Amethyst

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Amethyst/Brain/Infobot/Module/Excuse.pm  view on Meta::CPAN

Standing room only on the bus.
You need to install an RTFM interface.
That would be because the software doesn't work.
That's easy to fix, but I can't be bothered.
Someone's tie is caught in the printer, and if anything else gets printed, he'll be in it too.
We're upgrading /dev/null
The Usenet news is out of date
Our POP server was kidnapped by a weasel.
It's stuck in the Web.
Your modem doesn't speak English.
The mouse escaped.
All of the packets are empty.
The UPS is on strike.
Neutrino overload on the nameserver
Melting hard drives
Someone has messed up the kernel pointers
The kernel license has expired
Netscape has crashed
The cord jumped over and hit the power switch.
It was OK before you touched it.
Bit rot

Amethyst/Brain/Infobot/Module/Excuse.pm  view on Meta::CPAN

internet is needed to catch the etherbunny
network down, IP packets delivered via UPS
Firmware update in the coffee machine
Temporal anomaly
Mouse has out-of-cheese-error
Borg implants are failing
Borg nanites have infested the server
error: one bad user found in front of screen
Please state the nature of the technical emergency
Internet shut down due to maintainance
Daemon escaped from pentagram
crop circles in the corn shell
sticky bit has come loose
Hot Java has gone cold
Cache miss - please take better aim next time
Hash table has woodworm
Trojan horse ran out of hay
Zombie processess detected, machine is haunted.
overflow error in /dev/null
Browser's cookie is corrupted -- someone's been nibbling on it.
Mailer-daemon is busy burning your message in hell.

Amethyst/Connection/Anarres.pm  view on Meta::CPAN

sub MS_CLASS	() { 0; }
sub MS_CONTENT	() { 1; }	# Might be removed
sub MS_FORMAT	() { 2; }
sub MS_SOURCE	() { 3; }
sub MS_ARGBASE	() { 4; }

# Token type and value, from Parse::Lex->analyze
sub MT_TYPE		() { 0; }
sub MT_VALUE	() { 1; }

sub unescape_string {
	my ($token, $string) = @_;

	$string =~ s/^"//;
	$string =~ s/"$//;
	$string =~ s/\\a/\a/g;
	$string =~ s/\\n/\n/g;
	$string =~ s/\\r/\r/g;
	$string =~ s/\\b/\b/g;
	$string =~ s/\\t/\t/g;
	$string =~ s/\\t/\t/g;

Amethyst/Connection/Anarres.pm  view on Meta::CPAN

	$string =~ s/\\//g;

	return $string;
}

sub handler_init {
	my ($kernel, $session, $heap) = @_[KERNEL, SESSION, HEAP];

	my @INTEGER = qw(INTEGER [0-9]+);
	my @OBJECT = ('OBJECT', '(?:/[^#:=]+)+(?:#[0-9]+)?(?:=[^:]+)?');
	my @STRING = ('STRING', [ '"', '(?s:[^"\\\\]+|\\\\.)*', '"', ], \&unescape_string);
	my @DTUPLE = qw(DTUPLE [a-z][a-z\.]+[a-z]);
	my @ERROR = ('ERROR', '(?s:.*)', sub { die "Can't analyse $_[1]";});

	my $clexer = new Parse::Lex(
	                @INTEGER,
					@OBJECT,
					@STRING,
					@DTUPLE,
					@ERROR  
						);

factpacks/jargon-split.fact  view on Meta::CPAN

airplane rule is  n. "Complexity increases the possibility of   failure; a twin-engine airplane has twice as many engine problems   as a single-engine airplane."  By analogy, in both software and   electronics, the rule that simplicity increases robu...
airplane rule2 is  correspondingly argued that the   right way to build reliable systems is to put all your eggs in one   basket, after making sure that you've built a really *good*   basket. 
aliasing bug is  n. A class of subtle programming errors that can   arise in code that does dynamic allocation, esp. via   `malloc(3)' or equivalent.  If more than one pointer addresses   (`aliases for') a given hunk of storage, it may happen that th...
aliasing bug2 is  then referenced through   another, which may lead to subtle (and possibly intermittent) lossage   depending on the state and the allocation history of the malloc   {arena}.  Avoidable by use of allocation strategies that never   ali...
aliasing bug3 is  higher-level   languages, such as {LISP}, which employ a garbage collector   (see {GC}).  Also called a {stale pointer bug}.  See also   {precedence lossage}, {smash the stack}, {fandango on core},   {memory leak}, {overrun screw}, ...
aliasing bug4 is  nowadays associated with   C programming, it was already in use in a very similar sense in the   Algol-60 and FORTRAN communities in the 1960s. 
all-elbows is  adj. Of a TSR (terminate-and-stay-resident) IBM PC   program, such as the N pop-up calendar and calculator utilities   that circulate on {BBS} systems unsociable.  Used to describe a   program that rudely steals the resources that it n...
all-elbows2 is  also be resident.  One particularly   common form of rudeness is lock-up due to programs fighting over   the keyboard interrupt.  See also {mess-dos}. 
alpha particles is  n. See {bit rot}.
ALT is  /awlt/ 1. n. The ALT shift key on an IBM PC or {clone}.   2. [possibly lowercased] n. The `clover' or `Command' key on a   Macintosh; use of this term usually reveals that the speaker hacked   PCs before coming to the Mac (see also {command k...
ALT2 is  reserve `ALT' for the Option key.  3. n.obs.   [PDP-10] Alternate name for the ASCII ESC character (ASCII   0011011), after the keycap labeling on some older terminals.  Also   `ALTMODE' (/awlt'mohd/).  This character was almost never   pron...
ALT3 is  under   TOPS-10 --- always ALT, as in "Type ALT ALT to end a TECO   command" or "ALT U onto the system" (for "log onto the [ITS]   system").  This was probably because ALT is more convenient to say   than `escape', especially when followed b...
ALT4 is  *and* a character, for that matter). 
alt bit is  /awlt bit/ [from alternate] adj. See {meta bit}.
Aluminum Book is  [MIT] n. `Common LISP The Language', by   Guy L.  Steele Jr. (Digital Press, first edition 1984, second   edition 1990).  Note that due to a technical screwup some printings   of the second edition are actually of a color the author...
Aluminum Book2 is  also {{book titles}}. 
amoeba is  n. Humorous term for the Commodore Amiga personal computer.
amp off is  [Purdue] vt. To run in {background}.  From the UNIX shell `&'   operator.
amper is  n. Common abbreviation for the name of the ampersand (`&',   ASCII 0100110) character.  See {ASCII} for other synonyms.
angle brackets is  n. Either of the characters `<' (ASCII   0111100) and `>' (ASCII 0111110) (ASCII less-than or   greater-than signs).  The {Real World} angle brackets used by   typographers are actually taller than a less-than or greater-than   sig...
angry fruit salad is  n. A bad visual-interface design that uses too   many colors.  This derives, of course, from the bizarre day-glo   colors found in canned fruit salad.  Too often one sees similar   affects from interface designers using color wi...
angry fruit salad2 is  tendency to create displays that are flashy and   attention-getting but uncomfortable for long-term use. 

