today we
have, especially, `print engine': the guts of a laser printer.
2. An analogous piece of software; notionally, one that does a lot
of noisy crunching, such as a `database engine'.
The hackish senses of `engine' are actually close to its original,
pre-Industrial-Revolution sense of a skill, clever device, or
instrument (the word is cognate to `ingenuity'). This sense had
not been completely eclipsed by the modern connotation of
power-transducing machinery in Charles Babbage's time, which
explains why he named the stored-program computer that
he designed in 1844 the `Analytical Engine'.
-- The AI Hackers Dictionary
but can't be used without some kind of {front end}. Today we
have, especially, `print engine': the guts of a laser printer.
2. An analogous piece of software; notionally, one that does a lot
of noisy crunching, such as a `database engine'.
The hackish senses of `engine' are actually close to its original,
pre-Industrial-Revolution sense of a skill, clever device, or
instrument (the word is cognate to `ingenuity'). This sense had
not been completely eclipsed by the modern connotation of
power-transducing machinery in Charles Babbage's time, which
explains why he named the stored-program computer that
he designed in 1844 the `Analytical Engine'.
-- The AI Hackers Dictionary
Related:
- engine n.
1. A piece of hardware that encapsulates some
function but can't be used without some kind of front end.
Today we have, especially, `print engine': the guts... - bug n.
An unwanted and unintended property of a program or
piece of hardware,
esp. one that causes it to malfunction. Antonym... - I have sacrificed time, health, and fortune, in the desire to complete these
Calculating Engines.
I have also declined several offers of great personal... - kluge /klooj/
[from the German `klug', clever; poss.
related to Polish `klucz' (a key, a hint, a main point)]... - front end: n. 1. An intermediary computer that does set-up and
filtering for another (usually more powerful but less friendly)
machine (a `back end').
2. What you're talking to when you have a conversation... - demon: n. 1. [MIT] A portion of a program that is not invoked
explicitly,
but that lies dormant waiting for some condition(s)... - Flying/landing on one
engine... - You will be able to appreciate the influence of such an Engine
on the future progress of science.
I live in a country which is incapable of estimating... - airplane rule: n. "Complexity increases the possibility of
failure;
a twin-engine airplane has twice as many engine problems...
