mod

1. filename extension, application, file format, music

(module) The filename extension for a sampled music file

format that originated on the Commodore Amiga. A .MOD

file is composed of digitised sound samples, arranged in

patterns to create a song. There are .MOD players for most

personal computers including Amiga, Archimedes, IBMPC, and Macintosh.

An IBM PC will require a sound card capable of handling

digitised samples (Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro,

GUS) and slower Intel 80386-based PCs may not be able to

do anything else while playing a module.

.MOD files differ from .MID (MIDI) files in that they

contain sound samples. This allows each song to use different

sounds but it also puts more load on the CPU than playing a

MIDI file, since more data must be processed for each note. A

slow CPU would benefit from a sound card with wavetablesynthesis which handles samples instead of the CPU.

Module files come in various formats including .MOD. Formats

evolved from .MOD include .S3M, .FAR and .669. Most contain

improvements on .MODs.

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2. jargon modify or modification.

This abbreviation is very common - in fact the full terms are

considered formal. "Mods" is used especially with reference

to bug fixes or minor design changes in hardware or software,

most especially with respect to patch sets or a diff.

3. programming A common name for the modulo operator.

(1999-07-14)