factpacks/jargon-split.fact  view on Meta::CPAN

dinosaur pen is  n. A traditional {mainframe} computer room complete with   raised flooring, special power, its own ultra-heavy-duty air   conditioning, and a side order of Halon fire extinguishers.  See   {boa}.
dinosaurs mating is  n. Said to occur when yet another {big iron}   merger or buyout occurs; reflects a perception by hackers that   these signal another stage in the long, slow dying of the   {mainframe} industry.  In its glory days of the 1960s, it...
dinosaurs mating2 is  Control Data, General   Electric, Honeywell, NCR, RCA, and Univac.  RCA and GE sold out   early, and it was `IBM and the Bunch' (Burroughs, Univac, NCR,   Control Data, and Honeywell) for a while.  Honeywell was bought out   by ...
dinosaurs mating3 is  Unisys (in 1984 --- this   was when the phrase `dinosaurs mating' was coined); and as this is   written AT&T is attempting to recover from a disastrously bad first   6 years in the hardware industry by absorbing NCR.  More such ...
dirty power is  n. Electrical mains voltage that is unfriendly to   the delicate innards of computers.  Spikes, {drop-outs}, average   voltage significantly higher or lower than nominal, or just plain   noise can all cause problems of varying subtlet...
Discordianism is  /dis-kor'di-*n-ism/ n. The veneration of   {Eris}, a.k.a. Discordia; widely popular among hackers.   Discordianism was popularized by Robert Anton Wilson's   `Illuminatus!' trilogy as a sort of self-subverting Dada-Zen   for Western...
Discordianism2 is  seriously but   is far more serious than most jokes.  Consider, for example, the   Fifth Commandment of the Pentabarf, from `Principia   Discordia' "A Discordian is Prohibited of Believing What he   Reads."  Discordianism is usuall...
Discordianism3 is  theory/joke involving millennia-long warfare between the   anarcho-surrealist partisans of Eris and a malevolent,   authoritarian secret society called the Illuminati.  See   appendix B, {Church of the SubGenius}, and {ha ha only  ...
disk farm is  n. (also {laundromat}) A large room or rooms filled   with disk drives (esp. {washing machine}s).
display hack is  n. A program with the same approximate purpose as a   kaleidoscope to make pretty pictures.  Famous display hacks   include {munching squares}, {smoking clover}, the BSD UNIX   `rain(6)' program, `worms(6)' on miscellaneous UNIXes,  ...
display hack2 is  hacks can also be   implemented without programming by creating text files containing   numerous escape sequences for interpretation by a video terminal;   one notable example displayed, on any VT100, a Christmas tree with   twinkli...
display hack3 is  The {hack   value} of a display hack is proportional to the esthetic value of   the images times the cleverness of the algorithm divided by the   size of the code.  Syn. {psychedelicware}. 
Dissociated Press is  [play on `Associated Press'; perhaps inspired   by a reference in the 1949 Bugs Bunny cartoon "What's Up,   Doc?"] n.  An algorithm for transforming any text into potentially   humorous garbage even more efficiently than by pass...
Dissociated Press2 is  printing any N consecutive   words (or letters) in the text.  Then at every step you search for   any random occurrence in the original text of the last N   words (or letters) already printed and then print the next word or   l...
Dissociated Press3 is  Here is a short   example of word-based Dissociated Press applied to an earlier   version of this Jargon File     wart n. A small, crocky {feature} that sticks out of     an array (C has no checks for this).  This is relatively...
Dissociated Press4 is  bent so as to be     not worth paying attention to the medium in question.   Here is a short example of letter-based Dissociated Press applied   to the same source     window sysIWYG n. A bit was named aften /bee't*/ prefer    ...
Dissociated Press5 is  cast a     chuckle on neithout getting into useful informash speech     makes removing a featuring a move or usage actual     abstractionsidered interj. Indeed spectace logic or problem!   A hackish idle pastime is to apply let...
Dissociated Press6 is  of text and {vgrep} the output in hopes of finding   an interesting new word.  (In the preceding example, `window   sysIWYG' and `informash' show some promise.)  Iterated applications   of Dissociated Press usually yield better...
Dissociated Press7 is  `travesty generators' have been employed with   considerable satirical effect to the utterances of USENET flamers;   see {pseudo}. 
distribution is  n. 1. A software source tree packaged for   distribution; but see {kit}.  2. A vague term encompassing   mailing lists and USENET newsgroups (but not {BBS} {fora}); any   topic-oriented message channel with multiple recipients.  3. A...
distribution2 is  correlated with   geography) to which propagation of a USENET message is restricted;   a much-underutilized feature. 
do protocol is  [from network protocol programming] vi. To perform an   interaction with somebody or something that follows a clearly   defined procedure.  For example, "Let's do protocol with the   check" at a restaurant means to ask for the check, ...
do protocol2 is  collect money from everybody, generate   change as necessary, and pay the bill.  See {protocol}. 
doc is  /dok/ n. Common spoken and written shorthand for   `documentation'.  Often used in the plural `docs' and in the   construction `doc file' (documentation available on-line).
doco is  /do'koh/ [orig. in-house jargon at Symbolics] n. A   documentation writer.  See also {devo} and {mango}.
documentation is  n. The multiple kilograms of macerated, pounded,   steamed, bleached, and pressed trees that accompany most modern   software or hardware products (see also {tree-killer}).  Hackers   seldom read paper documentation and (too) often ...
documentation2 is  terse and on-line.  A common comment on   this is "You can't {grep} dead trees".  See {drool-proof   paper}, {verbiage}. 
dodgy is  adj. Syn. with {flaky}.  Preferred outside the U.S.
dogcow is  /dog'kow/ n. See {Moof}.
dogwash is  /dog'wosh/ [From a quip in the `urgency' field of a very   optional software change request, ca. 1982.  It was something like   "Urgency Wash your dog first".] 1. n. A project of minimal   priority, undertaken as an escape from more serio...
dogwash2 is   Many games and much {freeware} get   written this way. 
domainist is  /doh-mayn'ist/ adj. 1. Said of an {{Internet   address}} (as opposed to a {bang path}) because the part to the   right of the `@' specifies a nested series of `domains';   for example, eric@snark.thyrsus.com specifies the machine   call...
domainist2 is  within the   top-level domain called com.  See also {big-endian}, sense 2.   2. Said of a site, mailer, or routing program which knows how to   handle domainist addresses.  3. Said of a person (esp. a site   admin) who prefers domain a...
domainist3 is  prosyletizes for domainist addressing and disdains {bang   path}s.  This is now (1991) semi-obsolete, as most sites have   converted. 
Don't do that, then! is  [from an old doctor's office joke about a   patient with a trivial complaint] Stock response to a user   complaint.  "When I type control-S, the whole system comes to a   halt for thirty seconds."  "Don't do that, then!" (or ...
dongle is  /dong'gl/ n. 1. A security or {copy-protection} device   for commercial microcomputer programs consisting of a serialized   EPROM and some drivers in a D-25 connector shell, which must be   connected to an I/O port of the computer while th...
dongle2 is  query the port at startup and at   programmed intervals thereafter, and terminate if it does not   respond with the dongle's programmed validation code.  Thus, users   can make as many copies of the program as they want but must pay   for...
dongle3 is  initially a failure, as   users disliked tying up a serial port this way.  Most dongles on   the market today (1991) will pass data through the port and monitor   for {magic} codes (and combinations of status lines) with minimal   if any ...
dongle4 is  --- this   innovation was necessary to allow daisy-chained dongles for   multiple pieces of software.  The devices are still not widely   used, as the industry has moved away from copy-protection schemes   in general.  2. By extension, an...
dongle5 is  required for a program to function.  See   {dongle-disk}. 

