Toggle

toeprint = T = tool

toggle vt.

To change a bit from whatever state it is in to the other state; to change from 1 to 0 or from 0 to 1. This comes from `toggle switches', such as standard light switches, though the word `toggle' actually refers to the mechanism that keeps the switch in the position to which it is flipped rather than to the fact that the switch has two positions. There are four things you can do to a bit: set it (force it to be 1), clear (or zero) it, leave it alone, or toggle it. (Mathematically, one would say that there are four distinct boolean-valued functions of one boolean argument, but saying that is much less fun than talking about toggling bits.)

--Jargon File, autonoded by rescdsk.

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Tog"gle (?), n. [Cf. Tug.] [Written also toggel.]

1. Naut.

A wooden pin tapering toward both ends with a groove around its middle, fixed transversely in the eye of a rope to be secured to any other loop or bight or ring; a kind of button or frog capable of being readily engaged and disengaged for temporary purposes.

2. Mach.

Two rods or plates connected by a toggle joint.

<-- 3. A toggle switch.

Toggle, v. t. (Computer programming) To change the value of (a program variable) by activating a toggle switch. -->

Toggle iron, a harpoon with a pivoted crosspiece in a mortise near the point to prevent it from being drawn out when a whale, shark, or other animal, is harpooned. -- Toggle joint, an elbow or knee joint, consisting of two bars so connected that they may be brought quite or nearly into a straight line, and made to produce great endwise pressure, when any force is applied to bring them into this position. <-- Toggle switch, (Elec.) an electrical switch operated by pushing a lever through a small angle of deflection. The lever has a spring which returns it to its original position after the pressure applied by the operator is released.

(Computer programming) A mechanism for acquiring input from an operator, such that taking some action (such as pressing a function key on a keyboard) will cause a program variable to take a new value. The values are usually changed in cyclic fashion, so that a certain number of activations of the toggle returns the variable to its initial value. When there are two values to the variable, each activation of the toggle causes the variable to assume the alternate value.

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<-- Illustrations here of toggle iron and togle joint. -->

© Webster 1913.