term% cat index.txt ========= THIS IS THE JARGON FILE, VERSION 2.2.1 15 DEC 1990 =================
Introduction
************
This `jargon file' is a collection of slang terms used by various
subcultures of computer hackers.
The original `jargon file' was a collection of hacker slang from technical
cultures including 1) the MIT AI Lab, 2) the Stanford AI lab, 3) the old
ARPANET AI/LISP/PDP-10 communities, 3) Carnegie-Mellon University, 4)
Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Some entries dated back to the early
1970s. This file contains essentially the entire text of a late version of
that file intermingled with the newer entries.
A version of the original jargon-file (expanded with commentary for the
mass market) was edited by by Guy L. Steele into a book published in 1983
as _The_Hacker's_Dictionary_ (Harper & Row CN 1082, ISBN 0-06-091082-8).
It is now out of print, but this version contains about 80% of its text
(omitting the introductions, the author bios, and a very few obsolescent
entries).
This new version casts a wider net than the old jargon file; its aim is to
cover not just AI but all the technical computing cultures wherein the true
hacker-nature is manifested. More than half of the entries now derive from
USENET and the C and UNIX communities.
The present maintainer of the jargon file is Eric S. Raymond
(eric@snark.thyrsus.com) with assistance from Guy L. Steele
(gls@think.com). Send all additions, corrections and correspondence
relating to the jargon file to jargon@snark.thyrsus.com (UUCP-only sites
without connections to an autorouting smart site can use
...!uunet!snark!jargon).
(Warning: other email addresses appear in this file *but are not
guaranteed to be correct* later than the revision date on the first
line. *Don't* email us if an attempt to reach your idol bounces
--- we have no magic way of checking addresses or looking up people)
It is intended that some `snapshot' of this on-line version will become the
main text of a second paper edition, possibly as early as Fall 1991. The
maintainers are committed to updating the on-line version of the jargon
file through and beyond paper publication, and will continue to make it
available to archives and public-access sites as a trust of the hacker
community.
Revision History
================
The original jargon file was compiled by Guy L. Steele Jr., Raphael Finkel,
Don Woods, and Mark Crispin, with assistance from the MIT and Stanford AI
communities and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Some contributions were
submitted via the ARPAnet from miscellaneous sites. The `old' jargon file
was last revised in 1983; its revisions are all un-numbered and may be
collectively considered `Version 1'.
Version 2.1.1, Jun 12 1990: the jargon file reorganization and massive
additions were by Eric S. Raymond, approved by Guy Steele. Many items
of UNIX, C, USENET and microcomputer-based slang were added at that
time (as well as The Untimely Demise of Mabel The Monkey). Some
obsolescent usages (mostly PDP-10 derived) were moved to appendix B.
Version 2.1.5, Nov 28 1990: Changes and additions by ESR in response to
numerous USENET submissions and comment from the First Edition coauthors.
The bibliography (Appendix C) was also appended.
Version 2.2.1: most of the contents of the 1983 paper edition edited by Guy
Steele was merged in. Many more USENET submissions added, including the
`INTERNATIONAL STYLE' and `COMMONWEALTH HACKISH' material.
Version numbering: Read versions as <major>.<minor>.<revision>. Major
version 1 is reserved for the `old' (ITS) Jargon File, jargon-1. Major
version 2 encompasses revisions by ESR with assistance from GLS. Someday,
the next maintainer will take over and spawn `version 3'. In general, later
versions will either completely obsolesce or incorporate earlier versions,
so there is generally no point in keeping old versions around.
Our thanks to all the USENETters who contributed entries and encouragement.
Special thanks to our Scandinavian correspondent Per Lindberg
(per@front.se), author of the remarkable Swedish language 'zine
_Hackerbladet_, for bring FOO! comics to our attention and smuggling the
IBM hacker underground's own baby jargon file out to us. Also, much
gratitude to ace hacker/linguist Joe Keane (jkg@osc.osc.com) for helping
us improve the pronunciation guides; and to Maarten Litmath for generously
allowing the inclusion of the ASCII prononunciation guide he formerly
maintained.
Format For New Entries
======================
Try to conform to the format already being used -- pronunciations in
slashes, etymologies in brackets, single-space after definition numbers and
word classes, etc. Stick to the standard ASCII character set (no high-half
characters or {nt}roff/TeX/Scribe escapes), as one of the versions
generated from the master file is an info document that has to be viewable
on a character tty.
We are looking to expand the file's range of technical specialties covered.
There are doubtless rich veins of jargon yet untapped in the scientific
computing, graphics, and networking hacker communities; also in numerical
analysis, computer architectures and VLSI design, language design, and many
other related fields. Send us your slang!
We are *not* interested in straight technical terms explained by
textbooks or technical dictionaries unless an entry illuminates
"underground" meanings or aspects not covered by official histories.
We are also not interested in "joke" entries -- there is a lot of
humor in the file but it must flow naturally out of the explanations
of what hackers do and how they think.
It is OK to submit items of slang you have originated if they have spread
to the point of being used by people who are not personally acquainted with
you. We prefer items to be attested by independent submission from two
different sites.
A few new definitions attached to entries are marked [proposed]. These are
coinages generated by editors or USENET correspondents in the process of
responding to previous definitions of those entries. These are *not*
represented as established jargon.
The jargon file will be regularly maintained and re-posted from now on and
will include a version number. Read it, pass it around, contribute -- this
is *your* monument!
Jargon Construction
===================
There are some standard methods of jargonification which became established
quite early (i.e before 1970), spreading from such sources as the MIT Model
Railroad Club, the PDP-1 SPACEWAR hackers and John McCarthy's original crew
of LISPers. These include:
Verb doubling: a standard construction is to double a verb and use it as a
comment on what the implied subject does. Often used to terminate a
conversation. Typical examples involve WIN, LOSE, HACK, FLAME, BARF,
CHOMP:
"The disk heads just crashed." "Lose, lose."
"Mostly he just talked about his @#!!$% crock. Flame, flame."
"Boy, what a bagbiter! Chomp, chomp!"
Some verb-doubled constructions have special meanings not immediately
obvious from the verb. These have their own listings in the lexicon.
Soundalike slang: Phonetic distortions of a phrase intended to produce the
effect of a pun or wordplay. Not really similar to the Cockney rhyming
slang it has been compared to in the past, because Cockney substitutions
are opaque whereas hacker rhyming slang is intentionally transparent.
Often made up on the spur of the moment. Standard examples:
Boston Globe => Boston Glob
Herald American => Horrid (or Harried) American
New York Times => New York Slime
Prime Time => Slime Time
Data General => Dirty Genitals
Government Property - Do Not Duplicate (seen on keys)
=> Government Duplicity - Do Not Propagate
for historical reasons => for hysterical raisins
Often the substitution will be made in such a way as to slip in
a standard jargon word:
Dr. Dobb's Journal => Dr. Frob's Journal
Margaret Jacks Hall => Marginal Hacks Hall
The -P convention: turning a word into a question by appending the
syllable "P"; from the LISP convention of appending the letter "P"
to denote a predicate (a Boolean-valued function). The question
should expect a yes/no answer, though it needn't. (See T and NIL.)
At dinnertime:
Q: "Foodp?"
A: "Yeah, I'm pretty hungry." or "T!"
Q: "State-of-the-world-P?"
A: (Straight) "I'm about to go home."
A: (Humorous) "Yes, the world has a state."
On the phone to Florida:
Q: "State-p Florida?"
A: "Been reading JARGON.TXT again, eh?"
[One of the best of these is a Gosperism (i.e., due to Bill
Gosper). When we were at a Chinese restaurant, he wanted to know
whether someone would like to share with him a two-person-sized
bowl of soup. His inquiry was: "Split-p soup?" --GLS]
Peculiar grammar: Many hackers love to take various words and add the
wrong endings to them to make nouns and verbs, often by extending a
standard rule to nonuniform cases. For example, because
porous => porosity
generous => generosity
hackers happily generalize:
mysterious => mysteriosity
ferrous => ferrocity
Also, note that all nouns can be verbed. e.g.: "All nouns can be
verbed", "I'll mouse it up", "Hang on while I clipboard it over",
"I'm grepping the files". English as a whole is already heading in
this direction (towards pure-positional grammar like Chinese);
hackers are simply a bit ahead of the curve.
Similarly, all verbs can be nouned. Thus:
win -> winnitude, winnage
disgust -> disgustitude
hack -> hackification
Finally, note the prevalence of certain kinds of nonstandard plural
forms. Anything ending in x may form plurals in -xen (see VAXEN and
BOXEN in the main text). Even words ending in phonetic /k/ alone are
sometimes treated this way; ex. `soxen' for a bunch of socks. Other
funny plurals are `frobbotzim' for the plural of FROBBOTZ (see main
text) and `Unices' and `Tenices' (rather than `Unixes' and `Tenexes';
see UNIX, TENEX in main text). But note that `Unixen' and `Tenexen'
are *never* used; there seems to be a rule that operating system
names take the default English or Latin plural rather than the
Anglo-Saxon or Hebrew.