factpacks/jargon-split.fact  view on Meta::CPAN

for the rest of us4 is  third-party   reference; thus, "Yes, it is an attractive program, but it's   designed for The Rest Of Them" means a program that superficially   looks neat but has no depth beyond the surface flash.  See also   {WIMP environme...
fora is  pl.n. Plural of {forum}.
foreground is  [UNIX] vt. To foreground a task is to bring it to   the top of one's {stack} for immediate processing, and hackers   often use it in this sense for non-computer tasks. "If your   presentation is due next week, I guess I'd better foregr...
foreground2 is  Technically, on a time-sharing system, a task executing in   foreground is one able to accept input from and return output to   the user; oppose {background}.  Nowadays this term is primarily   associated with {{UNIX}}, but it appears...
foreground3 is  OS/360.  Normally, there is only one foreground   task per terminal (or terminal window); having multiple processes   simultaneously reading the keyboard is a good way to {lose}. 
forked is  [UNIX; prob. influenced by a mainstream expletive] adj.   Terminally slow, or dead.  Originated when one system slowed to   incredibly bad speeds because of a process recursively spawning copies   of itself (using the UNIX system call `for...
Fortrash is  /for'trash/ n. Hackerism for the FORTRAN language,   referring to its primitive design, gross and irregular syntax,   limited control constructs, and slippery, exception-filled   semantics.
fortune cookie is  [UNIX] n. A random quote, item of trivia, joke, or   maxim printed to the user's tty at login time or (less commonly) at   logout time.  Items from this lexicon have often been used as   fortune cookies.  See {cookie file}.
forum is  n. [USENET, GEnie CI$; pl. `fora' or `forums'] Any   discussion group accessible through a dial-in {BBS}, a   {mailing list}, or a {newsgroup} (see {network, the}).  A   forum functions much like a bulletin board; users submit   {posting}s ...
forum2 is  Contrast   real-time chat via {talk mode} or point-to-point personal   {email}. 
fossil is  n. 1. In software, a misfeature that becomes understandable   only in historical context, as a remnant of times past retained so   as not to break compatibility.  Example the retention of octal as   default base for string escapes in {C}, ...
fossil2 is  to ASCII and modern byte-addressable   architectures.  See {dusty deck}.  2. More restrictively, a   feature with past but no present utility.  Example the   force-all-caps (LCASE) bits in the V7 and {BSD} UNIX tty driver,   designed for ...
fossil3 is  of the   usual backward-compatibility goal, this functionality has actually   been expanded and renamed in some later {USG UNIX} releases as   the IUCLC and OLCUC bits.  3. The FOSSIL (Fido/Opus/Seadog   Standard Interface Level) driver s...
fossil4 is  replace the {brain-dead} routines in the IBM PC ROMs.   Fossils are used by most MS-DOS {BBS} software in lieu of   programming the {bare metal} of the serial ports, as the ROM   routines do not support interrupt-driven operation or setti...
fossil5 is  specification allows   additional functionality to be hooked in, drivers that use the   {hook} but do not provide serial-port access themselves are named   with a modifier, as in `video fossil'. 
four-color glossies is  1. Literature created by {marketroid}s   that allegedly containing technical specs but which is in fact as   superficial as possible without being totally {content-free}.   "Forget the four-color glossies, give me the tech ref...
four-color glossies2 is  superficiality even when the   material is printed on ordinary paper in black and white.   Four-color-glossy manuals are *never* useful for finding a   problem.  2. [rare] Applied by extension to manual pages that don't   con...
four-color glossies3 is  program doesn't   produce the expected or desired output. 
fragile is  adj. Syn {brittle}.
fred is  n. 1. The personal name most frequently used as a   metasyntactic variable (see {foo}).  Allegedly popular because   it's easy for a non-touch-typist to type on a standard QWERTY   keyboard.  Unlike {J. Random Hacker} or `J. Random Loser',  ...
fred2 is  (but see {Mbogo,   Dr. Fred}).  2. An acronym for `Flipping Ridiculous Electronic   Device'; other F-verbs may be substituted for `flipping'. 

factpacks/jargon-split.fact  view on Meta::CPAN

meltdown, network is  n.  See {network meltdown}.
meme is  /meem/ [coined on analogy with `gene' by Richard   Dawkins] n. An idea considered as a {replicator}, esp. with   the connotation that memes parasitize people into propagating them   much as viruses do.  Used esp. in the phrase `meme complex'...
meme2 is  memes that form an   organized belief system, such as a religion.  This lexicon is an   (epidemiological) vector of the `hacker subculture' meme complex;   each entry might be considered a meme.  However, `meme' is often   misused to mean `...
meme3 is  acceptance of the idea that in humans (and presumably other tool-   and language-using sophonts) cultural evolution by selection of   adaptive ideas has superseded biological evolution by selection of   hereditary traits.  Hackers find this...
meme plague is  n. The spread of a successful but pernicious {meme},   esp. one that parasitizes the victims into giving their all to   propagate it.  Astrology, BASIC, and the other guy's religion are   often considered to be examples.  This usage i...
meme plague2 is  `joiner' ideologies like Naziism or various   forms of millennarian Christianity have exhibited plague-like cycles   of exponential growth followed by collapses to small reservoir   populations. 
memetics is  /me-met'iks/ [from {meme}] The study of memes.  As of   mid-1991, this is still an extremely informal and speculative   endeavor, though the first steps towards at least statistical rigor   have been made by H. Keith Henson and others.  ...
memetics2 is  among hackers, who like to see   themselves as the architects of the new information ecologies in   which memes live and replicate. 
memory leak is  n. An error in a program's dynamic-store allocation   logic that causes it to fail to reclaim discarded memory, leading   to eventual collapse due to memory exhaustion.  Also (esp. at   CMU) called {core leak}.  See {aliasing bug}, {f...
memory leak2 is  {precedence lossage}, {overrun   screw}, {leaky heap}, {leak}. 
menuitis is  /men`yoo-i:'tis/ n. Notional disease suffered by software   with an obsessively simple-minded menu interface and no escape.   Hackers find this intensely irritating and much prefer the   flexibility of command-line or language-style inte...
menuitis2 is  macros or a special-purpose   language in which one can encode useful hacks.  See   {user-obsequious}, {drool-proof paper}, {WIMP environment},   {for the rest of us}. 
mess-dos is  /mes-dos/ n. Derisory term for MS-DOS.  Often followed   by the ritual banishing "Just say No!"  See {{MS-DOS}}.  Most   hackers (even many MS-DOS hackers) loathe MS-DOS for its   single-tasking nature, its limits on application size, it...
mess-dos2 is  IBMness (see {fear and   loathing}).  Also `mess-loss', `messy-dos', `mess-dog',   `mess-dross', `mush-dos', and various combinations thereof.  In   Ireland and the U.K. it is even sometimes called `Domestos' after a   brand of toilet c...
meta is  /me't*/ or /may't*/ or (Commonwealth) /mee't*/ [from   analytic philosophy] adj.,pref. One level of description up.   A meta-syntactic variable is a variable in notation used to describe   syntax, and meta-language is language used to descri...
meta2 is  briefly, but much hacker humor turns   on deliberate confusion between meta-levels.  See {{Humor,   Hacker}}. 
meta bit is  n. The top bit of an 8-bit character, which is on in   character values 128--255.  Also called {high bit}, {alt bit},   or {hobbit}.  Some terminals and consoles (see {space-cadet   keyboard}) have a META shift key.  Others (including,  ...
meta bit2 is  machines) have an   ALT key.  See also {bucky bits}. 
MFTL is  /M-F-T-L/ [acronym: `My Favorite Toy Language'] 1. adj.   Describes a talk on a programming language design that is heavy on   the syntax (with lots of BNF), sometimes even talks about semantics   (e.g., type systems), but rarely, if ever, h...
MFTL2 is  broadly applied to talks --- even when   the topic is not a programming language --- in which the subject   matter is gone into in unnecessary and meticulous detail at the   sacrifice of any conceptual content.  "Well, it was a typical MFTL...
MFTL3 is  which the developers are   passionate (often to the point of prosyletic zeal) but no one else   cares about.  Applied to the language by those outside the   originating group.  "He cornered me about type resolution in his   MFTL."   The fir...

