timer results from the CPAN

Amethyst

accumulator is  n. 1. Archaic term for a register.  On-line use of it   as a synonym for `register' is a fairly reliable indication that   the user has been around for quite a while and/or that the   architecture under discussion is quite old.  The t...
accumulator2 is  microprocessor registers, for example, though   symbolic names for arithmetic registers beginning in `A' derive   from historical use of the term `accumulator' (and not, actually,   from `arithmetic').  Confusingly, though, an `A' re...
accumulator3 is  `address', as for example on the   Motorola 680x0 family.  2. A register being used for arithmetic or   logic (as opposed to addressing or a loop index), especially one   being used to accumulate a sum or count of many items.  This u...
accumulator4 is  stretch of code.  "The   FOOBAZ routine uses A3 as an accumulator."  3. One's in-basket   (esp. among old-timers who might use sense 1).  "You want this   reviewed?  Sure, just put it in the accumulator."  (See {stack}.) 
ACK is  /ak/ interj. 1. [from the ASCII mnemonic for 0000110]   Acknowledge.  Used to register one's presence (compare mainstream   *Yo!*).  An appropriate response to {ping} or {ENQ}.   2. [from the comic strip "Bloom County"] An exclamation of   su...
ACK2 is  Semi-humorous.   Generally this sense is not spelled in caps (ACK) and is   distinguished by a following exclamation point.  3. Used to   politely interrupt someone to tell them you understand their point   (see {NAK}).  Thus, for example, y...
ACK3 is  with "Ack.  Ack.  Ack.  I get it now".   There is also a usage "ACK?" (from sense 1) meaning "Are you   there?", often used in email when earlier mail has produced no   reply, or during a lull in {talk mode} to see if the person has   gone a...
ACK4 is  course {NAK}   (sense 2), i.e., "I'm not here"). 
ad-hockery is  /ad-hok'*r-ee/ [Purdue] n. 1. Gratuitous assumptions   made inside certain programs, esp. expert systems, which lead to   the appearance of semi-intelligent behavior but are in fact   entirely arbitrary.  For example, fuzzy-matching in...
ad-hockery2 is  against a symbol table can make it look as   though a program knows how to spell.  2. Special-case code to cope   with some awkward input that would otherwise cause a program to   {choke}, presuming normal inputs are dealt with in som...
ad-hockery3 is  `ad-hackery', `ad-hocity'   (/ad-hos'*-tee/).  See also {ELIZA effect}. 
Ada is  n. A {{Pascal}}-descended language that has been made   mandatory for Department of Defense software projects by the   Pentagon.  Hackers are nearly unanimous in observing that,   technically, it is precisely what one might expect given that ...
Ada2 is  committee, crockish, difficult   to use, and overall a disastrous, multi-billion-dollar boondoggle   (one common description is "The PL/I of the 1980s").  Hackers   find Ada's exception-handling and inter-process communication   features par...
Ada3 is  daughter of   Lord Byron who became the world's first programmer while   cooperating with Charles Babbage on the design of his mechanical   computing engines in the mid-1800s) would almost certainly blanch   at the use to which her name has ...
Ada4 is  been said about it is that there is probably a good   small language screaming to get out from inside its vast,   {elephantine} bulk. 
adger is  /aj'r/ [UCLA] vt. To make a bonehead move with consequences   that could have been foreseen with a slight amount of mental   effort.  E.g., "He started removing files and promptly adgered the   whole project".  Compare {dumbass attack}.
admin is  /ad-min'/ n. Short for `administrator'; very commonly   used in speech or on-line to refer to the systems person in charge   on a computer.  Common constructions on this include `sysadmin'   and `site admin' (emphasizing the administrator's...
admin2 is  or `newsadmin' (focusing specifically   on news).  Compare {postmaster}, {sysop}, {system   mangler}. 
ADVENT is  /ad'vent/ n. The prototypical computer adventure game, first   implemented on the {PDP-10} by Will Crowther as an attempt at   computer-refereed fantasy gaming, and expanded into a   puzzle-oriented game by Don Woods.  Now better known as ...
ADVENT2 is  system permitted only 6-letter   filenames.  See also {vadding}.   This game defined the terse, dryly humorous style now expected in   text adventure games, and popularized several tag lines that have   become fixtures of hacker-speak  "A...
ADVENT3 is  see no X here" (for some noun X).  "You are in a   maze of twisty little passages, all alike."  "You are in a little   maze of twisty passages, all different."  The `magic words'   {xyzzy} and {plugh} also derive from this game.   Crowthe...
ADVENT4 is  of the   Mammoth & Flint Ridge cave system; it actually *has* a   `Colossal Cave' and a `Bedquilt' as in the game, and the `Y2' that   also turns up is cavers' jargon for a map reference to a secondary   entrance. 
AI-complete is  /A-I k*m-pleet'/ [MIT, Stanford by analogy with   `NP-complete' (see {NP-})] adj. Used to describe problems or   subproblems in AI, to indicate that the solution presupposes a   solution to the `strong AI problem' (that is, the synthe...
AI-complete2 is  problem that is AI-complete is, in   other words, just too hard.   Examples of AI-complete problems are `The Vision Problem'   (building a system that can see as well as a human) and `The   Natural Language Problem' (building a syste...
AI-complete3 is  language as well as a human).  These may appear   to be modular, but all attempts so far (1991) to solve them have   foundered on the amount of context information and `intelligence'   they seem to require. See also {gedanken}. 
AI koans is  /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...
AIDS is  /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 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. 
AOS is  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 ...
AOS2 is  supported at one time by Data General.  This   was pronounced /A-O-S/ or /A-os/.  A spoof of the standard   AOS system administrator's manual (`How to load and generate   your AOS system') was created, issued a part number, and circulated   ...
AOS3 is  goad and   levitate your chaos system'.  3. Algebraic Operating System, in   reference to those calculators which use infix instead of postfix   (reverse Polish) notation.   Historical note AOS in sense 1 was the name of a {PDP-10}   instruc...
AOS4 is  computer and added   1 to it; AOS meant `Add One and do not Skip'.  Why, you may ask,   does the `S' stand for `do not Skip' rather than for `Skip'?  Ah,   here was a beloved piece of PDP-10 folklore.  There were eight such   instructions AO...
AOS5 is  instruction   if the result was Equal to zero; AOSG added 1 and then skipped if   the result was Greater than 0; AOSN added 1 and then skipped   if the result was Not 0; AOSA added 1 and then skipped Always;   and so on.  Just plain AOS didn...
AOS6 is  For similar reasons, AOJ meant `Add One and do not Jump'.  Even   more bizarre, SKIP meant `do not SKIP'!  If you wanted to skip the   next instruction, you had to say `SKIPA'.  Likewise, JUMP meant   `do not JUMP'; the unconditional form wa...
AOS7 is  By some quirk of the 10's design, the {JRST}   (Jump and ReSTore flag with no flag specified) was actually faster   and so was invariably used.  Such were the perverse mysteries of   assembler programming. 
app is  /ap/ n. Short for `application program', as opposed to a   systems program.  What systems vendors are forever chasing   developers to create for their environments so they can sell more   boxes.  Hackers tend not to think of the things they t...
app2 is  parlance the term excludes compilers,   program editors, games, and messaging systems, though a user would   consider all those to be apps.  Oppose {tool}, {operating   system}. 
arc is  [primarily MSDOS] vt. To create a compressed {archive} from a   group of files using SEA ARC, PKWare PKARC, or a compatible   program.  Rapidly becoming obsolete as the ARC compression method   is falling into disuse, having been replaced by ...
arc2 is  feather}, {zip}. 
arc wars is  [primarily MSDOS] n. {holy wars} over which archiving   program one should use.  The first arc war was sparked when System   Enhancement Associates (SEA) sued PKWare for copyright and   trademark infringement on its ARC program.  PKWare'...
arc wars2 is  and speed while largely   retaining compatibility (it introduced a new compression type that   could be disabled for backward-compatibility).  PKWare settled out   of court to avoid enormous legal costs (both SEA and PKWare are   small ...
arc wars3 is  of PKARC was   changed to PKPAK.  The public backlash against SEA for bringing   suit helped to hasten the demise of ARC as a standard when PKWare   and others introduced new, incompatible archivers with better   compression algorithms....
archive is  n. 1. A collection of several files bundled into one file   by a program such as `ar(1)', `tar(1)', `cpio(1)',   or {arc} for shipment or archiving (sense 2).  See also {tar   and feather}.  2. A collection of files or archives (sense 1) ...

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

Bad Thing3 is  mainstream idiom on the   British side of the pond. 
bag on the side is  n. An extension to an established hack that is   supposed to add some functionality to the original.  Usually   derogatory, implying that the original was being overextended and   should have been thrown away, and the new product ...
bag on the side2 is  phrase, `to hang a bag on the side   [of]'.  "C++?  That's just a bag on the side of C ...." "They   want me to hang a bag on the side of the accounting system." 
bagbiter is  /bag'bit-*r/ n. 1. Something, such as a program or a   computer, that fails to work, or works in a remarkably clumsy   manner.  "This text editor won't let me make a file with a line   longer than 80 characters!  What a bagbiter!"  2. A ...
bagbiter2 is  inadvertently or otherwise, typically by   failing to program the computer properly.  Synonyms {loser},   {cretin}, {chomper}.  3. adj. `bagbiting' Having the   quality of a bagbiter.  "This bagbiting system won't let me   compute the f...
bagbiter3 is  {losing},   {cretinous}, {bletcherous}, `barfucious' (under   {barfulous}) and `chomping' (under {chomp}).  4. `bite   the bag' vi. To fail in some manner.  "The computer keeps crashing   every 5 minutes."  "Yes, the disk controller is ...
bagbiter4 is  of these terms was almost undoubtedly   obscene, possibly referring to the scrotum, but in their current   usage they have become almost completely sanitized.   A program called Lexiphage on the old MIT AI PDP-10 would draw on   a selec...
bagbiter5 is  BAG" in   ornate letters, and then a pair of jaws biting pieces of it off.   This is the first and to date only known example of a program   *intended* to be a bagbiter. 
bamf is  /bamf/ 1. [from old X-Men comics] interj. Notional sound made   by a person or object teleporting in or out of the hearer's   vicinity.  Often used in {virtual reality} (esp. {MUD})   electronic {fora} when a character wishes to make a drama...
bamf2 is  magical transformation, used in virtual   reality {fora} like sense 1.  3. [from `Don Washington's   Survival Guide'] n. Acronym for `Bad-Ass Mother Fucker', used to   refer to one of the handful of nastiest monsters on an LPMUD or   other ...
banana label is  n. The labels often used on the sides of {macrotape}   reels, so called because they are shaped roughly like blunt-ended   bananas.  This term, like macrotapes themselves, is still current   but visibly headed for obsolescence.
banana problem is  n. [from the story of the little girl who said "I   know how to spell `banana', but I don't know when to stop"].  Not   knowing where or when to bring a production to a close (compare   {fencepost error}).  One may say `there is a ...
banana problem2 is  defined or incorrect termination conditions,   or in discussing the evolution of a design that may be succumbing   to featuritis (see also {creeping elegance}, {creeping   featuritis}).  See item 176 under {HAKMEM}, which describe...
banana problem3 is  implementation.bandwidth n. 1. Used by hackers in a generalization of its   technical meaning as the volume of information per unit time that a   computer, person, or transmission medium can handle.  "Those are   amazing graphics,...
banana problem4 is    bandwidth, I guess."  Compare {low-bandwidth}.  2. Attention   span.  3. On {USENET}, a measure of network capacity that is   often wasted by people complaining about how items posted by others   are a waste of bandwidth. 
bang is  1. n. Common spoken name for `!' (ASCII 0100001),   especially when used in pronouncing a {bang path} in spoken   hackish.  In {elder days} this was considered a CMUish usage,   with MIT and Stanford hackers preferring {excl} or {shriek};   ...
bang2 is  it (esp. via the   term {bang path}) and it is now certainly the most common spoken   name for `!'.  Note that it is used exclusively for   non-emphatic written `!'; one would not say "Congratulations   bang" (except possibly for humorous p...
bang3 is  exact characters `foo!' one would speak "Eff oh oh   bang".  See {shriek}, {{ASCII}}.  2. interj. An exclamation   signifying roughly "I have achieved enlightenment!", or "The   dynamite has cleared out my brain!"  Often used to acknowledge...
bang4 is  immediately after one has   been called on it. 
bang on is  vt. To stress-test a piece of hardware or software "I   banged on the new version of the simulator all day yesterday and it   didn't crash once.  I guess it is ready to release."  The term   {pound on} is synonymous.
bang path is  n. An old-style UUCP electronic-mail address specifying   hops to get from some assumed-reachable location to the addressee,   so called because each {hop} is signified by a {bang} sign.   Thus, for example, the path ...!bigsite!foovax!...
bang path2 is  to machine bigsite (presumably   a well-known location accessible to everybody) and from there   through the machine foovax to the account of user me on   barbox.   In the bad old days of not so long ago, before autorouting mailers   b...
bang path3 is  compound bang addresses   using the { } convention (see {glob}) to give paths from   *several* big machines, in the hopes that one's correspondent   might be able to get mail to one of them reliably (example   ...!{seismo, ut-sally, ih...
bang path4 is  10 hops were not uncommon in 1981.  Late-night dial-up   UUCP links would cause week-long transmission times.  Bang paths   were often selected by both transmission time and reliability, as   messages would often get lost.  See {{Inter...
banner is  n. 1. The title page added to printouts by most print   spoolers (see {spool}).  Typically includes user or account ID   information in very large character-graphics capitals.  Also called   a `burst page', because it indicates where to bu...
banner2 is  one user's printout from the next.  2. A   similar printout generated (typically on multiple pages of fan-fold   paper) from user-specified text, e.g., by a program such as UNIX's   `banner({1,6})'.  3. On interactive software, a first sc...
banner3 is  and/or a copyright notice. 
bar is  /bar/ n. 1. The second metasyntactic variable, after {foo}   and before {baz}.  "Suppose we have two functions FOO and BAR.   FOO calls BAR...."  2. Often appended to {foo} to produce   {foobar}.
bare metal is  n. 1. New computer hardware, unadorned with such   snares and delusions as an {operating system}, an {HLL}, or   even assembler.  Commonly used in the phrase `programming on the   bare metal', which refers to the arduous work of {bit b...
bare metal2 is  for a new machine.  Real   bare-metal programming involves things like building boot proms and   BIOS chips, implementing basic monitors used to test device   drivers, and writing the assemblers that will be used to write the   compil...
bare metal3 is  real   development environment.  2. `Programming on the bare metal' is   also used to describe a style of {hand-hacking} that relies on   bit-level peculiarities of a particular hardware design, esp.   tricks for speed and space optim...
bare metal4 is  overlapping instructions (or, as in the famous case described in   appendix A, interleaving of opcodes on a magnetic drum to minimize   fetch delays due to the device's rotational latency).  This sort of   thing has become less common...
bare metal5 is  and machine resources have changed, but is still found in   heavily constrained environments such as industrial embedded systems.   See {real programmer}.   In the world of personal computing, bare metal programming (especially   in s...
bare metal6 is  considered a   {Good Thing}, or at least a necessary thing (because these   machines have often been sufficiently slow and poorly designed   to make it necessary; see {ill-behaved}).  There, the term   usually refers to bypassing the ...
bare metal7 is  application to directly access device registers and machine   addresses.  "To get 19.2 kilobaud on the serial port, you need to   get down to the bare metal."  People who can do this sort of thing   are held in high regard. 
barf is  /barf/ [from mainstream slang meaning `vomit']   1. interj.  Term of disgust.  This is the closest hackish   equivalent of the Val\-speak "gag me with a spoon". (Like, euwww!)   See {bletch}.  2. vi. To say "Barf!" or emit some similar   exp...
barf2 is  hack and he   barfed" means only that he complained about it, not that he   literally vomited.  3. vi. To fail to work because of unacceptable   input.  May mean to give an error message.  Examples "The   division operation barfs if you try...
barf3 is  operation checks for an attempt to divide by zero, and   if one is encountered it causes the operation to fail in some   unspecified, but generally obvious, manner.) "The text editor   barfs if you try to read in a new file before writing o...
barf4 is  Commonwealth hackish,   `barf' is generally replaced by `puke' or `vom'.  {barf}   is sometimes also used as a metasyntactic variable, like {foo} or   {bar}. 
barfulation is  /bar`fyoo-lay'sh*n/ interj. Variation of {barf}   used around the Stanford area.  An exclamation, expressing disgust.   On seeing some particularly bad code one might exclaim,   "Barfulation!  Who wrote this, Quux?"
barfulous is  /bar'fyoo-l*s/ adj. (alt. `barfucious',   /bar-fyoo-sh*s/) Said of something that would make anyone barf,   if only for esthetic reasons.
baroque is  adj. Feature-encrusted; complex; gaudy; verging on   excessive.  Said of hardware or (esp.) software designs, this has   many of the connotations of {elephantine} or {monstrosity} but is   less extreme and not pejorative in itself.  "Meta...
baroque2 is  variations to its letterform output.   Now *that* is baroque!"  See also {rococo}. 
