[di-skrip-ter] 
| 1. | a significant word or phrase used to categorize or describe text or other material, esp. when indexing or in an information retrieval system. |
| 2. | Computers. a data item that stores the attributes of some other datum: a task descriptor. |
| de·scrip·tor (dĭ-skrĭp'tər) n. Computer Science A word, phrase, or alphanumeric character used to identify an item in an information storage and retrieval system. [Late Latin, describer, from Latin dēscrībere, dēscrīpt-, to describe; see describe.] |
descriptor operating system
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)
tər