factpacks/jargon-split.fact  view on Meta::CPAN

Parkinson's Law of Data is  prov. "Data expands to fill the space   available for storage"; buying more memory encourages the use of   more memory-intensive techniques.  It has been observed over the   last 10 years that the memory usage of evolving ...
Parkinson's Law of Data2 is  18 months.  Fortunately, memory density   available for constant dollars tends to double about once every   12 months (see {Moore's Law}); unfortunately, the laws of   physics guarantee that the latter cannot continue ind...
parm is  /parm/ n. Further-compressed form of {param}.  This term   is an IBMism, and written use is almost unknown outside IBM   shops; spoken /parm/ is more widely distributed, but the synonym   {arg} is favored among hackers.  Compare {arg}, {var}...
parse is  [from linguistic terminology] vt. 1. To determine the   syntactic structure of a sentence or other utterance (close to the   standard English meaning).  "That was the one I saw you."  "I   can't parse that."  2. More generally, to understan...
parse2 is  just kretch the glims and then   aos the zotz."  "I can't parse that."  3. Of fish, to have to   remove the bones yourself.  "I object to parsing fish", means "I   don't want to get a whole fish, but a sliced one is okay".  A   `parsed fis...
parse3 is  over   whether `unparsed' should mean `bony', or also mean   `deboned'. 
Pascal is  n. An Algol-descended language designed by Niklaus Wirth   on the CDC 6600 around 1967--68 as an instructional tool for   elementary programming.  This language, designed primarily to keep   students from shooting themselves in the foot an...
Pascal2 is  general-purpose-programming point of view, was   later promoted as a general-purpose tool and, in fact, became the   ancestor of a large family of languages including Modula-2 and   {{Ada}} (see also {bondage-and-discipline language}).  T...
Pascal3 is  probably best summed up by a   devastating (and, in its deadpan way, screamingly funny) 1981 paper   by Brian Kernighan (of {K&R} fame) entitled "Why Pascal is   Not My Favorite Programming Language", which was never formally   published ...
Pascal4 is  Part of his   discussion is worth repeating here, because its criticisms are   still apposite to Pascal itself after ten years of improvement and   could also stand as an indictment of many other   bondage-and-discipline languages.  At th...
Pascal5 is  Pascal, Kernighan wrote     9. There is no escape     This last point is perhaps the most important.  The language is     inadequate but circumscribed, because there is no way to escape its     limitations.  There are no casts to disable ...
Pascal6 is  no way to replace the defective run-time     environment with a sensible one, unless one controls the compiler that     defines the "standard procedures".  The language is closed.      People who use Pascal for serious programming fall in...
Pascal7 is  impotent, it must be extended.  But each group     extends Pascal in its own direction, to make it look like whatever     language they really want.  Extensions for separate compilation,     FORTRAN-like COMMON, string data types, interna...
Pascal8 is  numbers, bit operators, etc., all add to the     utility of the language for one group but destroy its portability to     others.     I feel that it is a mistake to use Pascal for anything much beyond its     original target.  In its pure...
Pascal9 is  for teaching but not for real programming.   Pascal has since been almost entirely displaced (by {C}) from the   niches it had acquired in serious applications and systems   programming, but retains some popularity as a hobbyist language ...
patch is  1. n. A temporary addition to a piece of code, usually as a   {quick-and-dirty} remedy to an existing bug or misfeature.  A   patch may or may not work, and may or may not eventually be   incorporated permanently into the program.  Distingu...
patch2 is  that a patch is generated by more   primitive means than the rest of the program; the classical   examples are instructions modified by using the front panel   switches, and changes made directly to the binary executable of a   program ori...
patch3 is    fix}.  2. vt. To insert a patch into a piece of code.  3. [in the   UNIX world] n. A {diff} (sense 2).  4. A set of modifications to   binaries to be applied by a patching program.  IBM operating   systems often receive updates to the op...
patch4 is  hexadecimal patches.  If you have modified your OS, you   have to disassemble these back to the source.  The patches might   later be corrected by other patches on top of them (patches were   said to "grow scar tissue").  The result was of...
patch5 is  galore.   There is a classic story of a {tiger team} penetrating a secure   military computer that illustrates the danger inherent in binary   patches (or, indeed, any that you can't --- or don't --- inspect   and examine before installing...
patch6 is  any way to penetrate security of IBM's OS, so they made a   site visit to an IBM office (remember, these were official military   types who were purportedly on official business), swiped some IBM   stationery, and created a fake patch.  Th...