The pattern here, as with other hackish grammatical quirks, is
generalization of an inflectional rule which (in English) is either
an import or a fossil (such as Hebrew plural in `-im', or the
Anglo-Saxen plural in `en') to cases where it isn't normally
considered to apply.
This is not `poor grammar', as hackers are generally quite well
aware of what they are doing when they distort the language. It is
grammatical creativity, a form of playfulness.
Spoken inarticulations: Words such as "mumble", "sigh", and "groan"
are spoken in places where their referent might more naturally be
used. It has been suggested that this usage derives from the
impossibility of representing such noises on a comm link. Another
expression sometimes heard is "complain!", meaning "I have a
complaint!"
Of the five listed constructions, verb doubling, peculiar noun
formations, and (especially!) spoken inarticulations have become quite
general; but rhyming slang is still largely confined to MIT and other
large universities, and the P convention is found only where LISPers
flourish.
Finally, note that many words in hacker jargon have to be
understood as members of sets of comparatives. This is especially
true of the adjectives and nouns used to describe the beauty and
functional quality of code. Here is an approximately correct
spectrum:
MONSTROSITY BRAIN-DAMAGE SCREW BUG LOSE MISFEATURE
CROCK KLUGE HACK WIN FEATURE ELEGANCE PERFECTION
The last is spoken of as a mythical absolute, never actually attained.
Hacker Speech Style
===================
Features extremely precise diction, careful word choice, a
relatively large working vocabulary, and relatively little use of
contractions or "street slang". Dry humor, irony, puns, and a
mildly flippant attitude are highly valued -- but an underlying
seriousness and intelligence is essential. One should use just
enough jargon to communicate precisely and identify oneself as "in
the culture"; overuse of jargon or a breathless, excessively
gung-ho attitude are considered tacky and the mark of a loser.
This speech style is a variety of the precisionist English normally
spoken by scientists, design engineers, and academics in technical
fields. Unlike the jargon construction methods it is fairly constant
throughout hackerdom.
It has been observed that many hackers are confused by negative
questions -- or, at least, the people they're talking to are
confused by the sense of their answers. The problem is that they've
done so much coding that distinguishes between
if (going) {
and
if (!going) {
that when they parse the question "Are you not going?" it seems to be
asking the opposite question from "Are you going?", and so merits the
opposite answer. This confuses non-hackers because they were taught
to answer as though the negative part weren't there. Hackers often
find themselves wishing for a word like french "si" with which one
could unambiguously answer `yes' to a negative question.
For similar reasons, English-speaking hackers almost never use a
double negative even if they live in a region where colloquial usage
allows it. The thought of uttering something that logically ought to
be an affirmative knowing it will be mis-parsed as a negative tends to
disturb them.
Hacker Writing Style
====================
Hackers tend to use quotes as balanced delimiters like parens, much
to the dismay of editors. Thus, if "Jim is going" is a phrase, and
so is "Bill runs" and "Spock groks", then hackers generally
prefer to write: "Jim is going", "Bill runs", and"Spock groks".
This is incorrect according to prevalent usage (which would put the
continuation commas and the final period inside the string quotes)
but it is counter-intuitive to hackers to mutilate literal strings
with characters that don't belong there. The Jargon File follows
hackish usage fairly consistently throughout.
Hackers have also developed a number of punctuation and emphasis
conventions adapted to single-font all-ASCII communications links, and
these are occasionally carried over into written documents even when
normal means of font changes, underlining and the like are available.
One of these is that, TEXT IN ALL CAPS IS INTERPRETED AS "LOUD", and
this becomes such a synesthetic reflex that a person who goes to
caps-lock while in TALK MODE (see main text) may be asked to "stop
shouting, please, you're hurting my ears!".
Also, it is common to use bracketing with asterisks to signify
emphasis, as in "What the *hell*?".
Underlining is often suggested by substituting underscores for spaces
and prepending and appending one underscore to the underlined phrase.
Example: "It is often alleged that Haldeman wrote _The_Forever_War_
in response to Robert Heinlein's earlier _Starship_Troopers_".
Another habit is that of using enclosure to "genericize" a term;
this derives from conventions used in BNF (q.v.). Uses like
the following are common:
So this <ethnic> walks into a bar one day, and...
Another special form of enclosure uses the square brackets [, ]. This
is often interpreted as "comment by an editor" in contexts where
that's reasonable, and there's a semi-standard way to identify the
editor where there might be more than one. For example:
[This is an editorial comment -- ESR]
is a comment by an editor with initials ESR. You'll see examples of
this in the lexicon at places where present or past editors have added
their own glosses on various entries. It is also common in moderated
groups on USENET (q.v.).
One quirk that shows up frequently in the email style of UNIX hackers
in particular is a tendency for some things which are normally
all-lowercase (including usernames and the names of commands and C
routines) to remain uncapitalized even when they occur at the
beginning of sentences. It is clear that for many hackers, the case of
such identifiers becomes a part of their internal representation and
cannot be overridden without mental effort (an appopriate reflex
because UNIX and C both distinguish cases and confusing them can lead
to lossage). The *rest* of us simply avoid using these
constructions at the beginning of sentences.
Finally, it should be noted that hackers exhibit much less
reluctance to use multiply-nested parentheses than is normal in
English (this is almost certainly due to influence from LISP (which
uses deeply nested parentheses in its syntax)).
International Style
===================
Although the Jargon File remains primarily a lexicon of hacker
usage in American English, we have made some effort to get input from
abroad. Though the hacker-speak of other languages often uses
translations of English slang (often as transmitted to them by earlier
Jargon File versions!) the local variations are interesting, and
knowledge of them may be of some use to traveling hackers.
There are some references to `Commonwealth English'. These are
intended to describe some variations in hacker usage as reported in
the English spoken in Great Britain and the Commonwealth (Canada,
Australia, India etc.) There is also an entry on COMMONWEALTH HACKISH,
which see.
Hackers in Western Europe and (especially) Scandinavia are reported
to often use a mixture of English and their native languages for
technical conversation. Occasionally they develop idioms in their
English usage which are influenced by their native-language styles.
Some of these are reported here.
A note or two on hackish usages in Russian have been added where they
are parallel with and comprehensible to English-speakers.
UNIX Conventions
================
References such as `malloc(3)' and `patch(1)' are to UNIX
facilities (some of which, such as patch(1), are actually freeware
distributed over USENET). The UNIX manuals use `foo(n)' to refer to
item foo in section n) of the manual, where n=1 is utilities, n=2 is
system calls, n=3 is C library routines and n=6 is games. Sections
4, 5, 7 and 8 have changed roles frequently and in any case are not
referred to from any of the entries.
Pronunciation Guide
===================
Pronunciation keys are provided in the jargon listing for all
entries which are neither dictionary words pronounced as in standard
English nor obvious compounds of same. Slashes bracket a phonetic
pronunciation to be interpreted using the following conventions:
1. Syllables are hyphen-separated, except that an apostrophe
or back-apostrophe follows each accented syllable (the
back apostrophe marks a secondary accent in some words of
four or more syllables).
2. Consonants are pronounced as in American English. The letter
"g" is always hard (as in "got" rather than "giant");
"ch" is soft ("church" rather than "chemist"). The letter
"j" is the sound that occurs twice in "judge". The letter
"s" is always as in "pass", never a z sound (but it is
sometimes doubled at the end of syllables to emphasize this).
The digraph `dh' is the th of `these clothes', not of `thick'.
The digraph `kh' is the guttural of `loch' or `l'chaim'.
3. Vowels are represented as follows:
a back, that
ah father, palm
ar far, mark
aw flaw, caught
ay bake, rain
e less, men
ee easy, ski
eir their, software
i trip, hit
ie life, sky
o cot, top
oh flow, sew
oo loot, through
or more, door
ow out, how
oy boy, coin
uh but, some
u put, foot
y yet
yoo few
[y]oo oo with optional fronting as in `news' (noos or nyoos)
An at-sign is used for the "schwa" sound of unstressed or occluded
vowels (the one that is often written with an upside-down "e"). The
schwa vowel is omitted in syllables containing vocalic r, l, m or n;
that is, "kitten" and "color" would be rendered /kit'n/ and
/kul'r/, not /kit'@n/ and /kul'@r/.
The Jargon (Low Moby, Current Terminology)
******************************************
{= =}
@-SIGN PARTY n. Semi-closed parties thrown at SF conventions (esp.
the annual Worldcon) for hackers; one must have a NETWORK ADDRESS
to get in, or at least be in company with someone who is. One of
the most reliable opportunities for hackers to meet face to face
with people who might otherwise be represented by mere phosphor
dots on their screens. Compare BOINK.
@BEGIN [primarily CMU] with @End, used humorously in writing to
indicate a context or to remark on the surrounded text. From the
SCRIBE command of the same name. For example:
@Begin(Flame)
Predicate logic is the only good programming language.
Anyone who would use anything else is an idiot. Also,
computers should be tredecimal instead of binary.
@End(Flame)
On USENET, this construct would more frequently be rendered as
<FLAME ON> and <FLAME OFF>.