BartleMUD is  /bar'tl-muhd/ n. Any of the MUDs derived from the   original MUD game by Richard Bartle (see {MUD}).  BartleMUDs are   noted for their (usually slightly offbeat) humor, dry but friendly   syntax, and lack of adjectives in object descrip...
BartleMUD2 is  `brand172', for instance (see {brand   brand brand}).  Some MUDders intensely dislike Bartle and this   term, and prefer to speak of `MUD-1'. 
BASIC is  n. A programming language, originally designed for   Dartmouth's experimental timesharing system in the   early 1960s, which has since become the leading cause of   brain-damage in proto-hackers.  This is another case (like   {Pascal}) of t...
BASIC2 is  deliberately designed as an educational toy gets taken too   seriously.  A novice can write short BASIC programs (on the order of   10--20 lines) very easily; writing anything longer is (a) very   painful, and (b) encourages bad habits tha...
BASIC3 is  hack in a real language.  This wouldn't be so   bad if historical accidents hadn't made BASIC so common on low-end   micros.  As it is, it ruins thousands of potential wizards a year. 
batch is  adj. 1. Non-interactive.  Hackers use this somewhat more   loosely than the traditional technical definitions justify; in   particular, switches on a normally interactive program that prepare   it to receive non-interactive command input ar...
batch2 is  switches.  A `batch file' is a series of   instructions written to be handed to an interactive program running   in batch mode.  2. Performance of dreary tasks all at one sitting.   "I finally sat down in batch mode and wrote out checks fo...
batch3 is  electricity back on next   week..." 3. Accumulation of a number of small tasks that can be   lumped together for greater efficiency.  "I'm batching up those   letters to send sometime" "I'm batching up bottles to take to the   recycling ce...
bathtub curve is  n. Common term for the curve (resembling an   end-to-end section of one of those claw-footed antique bathtubs)   that describes the expected failure rate of electronics with time   initially high, dropping to near 0 for most of the ...
bathtub curve2 is  `tires out'.  See also {burn-in   period}, {infant mortality}. 
baud is  /bawd/ [simplified from its technical meaning] n. Bits per   second.  Hence kilobaud or Kbaud, thousands of bits per second.   The technical meaning is `level transitions per second'; this   coincides with bps only for two-level modulation w...
baud2 is  are aware of these nuances but blithely   ignore them. 
baud barf is  /bawd barf/ n. The garbage one gets on the monitor   when using a modem connection with some protocol setting (esp.   line speed) incorrect, or when someone picks up a voice extension   on the same line, or when really bad line noise di...
baud barf2 is  completely {random}, by the way;   hackers with a lot of serial-line experience can usually tell   whether the device at the other end is expecting a higher or lower   speed than the terminal is set to.  *Really* experienced ones   can...
baz is  /baz/ [Stanford corruption of {bar}] n. 1. The third   metasyntactic variable, after {foo} and {bar} and before   {quux} (or, occasionally, `qux'; or local idiosyncracies like   `rag', `zowie', etc.).  "Suppose we have three functions FOO,BAR...
baz2 is  BAZ...."   2. interj. A term of mild annoyance.  In this usage the term is   often drawn out for 2 or 3 seconds, producing an effect not unlike   the bleating of a sheep; /baaaaaaz/.  3. Occasionally appended to   {foo} to produce `foobaz'. 
bboard is  /bee'bord/ [contraction of `bulletin board'] n.   1. Any electronic bulletin board; esp. used of {BBS} systems   running on personal micros, less frequently of a USENET   {newsgroup} (in fact, use of the term for a newsgroup generally   ma...
bboard2 is  BBS world or as   a real old-timer predating USENET).  2. At CMU and other colleges   with similar facilities, refers to campus-wide electronic bulletin   boards.  3. The term `physical bboard' is sometimes used to   refer to a old-fashio...
bboard3 is  it refers to a particular one outside the CS Lounge.   In either of senses 1 or 2, the term is usually prefixed by the   name of the intended board (`the Moonlight Casino bboard' or   `market bboard'); however, if the context is clear, th...
bboard4 is  name alone, as in (at CMU) "Don't   post for-sale ads on general". 
BBS is  /B-B-S/ [acronym, `Bulletin Board System'] n. An electronic   bulletin board system; that is, a message database where people can   log in and leave broadcast messages for others grouped (typically)   into {topic group}s.  Thousands of local ...
BBS2 is  U.S., typically run by amateurs for fun   out of their homes on MS-DOS boxes with a single modem line each.   Fans of USENET and Internet or the big commercial timesharing   bboards such as CompuServe and GEnie tend to consider local BBSes  ...
BBS3 is  but they serve a   valuable function by knitting together lots of hackers and users in   the personal-micro world who would otherwise be unable to exchange   code at all. 
beam is  [from Star Trek Classic's "Beam me up, Scotty!"] vt. To   transfer {softcopy} of a file electronically; most often in   combining forms such as `beam me a copy' or `beam that over to   his site'.  Compare {blast}, {snarf}, {BLT}.
beanie key is  [Mac users] n. See {command key}.
beep is  n.,v. Syn. {feep}.  This term seems to be preferred among micro   hobbyists.
beige toaster is  n. A Macintosh. See {toaster}; compare   {Macintrash}, {maggotbox}.
bells and whistles is  [by analogy with the toyboxes on theater   organs] n. Features added to a program or system to make it more   {flavorful} from a hacker's point of view, without necessarily   adding to its utility for its primary function.  Dis...
bells and whistles2 is  to attract users.  "Now that we've   got the basic program working, let's go back and add some bells and   whistles."  No one seems to know what distinguishes a bell from a   whistle. 
bells, whistles, and gongs is  n. A standard elaborated form of   {bells and whistles}; typically said with a pronounced and ironic   accent on the `gongs'.
benchmark is  [techspeak] n. An inaccurate measure of computer   performance.  "In the computer industry, there are three kinds of   lies lies, damn lies, and benchmarks."  Well-known ones include   Whetstone, Dhrystone, Rhealstone (see {h}), the Gab...
benchmark2 is  SPECmark suite, and LINPACK.  See   also {machoflops}, {MIPS}. 
Berkeley Quality Software is  adj. (often abbreviated `BQS') Term used   in a pejorative sense to refer to software that was apparently   created by rather spaced-out hackers late at night to solve some   unique problem.  It usually has nonexistent, ...
Berkeley Quality Software2 is  been tested on at least two examples,   and core dumps when anyone else attempts to use it.  This term was   frequently applied to early versions of the `dbx(1)' debugger.   See also {Berzerkeley}. 
berklix is  /berk'liks/ n.,adj. [contraction of `Berkeley UNIX'] See   {BSD}.  Not used at Berkeley itself.  May be more common among   {suit}s attempting to sound like cognoscenti than among hackers,   who usually just say `BSD'.
berserking is  vi. A {MUD} term meaning to gain points *only*   by killing other players and mobiles (non-player characters).   Hence, a Berserker-Wizard is a player character that has achieved   enough points to become a wizard, but only by killing ...
berserking2 is  frowned upon because of its   inherently antisocial nature, but some MUDs have a `berserker   mode' in which a player becomes *permanently* berserk, can   never flee from a fight, cannot use magic, gets no score for   treasure, but do...
berserking3 is  wizards can seriously damage your elf!" 
Berzerkeley is  /b*r-zer'klee/ [from `berserk', via the name of a   now-deceased record label] n. Humorous distortion of `Berkeley'   used esp. to refer to the practices or products of the   {BSD} UNIX hackers.  See {software bloat}, {Missed'em-five}...
Berzerkeley2 is  use of this term in reference to the cultural and   political peculiarities of UC Berkeley as a whole has been reported   from as far back as the 1960s. 
beta is  /bay't*/, /be't*/ or (Commonwealth) /bee't*/ n. 1. In   the {Real World}, software often goes through two stages of   testing Alpha (in-house) and Beta (out-house?).  Software is said   to be `in beta'.  2. Anything that is new and experimen...
beta2 is  means that he is still testing   for compatibility and reserving judgment.  3. Beta software is   notoriously buggy, so `in beta' connotes flakiness.   Historical note More formally, to beta-test is to test a   pre-release (potentially unre...
beta3 is  making it available to selected customers and users.  This term   derives from early 1960s terminology for product cycle checkpoints,   first used at IBM but later standard throughout the industry.   `Alpha Test' was the unit, module, or co...
beta4 is  system test.  These themselves came from earlier   A- and B-tests for hardware.  The A-test was a feasibility and   manufacturability evaluation done before any commitment to design   and development.  The B-test was a demonstration that th...
beta5 is  The C-test   (corresponding to today's beta) was the B-test performed on early   samples of the production design. 
BFI is  /B-F-I/ n. See {brute force and ignorance}.  Also   encountered in the variant `BFMI', `brute force and   *massive* ignorance'.
bible is  n. 1. One of a small number of fundamental source books   such as {Knuth} and {K&R}.  2. The most detailed and   authoritative reference for a particular language, operating   system, or other complex software system.
BiCapitalization is  n. The act said to have been performed on   trademarks (such as NeXT, {NeWS}, VisiCalc, FrameMaker,   TK!solver, EasyWriter) that have been raised above the ruck of   common coinage by nonstandard capitalization.  Too many   {mar...
BiCapitalization2 is  really cute, even   the 2,317th time they do it.  Compare {studlycaps}. 
BIFF is  /bif/ [USENET] n. The most famous {pseudo}, and the   prototypical {newbie}.  Articles from BIFF are characterized by   all uppercase letters sprinkled liberally with bangs, typos,   `cute' misspellings (EVRY BUDY LUVS GOOD OLD BIFF CUZ HE"S...
BIFF2 is  IN CAPITULL LETTRS LIKE   THIS!!!), use (and often misuse) of fragments of {talk mode}   abbreviations, a long {sig block} (sometimes even a {doubled   sig}), and unbounded na"ivet'e.  BIFF posts articles using his elder   brother's VIC-20....
BIFF3 is    appear to come from a variety of sites.  However, {BITNET} seems to   be the most frequent origin.  The theory that BIFF is a denizen of   BITNET is supported by BIFF's (unfortunately invalid) electronic   mail address BIFF@BIT.NET. 
biff is  /bif/ vt. To notify someone of incoming mail.  From the   BSD utility `biff(1)', which was in turn named after the   implementor's dog (it barked whenever the mailman came).  No   relation to {BIFF}.
Big Gray Wall is  n. What faces a {VMS} user searching for   documentation.  A full VMS kit comes on a pallet, the documentation   taking up around 15 feet of shelf space before the addition of layered   products such as compilers, databases, multive...
Big Gray Wall2 is  Recent (since VMS version 5) DEC   documentation comes with gray binders; under VMS version 4 the   binders were orange (`big orange wall'), and under version 3   they were blue.  See {VMS}. 
big iron is  n. Large, expensive, ultra-fast computers.  Used generally   of {number-crunching} supercomputers such as Crays, but can include   more conventional big commercial IBMish mainframes.  Term of   approval; compare {heavy metal}, oppose {di...
Big Red Switch is  [IBM] n. The power switch on a computer, esp. the   `Emergency Pull' switch on an IBM {mainframe} or the power switch   on an IBM PC where it really is large and red.  "This !@%$%   {bitty box} is hung again; time to hit the Big Re...
Big Red Switch2 is  tune with the company's passion for   {TLA}s, this is often acronymized as `BRS' (this has also   become established on FidoNet and in the PC {clone} world).  It   is alleged that the emergency pull switch on an IBM 360/91 actuall...
Big Red Switch3 is  power feed; the BRSes on   more recent machines physically drop a block into place so that   they can't be pushed back in.  People get fired for pulling them,   especially inappropriately (see also {molly-guard}).  Compare   {powe...
the Big Room is  n. The extremely large room with the blue ceiling   and intensely bright light (during the day) or black ceiling with   lots of tiny night-lights (during the night) found outside all   computer installations.  "He can't come to the p...
big win is  n. Serendipity.  "Yes, those two physicists discovered   high-temperature superconductivity in a batch of ceramic that had   been prepared incorrectly according to their experimental schedule.   Small mistake; big win!" See {win big}.
big-endian is  [From Swift's `Gulliver's Travels' via the famous   paper `On Holy Wars and a Plea for Peace' by Danny Cohen,   USC/ISI IEN 137, dated April 1, 1980] adj. 1. Describes a computer   architecture in which, within a given multi-byte numer...
big-endian2 is  has the lowest address   (the word is stored `big-end-first').  Most processors, including   the IBM 370 family, the {PDP-10}, the Motorola microprocessor   families, and most of the various RISC designs current in mid-1991,   are big...
big-endian3 is  {NUXI   problem}.  2. An {{Internet address}} the wrong way round.  Most   of the world follows the Internet standard and writes email   addresses starting with the name of the computer and ending up with   the name of the country.  I...
big-endian4 is  decided to do it the other way round before the Internet domain   standard was established; e.g., me@uk.ac.wigan.cs.  Most gateway   sites have {ad-hockery} in their mailers to handle this, but can   still be confused.  In particular,...
big-endian5 is  (domain uk) or Czechoslovakia (domain cs). 
bignum is  /big'nuhm/ [orig. from MIT MacLISP] n. 1. [techspeak] A   multiple-precision computer representation for very large integers.   More generally, any very large number.  "Have you ever looked at   the United States Budget?  There's bignums f...
bignum2 is  numbers on the dice are called   `bignums', especially a roll of double fives or double sixes   (compare {moby}, sense 4).  See also {El Camino Bignum}.   Sense 1 may require some explanation.  Most computer languages   provide a kind of ...
bignum3 is  integers are usually very limited in size; usually they must be   smaller than than 2^{31} (2,147,483,648) or (on a losing   {bitty box}) 2^{15} (32,768).  If you want to work with   numbers larger than that, you have to use floating-poin...
bignum4 is  six or seven decimal places.   Computer languages that provide bignums can perform exact   calculations on very large numbers, such as 1000!  (the factorial   of 1000, which is 1000 times 999 times 998 times ... times 2   times 1). 
bigot is  n. A person who is religiously attached to a particular   computer, language, operating system, editor, or other tool (see   {religious issues}).  Usually found with a specifier; thus,   `cray bigot', {ITS bigot}, `APL bigot', `VMS bigot', ...
bigot2 is  distinguished from mere   partisans or zealots by the fact that they refuse to learn   alternatives even when the march of time and/or technology is   threatening to obsolete the favored tool.  It is said "You can   tell a bigot, but you c...
bit is  [from the mainstream meaning and `Binary digIT'] n.   1. [techspeak] The unit of information; the amount of information   obtained by asking a yes-or-no question for which the two outcomes   are equally probable.  2. [techspeak] A computation...
bit2 is  values, such as true and false or 0 and 1.   3. A mental flag a reminder that something should be done   eventually.  "I have a bit set for you."  (I haven't seen you for   a while, and I'm supposed to tell or ask you something.)  4. More   ...
bit3 is  of belief.  "I have   a bit set that says that you were the last guy to hack on EMACS."   (Meaning "I think you were the last guy to hack on EMACS, and what   I am about to say is predicated on this, so please stop me if this   isn't true.")...
bit4 is  way of indicating that   you intend only a short interruption for a question that can   presumably be answered yes or no.   A bit is said to be `set' if its value is true or 1, and   `reset' or `clear' if its value is false or 0.  One   spea...
bit5 is  or   `invert' a bit is to change it, either from 0 to 1 or from   1 to 0.  See also {flag}, {trit}, {mode bit}. 
bit bang is  n. Transmission of data on a serial line, when   accomplished by rapidly tweaking a single output bit at the   appropriate times.  The technique is a simple   loop with eight OUT and SHIFT instruction pairs for each byte.   Input is more...

