Understanding Cummins Terminology

[2001Cummins]

Hello guys I am a newbie to the Forum and have been picking up a lot of useful info in regards to the Cummins engines and how they operate I am a ex Caterpillar tech with 14 years of dealer experience a lot of that time dealing with Trucks and a little bit of heavy equipment. I have learned quickly that these Cummins are more complicated when it comes to the flashing process and ECM work. I was wondering if someone could point me int he right direction it better understanding the Cummins ECM terminology and file structure. In the Cat world as everyone knows you have flash files, and in the Cummins world you have .ecfg files and .xcal files and so on. Can someone just dumb it down for me a bit I am going to be following docs on a CM871 we have, I have already been able to follow directions and save a ECM backup off this rig and have started following the @m*m^2 procedure which I failed at a couple of times due to me getting distracted and leaving my computer for a couple hours to find my computer asleep and my work getting lost..... Yes I am an idiot I thought I saved my work but must have saved my work incorrectly. I hear terms like "screen files" and "templates" being thrown around what exactly does that mean? Sorry I am very much a rookie and just trying to learn and I apologize if this is posted in the wrong place. Thank you [/b]