/DEV/NULL [from the UNIX null device, used as a data sink; note, if
you are viewing an ASCII-only version of this file, that the actual
case is all-lower: "/dev/null"] n. A notional `black hole' in
any information space being discussed, used or referred to. A
controversial posting, for example, might end "Kudos to
rasputin@kremlin.org, flames to /dev/null". See BIT BUCKET, NULL
DEVICE.
2 INFIX n. In translation software written by hackers, infix 2 often
represents the syllable "to" with the comnnotation "translate to";
as in dvi2ps (DVI to PostScript), int2string (integer to string)
and texi2roff (Texinfo to [nt]roff).
{= A =}
ACK /ak/ interj. 1. [from the ASCII mnemonic for 00110] Acknowledge.
Used to register one's presence (compare mainstream "Yo!"). An
appropriate response to PING or ENQ (q.v.). 2. [prob. from
_Bloom_County_] An exclamation of surprised disgust, esp. in "Oop
ack!". Semi-humorous. Also in the form ACK? 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
away (the standard humorous response is of course NAK (010101),
i.e. "I'm not here").
ADGER /adj'r/ [UCLA] v. To make a bonehead move 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.
AD-HOCKERY /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. 2. Special-case code to cope with some awkward input
which would otherwise cause a program to CHOKE, presuming normal
inputs are dealt with in some cleaner and more regular way.
ADVENT /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 Adventure,
but the TOPS-10 operating system only permitted 6-letter filenames.
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 huge green fierce snake bars
the way!" "I see no X here." (for X some noun). "You are in a
maze of twisty little passages, all alike". The "magic words"
XYZZY and PLUGH also derive from this game.
Crowther, by the way, participated in the exploration 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 KOANS pl.n. A series of pastiches of Zen teaching riddles created
at the MIT AI Lab around various major figures of the Lab's
culture. A selection are included in Appendix A. See also HA HA
ONLY SERIOUS and HUMOR, HACKER.
ALIASING BUG [C programmers] n. A class of subtle programming errors
which can arise in code that does dynamic allocation via malloc(3).
If more than one pointer addresses (`aliases for') a given hunk of
storage, it may happen that the storage is freed through one alias
and then referenced through another, leading to subtle (and
possibly intermittent) lossage depending on the state and the
allocation history of the malloc ARENA. Avoidable by use of
allocation strategies that never alias allocated core. Also called
a STALE POINTER BUG. See also PRECEDENCE LOSSAGE, SMASH THE STACK,
FANDANGO ON CORE, MEMORY LEAK, OVERRUN SCREW.
ALT BIT /ahlt bit/ [from alternate?] adj. See META BIT.
AMP OFF [Purdue] v. To run in BACKGROUND. From the UNIX shell '&'
operator.
ANGLE BRACKETS [primarily MIT] n. Either of the characters "<" and
">" (ASCII less-than or greater-than signs). The `real world'
angle bracket used by typographers is actually taller than these.
See BROKET, ASCII.
APP /ap/ n. Short for `application program', as opposed to a systems
program. What systems vendors are forever chasing developers to do
for their environments so they can sell more boxes. Hackers tend
not to think of the things they themselves run as apps; thus, in
hacker parlance the term excludes compilers, program editors,
games, and messaging systems, though a user would consider all
those apps. Oppose TOOL, OPERATING SYSTEM.
ARENA [UNIX] n. The area of memory attached to a process by brk(2) and
sbrk(2) and used by malloc(3) as dynamic storage. So named from a
semi-mythical "malloc: corrupt arena" message supposedly emitted
when some early versions became terminally confused. See OVERRUN
SCREW, ALIASING BUG, MEMORY LEAK, SMASH THE STACK.
ARG /arg/ n. Abbreviation for "argument" (to a function), used so
often as to have become a new word (like "piano" from
"pianoforte"). "The sine function takes one arg, but the
arc-tangent function can take either one or two args". Compare
PARAM, VAR.
ASBESTOS LONGJOHNS, UNDERPANTS, or OVERCOAT n. Metaphoric garments
often donned by USENET posters just before emitting a remark they
expect will elicit FLAMAGE.
ASCII /as'kee/ Common slang names for ASCII characters are collected
here. See individual entries for BANG, CLOSE, EXCL, OPEN, QUES,
SEMI, SHRIEK, SPLAT, TWIDDLE, WHAT, WOW, and YU-SHIANG WHOLE FISH.
This list derives from revision 2.2 of the USENET ASCII
pronunciation guide. Single characters are listed in ASCII order,
character pairs are sorted in by first member. For each character,
"official" names appear first, then others in order of popularity
(more or less).
!
exclamation point, exclamation, bang, factorial, excl,
ball-bat, pling, smash, shriek, cuss, wow, hey,
"
double quote, quote, dirk, literal mark, rabbit ears
#
pound sign, number sign, sharp, crunch, mesh, hex, hash,
flash, grid, pig-pen, tictactoe, scratchmark, octothorpe
(from Bell System)
$
dollar sign, currency symbol, buck, cash, string (from
BASIC), escape (from TOPS-10), ding, big-money
%
percent sign, percent, mod, double-oh-seven
&
ampersand, amper, and, address (from C), andpersand
'
apostrophe, single quote, quote, prime, tick, irk, pop,
spark
()
open/close parenthesis, left/right parenthesis,
paren/thesis, lparen/rparen, parenthisey, unparenthisey,
open/close round bracket, ears, so/already, wax/wane
*
asterisk, star, splat, wildcard, gear, dingle, mult
+
plus sign, plus, add, cross, intersection
,
comma, tail
-
hyphen, dash, minus sign, worm
.
period, dot, decimal point, radix point, point, full stop,
spot
/
virgule, slash, stroke, slant, diagonal, solidus, over, slat
:
colon
;
semicolon, semi
<>
angle brackets, brokets, left/right angle, less/greater
than, read from/write to, from/into, from/toward, in/out,
comesfrom/ gozinta (all from UNIX), funnel, crunch/zap,
suck/blow
=
equal sign, equals, quadrathorp, gets, half-mesh
?
question mark, query, whatmark, what, wildchar, ques, huh,
hook
@
at sign, at, each, vortex, whorl, whirlpool, cyclone, snail,
ape, cat
V
vee, book
[]
square brackets, left/right bracket, bracket/unbracket,
bra/ket, square/unsquare, U turns
\
reversed virgule, backslash, bash, backslant, backwhack,
backslat, escape (from UNIX), slosh.
^
circumflex, caret, uparrow, hat, chevron, sharkfin, to ("to
the power of"), fang
_
underscore, underline, underbar, under, score, backarrow
`
grave accent, grave, backquote, left quote, open quote,
backprime, unapostrophe, backspark, birk, blugle, back tick,
push
{}
open/close brace, left/right brace, brace/unbrace, curly
bracket, curly/uncurly, leftit/rytit, embrace/bracelet
|
vertical bar, bar, or, or-bar, v-bar, pipe, gozinta, thru,
pipesinta (last four from UNIX)
~
tilde, squiggle, approx, wiggle, twiddle, swung dash, enyay
ASYMPTOTIC adj. Infinitely close to. This is used in a generalization
of its mathematical meaning to allege that something is WITHIN
EPSILON OF some standard, reference or goal (see EPSILON).
AUTOBOGOTIPHOBIA /aw'to-boh-got'@-foh`bee-uh/ n. See BOGOTIFY.
AUTOMAGICALLY /aw-toh-maj'i-klee/ or /aw-toh-maj'i-k@l-ee/ adv.
Automatically, but in a way which, for some reason (typically
because it is too complicated, or too ugly, or perhaps even too
trivial), the speaker doesn't feel like explaining to you. See
MAGIC. "The C-INTERCAL compiler generates C, then automagically
invokes cc(1) to produce an executable."
AWK n. 1. [UNIX] An interpreted language developed by Aho, Weinberg
and Kernighan, characterized by: C-like syntax, a BASIC-like
approach to variable typing and declarations, associative arrays,
and field-oriented text processing. See also PERL. 2. Editing term
for an expression awkward to manipulate through normal regular
expression facilities.
{= B =}
BACKBONE CABAL n. Semi-mythical group of large-site administrators who
pushed through the GREAT RENAMING and reined in the chaos of USENET
during most of the 1980s. The cabal mailing list disbanded in late
1988 after a bitter internal catfight, but the net hardly noticed.
BACK DOOR n. A hole in the security of a system deliberately left in
place by designers or maintainers. The motivation for this is not
always sinister; some operating systems, for example, come out of
the box with privileged accounts intended for use by field service
or the vendor's maintenance programmers. Historically, back doors
have often lurked in systems longer than anyone expected or
planned, and a few have become widely known. The famous RTM worm
of late 1988, for example, used a back door in the BSD UNIX
sendmail(1) utility. Syn. TRAP DOOR. See also IRON BOX, CRACKER,
WORM, LOGIC BOMB.
BACKGROUND vt.,adj. A task running in background is detached from the
terminal where it was started (and often running at a lower
priority); oppose FOREGROUND. Nowadays this term is primarily
associated with UNIX, but it was appears first to have been used in
this sense on OS/360. By extension, to do a task "in background"
is to do it whenever FOREGROUND matters are not claiming your
undivided attention, and "to background" something means to
relegate it to a lower priority. Compare AMP OFF, SLOPSUCKER.
