TRN Glossary E

Embedded Systems: Computers built into other machines in order to monitor and control their operations. Embedded Systems are used in machines ranging from coffeemakers to the space shuttle.

Evolutionary Computing: Using algorithms that mimic the genetic and evolutionary processes of natural selection to produce software programs or solve problems. The process of natural selection uses many copies of a piece of code (which corresponds to a biological species' DNA), introduces random changes (mutations), allows the best results to continue (survival of the fittest), mixes their traits (reproduction), and repeats the cycle many times (evolution).

Extensible Markup Language (XML): A simplified version of SGML designed to make it easier for people to create and use electronic documents with new sets of characteristics referred to as document types. The standard document type for electronic hypertext documents is HTML. XML by itself is similar to HTML, and XML documents can be read by most HTML browsers. However, support for the new document types that XML allows people to create must be added to the browser software before the browsers can handle them. The promise of XML is that new types of Internet software can be written to support capabilities that are beyond HTML, like electronic funds transfers and sharing raw scientific data.