factpacks/jargon-split.fact  view on Meta::CPAN

tayste is  /tayst/ n. Two bits; also as {taste}.  Syn. {crumb},   {quarter}.  Compare {{byte}}, {dynner}, {playte},   {nybble}, {quad}.
TCB is  /T-C-B/ [IBM] n. 1. Trouble Came Back.  An intermittent or   difficult-to-reproduce problem that has failed to respond to   neglect.  Compare {heisenbug}.  Not to be confused with   2. Trusted Computing Base, an `official jargon term from the...
ISO standard cup of tea is  [South Africa] n. A cup of tea with milk   and one teaspoon of sugar, where the milk is poured into the cup   before the tea.  Variations are ISO 0, with no sugar; ISO 2, with   two spoons of sugar; and so on.   Like many ...
ISO standard cup of tea2 is  ring in North   America, where hackers generally shun the decadent British practice   of adulterating perfectly good tea with dairy products and   prefer instead to add a wedge of lemon, if anything.  If one were   feelin...
ISO standard cup of tea3 is  analogous `ANSI   standard cup of tea and wind up with a political situation   distressingly similar to several that arise in much more serious   technical contexts.  Milk and lemon dont mix very well. 
TechRef is  /tekref/ [MS-DOS] n. The original `IBM PC   Technical Reference Manual, including the BIOS listing and   complete schematics for the PC.  The only PC documentation in the   issue package thats considered serious by real hackers.
TECO is  /teekoh/ obs. 1. vt. Originally, to edit using the TECO   editor in one of its infinite variations (see below).  2. vt.,obs.   To edit even when TECO is *not* the editor being used!  This   usage is rare and now primarily historical.  2. [or...
TECO2 is  and COrrector; later, `Text   Editor and COrrector] n. A text editor developed at MIT and   modified by just about everybody.  With all the dialects included,   TECO might have been the most prolific editor in use before   {EMACS}, to which...
TECO3 is  powerful programming-language-like features and its unspeakably   hairy syntax.  It is literally the case that every string of   characters is a valid TECO program (though probably not a useful   one); one common hacker game used to be ment...
TECO4 is  corresponding to human names did.  As an example   of TECOs obscurity, here is a TECO program that takes a list of   names such as     Loser, J. Random     Quux, The Great     Dick, Moby   sorts them alphabetically according to surname, and...
TECO5 is  comma, to produce the following     Moby Dick     J. Random Loser     The Great Quux   The program is     [1 J^P$L$$     J <.-Z; .,(S,$ -D .)FX1 @F^B $K L I $ G1 L>$$   (where ^B means `Control-B (ASCII 0000010) and $ is actually   an {ALT}...
TECO6 is  fact, this very program was used to produce the second, sorted   list from the first list.  The first hack at it had a {bug} GLS   (the author) had accidentally omitted the `@ in front   of `F^B, which as anyone can see is clearly the {Wron...
TECO7 is  There is no space to describe all the   features of TECO, but it may be of interest that `^P means   `sort and `J<.-Z; ... L> is an idiomatic series of commands   for `do once for every line.   In mid-1991, TECO is pretty much one with the ...
TECO8 is  affections of hackerdom by {EMACS}.   Descendants of an early (and somewhat lobotomized) version adopted   by DEC can still be found lurking on VMS and a couple of crufty   PDP-11 operating systems, however, and ports of the more advanced  ...
TECO9 is  antiquarian interest.  See   also {retrocomputing}, {write-only language}. 
tee is  n.,vt. [Purdue] A carbon copy of an electronic transmission.   "Oh, youre sending him the {bits} to that?  Slap on a tee for   me."  From the UNIX command `tee(1), itself named after a   pipe fitting (see {plumbing}).  Can also mean `save one...
Telerat is  /tel*-rat/ n. Unflattering hackerism for `Teleray, a   line of extremely losing terminals.  See also {terminak},   {sun-stools}, {HP-SUX}.
TELNET is  /telnet/ vt. To communicate with another Internet host   using the {TELNET} program.  TOPS-10 people used the word   IMPCOM, since that was the program name for them.  Sometimes   abbreviated to TN /T-N/.  "I usually TN over to SAIL just t...
ten-finger interface is  n. The interface between two networks that   cannot be directly connected for security reasons; refers to the   practice of placing two terminals side by side and having an   operator read from one and type into the other.
tense is  adj. Of programs, very clever and efficient.  A tense piece   of code often got that way because it was highly {bum}med, but   sometimes it was just based on a great idea.  A comment in a clever   routine by Mike Kazar, once a grad-student ...
tense2 is  will bring tears to your eyes."  A tense   programmer is one who produces tense code. 

factpacks/jargon.fact  view on Meta::CPAN

AI koans => /A-I koh'anz/ pl.n. A series of pastiches of Zen teaching riddles created by Danny Hillis at the MIT AI Lab around various major figures of the Lab's culture (several are included in appendix A). See also {ha ha only serious}, mu, and {{H...
AIDS => /aydz/ n. Short for A* Infected Disk Syndrome (`A*' is a glob pattern that matches, but is not limited to, Apple), this condition is quite often the result of practicing unsafe SEX. See virus, worm, {Trojan horse}, virgin.
airplane rule => n. "Complexity increases the possibility of failure; a twin-engine airplane has twice as many engine problems as a single-engine airplane." By analogy, in both software and electronics, the rule that simplicity increases robustness (...
airplane rule2 => correspondingly argued that the right way to build reliable systems is to put all your eggs in one basket, after making sure that you've built a really *good* basket. 
aliasing bug => n. A class of subtle programming errors that can arise in code that does dynamic allocation, esp. via `malloc(3)' or equivalent. If more than one pointer addresses (`aliases for') a given hunk of storage, it may happen that the storag...
aliasing bug2 => then referenced through another, which may lead to subtle (and possibly intermittent) lossage depending on the state and the allocation history of the malloc arena. Avoidable by use of allocation strategies that never alias allocated...
aliasing bug3 => higher-level languages, such as LISP, which employ a garbage collector (see GC). Also called a {stale pointer bug}. See also {precedence lossage}, {smash the stack}, {fandango on core}, {memory leak}, {overrun screw}, spam. Historica...
aliasing bug4 => nowadays associated with C programming, it was already in use in a very similar sense in the Algol-60 and FORTRAN communities in the 1960s. 
all-elbows => adj. Of a TSR (terminate-and-stay-resident) IBM PC program, such as the N pop-up calendar and calculator utilities that circulate on BBS systems unsociable. Used to describe a program that rudely steals the resources that it needs witho...
alpha particles => n. See {bit rot}.
ALT => /awlt/ 1. n. The ALT shift key on an IBM PC or clone. 2. [possibly lowercased] n. The `clover' or `Command' key on a Macintosh; use of this term usually reveals that the speaker hacked PCs before coming to the Mac (see also {command key}). Som...
alt bit => /awlt bit/ [from alternate] adj. See {meta bit}.
Aluminum Book => [MIT] n. `Common LISP The Language', by Guy L. Steele Jr. (Digital Press, first edition 1984, second edition 1990). Note that due to a technical screwup some printings of the second edition are actually of a color the author describe...
Aluminum Book2 => also {{book titles}}. 
amoeba => n. Humorous term for the Commodore Amiga personal computer.
amp off => [Purdue] vt. To run in background. From the UNIX shell `&' operator.
amper => n. Common abbreviation for the name of the ampersand (`&', ASCII 0100110) character. See ASCII for other synonyms.
angle brackets => n. Either of the characters `<' (ASCII 0111100) and `>' (ASCII 0111110) (ASCII less-than or greater-than signs). The {Real World} angle brackets used by typographers are actually taller than a less-than or greater-than sign. See bro...
angry fruit salad => n. A bad visual-interface design that uses too many colors. This derives, of course, from the bizarre day-glo colors found in canned fruit salad. Too often one sees similar affects from interface designers using color window syst...
angry fruit salad2 => tendency to create displays that are flashy and attention-getting but uncomfortable for long-term use. 
AOS => 1. /aws/ (East Coast), /ay-os/ (West Coast) [based on a PDP-10 increment instruction] vt.,obs. To increase the amount of something. "AOS the campfire." Usage considered silly, and now obsolete. Now largely supplanted by bump. See SOS. 2. A {Mu...

