From WordNet (r) 2.0 (August 2003) [wn]:
foreground
n 1: the part of a scene that is near the viewer
2: (computer science) a window for an active application
v : move into the foreground to make more visible or prominent;
"The introduction highlighted the speaker's distinguished
career in linguistics" [syn: highlight, spotlight,
play up] [ant: background]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Foreground \Fore"ground`\, n.
On a painting, and sometimes in a bas-relief, mosaic picture,
or the like, that part of the scene represented, which is
nearest to the spectator, and therefore occupies the lowest
part of the work of art itself. Cf. Distance, n., 6.
[1913 Webster]
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (19 Sep 2003) [foldoc]:
foreground
(Unix) On a time-sharing system, a task executing in
foreground is one able to accept input from and return output
to the user in contrast to one running in the 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 confusing.
[Jargon File]
(1994-10-24)
From Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) [jargon]:
foreground
vt.
[Unix; common] To bring a task to the top of one's 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
I'd better foreground writing up the design document."
Technically, on a timesharing 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.