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chain [n]

1)	a series of things depending on each other as if linked together; "the chain of command"; "a complicated concatenation of circumstances"

Synonyms :

concatenation

See Also:

series catenate catena daisy_chain

2)	(chemistry) a series of linked atoms (generally in an organic molecule)

Synonyms :

chemical_chain

3)	a series of (usually metal) rings or links fitted into one another to make a flexible ligament

Synonyms :

4)	a number of similar establishments (stores or restaurants or banks or hotels or theaters) under one ownership

Synonyms :

5)	anything that acts as a restraint

Synonyms :

See Also:

constraint

6)	a unit of length

Synonyms :

7)	British biochemist (born in Germany) who isolated and purified penicillin, which had been discovered in 1928 by Sir Alexander Fleming (1906-1979)

Synonyms :

ernst_boris_chain sir_ernst_boris_chain

See Also:

biochemist

8)	a series of hills or mountains; "the valley was between two ranges of hills"; "the plains lay just beyond the mountain range"

Synonyms :

chain_of_mountains mountain_chain mountain_range range range_of_mountains

9)	metal shackles; for hands or legs

Synonyms :

chains iron irons

See Also:

bond

10)

a necklace made by a stringing objects together; "a string of beads"; "a strand of pearls";

Synonyms :

strand string

See Also:

necklace draw

chain [v]

1)	connect or arrange into a chain by linking

Synonyms :

See Also:

arrange concatenate

2)	fasten or secure with chains; "Chain the chairs together"

Synonyms :

See Also:

fasten unchain

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing: (http://www.foldoc.org/, Editor Denis Howe)

1. (From BASIC's "CHAIN" statement) To pass control to a child or successor without going through the operating system command interpreter that invoked you. The state of the parent program is lost and there is no returning to it. Though this facility used to be common on memory-limited microcomputers and is still widely supported for backward compatibility, the jargon usage is semi-obsolescent; in particular, Unix calls this exec.

Compare with the more modern "subshell".

2. A series of linked data areas within an operating system or application program. "Chain rattling" is the process of repeatedly running through the linked data areas searching for one which is of interest. The implication is that there are many links in the chain.

3. A possibly infinite, non-decreasing sequence of elements of some total ordering, S

x0 <= x1 <= x2 ...

A chain satisfies:

for all x,y in S, x <= y \/ y <= x.

I.e. any two elements of a chain are related.

("<=" is written in LaTeX as \sqsubseteq).

[Jargon File]

(1995-02-03)

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