transcription, транскрипция: [ wɛə ]
combining form (Science and Technology) Part of the word software, widely used as a combining form in computing, in words whose first element describes some characteristic of the software under discussion. Used especially in: courseware, software specifically designed for educational use; fontware, typesetting software or other software designed to enable the use of unusual printing fonts and alphabets; freeware, software distributed free to users, without support from its developer; groupware, a related set of software; software belonging to a group of related packages or designed for use by a work-group; middleware, programs which function between an operating system and applications software; shareware, software developed specifically for the purpose of sharing it in the computing community (in practice usually the same thing as freeware, although there is some attempt to register users and provide them with basic support such as a manual and contact with other users, and a fee may be charged for continued use); vapourware, software that as yet only exists in the plans of its developers. Etymology: Formed by splitting the word software into its constituent parts (the adjective soft and the noun ware 'merchandise, goods') and then reapplying -ware in new but similar combinations. History and Usage: These variations on the theme of hardware and software started to develop in the early seventies with the concept of middleware. In practice, most have been names for particular types of software, although at first it appeared that -ware would be used for 'hard' components and other items necessary for the functioning of a computer system as well. In the slang of computer scientists, liveware and wetware survive as humorous names for the human element--the people needed to keep the system running--and the human brain which makes software development possible. (Liveware has also been proposed as the name for a benign type of computer virus, which usefully updates itself each time a disk is loaded.) There was an explosion of new -ware formations in the second half of the eighties (including many of those listed above), partly as a result of the personal computing boom which followed the development of the IBM PC. By the end of the decade the inventors of these terms almost seemed to be competing with each other to create more ingenious and graphic names. The key to good design...was to start thinking about 'liveware' (human beings) along with the hardware and software. Independent 1 May 1987, p. 19 It's useful to think of groupware as a class of products--similar to a toolbox containing tools for diverse tasks. Byte Dec. 1988, p. 275 A third principle is that the ministry does not license vapourware. There has to be at least a pre-production prototype of the software and associated documentation, which can be used and tested before any money changes hands. Guardian 13 July 1989, p. 29 Company president David Miller referred to 'dBASE/SQL' as 'the ultimate vapourware, since it's unannounced, undesigned, undeveloped, unknown, has no marketing plan,...nor any release date or pricing.' Australian Personal Computer Oct. 1989, p. 26 Since groupware began to appear about 18 months ago, most of the programs...try to deliver some new, whizzy benefit to users, such as organizing communications among work-group members. PC World Oct. 1989, p. 49 FormBase includes Bitstream fontware and supports Postscript, Hewlett-Packard Graphic Language printers. The program can print reports, forms with or without data. Daily Telegraph 5 Mar. 1990, p. 27 See also RISC