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

hang2 is  a character."  Compare {block}.   3. To attach a peripheral device, esp. in the construction `hang   off'  "We're going to hang another tape drive off the file   server."  Implies a device attached with cables, rather than   something that ...
Hanlon's Razor is  prov. A corollary of {Finagle's Law}, similar to   Occam's Razor, that reads "Never attribute to malice that which can   be adequately explained by stupidity."  The derivation of the   common title Hanlon's Razor is unknown; a simi...
Hanlon's Razor2 is  James.  Quoted here because it seems to be a   particular favorite of hackers, often showing up in {fortune   cookie} files and the login banners of BBS systems and commercial   networks.  This probably reflects the hacker's daily...
Hanlon's Razor3 is  well-intentioned but short-sighted people. 
happily is  adv.  Of software, used to emphasize that a program is   unaware of some important fact about its environment, either   because it has been fooled into believing a lie, or because it   doesn't care.  The sense of `happy' here is not that ...
happily2 is  ignorance.  "The program continues to   run, happily unaware that its output is going to /dev/null." 
hard boot is  n. See {boot}.
hardcoded is  adj. 1. Said of data inserted directly into a program,   where it cannot be easily modified, as opposed to data in some   {profile}, resource (see {de-rezz} sense 2), or environment   variable that a {user} or hacker can easily modify. ...
hardcoded2 is  literal instead of a   `#define' macro (see {magic number}). 
hardwarily is  /hard-weir'*-lee/ adv. In a way pertaining to   hardware.  "The system is hardwarily unreliable."  The adjective   `hardwary' is *not* traditionally used, though it has recently   been reported from the U.K.  See {softwarily}.
hardwired is  adj. 1. In software, syn. for {hardcoded}.  2. By   extension, anything that is not modifiable, especially in the sense   of customizable to one's particular needs or tastes.
has the X nature is  [seems to derive from Zen Buddhist koans of the   form "Does an X have the Buddha-nature?"] adj. Common hacker   construction for `is an X', used for humorous emphasis.  "Anyone   who can't even use a program with on-screen help ...
has the X nature2 is  nature!"  See also {the X that can be Y   is not the true X}. 
hash bucket is  n. A notional receptacle into which more than one   thing accessed by the same key or short code might be dropped.   When you look up a name in the phone book (for example), you   typically hash it by extracting its first letter; the ...
hash bucket2 is  letter sections.  This is used as   techspeak with respect to code that uses actual hash functions; in   jargon, it is used for human associative memory as well.  Thus, two   things `in the same hash bucket' may be confused with each...
hash bucket3 is  length, you get too many common   grammar words in the first couple of hash buckets." Compare {hash   collision}. 
hash collision is  [from the technical usage] n. (var. `hash   clash') When used of people, signifies a confusion in associative   memory or imagination, especially a persistent one (see   {thinko}).  True story One of us [ESR] was once on the phone ...
hash collision2 is   When asked what he   expected Berkeley to be like, the friend replied "Well, I have   this mental picture of naked women throwing Molotov cocktails, but   I think that's just a collision in my hash tables."  Compare   {hash bucke...
hat is  n. Common (spoken) name for the circumflex (`^', ASCII   1011110) character.  See {ASCII} for other synonyms.
HCF is  /H-C-F/ n. Mnemonic for `Halt and Catch Fire', any of   several undocumented and semi-mythical machine instructions with   destructive side-effects, supposedly included for test purposes on   several well-known architectures going as far back...
HCF2 is  was the first for which the HCF opcode   became widely known.  This instruction caused the processor to   {toggle} a subset of the bus lines as rapidly as it could; in   some configurations this can actually cause lines to burn   up. 
heads down is  [Sun] adj. Concentrating, usually so heavily and for so   long that everything outside the focus area is missed.  See also   {hack mode} and {larval stage}, although it is not confined to   fledgling hackers.
heartbeat is  n. 1. The signal emitted by a Level 2 Ethernet   transceiver at the end of every packet to show that the   collision-detection circuit is still connected.  2. A periodic   synchronization signal used by software or hardware, such as a b...
heartbeat2 is  `natural' oscillation   frequency of a computer's clock crystal, before frequency division   down to the machine's clock rate.  4. A signal emitted at regular   intervals by software to demonstrate that it is still alive.   Sometimes h...
heartbeat3 is  stops   hearing a heartbeat.  See also {breath-of-life packet}. 
heavy metal is  [Cambridge] n. Syn. {big iron}.
heavy wizardry is  n. Code or designs that trade on a particularly   intimate knowledge or experience of a particular operating system   or language or complex application interface.  Distinguished from   {deep magic}, which trades more on arcane *th...
heavy wizardry2 is  drivers is heavy wizardry; so is   interfacing to {X} (sense 2) without a toolkit.  Esp. found in   comments similar to "Heavy wizardry begins here ...".  Compare   {voodoo programming}. 
heavyweight is  adj. High-overhead; {baroque}; code-intensive;   featureful, but costly.  Esp. used of communication protocols,   language designs, and any sort of implementation in which maximum   generality and/or ease of implementation has been pu...
heavyweight2 is  considerations such as speed, memory utilization,   and startup time.  {EMACS} is a heavyweight editor; {X} is an   *extremely* heavyweight window system.  This term isn't   pejorative, but one man's heavyweight is another's {elephan...
heisenbug is  /hi'zen-buhg/ [from Heisenberg's Uncertainty   Principle in quantum physics] n. A bug that disappears or alters   its behavior when one attempts to probe or isolate it.  Antonym of   {Bohr bug}; see also {mandelbug}.  In C, nine out of ...
heisenbug2 is  on core} phenomena (esp. lossage   related to corruption of the malloc {arena}) or errors that   {smash the stack}. 
Helen Keller mode is  n. State of a hardware or software system that   is deaf, dumb, and blind, i.e., accepting no input and generating no   output, usually due to an infinite loop or some other excursion   into {deep space}.  (Unfair to the real He...
Helen Keller mode2 is  was triumphant.)  See also   {go flatline}, {catatonic}. 
hello, sailor! is  interj. Occasional West Coast equivalent of   {hello, world}; seems to have originated at SAIL, later   associated with the game {Zork} (which also included "hello,   aviator" and "hello, implementor").  Originally from the   tradi...
hello, sailor!2 is  off the boat, of   course. 
hello, wall! is  excl. See {wall}.
hello, world is  interj. 1. The canonical minimal test message in the   C/UNIX universe.  2. Any of the minimal programs that emit this   message.  Traditionally, the first program a C coder is supposed to   write in a new environment is one that jus...
hello, world2 is  (and indeed it is the first example program   in {K&R}).  Environments that generate an unreasonably large   executable for this trivial test or which require a {hairy}   compiler-linker invocation to generate it are considered to  ...
hello, world3 is  hacker making an   entrance or requesting information from anyone present.  "Hello,   world!  Is the {VAX} back up yet?" 
hex is  n. 1. Short for {{hexadecimal}}, base 16.  2. A 6-pack   of anything (compare {quad}, sense 2).  Neither usage has   anything to do with {magic} or {black art}, though the pun is   appreciated and occasionally used by hackers.  True story As ...
hex2 is  surplus ICs for sale to be   worn as protective amulets against hostile magic.  The chips were,   of course, hex inverters. 
hexadecimal is  n. Base 16.  Coined in the early 1960s to replace   earlier `sexadecimal', which was too racy and amusing for stuffy   IBM, and later adopted by the rest of the industry.   Actually, neither term is etymologically pure.  If we take `b...
hexadecimal2 is  etymologically correct term for   base 10, for example, is `denary', which   comes from `deni' (ten at a time, ten each), a Latin `distributive'   number; the corresponding term for base-16 would be something like   `sendenary'.  `De...
hexadecimal3 is  corresponding prefix for 6 would imply something like   `sextidecimal'.  The `sexa-' prefix is Latin but incorrect in this   context, and `hexa-' is Greek.  The word `octal' is similarly   incorrect; a correct form would be `octaval'...
hexadecimal4 is  with binary).  If anyone ever implements a   base-3 computer, computer scientists will be faced with the   unprecedented dilemma of a choice between two *correct* forms;   both `ternary' and `trinary' have a claim to this throne. 
hexit is  /hek'sit/ n. A hexadecimal digit (0--9, and A--F or a--f).   Used by people who claim that there are only *ten* digits,   dammit; sixteen-fingered human beings are rather rare, despite what   some keyboard designs might seem to imply (see {...
hidden flag is  [scientific computation] n. An extra option added to a   routine without changing the calling sequence.  For example,   instead of adding an explicit input variable to instruct a routine   to give extra diagnostic output, the programm...
hidden flag2 is  meaningless feature of the existing inputs,   such as a negative mass.  Liberal use of hidden flags can make a   program very hard to debug and understand. 
high bit is  [from `high-order bit'] n. 1. The most significant   bit in a byte.  2. By extension, the most significant part of   something other than a data byte "Spare me the whole {saga},   just give me the high bit."  See also {meta bit}, {hobbit...
high bit2 is  mainstream slang   `bottom line'. 
high moby is  /hi' mohb'ee/ n. The high half of a 512K {PDP-10}'s   physical address space; the other half was of course the low moby.  This   usage has been generalized in a way that has outlasted the   {PDP-10}; for example, at the 1990 Washington ...
high moby2 is  (Disclave), when a miscommunication resulted in two   separate wakes being held in commemoration of the shutdown of MIT's   last {{ITS}} machines, the one on the upper floor was dubbed the   `high moby' and the other the `low moby'.  A...
highly is  [scientific computation] adv. The preferred modifier for   overstating an understatement.  As in `highly nonoptimal', the   worst possible way to do something; `highly nontrivial', either   impossible or requiring a major research project;...
highly2 is  unpredictable; `highly   nontechnical', drivel written for {luser}s, oversimplified to the   point of being misleading or incorrect (compare {drool-proof   paper}).  In other computing cultures, postfixing of {in the   extreme} might be p...
hirsute is  adj. Occasionally used humorously as a synonym for {hairy}.
HLL is  /H-L-L/ n. [High-Level Language (as opposed to assembler)]   Found primarily in email and news rather than speech.  Rarely, the   variants `VHLL' and `MLL' are found.  VHLL stands for `Very-High-Level   Language' and is used to describe a {bo...
HLL2 is  speaker happens to like; Prolog and Backus's FP   are often called VHLLs.  `MLL' stands for `Medium-Level Language' and is   sometimes used half-jokingly to describe {C}, alluding to its   `structured-assembler' image.  See also {languages o...
hobbit is  n. 1. The High Order Bit of a byte; same as the {meta   bit} or {high bit}.  2. The non-ITS name of vad@ai.mit.edu   (*Hobbit*), master of lasers.
hog is  n.,vt. 1. Favored term to describe programs or hardware that   seem to eat far more than their share of a system's resources,   esp. those which noticeably degrade interactive response.   *Not* used of programs that are simply extremely large...
hog2 is  slow themselves (see {pig,   run like a}).  More often than not encountered in qualified forms,   e.g., `memory hog', `core hog', `hog the processor', `hog   the disk'.  "A controller that never gives up the I/O bus   gets killed after the b...
hog3 is  *people* who use more than their fair share of resources   (particularly disk, where it seems that 10% of the people use 90%   of the disk, no matter how big the disk is or how many people use   it).  Of course, once disk hogs fill up one fi...
hog4 is  one to infect, claiming to the   sysadmin that they have an important new project to complete. 
holy wars is  [from {USENET}, but may predate it] n. {flame   war}s over {religious issues}.  The paper by Danny Cohen that   popularized the terms {big-endian} and {little-endian} in   connection with the LSB-first/MSB-first controversy was entitled...
holy wars2 is  perennial Holy   Wars have included {EMACS} vs. {vi}, my personal computer vs.   everyone else's personal computer, {{ITS}} vs. {{UNIX}},   {{UNIX}} vs. {VMS}, {BSD} UNIX vs. {USG UNIX}, {C} vs.   {{Pascal}}, {C} vs. {LISP}, etc., ad n...
holy wars3 is  distinguishes {holy wars} from normal   technical disputes is that in a holy wars most of the participants   spend their time trying to pass off personal value choices and   cultural attachments as objective technical evaluations. See ...
home box is  n. A hacker's personal machine, especially one he or she   owns.  "Yeah?  Well, *my* home box runs a full 4.2 BSD, so   there!"
hook is  n. A software or hardware feature included in order to   simplify later additions or changes by a user.  For example,   a simple program that prints numbers might always print them in   base 10, but a more flexible version would let a variab...
hook2 is  variable to 5 would make   the program print numbers in base 5.  The variable is a simple   hook.  An even more flexible program might examine the variable   and treat a value of 16 or less as the base to use, but treat any   other number a...
hook3 is  printing   a number.  This is a {hairy} but powerful hook; one can then write a   routine to print numbers as Roman numerals, say, or as Hebrew   characters, and plug it into the program through the hook.  Often   the difference between a g...
hook4 is  latter has useful hooks in judiciously chosen places.  Both may do   the original job about equally well, but the one with the hooks is   much more flexible for future expansion of capabilities ({EMACS},   for example, is *all* hooks).  The...
hook5 is  formal and less hackish. 
hop is  n. One file transmission in a series required to get a file   from point A to point B on a store-and-forward network.  On such   networks (including {UUCPNET} and {FidoNet}), the important   inter-machine metric is the number of hops in the s...
hop2 is  geographical separation.  See   {bang path}. 
hose is  1. vt. To make non-functional or greatly degraded in   performance.  "That big ray-tracing program really hoses the   system."  See {hosed}.  2. n. A narrow channel through which   data flows under pressure.  Generally denotes data paths tha...
hose2 is  Cabling, especially   thick Ethernet cable.  This is sometimes called `bit hose' or   `hosery' (play on `hosiery') or `etherhose'.  See also   {washing machine}. 
hosed is  adj. Same as {down}.  Used primarily by UNIX hackers.   Humorous also implies a condition thought to be relatively easy to   reverse.  Probably derived from the Canadian slang `hoser'   popularized by the Bob and Doug Mackenzie skits on SCT...
hosed2 is  people in the mainstream sense   of `in an extremely unfortunate situation'.   Once upon a time, a Cray that had been experiencing periodic   difficulties crashed, and it was announced to have been hosed.   It was discovered that the crash...
hosed3 is  hoses.  The problem was corrected, and users were then   assured that everything was OK because the system had been rehosed.   See also {dehose}. 
hot spot is  n. 1. [primarily used by C/UNIX programmers, but   spreading] It is received wisdom that in most programs, less than   10% of the code eats 90% of the execution time; if one were to   graph instruction visits versus code addresses, one w...
hot spot2 is  a lot of low-level noise.  Such spikes   are called `hot spots' and are good candidates for heavy   optimization or {hand-hacking}.  The term is especially used of   tight loops and recursions in the code's central algorithm, as   oppos...
hot spot3 is  infrequent I/O   operations.  See {tune}, {bum}, {hand-hacking}.  2. The   active location of a cursor on a bit-map display.  "Put the   mouse's hot spot on the `ON' widget and click the left button."   3. In a massively parallel comput...
hot spot4 is  all 10,000 processors are trying to read or   write at once (perhaps because they are all doing a {busy-wait}   on the same lock). 
house wizard is  [prob. from ad-agency lingo, `house freak'] n. A   hacker occupying a technical-specialist, R&D, or systems position   at a commercial shop.  A really effective house wizard can have   influence out of all proportion to his/her osten...
house wizard2 is  suit.  Used esp. of UNIX wizards.  The   term `house guru' is equivalent. 
