foreground

	This is the JargonFile ^(V4.00) entry for foreground - Next: fork bomb, Prev: fora
:foreground: /vt./ [[[Unix]]] To bring a task to the top of ones stack for immediate processing, and hackers often use it in this sense for non-computer tasks. "If your presentation is due next week, I guess Id better foreground writing up the design document." Technically, on a time-sharing system, a task executing in foreground is one able to accept input from and return output to the user; oppose background. Nowadays this term is primarily associated with [[[[Unix]]]], but it appears first to have been used in this sense on OS/360. Normally, there is only one foreground task per terminal (or terminal window); having multiple processes simultaneously reading the keyboard is a good way to lose.
* (text is auto-included via JargonExtension by mutante using jargon with VERSION 4.0.0, 24 JUL 1996* - JargonFile by Eric S. Raymond is in the public domain)*