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mumpsmore about mumps

mumps

 

  4  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Mumps  \Mumps\,  n.  [Prov.  E.  mump  to  be  sulky.  Cf  {Mump}, 
  {Mumble},  and  {Mum}.] 
  1.  pl  Sullenness;  silent  displeasure;  the  sulks.  --Skinner. 
 
  2.  [Prob.  so  called  from  the  patient's  appearance.]  (Med.)  A 
  specific  infectious  febrile  disorder  characterized  by  a 
  nonsuppurative  inflammation  of  the  parotid  glands; 
  epidemic  or  infectious  parotitis. 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  mumps 
  n  :  an  acute  contagious  viral  disease  characterized  by  fever  and 
  by  swelling  of  the  parotid  glands  [syn:  {epidemic 
  parotitis}] 
 
  From  The  Free  On-line  Dictionary  of  Computing  (13  Mar  01)  [foldoc]: 
 
  MUMPS 
 
  (Or  "M")  Massachusetts  General  Hospital  Utility 
  Multi-Programming  System. 
 
  A  programming  language  with  extensive  tools  for  the  support  of 
  {database  management  system}s.  MUMPS  was  originally  used  for 
  medical  records  and  is  now  widely  used  where  multiple  users 
  access  the  same  databases  simultaneously,  e.g.  banks,  stock 
  exchanges,  travel  agencies,  hospitals. 
 
  Early  MUMPS  implementations  for  {PDP-11}  and  {IBM  PC}  were 
  complete  {operating  system}s,  as  well  as  programming 
  languages,  but  current-day  implementations  usually  run  under  a 
  normal  host  {operating  system}. 
 
  A  MUMPS  program  hardly  ever  explicitly  performs  low-level 
  operations  such  as  opening  a  file  -  there  are  programming 
  constructs  in  the  language  that  will  do  so  implicitly,  and 
  most  MUMPS  programmers  are  not  even  aware  of  the  {operating 
  system}  activity  that  MUMPS  performs. 
 
  Syntactically  MUMPS  has  only  one  data-type:  strings. 
  Semantically,  the  language  has  many  data-types:  Text  strings, 
  binary  strings,  {floating  point}  values,  integer  values, 
  {Boolean}  values.  Interpretation  of  strings  is  done  inside 
  functions,  or  implicitly  while  applying  mathematical 
  operators.  Since  many  operations  involve  only  moving  data 
  from  one  location  to  another,  it  is  faster  to  just  move 
  uninterpreted  strings.  Of  course,  when  a  value  is  used 
  multiple  times  in  the  context  of  arithmetical  operations, 
  optimised  implementations  will  typically  save  the  numerical 
  value  of  the  string. 
 
  MUMPS  was  designed  for  portability.  Currently,  it  is  possible 
  to  share  the  same  MUMPS  database  between  radically  different 
  architectures,  because  all  values  are  stored  as  text  strings. 
  The  worst  an  implementation  may  have  to  do  is  swap  pairs  of 
  bytes.  Such  multi-CPU  databases  are  actually  in  use  some 
  offices  share  databases  between  {VAX},  {DEC  Alpha},  {SUN}, 
  {IBM  PC}  and  {HP}  {workstation}s. 
 
  Versions  of  MUMPS  are  available  on  practically  all  hardware, 
  from  the  smallest  ({IBM  PC},  {Apple  Macintosh},  {Acorn} 
  {Archimedes}),  to  the  largest  {mainframe}.  MSM  ({Micronetics 
  Standard  MUMPS})  runs  on  {IBM  PC  RT}  and  {R6000};  DSM  (Digital 
  Standard  Mumps)  on  the  {PDP-11},  {VAX},  {DEC  Alpha},  and 
  {Windows-NT};  {Datatree  MUMPS}  from  {InterSystems}  runs  on 
  {IBM  PC};  and  {MGlobal  MUMPS}  on  the  {Macintosh}. 
  Multi-{platform}  versions  include  {M/SQL},  available  from 
  {InterSystems},  {PFCS}    and  {MSM}. 
 
  {Greystone  Technologies}'  GT/M  runs  on  {VAX}  and  {DEC  Alpha}. 
  This  is  a  compiler  whereas  the  others  are  {interpreter}s. 
  {GT/SQL}  is  their  {SQL}  pre-processor. 
 
  ISO  standard  11756  (1991).  ANSI  standard:  "MUMPS  Language 
  Standard",  X11.1  (1977,  1984,  1990,  1995?). 
 
  The  MUMPS  User's  Group  is  known  as  the  {M  Technology 
  Association}. 
 
  {Usenet}  newsgroups:  {news:comp.lang.mumps}. 
 
  (1996-04-28) 
 
 
 
  From  V.E.R.A.  --  Virtual  Entity  of  Relevant  Acronyms  13  March  2001  [vera]: 
 
  MUMPS 
  Massachusetts  general  hospital  Multi-Programming  System




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