factpacks/jargon.fact  view on Meta::CPAN

dink => /dink/ n. Said of a machine that has the {bitty box} nature; a machine too small to be worth bothering with --- sometimes the system you're currently forced to work on. First heard from an MIT hacker (BADOB) working on a CP/M system with 64K,...
dinosaur => n. 1. Any hardware requiring raised flooring and special power. Used especially of old minis and mainframes, in contrast with newer microprocessor-based machines. In a famous quote from the 1988 UNIX EXPO, Bill Joy compared the mainframe ...
dinosaur pen => n. A traditional mainframe computer room complete with raised flooring, special power, its own ultra-heavy-duty air conditioning, and a side order of Halon fire extinguishers. See boa.
dinosaurs mating => n. Said to occur when yet another {big iron} merger or buyout occurs; reflects a perception by hackers that these signal another stage in the long, slow dying of the mainframe industry. In its glory days of the 1960s, it was `IBM ...
dinosaurs mating2 => Control Data, General Electric, Honeywell, NCR, RCA, and Univac. RCA and GE sold out early, and it was `IBM and the Bunch' (Burroughs, Univac, NCR, Control Data, and Honeywell) for a while. Honeywell was bought out by Bull; Burro...
dinosaurs mating3 => Unisys (in 1984 --- this was when the phrase `dinosaurs mating' was coined); and as this is written AT&T is attempting to recover from a disastrously bad first 6 years in the hardware industry by absorbing NCR. More such earth-sh...
dirty power => n. Electrical mains voltage that is unfriendly to the delicate innards of computers. Spikes, drop-outs, average voltage significantly higher or lower than nominal, or just plain noise can all cause problems of varying subtlety and seve...
Discordianism => /dis-kor'di-*n-ism/ n. The veneration of Eris, a.k.a. Discordia; widely popular among hackers. Discordianism was popularized by Robert Anton Wilson's `Illuminatus!' trilogy as a sort of self-subverting Dada-Zen for Westerners --- it ...
disk farm => n. (also laundromat) A large room or rooms filled with disk drives (esp. {washing machine}s).
display hack => n. A program with the same approximate purpose as a kaleidoscope to make pretty pictures. Famous display hacks include {munching squares}, {smoking clover}, the BSD UNIX `rain(6)' program, `worms(6)' on miscellaneous UNIXes, and the X...
display hack2 => hacks can also be implemented without programming by creating text files containing numerous escape sequences for interpretation by a video terminal; one notable example displayed, on any VT100, a Christmas tree with twinkling lights...
display hack3 => The {hack value} of a display hack is proportional to the esthetic value of the images times the cleverness of the algorithm divided by the size of the code. Syn. psychedelicware. 
Dissociated Press => [play on `Associated Press'; perhaps inspired by a reference in the 1949 Bugs Bunny cartoon "What's Up, Doc?"] n. An algorithm for transforming any text into potentially humorous garbage even more efficiently than by passing it t...
Dissociated Press2 => printing any N consecutive words (or letters) in the text. Then at every step you search for any random occurrence in the original text of the last N words (or letters) already printed and then print the next word or letter. EMA...
Dissociated Press3 => Here is a short example of word-based Dissociated Press applied to an earlier version of this Jargon File wart n. A small, crocky feature that sticks out of an array (C has no checks for this). This is relatively benign and easy...
Dissociated Press4 => bent so as to be not worth paying attention to the medium in question. Here is a short example of letter-based Dissociated Press applied to the same source window sysIWYG n. A bit was named aften /bee't*/ prefer to use the other...
Dissociated Press5 => cast a chuckle on neithout getting into useful informash speech makes removing a featuring a move or usage actual abstractionsidered interj. Indeed spectace logic or problem! A hackish idle pastime is to apply letter-based Disso...
Dissociated Press6 => of text and vgrep the output in hopes of finding an interesting new word. (In the preceding example, `window sysIWYG' and `informash' show some promise.) Iterated applications of Dissociated Press usually yield better results. S...
Dissociated Press7 => `travesty generators' have been employed with considerable satirical effect to the utterances of USENET flamers; see pseudo. 
distribution => n. 1. A software source tree packaged for distribution; but see kit. 2. A vague term encompassing mailing lists and USENET newsgroups (but not BBS fora); any topic-oriented message channel with multiple recipients. 3. An information-s...
do protocol => [from network protocol programming] vi. To perform an interaction with somebody or something that follows a clearly defined procedure. For example, "Let's do protocol with the check" at a restaurant means to ask for the check, calculat...
do protocol2 => collect money from everybody, generate change as necessary, and pay the bill. See protocol. 
doc => /dok/ n. Common spoken and written shorthand for `documentation'. Often used in the plural `docs' and in the construction `doc file' (documentation available on-line).
doco => /do'koh/ [orig. in-house jargon at Symbolics] n. A documentation writer. See also devo and mango.
documentation => n. The multiple kilograms of macerated, pounded, steamed, bleached, and pressed trees that accompany most modern software or hardware products (see also tree-killer). Hackers seldom read paper documentation and (too) often resist wri...
dodgy => adj. Syn. with flaky. Preferred outside the U.S.
dogcow => /dog'kow/ n. See Moof.
dogwash => /dog'wosh/ [From a quip in the `urgency' field of a very optional software change request, ca. 1982. It was something like "Urgency Wash your dog first".] 1. n. A project of minimal priority, undertaken as an escape from more serious work....
domainist => /doh-mayn'ist/ adj. 1. Said of an {{Internet address}} (as opposed to a {bang path}) because the part to the right of the `@' specifies a nested series of `domains'; for example, eric@snark.thyrsus.com specifies the machine called snark ...
Don't do that, then! => [from an old doctor's office joke about a patient with a trivial complaint] Stock response to a user complaint. "When I type control-S, the whole system comes to a halt for thirty seconds." "Don't do that, then!" (or "So don't...
dongle => /dong'gl/ n. 1. A security or copy-protection device for commercial microcomputer programs consisting of a serialized EPROM and some drivers in a D-25 connector shell, which must be connected to an I/O port of the computer while the program...
dongle-disk => /don'gl disk/ n. See dongle; a `dongle-disk' is a floppy disk with some coding that allows an application to identify it uniquely. It can therefore be used as a dongle. Also called a `key disk'.
donuts => n.obs. A collective noun for any set of memory bits. This is extremely archaic and may no longer be live jargon; it dates from the days of ferrite-core memories in which each bit was implemented by a doughnut-shaped magnetic flip-flop.
doorstop => n. Used to describe equipment that is non-functional and halfway expected to remain so, especially obsolete equipment kept around for political reasons or ostensibly as a backup. "When we get another Wyse-50 in here, that ADM 3 will turn ...
dot file => [UNIX] n. A file which is not visible to normal directory-browsing tools (on UNIX, files named with a leading dot are, by convention, not normally presented in directory listings). Many programs define one or more dot files in which start...
dot file2 => be optionally recorded; a user can customize the program's behavior by creating the appropriate file in the current or home directory. See also {rc file}. 
double bucky => adj. Using both the CTRL and META keys. "The command to burn all LEDs is double bucky F." This term originated on the Stanford extended-ASCII keyboard, and was later taken up by users of the {space-cadet keyboard} at MIT. A typical MI...
double bucky2 => {bucky bits} (control and meta shifting keys) were nice, but there weren't enough of them; you could type only 512 different characters on a Stanford keyboard. An obvious way to address this was simply to add more shifting keys, and ...

