Unit installation
Glossary
Altera Corporation 299
Glossary
Glossary
area marquee In the Graphic or Symbol 
Editors, the rectangular boundary 
surrounding an area selection, which is 
created by dragging Button 1 with the 
Selection tool. 
In the Hierarchy Display, the rectangular 
border that is visible as you drag the mouse 
to select an area. The marquee is visible 
only while you are dragging the mouse. 
area selection A defined rectangular 
region that includes one or more adjacent 
objects. In the Graphic and Symbol Editors, 
this area is contained within a rectangular 
border called an area marquee. In the 
Waveform Editor, Floorplan Editor, and 
Hierarchy Display, all objects within an 
area selection are highlighted.
Area selection is the process of selecting 
multiple contiguous objects by dragging 
Button 1 with the Selection tool. In the 
Waveform Editor, such ÒobjectsÓ can 
consist of adjacent nodes and groups, 
whole waveforms, or intervals on one or 
more waveforms. In the Floorplan Editor, 
such ÒobjectsÓ can consist of adjacent pins, 
nodes, logic cells, or assignment bins. In the 
Hierarchy Display, file icons can be 
selected.
In the Graphic and Symbol Editors, 
symbols, arcs, circles, diagonal lines, and 
text blocks must lie completely within the 
area marquee to be selected. When an 
orthogonal line crosses the marquee, only 
the portion within the marquee is selected. 
array see group.
ASCII American Standard Code for 
Information Interchange. Text editing 
software used for any MAX+PLUS II text 
file, e.g., Text Design File (.tdf), Library 
Mapping File (.lmf), or Vector File (.vec), 
must conform to this textual data coding 
system.
assignment In AHDL and VHDL, 
assignment refers to the transfer of a value 
to a symbolic name or group, usually 
through a Boolean equation. The value on 
the right side of the equation is assigned to 
the symbolic name or group on the left.
assignment (resource) see resource 
assignment.
Assignment & Configuration File (.acf) An 
ASCII file (with the extension .acf) that 
stores information about probe, pin, 
location, chip, clique, logic option, timing, 
connected pin, local routing, and device 
assignments, as well as configuration 
settings for the Compiler, Simulator, and 
Timing Analyzer for an entire project.
The ACF stores information entered with 
menu commands in all MAX+PLUS II 
applications, as well as pin, location, and 
chip assignments entered in the Floorplan 
Editor window. You can also edit an ACF 
manually in a Text Editor window.
B
back-annotation The process of copying 
device and resource assignments made by 
the Compiler, which are stored in the Fit 
File (.fit), into the Assignment & 
Configuration File (.acf) for a project. The 
back-annotation process preserves the 
current fit in future compilations. 
background process An application or 
command that can run unattended as you 
perform another task and which can 
generate its own set of messages in a 
Message Processor window. The following 
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