Idle

Updated: 11/06/2021 by Computer Hope

Idle may refer to any of the following:

Idle in purple lettering.

1. Idle describes when something is operating but is not being used. For example, it is idle when your computer is on, but you are not doing anything with it. Today, when a computer or electronic device is idle for too long, it may go into an energy-conserving mode or standby to save power.

2. An idle process is any running process or program that uses computer resources but is not actively being utilized.

3. With Python, IDLE is short for integrated development and learning environment and is an IDE (integrated development environment) introduced on December 22, 1998. IDLE is an easy way for a programmer to write Python code without requiring another IDE to be installed.

4. Regarding chat, an idle user (idler) refers to someone who logged in but hasn't been actively chatting for several minutes. Often these users are away from their keyboard but want to view the conversations that took place while they were gone. In chat services like IRC (Internet Relay Chat) that do not keep logs of everything being said, someone may remain idle 24/7 in IRC so they can see everything said.

AFK, Chat terms, Computer abbreviations, Computer slang, Idle time, Lurking