document

document

Computing a piece of text or text and graphics stored in a computer as a file for manipulation by document processing software

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Document

A written, typed, or drawn record.

Illustrated Dictionary of Architecture Copyright © 2012, 2002, 1998 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

document

[′däk·yə·mənt]

(computer science)

Any record, printed or otherwise, that can be read by a human or a machine.

To prepare a written text and charts describing the purpose, nature, usage, and operation of a program or a system of programs.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

document

(application)

Any specific type of file produced or edited by a specific application; usually capable of being printed. E.g. "Word document", "Photoshop document", etc.

document

(hypertext)

A term used on some systems (e.g. Intermedia) for a hypertext node. It is sometimes used for a collection of nodes on related topics, possibly stored or distributed as one.

document

(programming)

To write documentation on a certain piece of code.

This article is provided by FOLDOC - Free Online Dictionary of Computing (foldoc.org)

document

(1) A printed or handwritten paper used to transact business or make an official statement.

(2) A digital file that is typically created by a word processor or text editor. When Apple introduced the Macintosh in 1984, it called every data file a document no matter which software application was used to create it. The terminology migrated to the Windows environment, which provided a My Documents folder and later just one-word Documents folder as the default storage location for text. See file, template and style sheet.

Copyright © 1981-2025 by The Computer Language Company Inc. All Rights reserved. THIS DEFINITION IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. All other reproduction is strictly prohibited without permission from the publisher.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Document

 

a material object containing information in a fixed form and especially intended to be transmitted in time and space. The information may be carried on paper, punched cards, photographic film, magnetic tape, or other means. Documents may contain texts (in a natural or formalized language), images, sound-recorded information, or other representations of data. According to their contents, documents can be classified as scientific and technical (articles, books, patents, technical reports, and descriptions), legal (such as regulations, decrees, and treaties), administrative (orders, instructions), and so on.

Documents may be of primary or of secondary nature (such as synopses, abstracts, annotations, or reviews). By the method of their processing, documents can be divided into semantic (translation, review, annotation) and non-semantic (copying, reproduction, microfilming). In information science, means of automated data-processing are developed, using documents stored in a computer’s memory.

The aggregate of documents dealing with a certain question, phenomenon, process, person, institution, and the like is called documentation.

The functioning of contemporary society and the process of production call for the creation and exchange of a great number of documents that are basically textual. The science of documentation deals with classification of documents and definition of the method of their composition and processing. In the USSR, the basic rules for the drafting and processing of documents for the government and public organizations and private persons dealing with these organizations are established by the State Standard (COST).

In a more limited sense, a document is an official paper certifying a certain fact or a title to something. Thus, in law, a document is often understood to be a written act, drafted in a legally prescribed form certifying facts of legal importance (the birth, educational level, or length of professional service of a person). In history scholarship, a document usually is written evidence testifying to certain facts, most often pertaining to the governmental system or public organizations.

REFERENCES

Mikhailov, A. I., A. I. Chernyi, and R. S. Giliarevskii. Osnovy informatiki, 2nd ed. Moscow, 1968.
Zhukovskaia, O. D., and B. A. Gol’tsev.Dokumentatsiia sovetskikh gosudarstvennykh uchrezhdenii. Moscow, 1970.
Bakharev, V. A., and G. N. Koriakin. Korrespondentsiia i deloproizvodstvo. Moscow, 1971.
Kibernetika i dokumentalistika. Moscow, 1966.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.