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Definition: FOCUS


(1) (focus) For cameras, to make an object in view sharper than the surroundings. See autofocus.

(2) (focus) For software, the current window, menu or dialog box that is affected by a key stroke or mouse movement. For example, after clicking from one window to another, the second window is said "to have the focus."

(3) (Federation On Computing in the United States) The U.S. representative of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP). FOCUS was founded in 1991 by the ACM and the IEEE Computer Society (IEEE-CS).

(4) A DBMS from Information Builders that runs on more than 35 different platforms. FOCUS has been widely known for its 4GL and report writing capabilities and is the product that built the company. It included a hierarchical database in its first release in 1975 and has evolved to support more than 80 database and file types including Information Builders' own multidimensional database (FOCUS Fusion). See EDA, WebFOCUS and FOCUS Fusion.