Online and offline
In computer technology and
"Online" has come to describe activities performed on and data available on the Internet,
History
During the 19th century, the term on line was commonly used in both the railroad and telegraph industries. For railroads, a signal box would send messages down the line (track), via a telegraph line (cable), indicating the track's status: Train on line or Line clear.[5] Telegraph linemen would refer to sending current through a line as direct on line or battery on line;[6] or they may refer to a problem with the circuit as being on line, as opposed to the power source or end-point equipment.[7]
Since at least 1950, in computing, the terms on-line and off-line have been used to refer to whether machines, including computers and peripheral devices, are connected or not.[8] Here is an excerpt from the 1950 book High-Speed Computing Devices:[8]
- The use of automatic computing equipment for large-scale reduction of data will be strikingly successful only if means are provided for the automatic transcription of these data to a form suitable for automatic entry into the machine. For some applications, of which the most prominent are those in which the reduced data are used to control the process being measured, the input must be developed for on-line operation. In on-line operation the input is communicated directly and without delay to the data-reduction device. For other applications, off-line operation, involving automatic transcription of data in a form suitable for later introduction to the machine, may be tolerated. These requirements may be compared with teleprinter operating requirements. For example, some teletype machines operate on line. Their operators are in instantaneous communication. Other teletype machines are operated off line, through the intervention of punched paper tape. The message is preserved by means of holes punched in the tape and is transmitted later by feeding the tape to another machine.
Examples
Offline e-mail
One example of a common use of these concepts with email is a
Offline media playing
Another example of the use of these concepts is
Offline browsing
A third example of a common use of these concepts is a
For communities that lack adequate Internet connectivity—such as developing countries, rural areas, and prisons—offline information stores such as WiderNet's
Offline storage
Likewise,
Offline messages
With the growing communication tools and media, the words offline and online are used very frequently. If a person is active over a messaging tool and is able to accept the messages it is termed as online message and if the person is not available and the message is left to view when the person is back, it is termed as offline message. In the same context, the person's availability is termed as online and non-availability is termed as offline.
File systems
In the context of file systems, "online" and "offline" are synonymous with "mounted" and "not mounted". For example, in file systems' resizing capabilities, "online grow" and "online shrink" respectively mean the ability to increase or decrease the space allocated to that file system without needing to unmount it.
Generalisations
Online and offline distinctions have been generalised from computing and telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered online and what is considered offline has become a subject of study in the field of sociology.[17]
The distinction between online and offline is conventionally seen as the distinction between
Slater asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between online and offline, with a "general tendency to assimilate online to offline and erase the distinction," stressing, however, that this does not mean that online relationships are being reduced to pre-existing offline relationships. He conjectures that greater legal status may be assigned to online relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, online are already seen as just as "real" as their offline counterparts), although he states it to be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony to people who have had a purely online sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an online/offline distinction may be seen by people as "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 10 years.[17]
This distinction between online and offline is sometimes inverted, with online concepts being used to define and to explain offline activities, rather than (as per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) the other way around. Several cartoons appearing in The New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a username and a password before admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the offline store" where "All items are actual size!", shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!"[18][19]
See also
- Computer networking– Network that allows computers to share resources and communicate with each other
- Extremely Online– Phenomenon of over-engaging with Internet culture
- NLS – 1960s computer collaboration system, or the "oN-Line System"
- Offline reader – Computer software
- On the fly § Computer usage – Change to a system while the process it affects is ongoing
- Online algorithm – Algorithm that begins on possibly incomplete inputs
- Online and offline algorithms – Algorithm that begins on possibly incomplete inputs
- Online editing – Software for several users to edit a fileoffline editing – Post production film process – the online/outline distinction in video editing– Editing live television and video production and
- Online (magazine) – Journal
- Online volunteering– Online volunteering
- Open access (publishing)– Research publications distributed freely online
- Presentity – Refers to an entity that has presence information associated with it
- Reputation – Social opinion about an entity
- Website mirroring software– Computer software
References
- ^ Federal Standard 1037C [1]
- ^ "online". Dictionary of British and World English. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 11 July 2012. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
- ^ "Synonyms of online in English". Oxford Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 20 April 2014. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
- ^ "19 things we miss about the early days of the web". Den of Geek.
- ^ Great Britain Board of Trade (1874). Great Britain Railways: Accidents. Court of Inquiry Reports. p. 33. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
train on line.
- ^ Society of Telegraph Engineers (1879). Journal of the Society of Telegraph Engineers: Including Original Communications on Telegraphy and Electrical Science, Volume 8. p. 172. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
- ^ William Lynd (1885). The practical telegraphist and guide to the telegraph service. p. 47. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
- ^ a b The staff of Engineering Research Associates, Inc. (1950). Stiffler, W. W. (ed.). High-Speed Computing Devices. McGraw Hill Book Company, Inc. p. 19. Retrieved 2 September 2022.
- ISBN 0-07-223070-3.
- ISBN 0-87288-715-4.
- ISBN 1-903282-46-2.
- ISBN 0-02-864287-2.
- ISBN 0-86840-499-3.
- ISBN 1-928994-80-6.
- ^ "The eGranary Digital Library". er.educause.edu. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
- ^ "Internet Archive: Offline Archive". archive.org. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
- ^ ISBN 0-7619-6510-6.
- ISBN 1-57851-439-8.
- ^ "The "off-line store" cartoon from The New Yorker". Archived from the original on 10 April 2016. Retrieved 6 September 2007.
- This article incorporates public domain material from Federal Standard 1037C. General Services Administration. Archived from the original on 22 January 2022. (in support of MIL-STD-188).