Merge (traffic)

In traffic engineering, the late merge or zipper method is a convention for merging traffic into a reduced number of lanes. Drivers in merging lanes are expected to use both lanes to advance to the lane reduction point and merge at that location, alternating turns.

The late merge method contrasts with the early merge method. A related scheme is the dynamic late merge.

The late merge method has not been found to increase throughput (throughput is the number of vehicles that pass through a point in a given period of time). However, it considerably reduces queue ("backup") length (because drivers use the ending lane until its end) and reduces speed differences between the two lanes, increasing safety.

Governments hold campaigns to promote the late merge method because irritation, aggression and feelings of insecurity easily occur while "zipping". Often drivers who change lanes too early don't like to see other drivers continue until the end of the drop-away lane, even though this late merging is encouraged by the authorities. In Belgium and Germany, a driver must actually use the late merge by law (a driver can be penalised if he does not). In Austria only where a traffic sign so indicates.

Merge (software)

Merge is a software system which allows a user to run DOS/Windows 3.1 on SCO UNIX, in an 8086 virtual machine.

History

Merge was originally developed to run DOS under UNIX System V Release 2 on an AT&T 6300 Plus personal computer. Development of the virtual machine began in late 1984, and AT&T announced the availability of the machine on October 9, 1985, referring to the bundled Merge software as SimulTask. (The PC6300 Plus shipped with MS-DOS in 1985 though, because its Unix System V distribution was not ready until the end March 1986.) Merge was developed by engineers at Locus Computing Corporation, with collaboration from AT&T hardware and software engineers, particularly on aspects of the system that were specific to the 6300 Plus (in contrast to a standard PC/AT).

The AT&T 6300 Plus contained an Intel 80286 processor, which did not include the support for 8086 virtual machines (virtual 8086 mode) found in the Intel 80386 and later processors in the x86 family. On the 80286, the DOS program had to run in realmode. The 6300 Plus was designed with special hardware on the bus that would suppress and capture bus cycles from the DOS program if they were directed toward addresses not assigned for direct access by the DOS virtual machine. Various system registers, such as the programmable interrupt controller, and the video controller, had to be emulated in software for the DOS process, and a watchdog timer was implemented to recover from DOS programs that would clear the interrupt flag and then hang for too long. The hardware used the Non Maskable Interrupt (NMI) to take control back to the emulation code. More detail may be seen in the patent referenced in the External Links below.

Merge (linguistics)

Merge (usually capitalized) is one of the basic operations in the Minimalist Program, a leading approach to generative syntax, when two syntactic objects are combined to form a new syntactic unit (a set). Merge also has the property of recursion in that it may apply to its own output: the objects combined by Merge are either lexical items or sets that were themselves formed by Merge. This recursive property of Merge has been claimed to be a fundamental characteristic that distinguishes language from other cognitive faculties. As Noam Chomsky (1999) puts it, Merge is "an indispensable operation of a recursive system ... which takes two syntactic objects A and B and forms the new object G={A,B}" (p. 2).

Mechanisms of Merge

Within the Minimalist Program, syntax is derivational, and Merge is the structure-building operation. Merge is assumed to have certain formal properties constraining syntactic structure, and is implemented with specific mechanisms.

Binary branching

Merge takes two objects α and β and combines them, creating a binary structure.

Merge (version control)

Merging (also called integration) in version control, is a fundamental operation that reconciles multiple changes made to a version-controlled collection of files. Most often, it is necessary when a file is modified by two people on two different computers at the same time. When two branches are merged, the result is a single collection of files that contains both sets of changes.

In some cases, the merge can be performed automatically, because there is sufficient history information to reconstruct the changes, and the changes do not conflict. In other cases, a person must decide exactly what the resulting files should contain. Many revision control software tools include merge capabilities.

Types of merges

There are two types of merges: automatic and manual.

Automatic merging

Automatic merging is what version control software does when it reconciles changes that have happened simultaneously (in a logical sense). Also, other pieces of software deploy automatic merging if they allow for editing the same content simultaneously. For instance, Wikipedia allows two people to edit the same article at the same time; when the latter contributor saves, their changes are merged into the article instead of overwriting the previous set of changes.

Traffic (ABC album)

Traffic is the first new album of original material released by English band ABC in eleven years. The album's songs were written whilst the band toured the United States in 2006. Critics have described the album as the most 'satisfying ABC album since the mid-'80s by far'.

Drummer David Palmer, who left the band in 1982 after recording The Lexicon of Love, returned to record this album, for which he co-wrote all of the tracks.

Gary Langan returned to mix the album after working as sound engineer on The Lexicon of Love and producing Beauty Stab.

Allmusic described Traffic as 'the album that ABC fans were probably hoping for in 1985' and considered that Fry's 'lyrical mastery was back in place' in the album's songs which showed 'an elegant mix of soul and style'.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Martin Fry, Chuck Kentis, and David Palmer.

Traffic (disambiguation)

Traffic is the flux or passage of motorized vehicles, unmotorized vehicles, and pedestrians on roads; or the commercial transport and exchange of goods; or the movement of passengers or people.

Traffic or trafficking may also refer to:

In transportation

In art, entertainment, and media

In film

In music

Traffic (Traffic album)

Traffic is the second studio album by the English rock band Traffic, released in 1968 on Island Records in the United Kingdom as ILP 981T (mono)/ILPS 9081T (stereo), and United Artists in the United States, as UAS 6676 (stereo). It peaked at number 9 in the UK albums chart and at number 17 on the Billboard 200. It was the last album recorded by the group before their initial breakup.

Background and content

In January 1968, after some initial success in Britain with their debut album Mr. Fantasy, Dave Mason had departed from the group. He produced the debut album by the group Family, containing in its ranks future Traffic bass player Ric Grech, while Traffic went on the road. In May, the band had invited Mason back to begin recording the new album.

Mason ended up writing and singing half of the songs on the album (including his biggest hit "Feelin' Alright?"), but making scant contribution to the songs written by Jim Capaldi and Steve Winwood. His flair for pop melody had always been at odds with the others' jazz ambitions, evidenced by the dichotomy seen for the songs on this album, and by October he was again out of the band. He would return one more time for a tour and album in 1971 to run out the band's contract.