factpacks/jargon.fact  view on Meta::CPAN

for the rest of us => [from the Mac slogan "The computer for the rest of us"] adj. 1. Used to describe a spiffy product whose affordability shames other comparable products, or (more often) used sarcastically to describe spiffy but very overpriced pr...
for the rest of us2 => with a limited interface, deliberately limited capabilities, non-orthogonality, inability to compose primitives, or any other limitation designed to not `confuse' a na"ive user. This places an upper bound on how far that user c...
for the rest of us3 => get in the way of the task instead of helping accomplish it. Used in reference to Macintosh software which doesn't provide obvious capabilities because it is thought that the poor lusers might not be able to handle them. Become...
for the rest of us4 => third-party reference; thus, "Yes, it is an attractive program, but it's designed for The Rest Of Them" means a program that superficially looks neat but has no depth beyond the surface flash. See also {WIMP environment}, Macin...
fora => pl.n. Plural of forum.
foreground => [UNIX] vt. To foreground a task is to bring it to the top of one's stack for immediate processing, and hackers often use it in this sense for non-computer tasks. "If your presentation is due next week, I guess I'd better foreground writ...
forked => [UNIX; prob. influenced by a mainstream expletive] adj. Terminally slow, or dead. Originated when one system slowed to incredibly bad speeds because of a process recursively spawning copies of itself (using the UNIX system call `fork(2)') a...
Fortrash => /for'trash/ n. Hackerism for the FORTRAN language, referring to its primitive design, gross and irregular syntax, limited control constructs, and slippery, exception-filled semantics.
fortune cookie => [UNIX] n. A random quote, item of trivia, joke, or maxim printed to the user's tty at login time or (less commonly) at logout time. Items from this lexicon have often been used as fortune cookies. See {cookie file}.
forum => n. [USENET, GEnie CI$; pl. `fora' or `forums'] Any discussion group accessible through a dial-in BBS, a {mailing list}, or a newsgroup (see {network, the}). A forum functions much like a bulletin board; users submit postings for all to read ...
fossil => n. 1. In software, a misfeature that becomes understandable only in historical context, as a remnant of times past retained so as not to break compatibility. Example the retention of octal as default base for string escapes in C, in spite o...
four-color glossies => 1. Literature created by marketroids that allegedly containing technical specs but which is in fact as superficial as possible without being totally content-free. "Forget the four-color glossies, give me the tech ref manuals." ...
four-color glossies2 => superficiality even when the material is printed on ordinary paper in black and white. Four-color-glossy manuals are *never* useful for finding a problem. 2. [rare] Applied by extension to manual pages that don't contain enoug...
four-color glossies3 => program doesn't produce the expected or desired output. 
fragile => adj. Syn brittle.
fred => n. 1. The personal name most frequently used as a metasyntactic variable (see foo). Allegedly popular because it's easy for a non-touch-typist to type on a standard QWERTY keyboard. Unlike {J. Random Hacker} or `J. Random Loser', this name ha...
frednet => /fred'net/ n. Used to refer to some random and uncommon protocol encountered on a network. "We're implementing bridging in our router to solve the frednet problem."
freeware => n. Free software, often written by enthusiasts and distributed by users' groups, or via electronic mail, local bulletin boards, USENET, or other electronic media. At one time, `freeware' was a trademark of Andrew Fluegelman, the author of...
freeze => v. To lock an evolving software distribution or document against changes so it can be released with some hope of stability. Carries the strong implication that the item in question will `unfreeze' at some future date. "OK, fix that bug and ...
fried => adj. 1. Non-working due to hardware failure; burnt out. Especially used of hardware brought down by a `power glitch' (see glitch), drop-outs, a short, or some other electrical event. (Sometimes this literally happens to electronic circuits! ...
friode => /fri'ohd/ [TMRC] n. A reversible (that is, fused or blown) diode. Compare fried.

factpacks/jargon.fact  view on Meta::CPAN

mega- => /me'g*/ [SI] pref. See {quantifiers}.
megapenny => /meg'*-pen`ee/ n. $10,000 (1 cent * 10^6). Used semi-humorously as a unit in comparing computer cost and performance figures.
MEGO => /me'goh/ or /mee'goh/ [`My Eyes Glaze Over', often `Mine Eyes Glazeth (sic) Over', attributed to the futurologist Herman Kahn] Also `MEGO factor'. 1. n. A handwave intended to confuse the listener and hopefully induce agreement because the li...
meltdown, network => n. See {network meltdown}.
meme => /meem/ [coined on analogy with `gene' by Richard Dawkins] n. An idea considered as a replicator, esp. with the connotation that memes parasitize people into propagating them much as viruses do. Used esp. in the phrase `meme complex' denoting ...
meme plague => n. The spread of a successful but pernicious meme, esp. one that parasitizes the victims into giving their all to propagate it. Astrology, BASIC, and the other guy's religion are often considered to be examples. This usage is given poi...
meme plague2 => `joiner' ideologies like Naziism or various forms of millennarian Christianity have exhibited plague-like cycles of exponential growth followed by collapses to small reservoir populations. 
memetics => /me-met'iks/ [from meme] The study of memes. As of mid-1991, this is still an extremely informal and speculative endeavor, though the first steps towards at least statistical rigor have been made by H. Keith Henson and others. Memetics is...
memory leak => n. An error in a program's dynamic-store allocation logic that causes it to fail to reclaim discarded memory, leading to eventual collapse due to memory exhaustion. Also (esp. at CMU) called {core leak}. See {aliasing bug}, {fandango o...
memory leak2 => {precedence lossage}, {overrun screw}, {leaky heap}, leak. 
menuitis => /men`yoo-i:'tis/ n. Notional disease suffered by software with an obsessively simple-minded menu interface and no escape. Hackers find this intensely irritating and much prefer the flexibility of command-line or language-style interfaces,...
mess-dos => /mes-dos/ n. Derisory term for MS-DOS. Often followed by the ritual banishing "Just say No!" See {MS-DOS}. Most hackers (even many MS-DOS hackers) loathe MS-DOS for its single-tasking nature, its limits on application size, its nasty prim...
meta => /me't*/ or /may't*/ or (Commonwealth) /mee't*/ [from analytic philosophy] adj.,pref. One level of description up. A meta-syntactic variable is a variable in notation used to describe syntax, and meta-language is language used to describe lang...
meta bit => n. The top bit of an 8-bit character, which is on in character values 128--255. Also called {high bit}, {alt bit}, or hobbit. Some terminals and consoles (see {space-cadet keyboard}) have a META shift key. Others (including, *mirabile dic...
meta bit2 => machines) have an ALT key. See also {bucky bits}. 
MFTL => /M-F-T-L/ [acronym: `My Favorite Toy Language'] 1. adj. Describes a talk on a programming language design that is heavy on the syntax (with lots of BNF), sometimes even talks about semantics (e.g., type systems), but rarely, if ever, has any ...
mickey => n. The resolution unit of mouse movement. It has been suggested that the `disney' will become a benchmark unit for animation graphics performance.
mickey mouse program => n. North American equivalent of a noddy (that is, trivial) program. Doesn't necessarily have the belittling connotations of mainstream slang "Oh, that's just mickey mouse stuff!"; sometimes trivial programs can be very useful.
micro- => pref. 1. Very small; this is the root of its use as a quantifier prefix. 2. A quantifier prefix, calling for multiplication by 10^-6 (see {quantifiers}). Neither of these uses is peculiar to hackers, but hackers tend to fling them both arou...
microfortnight => n. About 1.2 sec. The VMS operating system has a lot of tuning parameters that you can set with the SYSGEN utility, and one of these is TIMEPROMPTWAIT, the time the system will wait for an operator to set the correct date and time a...
microLenat => /mi:-kroh-len'-*t/ n. See bogosity.

