descriptive

adj 1: serving to describe or inform or characterized by

description; "the descriptive variable"; "a

descriptive passage" [ant: {undescriptive}]

2: concerned with phenomena (especially language) at a

particular period without considering historical

antecedents; "synchronic linguistics"; "descriptive

linguistics" [syn: {synchronic}] [ant: {diachronic}]

3: (grammar) describing the structure of a language;

"descriptive linguistics simply describes language" [ant:

{prescriptive}]

descriptor

An integer, string or other small data

value which refers to one of several objects allocated to a

program by the {operating system}, usually the {kernel}. A

common example is a {Unix} {file descriptor} which is a small

integer that identifies an I/O channel. Another example is a

reference to an area of memory (e.g. {shared memory}).

Compare {capability}.

(1998-02-06)