state
How something is; its
configuration, attributes, condition, or information content.
The state of a system is usually temporary (i.e. it changes
with time) and volatile (i.e. it will be lost or reset to some
initial state if the system is switched off).
A state may be considered to be a point in some {space} of all
possible states. A simple example is a light, which is either
on or off. A complex example is the electrical activation in
a human brain while solving a problem.
In computing and related fields, states, as in the light
example, are often modelled as being {discrete} (rather than
continuous) and the transition from one state to another is
considered to be instantaneous. Another (related) property of
a system is the number of possible states it may exhibit.
This may be finite or infinite. A common model for a system
with a finite number of discrete state is a {finite state
machine}.
[{Jargon File}]
(1996-10-13)