HP-SUX is  /H-P suhks/ n. Unflattering hackerism for HP-UX,   Hewlett-Packard's UNIX port.  Features some truly unique bogosities   in the filesystem internals and elsewhere which occasionally create   portability problems.  HP-UX is often referred t...
HP-SUX2 is  respondent claims that the proper pronunciation   is /H-P ukkkhhhh/ as though one were about to spit.  Another such   alternate spelling and pronunciation is "H-PUX" /H-puhks/.   Hackers at HP/Apollo (the former Apollo Computers which was...
HP-SUX3 is  complain that Mr. Packard should   have pushed to have his name first, if for no other reason than the   greater eloquence of the resulting acronym.  Compare {buglix}.   See also {Telerat}, {sun-stools}, {terminak}. 
huff is  v. To compress data using a Huffman code.  Various programs   that use such methods have been called `HUFF' or some variant   thereof.  Oppose {puff}.  Compare {crunch}, {compress}.
humma is  // excl. A filler word used on various `chat' and   `talk' programs when you had nothing to say but felt that it was   important to say something.  The word apparently originated (at   least with this definition) on the MECC Timeshare Syste...
humma2 is  time-sharing system running in Minnesota   during the 1970s and the early 1980s) but was later sighted on   early UNIX systems. 
Humor, Hacker is  n. A distinctive style of shared intellectual humor   found among hackers, having the following distinctive   characteristics   1. Fascination with form-vs.-content jokes, paradoxes, and humor   having to do with confusion of metale...
Humor, Hacker2 is  laugh hold a red index card in front of him/her   with "GREEN" written on it, or vice-versa (note, however, that   this is funny only the first time).   2. Elaborate deadpan parodies of large intellectual constructs, such   as spec...
Humor, Hacker3 is  documents,   language descriptions (see {INTERCAL}), and even entire scientific   theories (see {quantum bogodynamics}, {computron}).   3. Jokes that involve screwily precise reasoning from bizarre,   ludicrous, or just grossly cou...
Humor, Hacker4 is  puns and wordplay.   5. A fondness for apparently mindless humor with subversive   currents of intelligence in it --- for example, old Warner Brothers   and Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons, the Marx brothers, the early   B-52s, and Mon...
Humor, Hacker5 is  this   trait with elements of high camp and slapstick is especially   favored.   6. References to the symbol-object antinomies and associated ideas   in Zen Buddhism and (less often) Taoism.  See {has the X nature},   {Discordianis...
Humor, Hacker6 is  See also {filk}, {retrocomputing}, and appendix B.  If you have an   itchy feeling that all 6 of these traits are really aspects of   one thing that is incredibly difficult to talk about exactly, you   are (a) correct and (b) respo...
Humor, Hacker7 is  recognizable (though in a less marked form) throughout   {{science-fiction fandom}}. 
hung is  [from `hung up'] adj. Equivalent to {wedged}, but more   common at UNIX/C sites.  Not generally used of people.  Syn. with   {locked up}, {wedged}; compare {hosed}.  See also {hang}.   A hung state is distinguished from {crash}ed or {down}, ...
hung2 is  but because it is not running   rather than because it is waiting for something.  However, the   recovery from both situations is often the same. 
hungry puppy is  n. Syn. {slopsucker}.
hungus is  /huhng'g*s/ [perhaps related to slang `humongous'] adj.   Large, unwieldy, usually unmanageable.  "TCP is a hungus piece of   code."  "This is a hungus set of modifications."
hyperspace is  /hi'per-spays/ n. A memory location that is *far*   away from where the program counter should be pointing, often   inaccessible because it is not even mapped in.  "Another core   dump --- looks like the program jumped off to hyperspac...
hyperspace2 is  never-never land}.)  This   usage is from the SF notion of a spaceship jumping `into   hyperspace', that is, taking a shortcut through higher-dimensional   space --- in other words, bypassing this universe.  The variant   `east hypers...
hyperspace3 is  hackers.*I didn't change anything! interj. An aggrieved cry often heard as   bugs manifest during a regression test.  The {canonical} reply to   this assertion is "Then it works just the same as it did before,   doesn't it?"  See also...
hyperspace4 is  applications programmers trying to blame an obvious applications   problem on an unrelated systems software change, for example a   divide-by-0 fault after terminals were added to a network.   Usually, their statement is found to be f...
hyperspace5 is  admit some major restructuring of the   program that shouldn't have broken anything, in their opinion,   but which actually {hosed} the code completely. 
I see no X here. is  Hackers (and the interactive computer games they   write) traditionally favor this slightly marked usage over other   possible equivalents such as "There's no X here!" or "X is   missing."  or "Where's the X?".  This goes back to...
I see no X here.2 is  respond in this wise if you asked   it to do something involving an object not present at your location   in the game. 
i14y is  // n. Abbrev. for `interoperability', with the `14'   replacing fourteen letters.  Used in the {X} (windows)   community.  Refers to portability and compatibility of data formats   (even binary ones) between different programs or implementat...
i18n is  // n. Abbrev. for `internationali{z,s}ation', with the 18   replacing 18 letters.  Used in the {X} (windows) community.
IBM is  /I-B-M/ Inferior But Marketable; It's Better Manually;   Insidious Black Magic; It's Been Malfunctioning; Incontinent Bowel   Movement; and a near-{infinite} number of even less complimentary   expansions, including `International Business Ma...
IBM2 is  illustrate the considerable   antipathy most hackers have long felt toward the `industry leader'   (see {fear and loathing}).   What galls hackers about most IBM machines above the PC level isn't   so much that they are underpowered and over...
IBM3 is  but that the designs are incredibly archaic,   {crufty}, and {elephantine} ... and you can't *fix* them   --- source code is locked up tight, and programming tools are   expensive, hard to find, and bletcherous to use once you've found   the...
IBM4 is  family this may have   begun to change --- but then, we thought that when the PC-RT came   out, too.   In the spirit of universal peace and brotherhood, this lexicon now   includes a number of entries attributed to `IBM'; these derive from s...
IBM5 is  circulated within IBM's own   beleaguered hacker underground. 
IBM discount is  n. A price increase.  Outside IBM, this derives from   the common perception that IBM products are generally overpriced   (see {clone}); inside, it is said to spring from a belief that   large numbers of IBM employees living in an ar...
ice is  [coined by USENETter Tom Maddox, popularized by William   Gibson's cyberpunk SF novels acronym for `Intrusion   Countermeasure Electronics'] Security software (in Gibson's novels,   software that responds to intrusion by attempting to literal...
ice2 is  program designed for   cracking security on a system.  Neither term is in serious use yet   as of mid-1991, but many hackers find the metaphor attractive, and   each may develop a denotation in the future. 
ifdef out is  /if'def owt/ v. Syn. for {condition out}, specific   to {C}.
ill-behaved is  adj. 1. [numerical analysis] Said of an algorithm or   computational method that tends to blow up because of accumulated   roundoff error or poor convergence properties.  2. Software that   bypasses the defined {OS} interfaces to do t...
ill-behaved2 is  itself, often in a way that depends on the   hardware of the machine it is running on or which is nonportable or   incompatible with other pieces of software.  In the IBM PC/MS-DOS   world, there is a folk theorem (nearly true) to th...
ill-behaved3 is  and performance penalties in the OS   interface) all interesting applications are ill-behaved.  See also   {bare metal}. Oppose {well-behaved}, compare {PC-ism}.  See   {mess-dos}. 
IMHO is  // [from SF fandom via USENET; acronym for `In My Humble   Opinion']  "IMHO, mixed-case C names should be avoided, as   mistyping something in the wrong case can cause hard-to-detect   errors --- and they look too Pascalish anyhow."  Also se...
IMHO2 is  Not-So-Humble Opinion) and IMAO   (In My Arrogant Opinion). 
in the extreme is  adj. A preferred superlative suffix for many hackish   terms.  See, for example, `obscure in the extreme' under {obscure},   and compare {highly}.
incantation is  n. Any particularly arbitrary or obscure command that   one must mutter at a system to attain a desired result.  Not used   of passwords or other explicit security features.  Especially used   of tricks that are so poorly documented t...
incantation2 is  compiler normally locates initialized data   in the data segment, but if you {mutter} the right incantation they   will be forced into text space." 
include is  vt. [USENET] 1. To duplicate a portion (or whole) of   another's message (typically with attribution to the source) in a   reply or followup, for clarifying the context of one's response.   See the the discussion of inclusion styles under...
include2 is  `#include <disclaimer.h>'   has appeared in {sig block}s to refer to a notional `standard   disclaimer file'. 
include war is  n. Excessive multi-leveled including within a   discussion {thread}, a practice that tends to annoy readers.  In   a forum with high-traffic newsgroups, such as USENET, this can lead   to {flame}s and the urge to start a {kill file}.
indent style is  [C programmers] n. The rules one uses to indent code   in a readable fashion; a subject of {holy wars}.  There are four   major C indent styles, described below; all have the aim of   making it easier for the reader to visually track...
indent style2 is  significant variable is the placement of   `{' and `}' with respect to the statement(s) they   enclose and the guard or controlling statement (`if',   `else', `for', `while', or `do') on the block,   if any.   `K&R style' --- Named ...
indent style3 is  examples in {K&R} are formatted this way.  Also called `kernel   style' because the UNIX kernel is written in it, and the `One True   Brace Style' (abbrev. 1TBS) by its partisans.  The basic indent   shown here is eight spaces (or o...
indent style4 is  seen, but are much less common.     if (cond) {             <body>     }   `Allman style' --- Named for Eric Allman, a Berkeley hacker who   wrote a lot of the BSD utilities in it (it is sometimes called   `BSD style').  Resembles n...
indent style5 is  indent per level shown here is eight spaces, but four is just   as common (esp. in C++ code).     if (cond)     {             <body>     }   `Whitesmiths style' --- popularized by the examples that came   with Whitesmiths C, an earl...
indent style6 is  level shown here is eight spaces, but four is occasionally seen.     if (cond)             {             <body>             }   `GNU style' --- Used throughout GNU EMACS and the Free Software   Foundation code, and just about nowher...
indent style7 is  level, with `{' and `}' halfway between the   outer and inner indent levels.     if (cond)       {         <body>       }   Surveys have shown the Allman and Whitesmiths styles to be the most   common, with about equal mind shares. ...
indent style8 is  now much less common (the opening brace tends to   get lost against the right paren of the guard part in an `if'   or `while', which is a {Bad Thing}).  Defenders of 1TBS   argue that any putative gain in readability is less importa...
indent style9 is  vertical space, which enables   one to see more code on one's screen at once.  Doubtless these   issues will continue to be the subject of {holy wars}. 
index is  n. See {coefficient}.
infant mortality is  n. It is common lore among hackers that the   chances of sudden hardware failure drop off exponentially with a   machine's time since power-up (that is, until the relatively   distant time at which enough mechanical wear in I/O d...
infant mortality2 is  components has accumulated for the   machine to start going senile).  Up to half of all chip and wire   failures happen within a new system's first few weeks; such   failures are often referred to as `infant mortality' problems ...
infant mortality3 is  syndrome').  See   {bathtub curve}, {burn-in period}. 
infinite is  adj. Consisting of a large number of objects; extreme.   Used very loosely as in "This program produces infinite   garbage."  "He is an infinite loser."  The word most likely to   follow `infinite', though, is {hair} (it has been pointed...
infinite2 is  of infinite hair).  These   uses are abuses of the word's mathematical meaning.  The term   `semi-infinite', denoting an immoderately large amount of some   resource, is also heard.  "This compiler is taking a semi-infinite   amount of ...
infinite loop is  n. One that never terminates (that is, the machine   {spin}s or {buzz}es forever; the usual symptom is   {catatonia}).  There is a standard joke that has been made about   each generation's exemplar of the ultra-fast machine "The Cr...
infinite loop2 is  loop in under 2 seconds!" 
infinity is  n. 1. The largest value that can be represented in a   particular type of variable (register, memory location, data type,   whatever).  2. `minus infinity' The smallest such value, not   necessarily or even usually the simple negation of...
infinity2 is  arithmetic, infinity is   2^{N-1} - 1 but minus infinity is - (2^{N-1}),   not -(2^{N-1} - 1).  Note also that this is different from   "time T equals minus infinity", which is closer to a   mathematician's usage of infinity. 
insanely great is  adj. [Mac community, from Steve Jobs; also BSD UNIX   people via Bill Joy] Something so incredibly {elegant} that it is   imaginable only to someone possessing the most puissant of   {hacker}-natures.
INTERCAL is  /in't*r-kal/ [said by the authors to stand for   `Compiler Language With No Pronounceable Acronym'] n. A   computer language designed by Don Woods and James Lyon in 1972.   INTERCAL is purposely different from all other computer   langua...
INTERCAL2 is  written language,   being totally unspeakable.  An excerpt from the INTERCAL Reference   Manual will make the style of the language clear        It is a well-known and oft-demonstrated fact that a person whose        work is incomprehen...
INTERCAL3 is        one were to state that the simplest way to store a value of 65536        in a 32-bit INTERCAL variable is          DO 1 <- #0$#256        any sensible programmer would say that that was absurd.  Since this        is indeed the sim...
INTERCAL4 is  look        foolish in front of his boss, who would of course have happened to        turn up, as bosses are wont to do.  The effect would be no less        devastating for the programmer having been correct.   INTERCAL has many other p...
INTERCAL5 is  more unspeakable.  The Woods-Lyons implementation was actually used   by many (well, at least several) people at Princeton.  The language   has been recently reimplemented as C-INTERCAL and is consequently   enjoying an unprecedented le...
INTERCAL6 is  alt.lang.intercal newsgroup devoted to the study and ...   appreciation of the language on USENET. 
interesting is  adj. In hacker parlance, this word has strong   connotations of `annoying', or `difficult', or both.  Hackers   relish a challenge, and enjoy wringing all the irony possible out   of the ancient Chinese curse "May you live in interest...
Internet address is  n. 1. [techspeak] An absolute network address of   the form foo@bar.baz, where foo is a user name, bar is a   {sitename}, and baz is a `domain' name, possibly including   periods itself.  Contrast with {bang path}; see also {netw...
Internet address2 is  Internet machines and most UUCP   sites can now resolve these addresses, thanks to a large amount of   behind-the-scenes magic and PD software written since 1980 or so.   See also {bang path}, {domainist}.  2. More loosely, any ...