BAD THING n. Something which can't possibly result in improvement of
the subject. This term is always capitalized, as in "Replacing
all of the 9600 baud modems with bicycle couriers would be a Bad
Thing." Oppose GOOD THING. One correspondent suggests that BAD
THING and GOOD THING (and prob. therefore RIGHT THING and WRONG
THING) come from the book "1066 and All That", which discusses
rulers who were Good Kings, but Bad Things.
BAGBITER /bag'biet-@r/ n. 1. Something, such as a program or a
computer, that fails to work, or works in a remarkably clumsy
manner. Example: "This text editor won't let me make a file with
a line longer than 80 characters! What a bagbiter!" 2. A person
who has caused you some trouble, inadvertently or otherwise,
typically by failing to program the computer properly. Synonyms:
LOSER, CRETIN, CHOMPER. 3. Also in the form BAGBITING adj. Having
the quality of a bagbiter. `This bagbiting system won't let me
compute the factorial of a negative number.' Compare LOSING,
CRETINOUS, BLETCHEROUS, BARFUCIOUS and CHOMPING; and BITE THE BAG
vi. To fail in some manner. "The computer keeps crashing every
five minutes." "Yes, the disk controller is really biting the
bag." The original loading of these terms was almost undoubtedly
obscene, probably referring to the scrotum, but in their current
usage they have become almost completely sanitized.
BAMF /bamf/ [from comix] interj. Notional sound made by a person or
object teleporting in or out of the hearer's vicinity. Often used
in VIRTUAL REALITY (q.v.) electronic fora when a character wishes
to make a dramatic entrance or exit.
BANDWIDTH n. 1. Used by hackers in a generalization of its techniucal
meaning as the volume of information per unit time that a computer,
person or transmission medium can handle. "Those are amazing
graphics but I missed some of the detail --- not enough bandwidth, I
guess." 2. Attention span. 3. Very loosely, total data volume.
"Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station-wagon full of
magtapes." 4. On USENET, a measure of network capacity that is
often wasted by people complaining about how network news items
posted by others are a waste of bandwidth.
BANG 1. n. Common spoken name for `!' (ASCII 33), especially when used
in pronouncing a BANG PATH (q.v.) in spoken hackish. In elder days
this was considered a CMUish usage, with MIT and Stanford hackers
preferring EXCL or SHRIEK; but the spread of UNIX has carried BANG
with 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.", but if one wanted to specify the 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 that one has perpetrated a THINKO
immediately after one has been called on it.
BANG PATH 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 the path
"...!bigsite!foovax!barbox!me" directs correspondents to route
their mail 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". See
INTERNET ADDRESS, NETWORK, and SITENAME.
BAR /bar/ 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 n. 1. New computer hardware, unadorned with such snares and
delusions as an OPERATING SYSTEM, HLL or even assembler. Commonly
in the phrase "programming on the bare metal" which refers to the
arduous work of BIT-BASHING needed to create these basic tools 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 compiler back ends that will give the new
machine a real development environment. 2. The same phrase 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 optimization that rely on crocks like overlapping
opcodes (or, in one famous case, 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 as
the relative costs of programming time and machine resources have
changed, but is still found in heavily constrained environments
like industrial embedded systems. See REAL PROGRAMMER.
BARF /barf/ [from mainstream slang meaning "vomit"] 1. interj. Term
of disgust. See BLETCH. 2. To say "Barf!" or emit some similar
expression of disgust. 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 to divide by zero."
(that is, division by zero fails in some unspecified spectacular
way) "The text editor barfs if you try to read in a new file
before writing out the old one." 4. Also BARFULOUS, BARFUCIOUS:
adj. Said of something which would make anyone barf, if only for
aesthetic reasons. See CHOKE, GAG. Note that in Commonwealth
English, "barf" is generally replaced by "puke" or "vom".
BARF is sometimes also used as a metasyntactic variable like
FOO or BAR.
BAUD BARF /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 disrupts the connection.
Baud barf is not 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 identify
particular speeds.
BAZ /baz/ 1. The third metasyntactic variable, after FOO and BAR and
before QUX. "Suppose we have three functions FOO, BAR, and BAZ.
FOO calls BAR, which calls BAZ..." 2. interj. Term of mild
annoyance. In this usage the term is often drawn out for two or
three seconds, producing an effect not unlike the bleating of a
sheep; /baaaaaaz/. 3. Occasionally appended to FOO to produce
FOOBAZ.
BEAM [from "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.
BELLS AND WHISTLES [by analogy with steam calliopies] 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. Distinguished from CHROME which is
intended to attract users. "Now that we've got the basic program
working, let's go back and add some bells and whistles." However,
no one seems to know what distinguishes a bell from a whistle.
BENCHMARK n. An inaccurate measure of computer performance. "In the
computer industry, there are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies,
and benchmarks." See also MIPS.
BERKLIX /ber'kliks/ n.,adj. Contraction of Berkeley UNIX. See BSD.
Not used at Berkeley itself. May be more common among SUITS
attempting to sound like cognoscenti than hackers, who usually just
say `BSD'.
BERZERKELY /b@r-zer'klee/ [from the name of a now-deceased record
label] n. Humorous, often-used distortion of "Berkeley" used esp.
to refer to the practices or products of the BSD UNIX hackers.
BIBLE n. As used by hackers, usually refers to one of a small number
of fundamental source books including Donald Knuth's "The Art Of
Computer Programming" or the WHITE BOOK.
BIFF /bif/ [USENET] n. The most famous PSEUDO, and the prototypical
NEWBIE. Articles from BIFF are characterized by all upper case
letters sprinkled liberally with BANGS, typos, "cute"
misspellings (EVRY BUDY LUVS GOOD OLD BIFF CUZ HE"S A K00L DOOD AN
HE RITES REEL AWESUM THINGZ IN CAPITULL LETTRS LIKE THIS!!!), a
long SIG (sometimes even a DOUBLED SIG), and unbounded naivete.
BIFF posts articles using his elder brother's VIC-20. BIFF's
location is a mystery, as his articles 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. See also DOUBLED SIG.
BIG-ENDIAN [From Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" via a famous 1980
paper by Danny Cohen] adj. Describes a computer architecture in
which, within a given 16- or 32-bit word, lower byte addresses have
higher significance (the word is stored `big-end-first'). Most
processors including the IBM 370 family and the PDP-10 and Motorola
microprocessor families and most of the various RISC designs
current in 1990 are big-endian. See LITTLE-ENDIAN, MIDDLE-ENDIAN.
BIG IRON 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 DINOSAUR.
BIG RED SWITCH [IBM] n. The power switch on a computer, esp. on an
IBM-PC where it really is large and red. "This !@%$% BITTY BOX is
hung again, time to hit the big red switch." Sources at IBM report
that, in tune with the company's passion for TLAs (q.v.) this is
often acronymized as "BRS".
BIGNUM /big'num/ [orig. from MIT MACLISP; the name is said to derive
from a pun on the FORTRAN REAL type] n. 1. 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 for you!"
Most computer languages provide a kind of data called
"integer", but such computer integers are usually very limited in
size; usually they must be smaller than 2 ^ 31 (2147483648) or (on
losing BITTY BOXES) 2 ^ 15 (32767). If you want to work with
numbers larger than that, you have to use floating-point numbers,
which are usually only accurate to 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)
exactly. For example, this value for 1000! was computed by the
MACLISP system using bignums:
4023872600770937735437024339230039857193748642107146325437999104
2993851239862902059204420848696940480047998861019719605863166687
2994808558901323829669944590997424504087073759918823627727188732
5197795059509952761208749754624970436014182780946464962910563938
8743788648733711918104582578364784997701247663288983595573543251
3185323958463075557409114262417474349347553428646576611667797396
6688202912073791438537195882498081268678383745597317461360853795
3452422158659320192809087829730843139284440328123155861103697680
1357304216168747609675871348312025478589320767169132448426236131
4125087802080002616831510273418279777047846358681701643650241536
9139828126481021309276124489635992870511496497541990934222156683
2572080821333186116811553615836546984046708975602900950537616475
8477284218896796462449451607653534081989013854424879849599533191
0172335555660213945039973628075013783761530712776192684903435262
5200015888535147331611702103968175921510907788019393178114194545
2572238655414610628921879602238389714760885062768629671466746975
6291123408243920816015378088989396451826324367161676217916890977
9911903754031274622289988005195444414282012187361745992642956581
7466283029555702990243241531816172104658320367869061172601587835
2075151628422554026517048330422614397428693306169089796848259012
5458327168226458066526769958652682272807075781391858178889652208
1643483448259932660433676601769996128318607883861502794659551311
5655203609398818061213855860030143569452722420634463179746059468
2573103790084024432438465657245014402821885252470935190620929023
1364932734975655139587205596542287497740114133469627154228458623
7738753823048386568897646192738381490014076731044664025989949022
2221765904339901886018566526485061799702356193897017860040811889
7299183110211712298459016419210688843871218556461249607987229085
1929681937238864261483965738229112312502418664935314397013742853
1926649875337218940694281434118520158014123344828015051399694290
1534830776445690990731524332782882698646027898643211390835062170
9500259738986355427719674282224875758676575234422020757363056949
8825087968928162753848863396909959826280956121450994871701244516
4612603790293091208890869420285106401821543994571568059418727489
9809425474217358240106367740459574178516082923013535808184009699
6372524230560855903700624271243416909004153690105933983835777939
4109700277534720000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
00000000.