factpacks/jargon.fact  view on Meta::CPAN

pain in the net => n. A flamer.
paper-net => n. Hackish way of referring to the postal service, analogizing it to a very slow, low-reliability network. USENET {sig block}s not uncommonly include a "Paper-Net" header just before the sender's postal address; common variants of this a...
param => /p*-ram'/ n. Shorthand for `parameter'. See also parm; Compare arg, var.
parent message => n. See followup.
parity errors => pl.n. Little lapses of attention or (in more severe cases) consciousness, usually brought on by having spent all night and most of the next day hacking. "I need to go home and crash; I'm starting to get a lot of parity errors." Deriv...
parity errors2 => nearly always correctable transient error in RAM hardware. 
Parkinson's Law of Data => prov. "Data expands to fill the space available for storage"; buying more memory encourages the use of more memory-intensive techniques. It has been observed over the last 10 years that the memory usage of evolving systems ...
Parkinson's Law of Data2 => 18 months. Fortunately, memory density available for constant dollars tends to double about once every 12 months (see {Moore's Law}); unfortunately, the laws of physics guarantee that the latter cannot continue indefinitel...
parm => /parm/ n. Further-compressed form of param. This term is an IBMism, and written use is almost unknown outside IBM shops; spoken /parm/ is more widely distributed, but the synonym arg is favored among hackers. Compare arg, var.
parse => [from linguistic terminology] vt. 1. To determine the syntactic structure of a sentence or other utterance (close to the standard English meaning). "That was the one I saw you." "I can't parse that." 2. More generally, to understand or compr...
Pascal => n. An Algol-descended language designed by Niklaus Wirth on the CDC 6600 around 1967--68 as an instructional tool for elementary programming. This language, designed primarily to keep students from shooting themselves in the foot and thus e...
patch => 1. n. A temporary addition to a piece of code, usually as a quick-and-dirty remedy to an existing bug or misfeature. A patch may or may not work, and may or may not eventually be incorporated permanently into the program. Distinguished from ...
patch space => n. An unused block of bits left in a binary so that it can later be modified by insertion of machine-language instructions there (typically, the patch space is modified to contain new code, and the superseded code is patched to contain...
patch space2 => The widening use of HLLs has made this term rare; it is now primarily historical outside IBM shops. See patch (sense 4), zap (sense 4), hook. 
path => n. 1. A {bang path} or explicitly routed {{Internet address}}; a node-by-node specification of a link between two machines. 2. [UNIX] A filename, fully specified relative to the root directory (as opposed to relative to the current directory;...
pathological => adj. 1. [scientific computation] Used of a data set that is grossly atypical of normal expected input, esp. one that exposes a weakness or bug in whatever algorithm one is using. An algorithm that can be broken by pathological inputs ...
payware => /pay'weir/ n. Commercial software. Oppose shareware or freeware.
PBD => /P-B-D/ [abbrev. of `Programmer Brain Damage'] n. Applied to bug reports revealing places where the program was obviously broken by an incompetent or short-sighted programmer. Compare UBD; see also brain-damaged.
PC-ism => /P-C-izm/ n. A piece of code or coding technique that takes advantage of the unprotected single-tasking environment in IBM PCs and the like, e.g., by busy-waiting on a hardware register, direct diddling of screen memory, or using hard timin...
PD => /P-D/ adj. Common abbreviation for `public domain', applied to software distributed over USENET and from Internet archive sites. Much of this software is not in fact public domain in the legal sense but travels under various copyrights granting...
pdl => /pid'l/ or /puhd'l/ [acronym for `Push Down List'] 1. In ITS days, the preferred MITism for stack. 2. Dave Lebling, one of the co-authors of Zork; (his {network address} on the ITS machines was at one time pdl@dms). 3. `Program Design Language...

factpacks/jargon.fact  view on Meta::CPAN

tanked => adj. Same as down, used primarily by UNIX hackers. See also hosed. Popularized as a synonym for `drunk by Steve Dallas in the late lamented "Bloom County" comic strip.
tar and feather => [from UNIX `tar(1)] vt. To create a transportable archive from a group of files by first sticking them together with `tar(1) (the Tape ARchiver) and then compressing the result (see compress). The latter action is dubbed `featherin...
tar and feather2 => an airplane propeller to decrease wind resistance, or with an oar to reduce water resistance; smaller files, after all, slip through comm links more easily. 
taste => [primarily MIT] n. 1. The quality in a program that tends to be inversely proportional to the number of features, hacks, and kluges programmed into it. Also `tasty, `tasteful, `tastefulness. "This feature comes in N tasty flavors." Although ...
tayste => /tayst/ n. Two bits; also as taste. Syn. crumb, quarter. Compare {byte}, dynner, playte, nybble, quad.
TCB => /T-C-B/ [IBM] n. 1. Trouble Came Back. An intermittent or difficult-to-reproduce problem that has failed to respond to neglect. Compare heisenbug. Not to be confused with 2. Trusted Computing Base, an `official jargon term from the {Orange Boo...
ISO standard cup of tea => [South Africa] n. A cup of tea with milk and one teaspoon of sugar, where the milk is poured into the cup before the tea. Variations are ISO 0, with no sugar; ISO 2, with two spoons of sugar; and so on. Like many ISO standa...
ISO standard cup of tea2 => ring in North America, where hackers generally shun the decadent British practice of adulterating perfectly good tea with dairy products and prefer instead to add a wedge of lemon, if anything. If one were feeling extremel...
ISO standard cup of tea3 => analogous `ANSI standard cup of tea and wind up with a political situation distressingly similar to several that arise in much more serious technical contexts. Milk and lemon dont mix very well. 
TechRef => /tekref/ [MS-DOS] n. The original `IBM PC Technical Reference Manual, including the BIOS listing and complete schematics for the PC. The only PC documentation in the issue package thats considered serious by real hackers.
TECO => /teekoh/ obs. 1. vt. Originally, to edit using the TECO editor in one of its infinite variations (see below). 2. vt.,obs. To edit even when TECO is *not* the editor being used! This usage is rare and now primarily historical. 2. [originally a...
tee => n.,vt. [Purdue] A carbon copy of an electronic transmission. "Oh, youre sending him the bits to that? Slap on a tee for me." From the UNIX command `tee(1), itself named after a pipe fitting (see plumbing). Can also mean `save one for me, as in...
Telerat => /tel*-rat/ n. Unflattering hackerism for `Teleray, a line of extremely losing terminals. See also terminak, sun-stools, HP-SUX.
TELNET => /telnet/ vt. To communicate with another Internet host using the TELNET program. TOPS-10 people used the word IMPCOM, since that was the program name for them. Sometimes abbreviated to TN /T-N/. "I usually TN over to SAIL just to read the A...
ten-finger interface => n. The interface between two networks that cannot be directly connected for security reasons; refers to the practice of placing two terminals side by side and having an operator read from one and type into the other.
tense => adj. Of programs, very clever and efficient. A tense piece of code often got that way because it was highly bummed, but sometimes it was just based on a great idea. A comment in a clever routine by Mike Kazar, once a grad-student hacker at C...
tenured graduate student => n. One who has been in graduate school for 10 years (the usual maximum is 5 or 6) a `ten-yeared student (get it?). Actually, this term may be used of any grad student beginning in his seventh year. Students dont really get...
tenured graduate student2 => professors do, but a tenth-year graduate student has probably been around the university longer than any untenured professor. 
tera- => /ter*/ [SI] pref. See {quantifiers}.
teraflop club => /ter*-flop kluhb/ [FLOP = Floating Point Operation] n. A mythical association of people who consume outrageous amounts of computer time in order to produce a few simple pictures of glass balls with intricate ray-tracing techniques. C...
teraflop club2 => said to have been the founder.