Internet address3 is  this includes {bang   path} addresses and some internal corporate and government   networks.   Reading Internet addresses is something of an art.  Here are the   four most important top-level functional Internet domains followed...
Internet address4 is  com          commercial organizations     edu          educational institutions     gov          U.S. government civilian sites     mil          U.S. military sites   Note that most of the sites in the com and edu domains are in...
Internet address5 is  the U.S. outside the functional domains     su          sites in the Soviet Union (see {kremvax}).     uk          sites in the United Kingdom   Within the us domain, there are subdomains for the fifty   states, each generally w...
Internet address6 is  abbreviation.  Within the uk domain, there is an ac subdomain for   academic sites and a co domain for commercial ones.  Other   top-level domains may be divided up in similar ways. 
interrupt is  1. [techspeak] n. On a computer, an event that   interrupts normal processing and temporarily diverts   flow-of-control through an "interrupt handler" routine.  See also   {trap}.  2. interj. A request for attention from a hacker.   Oft...
interrupt2 is  seen Joe   recently?"  See {priority interrupt}.  3. Under MS-DOS, the   term `interrupt' is nearly synonymous with `system call', because   the OS and BIOS routines are both called using the INT instruction   (see {{interrupt list, th...
interrupt3 is  bypass the OS (going directly to a BIOS interrupt) to get   reasonable performance. 
interrupt list, the is  [MS-DOS] n. The list of all known software   interrupt calls (both documented and undocumented) for IBM PCs and   compatibles, maintained and made available for free redistribution   by Ralf Brown (ralf@cs.cmu.edu).  As of ear...
interrupts locked out is  When someone is ignoring you.  In a   restaurant, after several fruitless attempts to get the waitress's   attention, a hacker might well observe "She must have interrupts   locked out".  The synonym `interrupts disabled' is...
interrupts locked out2 is  have one's interrupt mask bit set"   or "interrupts masked out" is also heard.  See also {spl}. 
iron is  n. Hardware, especially older and larger hardware of   {mainframe} class with big metal cabinets housing relatively   low-density electronics (but the term is also used of modern   supercomputers).  Often in the phrase {big iron}.  Oppose   ...
Iron Age is  n. In the history of computing, 1961--1971 --- the   formative era of commercial {mainframe} technology, when {big   iron} {dinosaur}s ruled the earth.  These began with the delivery   of the first PDP-1, coincided with the dominance of ...
Iron Age2 is  introduction of the first commercial   microprocessor (the Intel 4004) in 1971.  See also {Stone Age};   compare {elder days}. 
iron box is  [UNIX/Internet] n. A special environment set up to trap   a {cracker} logging in over remote connections long enough to be   traced.  May include a modified {shell} restricting the hacker's   movements in unobvious ways, and `bait' files...
iron box2 is  on.  See also {back door}, {firewall   machine}, {Venus flytrap}, and Clifford Stoll's account in   `The Cuckoo's Egg' of how he made and used one (see   the Bibliography).  Compare {padded cell}. 
ironmonger is  [IBM] n. Derogatory.  A hardware specialist.  Compare   {sandbender}, {polygon pusher}.
ITS is  /I-T-S/ n. 1. Incompatible Time-sharing System, an   influential but highly idiosyncratic operating system written for   PDP-6s and PDP-10s at MIT and long used at the MIT AI Lab.  Much   AI-hacker jargon derives from ITS folklore, and to hav...
ITS2 is  instantly as an old-timer of the most   venerable sort.  ITS pioneered many important innovations,   including transparent file sharing between machines and   terminal-independent I/O.  After about 1982, most actual work was   shifted to new...
ITS3 is  essentially as a hobby and service to the hacker community.  The   shutdown of the lab's last ITS machine in May 1990 marked the end   of an era and sent old-time hackers into mourning nationwide (see   {high moby}).  The Royal Institute of ...
ITS4 is  `live' ITS site at its computer museum (right next   to the only TOPS-10 system still on the Internet), so ITS is still   alleged to hold the record for OS in longest continuous use   (however, {{WAITS}} is a credible rival for this palm).  ...
ITS5 is  operating-system perfection   worshiped by a bizarre, fervent retro-cult of old-time hackers and   ex-users (see {troglodyte}, sense 2).  ITS worshipers manage   somehow to continue believing that an OS maintained by   assembly-language hand...
ITS6 is  6-character filenames in one directory per account remains superior   to today's state of commercial art (their venom against UNIX is   particularly intense).  See also {holy wars},   {Weenix}. 
IWBNI is  // [acronym] `It Would Be Nice If'.  Compare {WIBNI}.
IYFEG is  // [USENET] Abbreviation for `Insert Your Favorite Ethnic   Group'.  Used as a meta-name when telling racist jokes on the net to   avoid offending anyone.  See {JEDR}.*J. Random /J rand'm/ n. [generalized from {J. Random Hacker}]   Arbitrar...
IYFEG2 is  often   prefixed to a noun to make a name out of it.  It means roughly   `some particular' or `any specific one'.  "Would you let   J. Random Loser marry your daughter?"  The most common uses are   `J. Random Hacker', `J. Random Loser', an...
IYFEG3 is  be allowed to {gun} down other   people?"), but it can be used simply as an elaborate version of   {random} in any sense. 
J. Random Hacker is  [MIT] /J rand'm hak'r/ n. A mythical figure   like the Unknown Soldier; the archetypal hacker nerd.  See   {random}, {Suzie COBOL}.  This may originally have been   inspired or influenced by `J. Fred Muggs', a show-biz chimpanzee...
jaggies is  /jag'eez/ n. The `stairstep' effect observable when an   edge (esp. a linear edge of very shallow or steep slope) is   rendered on a pixel device (as opposed to a vector display).
JCL is  /J-C-L/ n. 1. IBM's supremely {rude} Job Control   Language.  JCL is the script language used to control the execution   of programs in IBM's batch systems.  JCL has a very {fascist}   syntax, and some versions will, for example, {barf} if tw...
JCL2 is  programmers confronted   with JCL simply copy a working file (or card deck), changing the   file names.  Someone who actually understands and generates unique   JCL is regarded with the mixed respect one gives to someone who   memorizes the ...
JCL3 is    itself sometimes sing "Who's the breeder of the crud that mangles   you and me?  I-B-M, J-C-L, M-o-u-s-e" to the tune of the   "Mickey Mouse Club" theme to express their opinion of the   beast.  2. A comparative for any very {rude} softwar...
JCL4 is  as bad as JCL."  As with   {COBOL}, JCL is often used as an archetype of ugliness even by   those who haven't experienced it.  See also {IBM}, {fear and   loathing}. 
JEDR is  // n. Synonymous with {IYFEG}.  At one time, people in   the USENET newsgroup rec.humor.funny tended to use `JEDR'   instead of {IYFEG} or `<ethnic>'; this stemmed from a public   attempt to suppress the group once made by a loser with initi...
JEDR2 is  joke posted there.  (The   practice was {retcon}ned by the expanding these initials as   `Joke Ethnic/Denomination/Race'.)  After much sound and fury JEDR   faded away; this term appears to be doing likewise.  JEDR's only   permanent effect...
JEDR3 is  `sensitivity' arguments for censorship so thoroughly that more   recent attempts to raise them have met with immediate and   near-universal rejection. 
JFCL is  /jif'kl/, /jaf'kl/, /j*-fi'kl/ vt., obs. (alt.   `jfcl') To cancel or annul something.  "Why don't you jfcl that   out?"  The fastest do-nothing instruction on older models of the   PDP-10 happened to be JFCL, which stands for "Jump if Flag ...
JFCL2 is  something useful, but is a very   fast no-operation if no flag is specified.  Geoff Goodfellow, one   of the jargon-1 co-authors, has long had JFCL on the license plate   of his BMW.  Usage rare except among old-time PDP-10 hackers. 
jiffy is  n. 1. The duration of one tick of the system clock on the   computer (see {tick}).  Often one AC cycle time (1/60 second in   the U.S. and Canada, 1/50 most other places), but more recently   1/100 sec has become common.  "The swapper runs ...
jiffy2 is  memory management routine is executed once for   every 6 ticks of the clock, or about ten times a second.   2. Confusingly, the term is sometimes also used for a 1-millisecond   {wall time} interval.  3. Indeterminate time from a few secon...
jiffy3 is  certainly not now and   possibly never.  This is a bit contrary to the more widespread use   of the word.  Oppose {nano}. See also {Real Soon Now}. 
job security is  n. When some piece of code is written in a   particularly {obscure} fashion, and no good reason (such as time   or space optimization) can be discovered, it is often said that the   programmer was attempting to increase his job secur...
job security2 is  for maintenance).  This sour joke   seldom has to be said in full; if two hackers are looking over some   code together and one points at a section and says "job security",   the other one may just nod. 
jock is  n. 1. A programmer who is characterized by large and somewhat   brute-force programs.  See {brute force}.  2. When modified by   another noun, describes a specialist in some particular computing   area.  The compounds `compiler jock' and `sy...
jock2 is  examples of this. 
joe code is  /joh' kohd`/ n. 1. Code that is overly {tense} and   unmaintainable.  "{Perl} may be a handy program, but if you look   at the source, it's complete joe code."  2. Badly written,   possibly buggy code.   Correspondents wishing to remain ...
joe code2 is  the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and observed   that usage has drifted slightly; the original sobriquet `Joe code'   was intended in sense 1. 
JR[LN] is  /J-R-L/, /J-R-N/ n. The names JRL and JRN   were sometimes used as example names when discussing a kind of user   ID used under {{TOPS-10}}; they were understood to be the initials   of (fictitious) programmers named `J. Random Loser' and ...
JR[LN]2 is  example, if one said "To log   in, type log one comma jay are en" (that is, "log 1,JRN"), the   listener would have understood that he should use his own computer   ID in place of `JRN'. 
JRST is  /jerst/ [based on the PDP-10 jump instruction] v.,obs. To   suddenly change subjects, with no intention of returning to the   previous topic.  Usage rather rare except among PDP-10 diehards, and   considered silly.  See also {AOS}.
juggling eggs is  vi. Keeping a lot of {state} in your head while   modifying a program.  "Don't bother me now, I'm juggling eggs",   means that an interrupt is likely to result in the program's being   scrambled.  In the classic first-contact SF nov...
juggling eggs2 is  and Jerry Pournelle, an alien describes a   very difficult task by saying "We juggle priceless eggs in   variable gravity."  That is a very hackish use of language.  See   also {hack mode}. 
jump off into never-never land is  [from J. M. Barrie's `Peter   Pan'] v. Same as {branch to Fishkill}, but more common in   technical cultures associated with non-IBM computers that use the   term `jump' rather than `branch'.  Compare {hyperspace}.*...
jump off into never-never land2 is  used both as a   spoken word and a written suffix (like {meg} and {gig} for   megabyte and gigabyte).  See {{quantifiers}}. 
K&R is  [Kernighan and Ritchie] n. Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie's   book `The C Programming Language', esp. the classic and influential   first edition (Prentice-Hall 1978; ISBN 0-113-110163-3).  Syn.   {White Book}, {Old Testament}.  See also ...
kahuna is  /k*-hoo'nuh/ [IBM from the Hawaiian title for a shaman] n.   Synonym for {wizard}, {guru}.
kamikaze packet is  n. The `official' jargon for what is more commonly   called a {Christmas tree packet}. RFC-1025, `TCP and IP Bake Off'   says     10 points for correctly being able to process a "Kamikaze"     packet (AKA nastygram, christmas tree...
kamikaze packet2 is  is, correctly handle a segment with the     maximum combination of features at once (e.g., a SYN URG PUSH     FIN segment with options and data).   See also {Chernobyl packet}. 
kangaroo code is  n. Syn. {spaghetti code}.
ken is  /ken/ n. 1. [UNIX] Ken Thompson, principal inventor of   UNIX.  In the early days he used to hand-cut distribution tapes,   often with a note that read "Love, ken".  Old-timers still use   his first name (sometimes uncapitalized, because it's...
ken2 is  third-person reference; it is widely   understood (on USENET, in particular) that without a last name   `Ken' refers only to Ken Thompson.  Similarly, Dennis without last   name means Dennis Ritchie (and he is often known as dmr).  See   als...
ken3 is  This was   originated by the Software Support group at Symbolics because the   two greatest flamers in the user community were both named Ken. 
kgbvax is  /K-G-B'vaks/ n. See {kremvax}.
kill file is  [USENET] n. (alt. `KILL file') Per-user file(s) used   by some {USENET} reading programs (originally Larry Wall's   `rn(1)') to discard summarily (without presenting for reading)   articles matching some particularly uninteresting (or u...
kill file2 is  other header lines.  Thus to add   a person (or subject) to one's kill file is to arrange for that   person to be ignored by one's newsreader in future.  By extension,   it may be used for a decision to ignore the person or subject in ...
killer micro is  [popularized by Eugene Brooks] n. A   microprocessor-based machine that infringes on mini, mainframe, or   supercomputer performance turf.  Often heard in "No one will   survive the attack of the killer micros!", the battle cry of th...
killer micro2 is  architectures.   The popularity of the phrase `attack of the killer micros' is   doubtless reinforced by the movie title "Attack Of The Killer   Tomatoes" (one of the {canonical} examples of   so-bad-it's-wonderful among hackers).  ...
killer micro3 is  micros have gone on the offensive not just   individually (in workstations) but in hordes (within massively   parallel computers). 
killer poke is  n. A recipe for inducing hardware damage on a machine   via insertion of invalid values (see {poke}) in a memory-mapped   control register; used esp. of various fairly well-known tricks   on {bitty box}es without hardware memory manag...
killer poke2 is  that can overload and trash analog   electronics in the monitor.  See also {HCF}. 
kilo- is  [SI] pref. See {{quantifiers}}.
KIPS is  /kips/ [acronym, by analogy with {MIPS} using {K}] n.   Thousands (*not* 1024s) of Instructions Per Second.  Usage   rare.
KISS Principle is  /kis' prin'si-pl/ n. "Keep It Simple, Stupid".   A maxim often invoked when discussing design to fend off   {creeping featurism} and control development complexity.   Possibly related to the {marketroid} maxim on sales   presentati...
kit is  [USENET] n. A source software distribution that has been   packaged in such a way that it can (theoretically) be unpacked and   installed according to a series of steps using only standard UNIX   tools, and entirely documented by some reasona...
kit2 is  {README file}.  The more general   term {distribution} may imply that special tools or more   stringent conditions on the host environment are required. 
klone is  /klohn/ n. See {clone}, sense 4.
kludge is  /kluhj/ n. Common (but incorrect) variant of {kluge}, q.v.
kluge is  /klooj/ [from the German `klug', clever] 1. n.  A Rube   Goldberg (or Heath Robinson) device, whether in hardware or   software.  (A long-ago `Datamation' article by Jackson Granholme   said "An ill-assorted collection of poorly matching pa...
kluge2 is  clever programming trick   intended to solve a particular nasty case in an expedient, if not   clear, manner.  Often used to repair bugs.  Often involves   {ad-hockery} and verges on being a {crock}.  In fact, the   TMRC Dictionary defined...
kluge3 is  Something that works for the wrong reason.  4. vt. To insert a   kluge into a program.  "I've kluged this routine to get around   that weird bug, but there's probably a better way."  5. [WPI] n. A   feature that is implemented in a {rude} ...
kluge4 is  encountered in the variant spelling   `kludge'.  Reports from {old fart}s are consistent that `kluge'   was the original spelling, and that `kludge' arose by mutation   sometime in the early 1970s.  Some people who encountered the word   f...
kluge5 is  reasonable but incorrect   conclusion that the word should be pronounced /kluhj/ (rhyming   with `sludge').  The result of this tangled history is a mess; in   1991, many (perhaps even most) hackers pronounce the word correctly   as /klooj...
kluge6 is  the   pronunciation drift of {mung}).  Some observers consider this   appropriate in view of its meaning. 
kluge around is  vt. To avoid a bug or difficult condition by   inserting a {kluge}.  Compare {workaround}.
kluge up is  vt. To lash together a quick hack to perform a task; this   is milder than {cruft together} and has some of the connotations   of {hack up} (note, however, that the construction `kluge on'   corresponding to {hack on} is never used).  "I...
kluge up2 is  buffer contents to a safe place." 