2. BIGNUMS [from Macsyma] n. In backgammon, large numbers on the
dice, especially a roll of double fives or double sixes. See also
EL CAMINO BIGNUM.
BIT [from the unit of information] n. 1. The unit of information; the
amount of information obtained by asking a yes-or-no question (this
is straight technicalese). 2. A computational quantity that can
take on one of two values, such as true and false, or zero and one.
3. A mental flag: a reminder that something should be done
eventually. Example: "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.) A
bit is said to be "set" if its value is true or one, and
"reset" or "clear" if its value is false or zero. One speaks
of setting and clearing bits. To "toggle" or "invert" a bit is
to change it, either from zero to one or from one to zero.
BIT BANG n. Transmission of data on a serial line accomplished by
rapidly tweaking a single output bit at the appropriate times
(popular on certain early models of Prime computers, presumably
when UARTs were too expensive; and on archaic Z-80 micros with a
Zilog PIO but no SIO). The technique is a simple loop with eight
OUT, SHIFT, OUT etc. instructions for each byte. Input is more
interesting. And full duplex (doing input and output at the same
time) is one way to separate the real hackers from the wannabees.
BIT BASHING n. (also, "bit diddling") Term used to describe any of
several kinds of low-level programming characterized by
manipulation of BIT, FLAG, NYBBLE and other smaller-than-character
sized pieces of data: these include low-level device control,
encryption algorithms, checksum and error-correcting codes, hash
functions, some flavors of graphics programming (see BITBLT), and
assembler/compiler code generation. May connote either tedium or a
real technical challenge (more usually the former)."The command
decoding for the new tape driver looks pretty solid but the
bit-bashing for the control registers still has bugs." See also
BIT BANG, BIT MASK.
BIT BUCKET n. The great data sink in the sky (originally, the mythical
receptacle used to catch bits when they fall off the end of a
register during a shift instruction). Data that is discarded,
lost, or destroyed is said to "go to the bit bucket". On UNIX,
often used for /DEV/NULL (q.v.). Sometimes amplified as "the Great
Bit Bucket in the Sky". This term is used purely in jest. It's
based on the fanciful notion that bits are objects that are not
destroyed, but only misplaced. See also NULL DEVICE.
BIT DECAY n. See SOFTWARE ROT. People with a physics background tend
to prefer this one for the analogy with particle decay.
BIT ROT n. See SOFTWARE ROT.
BITBLT /bit'blit/ or /bit'belt/ n. [from BLT, q.v.] 1. Any of a
closely related family of algorithms for moving and copying
rectangles of bits between main and display memory on a bit-mapped
device, or between two areas of either main or display memory (the
requirement to do the right thing in the case of overlapping source
and destination rectangles is what makes BitBlt tricky). 2. Synonym for BLIT or BLT (q.v.)
BITS n. 1. Information. Examples: "I need some bits about file
formats." ("I need to know about file formats.") Compare CORE
DUMP, sense #4. 2. Machine-readable representation of a document,
specifically as contrasted with paper. "I only have a photocopy
of the Jargon File; does anyone know where I can get the bits?".
See SOFTCOPY. 3. Also in THE SOURCE OF ALL GOOD BITS n. A person
from whom (or a place from which) information may be obtained. If
you need to know about a program, a WIZARD might be the source of
all good bits. The title is often applied to a particularly
competent secretary.
BITTY BOX /bit'ee boks/ n. 1. A computer sufficiently small, primitive
or incapable as to cause a hacker acute claustrophobia at the
thought of developing for it. Especially used of small,
obsolescent, single-tasking-only personal machines like the Atari
800, Osborne, Sinclair, VIC-20, or TRS-80. 2. More generally, the
opposite of `real computer' (see GET A REAL COMPUTER). Pejorative.
See also MESS-DOS, TOASTER, and TOY.
BIXIE /biks'ee/ n. Synonym for EMOTICON (q.v.) used on BIX (the Byte
Information Exchange); BIXers believe (probably incorrectly) the
emoticon was invented there.
BLACK ART n. A collection of arcane, unpublished, and (by implication)
mostly ad-hoc techniques developed for a particular application or
systems area. VLSI design and compiler code optimization were (in
their beginnings) considered classic examples of black art; as
theory developed they became DEEP MAGIC, and once standard
textbooks had been written became merely HEAVY WIZARDRY. The huge
proliferation of formal and informal channels for spreading around
new computer-related technologies during the last twenty years has
made both the term "black art" and what it describes less common
than formerly.
BLACK HOLE n. When a piece of email or netnews disappears mysteriously
between its origin and destination sites it is commonly said to
have "fallen into a black hole". Similarly, one might say "I
think there's a black hole at foovax!" to convey suspicion that
site foovax has been dropping a lot of stuff on the floor lately.
The implied metaphor of email as interstellar travel is interesting
in itself.
BLAST vt.,n. Synonym for BLT (q.v.), used esp. for large data sends
over a network or comm line. Opposite of SNARF. Usage: uncommon.
BLAZER n. Nickname for the Telebit Trailblazer, an expensive but
extremely reliable and effective high-speed modem, popular at UNIX
sites that pass large volumes of EMAIL and USENET news.
BLETCH /blech/ [from Yiddish/German "brechen", to vomit] 1. interj.
Term of disgust.
BLETCHEROUS /blech'@-rus/ adj. Disgusting in design or function;
aesthetically unappealing. This word is seldom used of people.
"This keyboard is bletcherous!" (Perhaps the keys don't work very
well, or are misplaced). See LOSING, CRETINOUS, BAGBITING, BOGUS,
and RANDOM. BLETCHEROUS applies to the aesthetics of the thing so
described; similarly for CRETINOUS. By contrast, something that is
LOSING or BAGBITING may be failing to meet objective criteria. See
BOGUS and RANDOM, which have richer and wider shades of meaning
than any of the above.
BLINKENLIGHTS /blink'@n-lietz/ n. Front-panel diagnostic lights on a
mainframe CPU. Derives from the last word of the famous
blackletter-Gothic "ACHTUNG! ALLES LOOKENSPEEPERS!" notice in
mangled pseudo-German that once graced about half the computer
rooms in the English-speaking world. The sign in its entiretu ran:
ACHTUNG! ALLES LOOKENSPEEPERS
Das computermachine ist nicht fur gefingerpoken und
mittengrabben. Ist easy schnappen der springenwerk,
blowenfusen und poppencorken mit spitzensparken. Ist nicht
fur gewerken bei das dumpkopfen. Das rubbernecken
sichtseeren keepen hans in das pockets muss; relaxen
und watch das blinkenlichten.
This silliness dates back at least as far as 1959 at Stanford
University and had already gone international by the early '60s,
when it was reported at London University's ATLAS computing site.
There are several variants of it in circulation.
BLIT /blit/ vt. 1. To copy a large array of bits from one part of a
computer's memory to another part, particularly when the memory is
being used to determine what is shown on a display screen. "The
storage allocator picks through the table and copies the good parts
up into high memory, and at the end BLITs it all back down again."
See BITBLT, BLT, DD, CAT, BLAST, SNARF, Appendix B. More
generally, to perform some operation (such as toggling) on a large
array of bits while moving them. 2. An early experimental
bit-mapped terminal designed by Rob Pike at Bell Labs, later
commercialized as the AT&T 5620.
BLOCK [From computer science usage] 1. vi. To delay while waiting for
something. "We're blocking until everyone gets here." 2. in
BLOCK ON vt. To block, waiting for (something). "Lunch is blocked
on Phil's arrival."
BLOCK TRANSFER COMPUTATIONS n. From the Dr. Who television series: in
the show, it referred to computations so fiendishly subtle and
complex that they could not be performed by machines. Used to
refer to any task that should be expressible as an algorithm in
theory, but isn't.
BLOW AWAY vt. To remove files and directories from permanant storage
with extreme prejudice, generally by accident. Oppose NUKE.
BLOW OUT vi. Of software, to fail spectacularly; almost as serious as
CRASH AND BURN. See BLOW PAST.
BLOW PAST vi. To BLOW OUT despite a safeguard. "The server blew past
the 5K reserve buffer."
BLT /bee ell tee/ or (rarely) /belt/ n.,v. 1. Synonym for BLIT. This
is the original form of BLIT and the ancestor of BITBLT (q.v.). In
these versions the usage has outlasted the PDP-10 BLock Transfer
instruction for which BLT derives; nowadays, the assembler mnemonic
BLT almost always means `Branch if Less Than Zero'.
