Skip to Main Content
Idaho State University home

Glossary

Filter:
# A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z All
O
O&M
Ob
OCR
OEM
OMB
ONA
OPI
OPM
OPT
OR
ORD
OS
OSI
OSU
OTP
OTT
Out-Of-Band
  • adj. [from telecommunications and network theory] In software, describes values of a function which are not in its `natural' range of return values, but are rather signals that some kind of exception has occurred. Many C functions, for example, return a nonnegative integral value, but indicate failure with an out-of-band return value of -Compare hidden flag, green bytes, fence.
  • Also sometimes used to describe what communications people call `shift characters', such as the ESC that leads control sequences for many terminals, or the level shift indicators in the old 5-bit Baudot codes.
  • In personal communication, using methods other than email, such as telephones or snail-mail.