Knights of the Lambda Calculus is  n. A semi-mythical organization of   wizardly LISP and Scheme hackers.  The name refers to a   mathematical formalism invented by Alonzo Church, with which LISP is   intimately connected.  There is no enrollment lis...
Knights of the Lambda Calculus2 is  unclear, but one well-known LISPer has been known   to give out buttons and, in general, the *members* know who   they are.... 
Knuth is  [Donald E. Knuth's `The Art of Computer Programming']   n. Mythically, the reference that answers all questions about data   structures or algorithms.  A safe answer when you do not know   "I think you can find that in Knuth."  Contrast {li...
kremvax is  /krem-vaks/ [from the then large number of {USENET}   {VAXen} with names of the form foovax] n. Originally, a   fictitious USENET site at the Kremlin, announced on April 1, 1984   in a posting ostensibly originated there by Soviet leader ...
kremvax2 is  actually forged by Piet   Beertema as an April Fool's joke.  Other fictitious sites mentioned in the   hoax were moskvax and {kgbvax}, which now seems to be the one by   which it is remembered.  This was probably the funniest of the many...
kremvax3 is  (which has negligible   security against them), because the notion that USENET might ever   penetrate the Iron Curtain seemed so totally absurd at the time.   In fact, it was only six years later that the first genuine site in   Moscow, ...
kremvax4 is  convincing that the postings from it weren't just another prank.   Vadim Antonov (avg@hq.demos.su), the major poster from there   up to at least the end of 1990, was quite aware of all this,   referred to it frequently in his own posting...
kremvax5 is  readers by blandly asserting that he   *was* a hoax!   Eventually he even arranged to have the domain's gateway site   *named* kremvax, thus neatly turning fiction into truth   and demonstrating that the hackish sense of humor transcends...
kremvax6 is  contributed the   Russian-language material for this lexicon. --- ESR]*lace card n. obs. A {{punched card}} with all holes punched (also   called a `whoopee card').  Card readers jammed when they got to   one of these, as the resulting c...
kremvax7 is  avoid buckling inside the mechanism.  Card punches   could also jam trying to produce these things owing to power-supply   problems.  When some practical joker fed a lace card through the   reader, you needed to clear the jam with a `car...
language lawyer is  n. A person, usually an experienced or senior   software engineer, who is intimately familiar with many or most of   the numerous restrictions and features (both useful and esoteric)   applicable to one or more computer programmin...
language lawyer2 is  distinguished by the ability to show you the   five sentences scattered through a 200-plus-page manual that   together imply the answer to your question "if only you had   thought to look there".  Compare {wizard}, {legal},   {le...
languages of choice is  n. {C} and {LISP}.  Nearly every hacker   knows one of these, and most good ones are fluent in both.  Smalltalk   and Prolog are also popular in small but influential communities.   There is also a rapidly dwindling category o...
languages of choice2 is  assembler, as their language of choice.  They   often prefer to be known as {real programmer}s, and other hackers   consider them a bit odd (see "The Story of Mel, a Real Programmer"   in appendix A).  Assembler is generally ...
languages of choice3 is  appropriate for anything but {HLL} implementation,   {glue}, and a few time-critical and hardware-specific uses in systems   programs.  FORTRAN occupies a shrinking niche in scientific   programming.   Most hackers tend to fr...
languages of choice4 is  which don't give them the near-total freedom considered   necessary for hacking (see {bondage-and-discipline language}), and   to regard everything that's even remotely connected with {COBOL}   or other traditional {card wall...
larval stage is  n. Describes a period of monomaniacal concentration   on coding apparently passed through by all fledgling hackers.   Common symptoms include the perpetration of more than one 36-hour   {hacking run} in a given week; neglect of all o...
larval stage2 is  food, sleep, and personal hygiene; and   a chronic case of advanced bleary-eye.  Can last from 6 months to 2   years, the apparent median being around 18 months.  A few so   afflicted never resume a more `normal' life, but the ordea...
larval stage3 is  wizardly (as opposed to   merely competent) programmers.  See also {wannabee}.  A less   protracted and intense version of larval stage (typically lasting   about a month) may recur when one is learning a new {OS} or   programming l...
lase is  /layz/ vt. To print a given document via a laser printer.   "OK, let's lase that sucker and see if all those graphics-macro   calls did the right things."
laser chicken is  n. Kung Pao Chicken, a standard Chinese dish   containing chicken, peanuts, and hot red peppers in a spicy   pepper-oil sauce.  Many hackers call it `laser chicken' for   two reasons It can {zap} you just like a laser, and the   sau...
laser chicken2 is  beams.   In a variation on this theme, it is reported that some Australian   hackers have redesignated the common dish `lemon chicken' as   `Chernobyl Chicken'.  The name is derived from the color of the   sauce, which is considere...
laser chicken3 is  mythically, do some of the inhabitants of Chernobyl). 
laundromat is  n. Syn. {disk farm}; see {washing machine}.
LDB is  /l*'d*b/ [from the PDP-10 instruction set] vt. To extract   from the middle.  "LDB me a slice of cake, please." This usage   has been kept alive by Common LISP's function of the same name.   Considered silly.  See also {DPB}.
leaf site is  n. A machine that merely originates and reads USENET   news or mail, and does not relay any third-party traffic.  Often   uttered in a critical tone; when the ratio of leaf sites to   backbone, rib, and other relay sites gets too high, ...
leaf site2 is  Compare {backbone site}, {rib   site}. 
leak is  n. With qualifier, one of a class of resource-management bugs   that occur when resources are not freed properly after operations   on them are finished, so they effectively disappear (leak out).   This leads to eventual exhaustion as new al...
leak2 is  and {fd leak} have their own entries; one   might also refer, to, say, a `window handle leak' in a window   system. 
leaky heap is  [Cambridge] n. An {arena} with a {memory leak}.
legal is  adj. Loosely used to mean `in accordance with all the   relevant rules', esp. in connection with some set of constraints   defined by software.  "The older =+ alternate for += is no longer   legal syntax in ANSI C."  "This parser processes ...
legal2 is  the trailing linefeed."  Hackers   often model their work as a sort of game played with the   environment in which the objective is to maneuver through the   thicket of `natural laws' to achieve a desired objective.  Their   use of `legal'...
legal3 is  as by   the more conventional one having to do with courts and lawyers.   Compare {language lawyer}, {legalese}. 
legalese is  n. Dense, pedantic verbiage in a language description,   product specification, or interface standard; text that seems   designed to obfuscate and requires a {language lawyer} to   {parse} it.  Though hackers are not afraid of high infor...

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

overrun2 is  machine takes longer than 2 msec to get to   service the interrupt, at least one character will be lost.  2. Also   applied to non-serial-I/O communications. "I forgot to pay my   electric bill due to mail overrun." "Sorry, I got four ph...
overrun3 is  your message to   overrun."  When {thrash}ing at tasks, the next person to make a   request might be told "Overrun!"  3. More loosely, may refer to a   {buffer overflow} not necessarily related to processing time (as   in {overrun screw}...
overrun screw is  [C programming] n. A variety of {fandango on core}   produced by scribbling past the end of an array (C has no checks   for this).  This is relatively benign and easy to spot if the array   is static; if it is auto, the result may b...
overrun screw2 is  in {heisenbug}s of the most diabolical   subtlety.  The term `overrun screw' is used esp. of scribbles   beyond the end of arrays allocated with `malloc(3)'; this   typically trashes the allocation header for the next block in the ...
overrun screw3 is  malloc and often   a core dump on the next operation to use `stdio(3)' or   `malloc(3)' itself.  See {spam}, {overrun}; see also   {memory leak}, {aliasing bug}, {precedence lossage},   {fandango on core}, {secondary damage}.*P.O.D...
overrun screw4 is  opposed to a   code section). Usage pedantic and rare.  See also {pod}. 
padded cell is  n. Where you put {luser}s so they can't hurt   anything.  A program that limits a luser to a carefully restricted   subset of the capabilities of the host system (for example, the   `rsh(1)' utility on USG UNIX).  Note that this is di...
padded cell2 is  overt and not aimed at   enforcing security so much as protecting others (and the luser)   from the consequences of the luser's boundless na"ivet'e (see   {na"ive}).  Also `padded cell environment'. 
page in is  [MIT] vi. 1. To become aware of one's surroundings again after   having paged out (see {page out}).  Usually confined to the sarcastic   comment "Eric pages in.  Film at 11."  See {film at 11}.   2. Syn. `swap in'; see {swap}.
page out is  [MIT] vi. 1. To become unaware of one's surroundings   temporarily, due to daydreaming or preoccupation.  "Can you repeat   that?  I paged out for a minute."  See {page in}.  Compare   {glitch}, {thinko}.  2. Syn. `swap out'; see {swap}.
pain in the net is  n. A {flamer}.
paper-net is  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 o...
paper-net2 is  {voice-net}, {snail-mail}. 
param is  /p*-ram'/ n. Shorthand for `parameter'.  See also   {parm}; Compare {arg}, {var}.
parent message is  n. See {followup}.
parity errors is  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...
parity errors2 is  nearly always correctable transient error in   RAM hardware. 
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...
patch7 is  needed.  The patch was distributed at about the right   time for an IBM patch, had official stationery and all accompanying   documentation, and was dutifully installed.  The installation   manager very shortly thereafter learned something...
patch space is  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 ...
patch space2 is  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 is  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 di...
path2 is  `relative path'). This is also   called a `pathname'.  3. [UNIX and MS-DOS] The `search   path', an environment variable specifying the directories in which   the {shell} (COMMAND.COM, under MS-DOS) should look for commands.   Other, simila...
path3 is  the   C preprocessor has a `search path' it uses in looking for   `#include' files). 
pathological is  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...
pathological2 is  are very unlikely to occur in practice.   2. When used of test input, implies that it was purposefully   engineered as a worst case.  The implication in both senses is that   the data is spectacularly ill-conditioned or that someone...
pathological3 is  algorithm in order to come up with   such a crazy example.  3. Also said of an unlikely collection of   circumstances.  "If the network is down and comes up halfway   through the execution of that command by root, the system may   j...
pathological4 is  case."  Often used   to dismiss the case from discussion, with the implication that the   consequences are acceptable since that they will happen so   infrequently (if at all) that there is no justification for   going to extra trou...
payware is  /pay'weir/ n. Commercial software.  Oppose {shareware}   or {freeware}.
PBD is  /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 is  /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 har...
PC-ism2 is  {vaxism}, {unixism}.  Also,   `PC-ware' n., a program full of PC-isms on a machine with a more   capable operating system.  Pejorative. 
PD is  /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 copyright...
PD2 is  anyone who can {snarf} a copy.  See   {copyleft}. 
pdl is  /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 De...
pdl2 is  formal and profoundly useless   pseudo-languages in which {management} forces one to design   programs.  {Management} often expects it to be maintained in   parallel with the code.  See also {{flowchart}}.  4. To design   using a program des...
pdl3 is  eyes won't focus beyond 2 feet." 
PDP-10 is  [Programmed Data Processor model 10] n. The machine that   made timesharing real.  It looms large in hacker folklore because   of its adoption in the mid-1970s by many university computing   facilities and research labs, including the MIT ...
PDP-102 is  the instruction set (most notably the   bit-field instructions) are still considered unsurpassed.  The 10   was eventually eclipsed by the VAX machines (descendants of the   PDP-11) when DEC recognized that the 10 and VAX product lines we...
PDP-103 is  concentrate its software   development effort on the more profitable VAX.  The machine was   finally dropped from DEC's line in 1983, following the failure of   the Jupiter Project at DEC to build a viable new model. (Some   attempts by o...
PDP-104 is  nothing; see   {Foonly}) This event spelled the doom of {{ITS}} and the   technical cultures that had spawned the original Jargon File, but   by mid-1991 it had become something of a badge of honorable   old-timerhood among hackers to hav...
PDP-105 is  {{TOPS-10}}, {{ITS}}, {AOS}, {BLT}, {DDT}, {DPB},   {EXCH}, {HAKMEM}, {JFCL}, {LDB}, {pop}, {push},   appendix A. 
PDP-20 is  n. The most famous computer that never was.  {PDP-10}   computers running the {{TOPS-10}} operating system were labeled   `DECsystem-10' as a way of differentiating them from the PDP-11.   Later on, those systems running {TOPS-20} were lab...
PDP-202 is  being the result of a lawsuit   brought against DEC by Singer, which once made a computer called   `system-10'), but contrary to popular lore there was never a   `PDP-20'; the only difference between a 10 and a 20 was the   operating syst...
PDP-203 is  all)   machines sold to run TOPS-10 were painted `Basil Blue', whereas   most TOPS-20 machines were painted `Chinese Red' (often mistakenly   called orange). 
peek is  n.,vt. (and {poke}) The commands in most microcomputer   BASICs for directly accessing memory contents at an absolute   address; often extended to mean the corresponding constructs in any   {HLL} (peek reads memory, poke modifies it).  Much ...
peek2 is  {peek}ing around memory, more   or less at random, to find the location where the system keeps   interesting stuff.  Long (and variably accurate) lists of such   addresses for various computers circulate (see {{interrupt list,   the}}).  Th...
peek3 is  highly   useful, mildly amusing, useless but neat, or (most likely) total   {lossage} (see {killer poke}). 
pencil and paper is  n. An archaic information storage and   transmission device that works by depositing smears of graphite on   bleached wood pulp.  More recent developments in paper-based   technology include improved `write-once' update devices w...
pencil and paper2 is  balls to deposit colored   pigment.  All these devices require an operator skilled at   so-called `handwriting' technique.  These technologies are   ubiquitous outside hackerdom, but nearly forgotten inside it.  Most   hackers h...
pencil and paper3 is  years of   keyboarding tend to have encouraged it to degrade further.  Perhaps   for this reason, hackers deprecate pencil-and-paper technology and   often resist using it in any but the most trivial contexts.  See   also append...
peon is  n. A person with no special ({root} or {wheel})   privileges on a computer system.  "I can't create an account on   *foovax* for you; I'm only a peon there."
percent-S is  /per-sent' es'/ [From the code in C's `printf(3)'   library function used to insert an arbitrary string argument] n. An   unspecified person or object.  "I was just talking to some   percent-s in administration."  Compare {random}.
perf is  /perf/ n. See {chad} (sense 1).  The term `perfory'   /per'f*-ree/ is also heard.
perfect programmer syndrome is  n. Arrogance; the egotistical   conviction that one is above normal human error.  Most frequently   found among programmers of some native ability but relatively   little experience (especially new graduates; their per...
perfect programmer syndrome2 is  excellent performance at solving {toy   problem}s).  "Of course my program is correct, there is no need to   test it."  "Yes, I can see there may be a problem here, but   *I'll* never type `rm -r /' while in {root}." 
Perl is  /perl/ [Practical Extraction and Report Language, a.k.a   Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister] n. An interpreted language   developed by Larry Wall (lwall@jpl.nasa.gov, author of   `patch(1)' and `rn(1)') and distributed over USENET.   Su...