BLUE BOOK n. 1. Informal name for one of the three standard references
on the page-layout and graphics-control language PostScript; the
others are known as the GREEN BOOK and RED BOOK. 2. Any of the
1988 standards issues by the CCIT 9th plenary assembly. They change
color each review cycle (1984 was RED BOOK, 1992 will be GREEN
BOOK). These include, among other things, the X.400 email spec and
the Group 1 through 4 fax standards. See also RED BOOK, GREEN BOOK,
SILVER BOOK, PURPLE BOOK, ORANGE BOOK, WHITE BOOK, PINK-SHIRT BOOK,
DRAGON BOOK.
BLUE GLUE [IBM] n. IBM's SNA (Systems Network Architecture) an
incredibly losing and bletcherous protocol suite widely favored at
commercial shops that don't know any better. See FEAR AND
LOATHING. It may not be irrelevant that BLUE GLUE is the trade name
of a 3M product that is commonly used to hold down the carpet
squares to the removable panel floors so common in computer
installations. A correspondent at U.Minn. reports "The CS dept
here has about 80 bottles of BLUE GLUE hanging about, so we're
occasionally calling [sic] any messy work to be done `using the
BLUE GLUE"'.
BLUE GOO n. Term for "police" NANOBOTS intended to prevent GRAY GOO
(q.v.), denature hazardous waste, destroy pollution, put ozone back
into the stratosphere, prevent halitosis, and to promote truth,
justice, and the American way, etc., etc. See NANOTECHNOLOGY.
BNF /bee-en-ef/ n. Hacker acronym for `Backus-Naur Form', a
metasyntactic notation used to specify the syntax of programming
languages, command sets and the like. Widely used for language
descriptions but seldom documented anywhere, so that it must
usually be learned by osmosis from other hackers. Consider this
BNF for a postal address:
<postal-address> ::= <name-part> <street-address> <zip-part>
<name-part> ::= <first-name> [<middle-part>] <last-name>
<middle-part> ::= <middle-name> | <middle-initial> "."
<street-address> ::= [<apt>] <street-number> <street-name>
<zip-part> ::= <town-name> "," <state-code> <zip-code>
This translates into English as: A postal-address consists of a
name-part, followed by a street-address part, followed by a
zip-code part. A name-part consists of a first-name followed by an
optional middle-part followed by a last-name. A middle-part
consists of either a middle name or a middle initial followed by a
dot. A street address consists of an optional apartment specifier
followed by a street number, followed by a street name. A zip-part
consts of a town-name, followed by a state code, followed by a zip
code. Note that many things such as the format of a first-name,
apartment specifier or zip-code are left unspecified. These are
presumed to be obvious from context or detailed in another part of
the specification the BNF is part of. See also PARSE.
It is worth noting that the term BNF is also used loosely for
extensions of this notation containing some or all of the GLOB
wildcards.
BOA [IBM] n. Any one of the fat cables that lurk under the floor in
DINOSAUR PENS. It is rumored within IBM that 370 channel cables
are limited to 200 feet because beyond that length the boas get
dangerous...
BOAT ANCHOR n. Like DOORSTOP (q.v.) but more severe, implies that the
offending hardware is irreversibly dead or useless.
BOGOMETER n. See BOGOSITY.
BOGON /boh'gon/ [by analogy with proton/electron/neutron, but doubtless
reinforced after 1980 by the similarity to the "Vogons", see
Appendix C] n. 1. The elementary particle of bogosity (see QUANTUM
BOGODYNAMICS). For instance, "the ethernet is emitting bogons
again," meaning that it is broken or acting in an erratic or bogus
fashion. 2. A query packet sent from a TCP/IP domain resolver to a
root server, having the reply bit set instead of the query bit. 3.
Any bogus or incorrectly formed packet sent on a network. 4. By
extension, used to refer metasyntactically to any bogus thing, as
in "I'd like to go to lunch with you but I've got to go to the
weekly staff bogon." 5. A person who is bogus or who says bogus
things. This was historically the original usage, but has been
overtaken by its derivatives in 1-4.
BOGON FILTER /boh'gon fil'tr/ n. Any device, software or hardware,
which limits or suppresses the flow and/or emission of bogons.
Example: "Engineering hacked a bogon filter between the Cray and
the VAXen and now we're getting fewer dropped packets."
BOGOSITY /boh-go's@-tee/ n. 1. The degree to which something is BOGUS
(q.v.). At CMU, bogosity is measured with a BOGOMETER; typical
use: in a seminar, when a speaker says something bogus, a listener
might raise his hand and say, "My bogometer just triggered." The
agreed-upon unit of bogosity is the microLenat (uL). 2. The
potential field generated by a bogon flux; see QUANTUM
BOGODYNAMICS.
BOGOTIFY /boh-go't@-fie/ vt. To make or become bogus. A program that
has been changed so many times as to become completely disorganized
has become bogotified. If you tighten a nut too hard and strip the
threads on the bolt, the bolt has become bogotified and you'd
better not use it any more. This coinage led to the notional
AUTOBOGOTIPHOBIA (aw'to-boh-got'@-foh`bee-uh) n., defined as the
fear of becoming bogotified; but is not clear that the latter has
ever been `live' slang rather than a self-conscious joke in jargon
about jargon.
BOGUE OUT /bohg owt/ vi. to becomes bogus, suddenly and unexpectedly.
"His talk was relatively sane until somebody asked him a trick
question, then he bogued out and did nothing but FLAME
afterwards".
BOGUS [WPI, Yale, Stanford] adj. 1. Non-functional. "Your patches
are bogus." 2. Useless. "OPCON is a bogus program." 3.
False. "Your arguments are bogus." 4. Incorrect. "That
algorithm is bogus." 5. Unbelievable. "You claim to have solved
the halting problem for Turing Machines? That's totally bogus."
6. Silly. "Stop writing those bogus sagas." Astrology is bogus.
So is a bolt that is obviously about to break. So is someone who
makes blatantly false claims to have solved a scientific problem.
(This word seems to have some, but not all, of the connotations of
RANDOM.)
[Etymological note: "Bogus" was originally used in the hackish sense
at Princeton, in the late 60s. It was used not particularly in the
CS department, but all over campus. It came to Yale, where one of
us (Lehman) was an undergraduate, and (we assume) elsewhere through
the efforts of Princeton alumni who brought the word with them from
their alma mater. In the Yale case, the alumnus is Michael Shamos,
who was a graduate student at Yale and is now a faculty member
here. A glossary of bogus words was compiled at Yale when the word
was first popularized (see AUTOBOGOTIPHOBIA under BOGOTIFY). By
the mid-1980s it was also current in something like the hackish
sense in West Coast teen slang]
Further note: A correspondent at Cambridge claims these uses of
bogus grate on British nerves; in Britain the word means rather
specifically `counterfeit' as in "a bogus pound note".
BOHR BUG /bohr buhg/ [from quantum physics] n. A repeatable BUG; one
which manifests reliably under a possibly unknown but well-defined
set of conditions. Antonym of HEISENBUG.
BOINK /boynk/ [USENET] 1. To have sex with; compare BOUNCE, sense #3.
In Commonwealth English this the variant "bonk" is more common.
2. After the original Peter Korn "Boinkcon" USENET parties, used
for almost any net social gathering, e.g. Miniboink, a small boink
held by Nancy Gillett in 1988; Minniboink, a Boinkcon in Minnesota
in 1989; Humpdayboinks, Wednesday get-togethers held in the San
Francisco Bay Area. Compare @-SIGN PARTY.
BOMB vi. 1. General synonym for CRASH, esp. used of software or OS
failures. "Don't run Empire with less than 32K stack, it'll bomb
out" 2. Atari ST and Macintosh equivalents of PANIC or GURU (sense
2), where icons of little black-powder bombs or mushroom clouds are
displayed indicating the system has died. On the Mac this may be
accomanied by a hexadecimal number indicating what went wrong,
similar to the Amiga GURU MEDITION number. MESS-DOS machines tend
to get LOCKED UP in this situation.
BONDAGE-AND-DISCIPLINE LANGUAGE A language such as Pascal, APL, or
Prolog that, though ostensibly general-purpose, is designed so as
to enforce an author's theory of "right programming" even though
said theory is demonstrably inadequate for systems or even vanilla
general-purpose programming. See LANGUAGES OF CHOICE.
BOOT [from "by one's bootstraps"] vi.,n. To load and initialize the
operating system on a machine. This usage is no longer slang
(having become jargon in the strict sense), but it is sometimes
used of human thought processes, as in the following exchange:
"You've lost me." "O.K., reboot. Here's the theory...". Also
found in the variants COLD BOOT (from power-off condition) and WARM
BOOT (with the CPU and all devices already powered up, as after a
hardware reset or software crash).
BOTTLENECKED adj. 1. Used by hackers specifically to describe hardware
under which performance is usually limited by contention for one
particular resource (such as disk, memory or processor CLOCKS); the
opposite condition is called `balanced', which is more jargon in
the strict sense and may be found in technical dictionaries. 2.
Less often, applied to the software analogue of sense #1, a slow
code section or algorithm through which all computation must pass
(see also HOT SPOT).
