Encapsulation

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Encapsulation \En*cap`su*la"tion\, n. (Physiol.)
     The act of inclosing in a capsule; the growth of a membrane
     around (any part) so as to inclose it in a capsule.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:



  encapsulation
       n 1: the condition of being enclosed (as in a capsule); "the
            encapsulation of tendons in membranous sheaths"
       2: the process of enclosing (as in a capsule)

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  encapsulation
       
          1. The technique used by layered protocols in which a layer
          adds header information to the protocol data unit (PDU) from
          the layer above.  As an example, in Internet terminology, a
          packet would contain a header from the physical layer,
          followed by a header from the network layer (IP), followed by
          a header from the transport layer (TCP), followed by the
          application protocol data.
       
          2. The ability to provide users with a well-defined interface
          to a set of functions in a way which hides their internal
          workings.  In {object-oriented programming}, the technique of
          keeping together data structures and the methods (procedures)
          which act on them.
       
          (1998-09-07)