Free On-line Dictionary of Computing
Online, searchable, encyclopedic dictionary of computing subjects
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (FOLDOC) is an online, searchable, encyclopedic dictionary of computing subjects.
01History
FOLDOC was founded in 1985 by Denis Howe and was hosted by Imperial College London. In May 2015, the site was updated to state that it was "no longer supported by Imperial College Department of Computing". Howe has served as the editor-in-chief since the dictionary's inception, with visitors to the website able to make suggestions for additions or corrections to articles.
02Open sourcing
The dictionary incorporates the text of other free resources, such as the Jargon File, as well as covering many other computing-related topics. Due to its availability under the GNU Free Documentation License, a copyleft license, it has in turn been incorporated in whole or part into other free content projects, such as Wikipedia.
03Recognition
- This site's brief 2001 review by a Ziff Davis publication begins "Despite this online dictionary’s pale user interface, it offers impressive functionality."
- Oxford University Press knows of them, and notes that it "is maintained by volunteers."
- A university tells its students that FOLDOC can be used to find information about "companies, projects, history, in fact any of the vocabulary you might expect to find in a computer dictionary."
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Free On-line Dictionary of Computing”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Foldoc-screenshot.png by The original uploader was DenisHowe at English Wikipedia., GPL
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