BOUNCE v. 1. [UNIX, perhaps from "to bounce a check"] An electronic
mail message which is undeliverable and returns an error
notification to the sender is said to `bounce'. See also BOUNCE
MESSAGE. 2. [Stanford] To play volleyball. At one time there was a
volleyball court next to the computer laboratory. From 5:00 PM to
7:00 PM was the scheduled maintenance time for the computer, so
every afternoon at 5:00 the computer would become unavailable, and
over the intercom a voice would cry , "Bounce, bounce!" 3. To
engage in sexual intercourse; prob. fr. the expression "bouncing
the mattress", but influenced by Piglet's psychosexually-loaded
"Bounce on me too, Tigger!" from the Winnie the Pooh books. 4.
To casually reboot a system in order to clear up a transient
problem. Reported primarily among VMS users.
BOUNCE MESSAGE [UNIX] n. Notification message returned to sender by a
site unable to relay EMAIL to the intended INTERNET ADDRESS
recipient or the next link in a BANG PATH (see BOUNCE). Reasons
might include a nonexistent or misspelled username or a down relay
site. Bounce messages can themselves fail, with occasionally ugly
results; see SORCERER'S APPRENTICE MODE.
BOXEN /bok'sn/ pl n. [back-formation from VAXEN] Fanciful plural of
`box' often encountered in the phrase `UNIX boxen', used to
describe commodity UNIX hardware. The implication is that any two
UNIX boxen are interchangeable.
BRAIN-DAMAGED [generalization of "Honeywell Brain Damage" (HBD), a
theoretical disease invented to explain certain utter cretinisms in
Honeywell MULTICS] adj. Obviously wrong; CRETINOUS; DEMENTED.
There is an implication that the person responsible must have
suffered brain damage, because he should have known better.
Calling something brain-damaged is really bad; it also implies it
is unusable, and that its failure to work is due to poor design
rather than some accident.
BRAIN-DEAD adj. Brain-damaged in the extreme. Not quite like
mainstream use, as it tends to imply terminal design failure rather
than malfunction or simple stupidity.
BRAINO /bray'no/ n. Syn. for THINKO (q.v.).
BRANCH TO FISHKILL [IBM, from the location of one of their facilities]
n. Any unexpected jump in a program that produces catastrophic or
just plain weird results. See HYPERSPACE.
BREAK v. 1. To cause to be broken (in any sense). "Your latest patch
to the editor broke the paragraph commands." 2. (of a program) To
stop temporarily, so that it may be examined for debugging
purposes. The place where it stops is a "breakpoint". 3. To send
an RS-232 "break" (125 msec. of line high) over a serial comm
line. 4. [UNIX] To strike whatever key currently causes the tty
driver to send SIGINT to the current process. Normally "break"
(sense 3) or delete does this.
BREAKAGE [IBM] n. The extra people that must be added to an
organization because its master plan has changed; used esp. of
software and hardware development teams.
BRITTLE adj. Said of software that's functional but easily broken by
changes in operating environment or configuration. Often describes
the results of a research effort that were never intended to be
robust, but can be applied to commercially developed software.
Oppose ROBUST.
BROADCAST STORM n. An incorrect packet broadcast on a network that
causes most hosts to respond all at once, typically with wrong
answers that start the process over again. Also called NETWORK
MELTDOWN. See also CHERNOBYL PACKET.
BROKEN adj. 1. Not working properly (of programs). 2. Behaving
strangely; especially (of people), exhibiting extreme depression.
BROKET /broh'k@t/ or /broh'ket/ [by analogy with "bracket": a
"broken bracket"] (primarily Stanford) n. Either of the characters
"<" and ">". This word originated as a contraction of the
phrase "broken bracket", that is, a bracket that is bent in the
middle. (At MIT, and apparently in THE REAL WORLD (q.v.) as well,
these are usually called ANGLE BRACKETS.)
BRUTE FORCE adj. Describes a certain kind of primitive programming
style. Brute-force programs typically work by enumerating all
possible combinations of things in an effort to find the one
combination that solves the problem. An example of a brute-force
program is one that sorts a thousand numbers by examining them all,
picking the smallest one, and saving it in another table; then
examining all the numbers again, and picking the smallest one
except for the one it already picked; and in general choosing the
next number by examining all one thousand numbers and choosing the
smallest one that hasn't yet been picked (as determined by
examining all the ones already picked). Yes, the program will
produce the right answer, but it will be much slower than a program
that uses even a modicum of cleverness to avoid most of the work.
(A little bit of computer science---specifically, the theory of
algorithms---will show that if a typical large computer can sort a
thousand numbers in a tenth of a second using a clever sorting
method, the brute-force method outlined above would take about 14
hours.)
BRUTE FORCE AND IGNORANCE n. A popular design technique at many
software houses --- BRUTE FORCE coding unrelieved by any knowledge
of how problems have been previously solved in elegant ways.
Dogmatic adherence to design methodologies tends to encourage it.
Characteristic of early LARVAL STAGE programming; unfortunately,
many never outgrow it. Often abbreviated BFI, as in: "Gak, they
used a bubble sort! That's strictly from BFI." (this comment
might be used by a hacker to describe the example given under BRUTE
FORCE above). Compare BOGOSITY.
BSD /bee-ess-dee/ n. [acronym for Berkeley System Distribution] a
family of UNIX versions for the DEC VAX developed by Bill Joy and
others at University of California at Berkeley starting around
1980, incorporating TCP/IP networking enhancements and many other
features. The BSD versions (4.1, 4.2, and 4.3) and commercial
versions derived from them (SunOS and Mt. Xinu) held the technical
lead in the UNIX world until AT&T's successful standardization
efforts after about 1986, and are still widely popular. See UNIX,
USG UNIX.
BUCKY BITS /buh'kee bits/ [primarily Stanford] n. The bits produced by
the CTRL and META shift keys, esp. on a Stanford (or Knight)
keyboard (see SPACE-CADET KEYBOARD). It is rumored that these were
in fact named for Buckminster Fuller during a period when he was
consulting at Stanford. Unfortunately, legend also has it that
"Bucky" was Niklaus Wirth's nickname when *he* was consulting at
Stanford and that he first suggested the idea of the meta key, so
its bit was named after him. See DOUBLE BUCKY, QUADRUPLE BUCKY.
BUFFER OVERFLOW n. What typically happens when an OS or application is
fed data faster than it can handle. Used metaphorically of human
mental processes. "Sorry, I got four phone calls in three minutes
last night and lost your message to a buffer overflow."
BUG n. An unwanted and unintended property of a program or hardware,
esp. one which causes it to malfunction. Antonym of FEATURE.
Examples: "There's a bug in the editor: it writes things out
backwards." "The system CRASHED because of a hardware bug."
"Fred is a winner, but he has a few bugs." (e.g. Fred is a good
guy, but he has a few personality problems.)
Some have said this term came from telephone company usage: "bugs
in a telephone cable" were blamed for noisy lines, but this
appears to be a `folk etymology'. Admiral Grace Hopper (an early
computing pioneer better known for inventing COBOL) liked to tell a
story in which a technician solved a persistent glitch in the
Harvard Mark II machine by pulling an actual physical bug out
between the contacts of one of its relays, and she subsequently
promulgated BUG in its hackish sense as a joke about the incident
(though, as she was careful to admit, she was not there when it
happened). For many years the logbook associated with the incident
and the actual bug in question (a moth) sat in a display case at
the Naval Surface Warfare Center, and now resides in the
Smithsonian. Interestingly, the text of the log entry, which is
said to read "First example of a real computer `bug"' establishes
that the term was already in use at the time; and a similar
incident is alleged to have occurred on the original ENIAC machine.
Indeed, the use of "bug" to mean an industrial defect was already
established in Thomas Edison's time, and "bug" in the sense of an
annoyance goes back to Shakespeare!
In any case, in hacker's slang the word almost never refers to
insects. Here is a plausible conversation that never actually
happened:
"This ant-farm has a bug."
"What do you mean? There aren't even any ants in it."
"That's the bug."
BUG COMPATIBLE n. Said of a design or revision the design of which has
been badly compromised by a requirement to be compatible with
FOSSILS or MISFEATURES in other programs or (esp.) previous releases
of itself.
BULLETPROOF adj. Used of an algorithm or implementation considered
extremely robust; lossage-resistant; capable of correctly
recovering from any imaginable exception condition. This is a rare
and valued quality.
BUM 1. vt. To make highly efficient, either in time or space, often at
the expense of clarity. "I managed to bum three more instructions
out of that code." 2. n. A small change to an algorithm, program,
or hardware device to make it more efficient. "This hardware bum
makes the jump instruction faster." Usage: now uncommon, largely
superseded by TUNE (q.v.). Note that both these uses are rare in
Commonwealth English, where "bum" is interpreted as a rude
synonym for "buttocks".
BUMP vt. Synonym for increment. Has the same meaning as C's ++
operator. Used esp. of counter variables, pointers (see POINTER
ARITHMETIC) and index dummies in for, while, and do-until loops.
BURBLE vi. Like FLAME, but connotes that the source is truly clueless
and ineffectual (mere flamers can be competent). A term of deep
contempt.