Perl2 is  hairier (see   {awk}).  UNIX sysadmins, who are almost always incorrigible   hackers, increasingly consider it one of the {languages of   choice}.  Perl has been described, in a parody of a famous remark   about `lex(1)', as the "Swiss-Army...
pessimal is  /pes'im-l/ [Latin-based antonym for `optimal'] adj.   Maximally bad.  "This is a pessimal situation."  Also `pessimize'   vt. To make as bad as possible.  These words are the obvious   Latin-based antonyms for `optimal' and `optimize', b...
pessimal2 is  most English dictionaries, although   `pessimize' is listed in the OED. 
pessimizing compiler is  /pes'*-miz`ing k*m-pil'r/ [antonym of   `optimizing compiler'] n. A compiler that produces object code that   is worse than the straightforward or obvious hand translation.  The   implication is that the compiler is actually ...
pessimizing compiler2 is  excessive cleverness is doing the opposite.  A   few pessimizing compilers have been written on purpose, however, as   pranks or burlesques. 
peta- is  /pe't*/ [SI] pref. See {{quantifiers}}.
PETSCII is  /pet'skee/ [abbreviation of PET ASCII] n. The variation   (many would say perversion) of the {{ASCII}} character set used by   the Commodore Business Machines PET series of personal computers   and the later Commodore C64, C16, and C128 m...
PETSCII2 is  and up-arrow (as in old-style ASCII) instead of   underscore and caret, placed the unshifted alphabet at positions   65--90, put the shifted alphabet at positions 193--218, and added   graphics characters. 
phase is  1. n. The phase of one's waking-sleeping schedule with   respect to the standard 24-hour cycle.  This is a useful concept   among people who often work at night and/or according to no fixed   schedule.  It is not uncommon to change one's ph...
phase2 is  regular basis.  "What's your phase?"  "I've   been getting in about 8 P.M. lately, but I'm going to {wrap   around} to the day schedule by Friday."  A person who is roughly   12 hours out of phase is sometimes said to be in `night mode'.  ...
phase3 is  frequently) used, meaning   you're working 9 to 5 (or, more likely, 10 to 6).)  The act of   altering one's cycle is called `changing phase'; `phase   shifting' has also been recently reported from Caltech.   2. `change phase the hard way'...
phase4 is  to get into a different phase.  3. `change phase   the easy way' To stay asleep, etc.  However, some claim that   either staying awake longer or sleeping longer is easy, and that it   is *shortening* your day or night that's hard (see {wra...
phase5 is  travelers who cross many   time-zone boundaries may be attributed to two distinct causes the   strain of travel per se, and the strain of changing phase.  Hackers   who suddenly find that they must change phase drastically in a   short per...
phase6 is  experience   something very like jet lag without traveling. 
phase of the moon is  n. Used humorously as a random parameter on which   something is said to depend.  Sometimes implies unreliability of   whatever is dependent, or that reliability seems to be dependent on   conditions nobody has been able to dete...
phase of the moon2 is  channel open in mumble mode, having the foo   switch set, and on the phase of the moon."   True story Once upon a time there was a bug that really did depend   on the phase of the moon.  There is a little subroutine that had   ...
phase of the moon3 is  MIT to calculate an   approximation to the moon's true phase.  GLS incorporated this   routine into a LISP program that, when it wrote out a file, would   print a timestamp line almost 80 characters long.  Very   occasionally t...
phase of the moon4 is  and   would overflow onto the next line, and when the file was later read   back in the program would {barf}.  The length of the first line   depended on both the precise date and time and the length of the   phase specificatio...
phase of the moon5 is  bug   literally depended on the phase of the moon!   The first paper edition of the Jargon File (Steele-1983) included   an example of one of the timestamp lines that exhibited this bug, but   the typesetter `corrected' it.  Th...
phreaking is  [from `phone phreak'] n. 1. The art and science of   cracking the phone network (so as, for example, to make free   long-distance calls).  2. By extension, security-cracking in any   other context (especially, but not exclusively, on co...
phreaking2 is  phreaking was a semi-respectable activity among   hackers; there was a gentleman's agreement that phreaking as an   intellectual game and a form of exploration was OK, but serious   theft of services was taboo.  There was significant c...
phreaking3 is  hard-core phone phreaks who   ran semi-underground networks of their own through such media as   the legendary `TAP Newsletter'.  This ethos began to break   down in the mid-1980s as wider dissemination of the techniques put   them in ...
phreaking4 is  the same   time, changes in the phone network made old-style technical   ingenuity less effective as a way of hacking it, so phreaking came   to depend more on overtly criminal acts such as stealing phone-card   numbers.  The crimes an...
phreaking5 is  turned that game very ugly.  A few old-time hackers still phreak   casually just to keep their hand in, but most these days have   hardly even heard of `blue boxes' or any of the other   paraphernalia of the great phreaks of yore. 
pico- is  [SI a quantifier   meaning * 10^-12]   pref. Smaller than {nano-}; used in the same rather loose   connotative way as {nano-} and {micro-}.  This usage is not yet   common in the way {nano-} and {micro-} are, but should be   instantly recog...
pico-2 is  {{quantifiers}},   {micro-}. 
run like a pig is  v. To run very slowly on given hardware, said of   software.  Distinct from {hog}.
pilot error is  [Sun from aviation] n. A user's misconfiguration or   misuse of a piece of software, producing apparently buglike results   (compare {UBD}).  "Joe Luser reported a bug in sendmail that   causes it to generate bogus headers."  "That's ...
ping is  [from the TCP/IP acronym `Packet INternet Groper', prob.   originally contrived to match the submariners' term for a sonar   pulse] 1. n.  Slang term for a small network message (ICMP ECHO)   sent by a computer to check for the presence and ...
ping2 is  a phone greeting.  See {ACK},   also {ENQ}.  2. vt. To verify the presence of.  3. vt. To get   the attention of.  From the UNIX command `ping(1)' that sends   an ICMP ECHO packet to another host.  4. vt. To send a message to   all members ...
ping3 is  order   to verify that everybody's addresses are reachable).  "We haven't   heard much of anything from Geoff, but he did respond with an ACK   both times I pinged jargon-friends."   The funniest use of `ping' to date was described in Janua...
ping4 is  comp.sys.next.  He was trying   to isolate a faulty cable segment on a TCP/IP Ethernet hooked up to   a NeXT machine, and got tired of having to run back to his console   after each cabling tweak to see if the ping packets were getting   th...
ping5 is  on the NeXT, then   wrote a script that repeatedly invoked `ping(8)', listened for   an echo, and played back the recording on each returned packet.   Result?  A program that caused the machine to repeat, over and   over, "Ping ... ping ......
ping6 is  turned the volume to maximum, ferreted through   the building with one ear cocked, and found a faulty tee connector   in no time. 
Pink-Shirt Book is  `The Peter Norton Programmer's Guide to the IBM   PC'.  The original cover featured a picture of Peter Norton with a   silly smirk on his face, wearing a pink shirt.  Perhaps in   recognition of this usage, the current edition has...
Pink-Shirt Book2 is  pink shirt.  See also {{book titles}}. 
PIP is  /pip/ [Peripheral Interchange Program] vt.,obs. To copy; from   the program PIP on CP/M, RSX-11, RSTS/E, and OS/8 (derived from a   utility on the PDP-6) that was used for file copying (and in OS/8   and RT-11 for just about every other file ...
PIP2 is  that when the program was originated, during the   development of the PDP-6 in 1963, it was called ATLATL (`Anything,   Lord, to Anything, Lord'). 
pistol is  [IBM] n. A tool that makes it all too easy for you to   shoot yourself in the foot.  "UNIX `rm *' makes such a nice   pistol!"
pizza box is  [Sun] n. The largish thin box housing the electronics   in (especially Sun) desktop workstations, so named because of its   size and shape and the dimpled pattern that looks like air holes.   Two meg single-platter removable disk packs ...
pizza box2 is  they were stuck into was referred to as a pizza   oven.  It's an index of progress that in the old days just the disk   was pizza-sized, while now the entire computer is. 
ANSI standard pizza is  /an'see stan'd*rd peet'z*/ [CMU] Pepperoni   and mushroom pizza.  Coined allegedly because most pizzas ordered   by CMU hackers during some period leading up to mid-1990 were of   that flavor.  See also {rotary debugger}; comp...
plain-ASCII is  /playn-as'kee/ Syn. {flat-ASCII}.
plan file is  [UNIX] n. On systems that support {finger}, the   `.plan' file in a user's home directory is displayed when the user   is fingered.  This feature was originally intended to be used to   keep potential fingerers apprised of one's locatio...

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

unixism3 is  assumption that freshly allocated memory is zeroed; and the assumption   that fragmentation problems won't arise from never `free()'ing   memory.  Compare {vaxocentrism}; see also {New Jersey}. 
unswizzle is  v. See {swizzle}.
unwind the stack is  vi. 1. [techspeak] During the execution of a   procedural language, one is said to `unwind the stack' from a   called procedure up to a caller when one discards the stack frame   and any number of frames above it, popping back up...
unwind the stack2 is  this is done with   `longjmp'/`setjmp', in LISP with `throw/catch'.   See also {smash the stack}.  2. People can unwind the stack as   well, by quickly dealing with a bunch of problems "Oh heck, let's   do lunch.  Just a second ...
unwind-protect is  [MIT from the name of a LISP operator] n. A task you   must remember to perform before you leave a place or finish a   project.  "I have an unwind-protect to call my advisor."
up is  adj. 1. Working, in order.  "The down escalator is up."   Oppose {down}.  2. `bring up' vt. To create a working   version and start it.  "They brought up a down system."    3. `come up' vi. To become ready for production use.
upload is  /uhp'lohd/ v. 1. [techspeak] To transfer programs or data   over a digital communications link from a smaller or peripheral   `client' system to a larger or central `host' one.  A transfer in   the other direction is, of course, called a {...
upload2 is  ground-to-space comm under that entry).   2. [speculatively] To move the essential patterns and algorithms   that make up one's mind from one's brain into a computer.  Only   those who are convinced that such patterns and algorithms captu...
upload3 is  prospect with   gusto. 
upthread is  adv. Earlier in the discussion (see {thread}), i.e.,   `above'. "As Joe pointed out upthread, ..."  See also   {followup}.
urchin is  n. See {munchkin}.
USENET is  /yoos'net/ or /yooz'net/ [from `Users' Network'] n.   A distributed {bboard} (bulletin board) system supported mainly   by UNIX machines.  Originally implemented in 1979-1980 by Steve   Bellovin, Jim Ellis, Tom Truscott, and Steve Daniel a...
USENET2 is  become international in scope   and is now probably the largest decentralized information utility   in existence.  As of early 1991, it hosts well over   700 {newsgroup}s and an average of 16 megabytes (the equivalent   of several thousan...
USENET3 is    discussion, chatter, and {flamage} every day. 
user is  n. 1. Someone doing `real work' with the computer, using   it as a means rather than an end.  Someone who pays to use a   computer.  See {real user}.  2. A programmer who will believe   anything you tell him.  One who asks silly questions.  ...
user2 is  is true that users ask   questions (of necessity).  Sometimes they are thoughtful or deep.   Very often they are annoying or downright stupid, apparently   because the user failed to think for two seconds or look in the   documentation befo...
user3 is  3. Someone who uses a program from the outside, however skillfully,   without getting into the internals of the program.  One who reports   bugs instead of just going ahead and fixing them.   The general theory behind this term is that ther...
user4 is  program there are implementors (hackers)   and {luser}s.  The users are looked down on by hackers to a mild   degree because they don't understand the full ramifications of the   system in all its glory.  (The few users who do are known as ...
user5 is  a skilled hacker   may be a user with respect to some program he himself does not   hack.  A LISP hacker might be one who maintains LISP or one who   uses LISP (but with the skill of a hacker).  A LISP user is one who   uses LISP, whether s...
user6 is  between the two terms; the subtle distinctions must be resolved by   context. 
user-friendly is  adj. Programmer-hostile.  Generally used by hackers in   a critical tone, to describe systems that hold the user's hand so   obsessively that they make it painful for the more experienced and   knowledgeable to get any work done.  S...
user-friendly2 is  {Macintrash}, {user-obsequious}. 
user-obsequious is  adj. Emphatic form of {user-friendly}.  Connotes   a system so verbose, inflexible, and determinedly simple-minded   that it is nearly unusable.  "Design a system any fool can use and   only a fool will want to use it."  See {WIMP...
USG UNIX is  /U-S-G yoo'niks/ n. Refers to AT&T UNIX   commercial versions after {Version 7}, especially System III and   System V releases 1, 2, and 3.  So called because during most of   the life-span of those versions AT&T's support crew was calle...
UTSL is  // [UNIX] n. On-line acronym for `Use the Source, Luke' (a   pun on Obi-Wan Kenobi's "Use the Force, Luke!" in `Star   Wars') --- analogous to {RTFM} but more polite.  This is a   common way of suggesting that someone would be best off readi...
UTSL2 is  feature is causing confusion,   rather than making yet another futile pass through the manuals or   broadcasting questions that haven't attracted {wizard}s to   answer them.  In theory, this is appropriately directed only at   associates of...
UTSL3 is  practice,   bootlegs of UNIX source code (made precisely for reference   purposes) are so ubiquitous that one may utter this at almost   anyone on {the network} without concern.  In the near future   (this written in 1991) source licenses m...
UTSL4 is  recent release of the Mach 3.0 microkernal,   given the continuing efforts of the {GNU} project, and with the   4.4BSD release on the horizon, complete free source code for   UNIX-clone toolsets and kernels should soon be widely available. 
UUCPNET is  n. The store-and-forward network consisting of all the   world's connected UNIX machines (and others running some clone of   the UUCP (UNIX-to-UNIX CoPy) software).  Any machine reachable only   via a {bang path} is on UUCPNET.  See {netw...
UUCPNET2 is  permutation of ADV (i.e.,   {ADVENT}), used to avoid a particular {admin}'s continual   search-and-destroy sweeps for the game] n. A leisure-time activity   of certain hackers involving the covert exploration of the `secret'   parts of l...
UUCPNET3 is  elevators,   maintenance crawlways, steam tunnels, and the like.  A few go so   far as to learn locksmithing in order to synthesize vadding keys.   The verb is `to vad' (compare {phreaking}).   The most extreme and dangerous form of vadd...
UUCPNET4 is  surfing', a sport played by wrasslin'   down a thousand-pound elevator car with a 3-foot piece of   string, and then exploiting this mastery in various stimulating   ways (such as elevator hopping, shaft exploration, rat-racing, and   th...
UUCPNET5 is  try this at home!    See also {hobbit} (sense 2). 
vanilla is  [from the default flavor of ice cream in the U.S.] adj.   Ordinary {flavor}, standard.  When used of food, very often does   not mean that the food is flavored with vanilla extract!  For   example, `vanilla wonton soup' means ordinary won...
vanilla2 is  soup.  Applied to hardware and   software, as in "Vanilla Version 7 UNIX can't run on a   vanilla 11/34."  Also used to orthogonalize chip nomenclature; for   instance, a 74V00 means what TI calls a 7400, as distinct from   a 74LS00, etc...
vanilla3 is  the   latter means `default', whereas vanilla simply means `ordinary'.   For example, when hackers go on a {great-wall}, hot-and-sour   wonton soup is the {canonical} wonton soup to get (because that   is what most of them usually order)...
vannevar is  /van'*-var/ n. A bogus technological prediction or   a foredoomed engineering concept, esp. one that fails by   implicitly assuming that technologies develop linearly,   incrementally, and in isolation from one another when in fact the  ...
vannevar2 is  revolutions are   common, and competition is the rule.  The prototype was Vannevar   Bush's prediction of `electronic brains' the size of the Empire   State Building with a Niagara-Falls-equivalent cooling system for   their tubes and r...
vannevar3 is  effect had   already been demonstrated.  Other famous vannevars have included   magnetic-bubble memory, LISP machines, {videotex}, and a paper from   the late 1970s that computed a purported ultimate limit on areal   density for ICs tha...
vannevar4 is  of 5 years later. 
vaporware is  /vay'pr-weir/ n. Products announced far in advance of   any release (which may or may not actually take place).
var is  /veir/ or /var/ n. Short for `variable'.  Compare {arg},   {param}.
