What is the means of word "Boolean" in computers?

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What is the means of word "Boolean" in computers?

IS it related to hardware or software or both?

Is it a logic or name of function or data types?

Off topic

What is the meaning of this word "Boolean" in English language?

Edit :

I know this page on wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boolean but it has many links related to this term. I wanted to know the good answer in short thought reading all links of wiki will take a long time.

I thought it was good to ask on SO to know expert views.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boolean_data_type

Rocket Ronnie 2010-10-16 15:10:22

http://www.google.com/search?sclient=psy&hl=en&site=webhp&source=hp&q=define:+boolean&aq=f&aqi=g5&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&pbx=1

bwawok 2010-10-16 15:10:27

Please do not send people to Google as an answer.

Oded 2010-10-16 15:14:59

@Oded: "Please do not send people to Google" is good advice, while "Please do not ask questions that can easily be answered by using a search engine" is bad behavior? Seriously, sometimes I think it's beneficial to tell those people that their question is sub-par.

Tomalak 2010-10-16 15:36:48

@Tomalak - Both are bad and should be discouraged, in my opinion. However, I believe Jeff and Joel _want_ the first Google results for even such questions to come here...

Oded 2010-10-16 15:38:28

@Oded: But how *do* you tell people that they should use a search engine when you are not "allowed" to tell them that they should use a search engine? Apart from that, I do not believe one second that the OP has no concept of Booleans, so the question makes even less sense.

Tomalak 2010-10-16 15:40:52

@Tomalak - from this and other recent questions from him, it appears obvious that he is rep farming. I would say that downvoting and commenting on such questions is the accepted way to discourage these questions.

Oded 2010-10-16 15:42:32

@Oded - I don't need rep. Sometime I want to know the thoughts of SO experts. Everyones know we can search on google. If anything is available on google then it doesn't mean question should not be asked here.

metal-gear-solid 2010-10-16 15:48:09

@metal-gear-solid - Fair enough. All I can say, is that in the future, if you have such a question, explain that you are looking for the opinions and thought of the community and that Google is not good enough for that ;)

Oded 2010-10-16 15:53:11

@Oded: I do not believe in downvoting as a behavioural corrective. Also the amount of answers (including one from you) and a positive net rep balance for the OP show that this concept does not work. This question describes no genuine problem, the answers create now new knowledge and frankly "go Google it" is a legitimate response in my opinion. But then again, the "say the truth" vs. "be P.C." dispute is long lost on SO. :-\ (Oh, and for my part I'm not here to do the SEO for Jeff.)

Tomalak 2010-10-16 15:54:06

Oded 2010-10-16 15:56:41

I agree with everything Tomalak has said. +1's across the board. If this isn't Rep farming, it should be in the community wiki. Personally, I think questions like these make SO look bad.

vol7ron 2010-10-16 16:04:10

@vol7ron - I updated my question and I agree with you. community wiki checkbox is not showing in my account. It's strange.

metal-gear-solid 2010-10-16 16:16:31

@Tomalak agree with everything. Silly questions deserve silly answers. Pretty simple.

bwawok 2010-10-16 16:59:57

@metal-gear-solid, @vol7ron - community wiki is _gone_. The powers that be have decided it is not useful. If you want to mark a question as community wiki, you need to flag it to moderator attention, they can still make it happen.

Oded 2010-10-16 20:35:55

@bwawok - problem is, this isn't even a silly answer. It is simply a link to google.

Oded 2010-10-16 20:36:30

@Oded: At least a link to Google is ultimately more useful than a silly answer. ;) It is both a guide to more info *and* a hint that there's something wrong with the question. Instead of just the latter.

Tomalak 2010-10-16 20:47:49

It is related to hardware, in that the little hardware switches that represent bits in computers are either on or off (i.e., ground voltage level or a small positive voltage level indicating the 1 bit). Also, in programming, the boolean type represents a true or false value and most strongly typed languages support this type.

Michael Goldshteyn 2010-10-16 15:10:38

+6 A:

It is a value type named after George Boole, a mathematician from the 1800's. A boolean value is either true or false. At the hardware level, everything is boolean (0's and 1's). At the software level, boolean values are used anywhere logic needs to be performed -- statements such as if, while and for all evaluate boolean expressions to see if they should be performed.

Kaleb Brasee 2010-10-16 15:12:07

Actually, Boolean is not `0s` and `1s`, it's `0` and not `0`. This is especially important in multi-state hardware that measures 0s, 1s, and states in between. `0` and `1` represent the crest and the trough of an electrical sin wave. Engineers found that they could also use the inflection point as well as other points to record partial bits.

vol7ron 2010-10-16 18:18:11

Boolean means a value that can be either True or False, or any other binary representation of true and false. It's named for George Boole, an English mathematician who first explored the mathematics of pure true and false values.

Ned Batchelder 2010-10-16 15:12:22

It is simply a word for true/false (on/off) type logic and data.

It is used both in hardware (for example - on may be defined as about 5 Volts, off as less then that) and for software.

It is both used for a type of logic (boolean logic) and for data types that hold only two states.

It is named after George Boole who invented the logic.

Oded 2010-10-16 15:12:39

@Oded "It is simply a word for true/false (on/off)" so is it a simplest logic in programming ever?

metal-gear-solid 2010-10-16 15:41:19

@metal-gear-solid - You know it is.

Oded 2010-10-16 15:43:26

Can the downvote please explain?

Oded 2010-10-16 20:22:39

ansaurus

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What is the means of word "Boolean" in computers?

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