taken

adj 1: understood in a certain way; made sense of; "a word taken

literally"; "a smile taken as consent"; "an open door

interpreted as an invitation" [syn: {interpreted}]

2: having possession gained especially by force or effort [ant:

{given}]

3: be affected with an indisposition; "the child was taken

ill"; "couldn't tell when he would be taken drunk"

token

1. A basic, grammatically indivisible unit of a

language such as a {keyword}, operator or identifier.

Compare: {lexeme}.

2. (Or "{pumpkin}") An abstact concept passed

between cooperating agents to ensure synchronised access to a

shared resource. Such a token is never duplicated or

destroyed (unless the resource is) and whoever has the token

has exclusive access to the resource it controls. See for

example {token ring}.

If several programmers are working on a program, one

programmer will "have the token" at any time, meaning that

only he can change the program whereas others can only read

it. If someone else wants to modify it he must first obtain

the token.

(1999-02-23)