VAX is  /vaks/ n. 1. [from Virtual Address eXtension] The most   successful minicomputer design in industry history, possibly   excepting its immediate ancestor, the PDP-11.  Between its release   in 1978 and its eclipse by {killer micro}s after abou...
VAX2 is  favorite machine of them all, esp.   after the 1982 release of 4.2 BSD UNIX (see {BSD}).  Esp.   noted for its large, assembler-programmer-friendly instruction set   --- an asset that became a liability after the RISC revolution.   2. A majo...
VAX3 is  here because   its alleged sales pitch, "Nothing sucks like a VAX!" became a   sort of battle-cry of RISC partisans.  Ironically, the slogan was   *not* actually used by the Vax vacuum-cleaner people, but was   actually that of a rival brand...
VAX4 is  an...").  It is claimed, however, that DEC actually   entered a cross-licensing deal with the vacuum-Vax people that   allowed them to market VAX computers in the U.K. in return for not   challenging the vacuum cleaner trademark in the U.S. 
VAXectomy is  /vak-sek't*-mee/ [by analogy with `vasectomy'] n. A   VAX removal.  DEC's Microvaxen, especially, are much slower than   newer RISC-based workstations such as the SPARC.  Thus, if one knows   one has a replacement coming, VAX removal ca...
VAXen is  /vak'sn/ [from `oxen', perhaps influenced by `vixen'] n.   (alt. `vaxen') The plural canonically used among hackers for the   DEC VAX computers.  "Our installation has four PDP-10s and twenty   vaxen."  See {boxen}.
vaxherd is  n. /vaks'herd/ [from `oxherd'] A VAX operator.
vaxism is  /vak'sizm/ n. A piece of code that exhibits   {vaxocentrism} in critical areas.  Compare {PC-ism},   {unixism}.
vaxocentrism is  /vak`soh-sen'trizm/ [analogy with   `ethnocentrism'] n. A notional disease said to afflict   C programmers who persist in coding according to certain assumptions that are    valid (esp. under UNIX) on {VAXen} but false elsewhere. Amo...
vaxocentrism2 is  validly be accused of vaxocentrism   even if he or she has never seen a VAX.  Some of these assumptions   (esp. 2--5) were valid on the PDP-11, the original C machine, and   became endemic years before the VAX.  The terms `vaxocentr...
vaxocentrism3 is  have been used synonymously. 
vdiff is  /vee'dif/ v.,n. Visual diff.  The operation of finding   differences between two files by {eyeball search}.  The term   `optical diff' has also been reported.  See {diff}.
veeblefester is  /vee'b*l-fes`tr/ [from the "Born Loser"   comix via Commodore; prob. originally from `Mad' Magazine's   `Veeblefeetzer' parodies ca. 1960] n. Any obnoxious person engaged   in the (alleged) professions of marketing or management.  An...
Venus flytrap is  [after the insect-eating plant] n. See {firewall   machine}.
verbage is  /ver'b*j/ n. A deliberate misspelling and mispronunciation of   {verbiage} that assimilates it to the word `garbage'.  Compare   {content-free}.  More pejorative than `verbiage'.
verbiage is  n. When the context involves a software or hardware   system, this refers to {{documentation}}.  This term borrows the   connotations of mainstream `verbiage' to suggest that the   documentation is of marginal utility and that the motive...
verbiage2 is  with the ostensible subject. 
Version 7 is  alt. V7 /vee' se'vn/ n. The 1978 unsupported release of   {{UNIX}} ancestral to all current commercial versions.  Before   the release of the POSIX/SVID standards, V7's features were often   treated as a UNIX portability baseline.  See ...
Version 72 is  old-timers impatient with commercialization and   kernel bloat still maintain that V7 was the Last True UNIX. 
vgrep is  /vee'grep/ v.,n. Visual grep.  The operation of finding   patterns in a file optically rather than digitally.  See {grep};   compare {vdiff}.
vi is  /V-I/, *not* /vi/ and *never* /siks/ [from   `Visual Interface'] n. A screen editor crufted together by Bill Joy   for an early {BSD} version.  Became the de facto standard UNIX   editor and a nearly undisputed hacker favorite until the rise o...
vi2 is  frustrate new users no end,   as it will neither take commands while expecting input text nor   vice versa, and the default setup provides no indication of which   mode one is in (one correspondent accordingly reports that he has   often hear...
vi3 is  Nevertheless it   is still widely used (about half the respondents in a 1991 USENET   poll preferred it), and even EMACS fans often resort to it as a   mail editor and for small editing jobs (mainly because it starts up   faster than bulky EM...
videotex is  n. obs. An electronic service offering people the   privilege of paying to read the weather on their television screens   instead of having somebody read it to them for free while they   brush their teeth.  The idea bombed everywhere it ...
videotex2 is  time videotex was practical   the installed base of personal computers could hook up to   timesharing services and do the things for which videotex might   have been worthwhile better and cheaper.  Videotex planners badly   overestimate...
videotex3 is    computer and the cost of local intelligence at the user's end.   Like the {gorilla arm} effect, this has been a cautionary tale   to hackers ever since.  See also {vannevar}. 
virgin is  adj. Unused; pristine; in a known initial state.  "Let's   bring up a virgin system and see if it crashes again."  (Esp.   useful after contracting a {virus} through {SEX}.)  Also, by   extension, buffers and the like within a program that...
virtual is  [via the technical term `virtual memory', prob. from the   term `virtual image' in optics] adj. 1. Common alternative to   {logical}.  2. Simulated; performing the functions of something   that isn't really there.  An imaginative child's ...
virtual Friday is  n. The last day before an extended weekend, if   that day is not a `real' Friday.  For example, the U.S. holiday   Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday.  The next day is often also   a holiday or taken as an extra day off, in which...
virtual Friday2 is  Friday (and Thursday is a virtual Saturday,   as is Friday).  There are also `virtual Mondays' that are   actually Tuesdays, after the three-day weekends associated with many   national holidays in the U.S. 
virtual reality is  n. 1. Computer simulations that use 3-D graphics   and devices such as the Dataglove to allow the user to interact   with the simulation.  See {cyberspace}.  2. A form of network   interaction incorporating aspects of role-playing...
virtual reality2 is  comedy, and `true confessions'   magazines.  In a virtual reality forum (such as USENET's   alt.callahans newsgroup or the {MUD} experiments on Internet),   interaction between the participants is written like a shared novel   co...
virtual reality3 is  that may be   personae utterly unlike the people who write them, and common   `background characters' manipulable by all parties.  The one   iron law is that you may not write irreversible changes to a   character without the con...
virtual reality4 is  anything goes.  See {bamf}, {cyberspace}. 
virus is  [from the obvious analogy with biological viruses, via SF]   n. A cracker program that searches out other programs and `infects'   them by embedding a copy of itself in them, so that they become   {Trojan Horse}s.  When these programs are e...
virus2 is  thus propagating the `infection'.  This   normally happens invisibly to the user.  Unlike a {worm}, a   virus cannot infect other computers without assistance.  It is   propagated by vectors such as humans trading programs with their   fri...
virus3 is  propagate   itself and then allow the program to run normally.  Usually,   however, after propagating silently for a while, it starts doing   things like writing cute messages on the terminal or playing   strange tricks with your display (...
virus4 is  Many nasty viruses, written by particularly   perversely minded {cracker}s, do irreversible damage, like   nuking all the user's files.   In the 1990s, viruses have become a serious problem, especially   among IBM PC and Macintosh users (t...
virus5 is  viruses to spread easily, even infecting the   operating system).  The production of special anti-virus software   has become an industry, and a number of exaggerated media reports   have caused outbreaks of near hysteria among users; many...
virus6 is  doesn't work as   they had expected on virus attacks.  Accordingly, this sense of   `virus' has passed not only into techspeak but into also popular   usage (where it is often incorrectly used to denote a {worm} or   even a {Trojan horse})...
visionary is  n. 1. One who hacks vision, in the sense of an   Artificial Intelligence researcher working on the problem of   getting computers to `see' things using TV cameras.  (There isn't   any problem in sending information from a TV camera to a...
visionary2 is  computer be programmed to make use of   the camera information?  See {SMOP}, {AI-complete}.)  2. [IBM]   One who reads the outside literature.  At IBM, apparently, such a   penchant is viewed with awe and wonder. 
VMS is  /V-M-S/ n. DEC's proprietary operating system for its VAX   minicomputer; one of the seven or so environments that loom largest   in hacker folklore.  Many UNIX fans generously concede that VMS   would probably be the hacker's favorite commer...
VMS2 is  this makes VMS fans furious.  One major   hacker gripe with VMS concerns its slowness --- thus the following   limerick        There once was a system called VMS        Of cycles by no means abstemious.             It's chock-full of hacks  ...
VMS3 is  my poor stomach all squeamious.                                         --- The Great Quux   See also {VAX}, {{TOPS-10}}, {{TOPS-20}}, {{UNIX}}, {runic}. 
voice is  vt. To phone someone, as opposed to emailing them or   connecting in talk mode.  "I'm busy now; I'll voice you later."
voice-net is  n. Hackish way of referring to the telephone system,   analogizing it to a digital network.  USENET {sig block}s not   uncommonly include the sender's phone next to a "Voice" or   "Voice-Net" header; common variants of this are "Voicene...
voodoo programming is  [from George Bush's "voodoo economics"] n.   The use by guess or cookbook of an {obscure} or {hairy} system,   feature, or algorithm that one does not truly understand.  The   implication is that the technique may not work, and...
voodoo programming2 is  Almost synonymous with {black magic},   except that black magic typically isn't documented and   *nobody* understands it.  Compare {magic}, {deep magic},   {heavy wizardry}, {rain dance}, {cargo cult programming},   {wave a de...
VR is  // [MUD] n. On-line abbrev for {virtual reality}, as   opposed to {RL}.
Vulcan nerve pinch is  n. [from the old "Star Trek" TV series via   Commodore Amiga hackers] The keyboard combination that forces a   soft-boot or jump to ROM monitor (on machines that support such a   feature).  On many micros this is Ctrl-Alt-Del; ...
Vulcan nerve pinch2 is  <Cmd>-<Power switch>!  Also called   {three-finger salute}.  Compare {quadruple bucky}. 
vulture capitalist is  n. Pejorative hackerism for `venture   capitalist', deriving from the common practice of pushing contracts   that deprive inventors of control over their own innovations and   most of the money they ought to have made from them...
vulture capitalist2 is  Fudd's immortal   line "You wascawwy wabbit!"] n. 1. A legendary early hack   reported on a System/360 at RPI and elsewhere around 1978.  The   program would make two copies of itself every time it was run,   eventually crashi...
vulture capitalist3 is   includes infinite self-replication but is not a {virus} or   {worm}.  See also {cookie monster}. 
WAITS is  /wayts/ n. The mutant cousin of {{TOPS-10}} used on a   handful of systems at {{SAIL}} up to 1990.  There was never an   `official' expansion of WAITS (the name itself having been arrived   at by a rather sideways process), but it was frequ...
WAITS2 is  ITS'.  Though WAITS was less visible   than ITS, there was frequent exchange of people and ideas between   the two communities, and innovations pioneered at WAITS exerted   enormous indirect influence.  The early screen modes of {EMACS},  ...
WAITS3 is  `E' editor --- one   of a family of editors that were the first to do `real-time   editing', in which the editing commands were invisible and where   one typed text at the point of insertion/overwriting.  The modern   style of multi-region...
WAITS4 is  and WAITS alumni at XEROX PARC and elsewhere played major roles in   the developments that led to the XEROX Star, the Macintosh, and the   Sun workstations.  {Bucky bits} were also invented there ---   thus, the ALT key on every IBM PC is ...
WAITS5 is  seldom duplicated elsewhere was a news-wire interface   that allowed WAITS hackers to read, store, and filter AP and UPI   dispatches from their terminals; the system also featured a   still-unusual level of support for what is now called ...
WAITS6 is  and video signals to be switched   to programming terminals. 
waldo is  /wol'doh/ [From Robert A. Heinlein's story "Waldo"]   1. A mechanical agent, such as a gripper arm, controlled by a human   limb.  When these were developed for the nuclear industry in the   mid-1940s they were named after the invention des...
waldo2 is  wrote in 1942.  Now known by the more   generic term `telefactoring', this technology is of intense   interest to NASA for tasks like space station maintenance.  2. At   Harvard (particularly by Tom Cheatham and students), this is used   i...
waldo3 is  and general   nonsense word.  See {foo}, {bar}, {foobar}, {quux}. 
walk is  n.,vt. Traversal of a data structure, especially an array or   linked-list data structure in {core}.  See also {codewalker},   {silly walk}, {clobber}.
walk off the end of is  vt. To run past the end of an array, list, or      medium after stepping through it --- a good way to land in trouble.   Often the result of an {off-by-one error}.  Compare   {clobber}, {roach}, {smash the stack}.
walking drives is  n. An occasional failure mode of magnetic-disk   drives back in the days when they were huge, clunky {washing   machine}s.  Those old {dinosaur} parts carried terrific angular   momentum; the combination of a misaligned spindle or ...
walking drives2 is  with the floor could cause them to   `walk' across a room, lurching alternate corners forward a couple   of millimeters at a time.  There is a legend about a drive that   walked over to the only door to the computer room and jamme...
walking drives3 is  wall in order to get at   it!  Walking could also be induced by certain patterns of drive   access (a fast seek across the whole width of the disk, followed by   a slow seek in the other direction).  Some bands of old-time   hacke...
walking drives4 is  patterns that   would do this to particular drive models and held disk-drive races. 
wall is  [WPI] interj. 1. An indication of confusion, usually spoken   with a quizzical tone  "Wall??"  2. A request for further   explication.  Compare {octal forty}.   It is said that "Wall?" really came from `like talking to a   blank wall'.  It w...
wall2 is  you   had carefully answered a question, the questioner stared at you   blankly, clearly having understood nothing that was explained.  You   would then throw out a "Hello, wall?" to elicit some sort of   response from the questioner.  Late...
wall3 is  themselves. 
wall follower is  n. A person or algorithm that compensates for lack   of sophistication or native stupidity by efficiently following some   simple procedure shown to have been effective in the past.  Used of   an algorithm, this is not necessarily p...
wall follower2 is  the winning robot in an early AI contest   (named, of course, after the cocktail).  Harvey successfully solved   mazes by keeping a `finger' on one wall and running till it came   out the other end.  This was inelegant, but it was ...
wall follower3 is  simply-connected mazes --- and, in fact,   Harvey outperformed more sophisticated robots that tried to   `learn' each maze by building an internal representation of it.   Used of humans, the term *is* pejorative and implies an   un...
wall follower4 is  See also {code   grinder}, {droid}. 
wall time is  n. (also `wall clock time') 1. `Real world' time (what   the clock on the wall shows), as opposed to the system clock's idea   of time.  2. The real running time of a program, as opposed to the   number of {clocks} required to execute i...
wall time2 is  differ, as no one program gets all the   {clocks}, and on multiprocessor systems with good thread support   one may get more processor clocks than real-time clocks).

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