Your computer processes data, stores it, and sends it to different peripherals and output devices. Computer science uses a few terms specific to this type of process: spooling, buffering and caching.

To understand spooling, think of it as the process of reeling a document or task list onto a spool, like thread, so it can be unreeled at a more convenient time. Spooling is useful because devices ...

If you’ve ever watched or been on an aircraft sitting on the runway, you might notice the engines begin to hum and spin just before the plane moves. This process is called spooling up, and it’s a ...