| LAN
(pronounced
"lann") |
Acronym for
Local Area Network. |
| LANDSCAPE
MODE |
Outputting pages in horizontal orientation as
opposed to Portrait Mode. |
| LAPM
(pronounced
"L-A-P-M") |
An error correction protocol used in
CCITT V.42. |
| LASER PRINTER |
A printer which uses laser technology to
transfer data to paper, similar to a photo-copier, except that instead of copying an
existing image, the image is transmitted from your computer. |
| LATEX |
Normally written as LaTex or LaTEX, it is a
macro package put on top of *TEX* that implements a form of descriptive markup system in
which the user specifies the function of each piece of text (heading, paragraph, footing
etc) but not it's printed appearance. The source code has been released to the public
domain, and is available for the Amiga with many text files for the Amiga being supplied
in LaTEX format. |
| LAYOUT |
An outline that gives the general appearance of
the printed page, including text and graphics. |
| LCA
(pronounced
"L-C-A") |
Acronym for Luminence, Chroma, Audio, a form of
input for some monitors, where all three signals have separate input sockets. They can be
used for Commodore-64 computers, and they can also be used with a suitable cable for
displaying output from S-VHS video recorders. |
| LEADING |
The amount of additional space or
"lead" between two lines of type, and dates from the days when type-setters used
molten lead. |
| LEFT JUSTIFIED TEXT |
Text with a straight left margin and a ragged
right margin. |
| LEMPEL-ZIV-WELCH |
Better known by the acronym "LZW" it
is a data compression technique that was initially described by Terry A Welch in the June
1984 issue of IEEE's Computer Magazine. Unisys holds a patent on the procedure but the
article describing the algorithm had no mention of this, and it has since become the
subject of much legal confusion. The LZW procedure is simple and very well described, and
soon became a popular technique for data compression, as is used by the well known
GIF
and TIFF image formats. |
| LHA |
A very fast archiver that is compatible with
MS-DOS LhArc and LHA as well as Amiga LhArc. It is very memory efficient, stable, and
reliable, and is the archiver used on Amiga Auckland's BBS. See also Arc,
Archive,
LhArc, and Zoo. |
| LHARC |
An archiver program originally developed for the
MS-DOS environment, that uses LZHUF compression techniques to achieve maximum compression.
See also Arc, Archive, LhA, and
Zoo. |
| LIBRARY |
Programs already present in the operating system
(in the LIBS: directory) to make use of the Amiga's special features, many of which are
written by individuals rather than Commodore but made generally available so are not
necessarily part of the normal distribution. These library functions may be used by
application programs, so that programmers do not need to write their own. However, if the
programmer uses an uncommon library, it should be included with the program and the
install procedure should ensure that it or a later version is installed in the LIBS:
directory. |
| LICENSEWARE |
Public
Domain software that is licensed to a
one or more PD libraries and is similar to shareware except that when you buy from the
library you are buying the shareware and paying the license fee at the same time. The PD
libraries then pass on these fees to the authors. |
| LIM EMS 4.0 |
An enhanced amalgam of the original EMS and EEMS
standards that takes its name from the three major companies involved (Lotus, Intel and
Microsoft) and provides up to 2048 pages each of 4K giving 32Mb maximum memory. This
demanded that any add-on memory totally implemented the new standard, and didn't just try
and emulate it, and many problems arose. |
| LINDA CHIP |
A
new custom chip,
part of the AAA chipset, that functioned as a display line buffer,
assembling data lines and feeding them to Monica, thereby providing very
quick transfer of large volumes of display information. |
| LINE SPACING |
The spacing between lines of text. In
DTP
programs this can be fixed at a specific size, or relative to the font size, or in terms
of leading. Note Professional Page calculates both leading and line spacing from the
baseline to the baseline of any two lines of text. |
| LINE WEIGHT |
The thickness of lines used in structured
graphics and box frames. |
| LINKED TEXT BOXES |
A facility found in many
DTP programs, where a
series of boxes containing text are linked together to form a document, and the text flows
from one box to the next. If the size of a box is changed, the text moves from one box to
the other automatically. |
| LISA CHIP |
The
custom chip responsible for the video
output, and is used to maintain the display on the VDU, and controls the resolution,
colours, sprites, text lines etc. On the A1200 and A4000 machines this chip superceded the
Denise chip which performs the same functions, but Lisa is more powerful. However, this
too has been superceded by Monica in the AAA chipset. |
| LOCAL
AREA NETWORK (acronym "LAN") |
The
combination of hardware and software that allows users' connected PC's, terminals, or
workstations to share information and computing resources such as data storage, software,
printers, scanners, or even other computers. |
| LOCAL BUS |
Peripheral cards such as sound and video cards
connect to the motherboard of a computer via the expansion bus, and the term "Local
Bus" means that the processor has direct access to that bus, and therefore any
expansion card connected to it. Unlike the ISA bus the VL-Bus and PCI Bus standards both
support this mode of operation and therefore are considerably faster than ISA when using
high speed devices such as video cards. |
| LOWERCASE |
Non-capitalised letters of a font, obtained by
pressing the keyboard keys while neither of the SHIFT keys (up-arrow keys above the Alt
keys) are being pressed and the red light of the Caps Lock keys is off. |
| LUMA-KEYING |
The process of using specific luminence
information within a video signal to control the replacement of the image by alternate
video information, such as static images, moving images or computer graphics. It is not as
concise as Chroma-keying because the brightness is much more difficult to control, but
it does provide a useful alternative in circumstances where the use of Chroma-key is
impractical, such as a previously recorded video where the background is not suitable. |
| LUMA |
Refers to the brightness information within a
video signal, and is the same as "Luminence". (see also
CHROMA or CHROMINANCE,
COMPOSITE VIDEO and Y/C. |
| LUMINENCE |
Refers to the brightness information within a
video signal, and is the same as "Luma". (see also
CHROMA or CHROMINANCE,
COMPOSITE VIDEO and Y/C. |
| LZW
(pronounced
"L-Z-W") |
Acronym for
Lempel-Ziv-Welch. |