BUSY-WAIT vi. To wait on an event by SPINning through a tight or
timed-delay loop that polls for the event on each pass, as opposed
to setting up an interrupt handler and continuing execution on
another part of the task. A wasteful technique, best avoided on
time-sharing systems where a busy-waiting program may hog the
processor. Syn. SPIN-LOCK
BUZZ vi. 1. Of a program, to run with no indication of progress and
perhaps without guarantee of ever finishing; esp. said of programs
thought to be executing tight loops of code. The state of a
buzzing program resembles CATATONIA, but you never get out of
catatonia, while a buzzing loop may eventually end of its own
accord. Example: "The program buzzes for about ten seconds trying
to sort all the names into order." See SPIN. 2. [ETA Systems] To
test a wire or PCB trace for continuity by applying an AC signal as
opposed to applying a DC signal. Some wire faults will pass DC
tests but fail a BUZZ test.
BWQ /bee duhb'l-yoo kyoo/ [IBM] n. Buzz Word Quotient. Usually
roughly proportional to BOGOSITY. See TLA.
BYTESEXUAL /biet-seks'u-@l/ adj. Said of hardware, denotes willingness
to compute or pass data in either BIG ENDIAN or LITTLE ENDIAN
format (depending, presumably, on a mode bit somewhere).
{= C =}
C n. 1. The third letter of the Latin alphabet. 2. The name of a
programming language designed by Dennis Ritchie during the early
1970s and first used to implement UNIX (q.v.). So called because
many features derived from an earlier interpreter named 'B' in
commemoration of *its* parent, BCPL; before Bjarne Stroustrup
settled the question by designing C++, there was a humorous debate
over whether C's successor should be named `D' or `P'. C became
immensely popular outside Bell Labs after about 1980 and is now the
dominant language in systems and microcomputer applications
programming. See LANGUAGES OF CHOICE.
CAN vt. To abort a job on a time-sharing system. Used esp. when the
person doing the deed is an operator, as in CANNED FROM THE
CONSOLE. Frequently used in an imperative sense, as in "Can that
print job, the LPT just popped a sprocket!". Synonymous with GUN.
It is said that the ASCII character with mnemonic CAN (0011000) was
used as a kill-job character on some early OSs.
CALCULATOR [Cambridge] n. Syn. for BITTY BOX.
CANONICAL adj. The usual or standard state or manner of something.
This word has a somewhat more technical meaning in mathematics.
For example, one sometimes speaks of a formula as being in
canonical form. Two formulas such as "9 + x" and "x + 9" are
said to be equivalent because they mean the same thing, but the
second one is in canonical form because it is written in the usual
way, with the highest power of x first. Usually there are fixed
rules you can use to decide whether something is in canonical form.
The slang meaning is a relaxation of the technical meaning (this
generalization is actually not confined to hackers, and may be
found throughout academia).
A true story: One Bob Sjoberg, new at the MIT AI Lab, expressed
some annoyance at the use of jargon. Over his loud objections, we
made a point of using jargon as much as possible in his presence,
and eventually it began to sink in. Finally, in one conversation,
he used the word "canonical" in jargon-like fashion without
thinking. Steele: "Aha! We've finally got you talking jargon
too!" Stallman: "What did he say?" Steele: "Bob just used
`canonical' in the canonical way."
CARD WALLOPER n. An EDP programmer who works on batch programs that do
stupid things like print people's paychecks. Compare CODE GRINDER.
CASTERS-UP MODE /cas'trz uhp mohd/ [IBM] n. Yet another synonym for
`broken' or `down'.
CASTING THE RUNES n. The act of getting a GURU to run a particular
program and type at it because it never works for anyone else; esp.
used when nobody can ever see what the guru is doing different from
J. RANDOM LOSER does. Compare INCANTATION, RUNES, EXAMINING THE
ENTRAILS.
CAT [from "concatenate" via UNIX cat(1)] vt. To spew an entire
(notionally large) file to the screen or some other output sink
without pause; by extension, to dump large amounts of data at an
unprepared target or with no intention of browsing it carefully.
Usage: considered silly. Rare outside UNIX sites. See also DD,
BLT.
CATATONIA n. A condition of suspended animation in which something is
so WEDGED that it makes no response. For example, if you are
typing on a terminal and suddenly the computer doesn't even echo
the letters back to the screen as you type, let alone do what
you're asking it to do, then the computer is suffering from
catatonia (possibly because it has CRASHED).
CDR /ku'dr/ [from LISP] v. To remove the first item from a list of
things. In the form CDR DOWN, to trace down a list of elements.
"Shall we cdr down the agenda?" Usage: silly.
CHAD /chad/ n. 1. The perforated edge strips on printer paper, after
they have been separated from the printed portion. Also called
SELVAGE and PERF. 2. obs. the confetti-like paper bits punched out
of cards or paper tape; this was also called `chaff'.
CHAIN [orig. from BASIC's CHAIN statement] vi. When used of programming
languages, refers to a statement that allows a parent executable to
hand off execution to a child without going through the OS command
interpreter. The state of the parent program is lost and there is
no returning to it. Though this facility used to be common on
memory-limited micros and is still widely supported for backward
compatibility, the jargon usage is semi-obsolescent; in particular
most UNIX programmers will think of this as an EXEC. Oppose the
more modern SUBSHELL.
CHAR /keir/ or /char/; rarely, /kar/ n. Shorthand for `character'.
Esp. used by C programmers, as `char' is C's typename for
character data.
CHASE POINTERS 1. vi. To go through multiple levels of indirection, as
in traversing a linked list or graph structure. Used esp. by
programmers in C, where explicit pointers are a very common data
type. This is almost jargon in the strict sense, but remains slang
when used of human networks. "I'm chasing pointers. Bob said you
could tell me who to talk to about..." 2. [Cambridge] POINTER
CHASE or POINTER HUNT: the process of going through a dump
(intractively or on a large piece of paper printed with hex RUNES)
following dynamic data-structures. Only used in a debugging
context.
CHEMIST [Cambridge University] n. Someone who wastes CPU time on
number-crunching when you'd far rather the CPU was doing something
more productive, such as working out anagrams of your name or
printing Snoopy calendars or running LIFE patterns. May or may not
refer to someone who actually studies chemistry.
CHERNOBYL PACKET /cher-no'b@l pa'k@t/ n. An IP Ethergram with both
source and destination Ether and IP address set as the respective
broadcast address. So called because it induces NETWORK MELTDOWN.
CHOKE vt. To reject input, often ungracefully. "I tried building X,
but cpp choked on all those #define's." See BARF, GAG, VI.
CHOMP vt. To lose; to chew on something of which more was bitten off
than one can. Probably related to gnashing of teeth. See
BAGBITER. A hand gesture commonly accompanies this, consisting of
the four fingers held together as if in a mitten or hand puppet,
and the fingers and thumb open and close rapidly to illustrate a
biting action (much like what the PacMan does in the classic video
game, though this pantomime seems to predate that). The gesture
alone means CHOMP CHOMP (see Verb Doubling). The hand may be
pointed at the object of complaint, and for real emphasis you can
use both hands at once. For example, to do this to a person is
equivalent to saying "You chomper!" If you point the gesture at
yourself, it is a humble but humorous admission of some failure.
You might do this if someone told you that a program you had
written had failed in some surprising way and you felt dumb for not
having anticipated it.
CHOMPER n. Someone or something that is chomping; a loser. See LOSER,
BAGBITER, CHOMP.
CHRISTMAS TREE n. A kind of RS-232 line tester or breakout box
featuring rows of blinking red and green LEDs like Christmas
lights.
CHRISTMAS TREE PACKET n. A packet with every single option set for
whatever protocol is in use.
CHROME [from automotive slang via wargaming] n. Showy features added
to attract users, but which contribute little or nothing to the
power of a system. "The 3D icons in Motif are just chrome!"
Distinguished from BELLS AND WHISTLES by the fact that the latter
are usually added to gratify developers' own desires for
featurefulness.
CHURCH OF THE SUB-GENIUS n. A mutant offshoot of DISCORDIANISM
launched in 1981 as a spoof of fundamentalist Christianity by the
"Rev." Ivan Stang, a brilliant satirist with a gift for
promotion. Popular among hackers as a rich source of bizarre
imagery and references such as: "Bob" the divine
drilling-equipment salesman, the Benevolent Space Xists and the
Stark Fist of Removal. Much Sub-Genius theory is concerned with
the acquisition of the mystical substance or quality of "slack".
See also HA HA ONLY SERIOUS.
CLASSIC C /klas'ik see/ [a play on `Coke Classic'] n. The C
programming language as defined in the first edition of the book
"The C Programming Language" by "Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis
M. Ritchie" with some small additions. It is also known as "K &
R C." The name came into use during the standardisation process
for C by the ANSI X3J11 committee. Also "C CLASSIC". This is
sometimes generalized to "X Classic" where X = Star Trek
(referring to the original TV series), or X = PC (referring to
IBM's ISA-bus machines as opposed to the PS/2 series); this
generalization is especially used of product series in which the
newer versions are considered serious losers relative to the older
ones.
CLEAN adj. Used of hardware or software designs, implies "elegance in
the small", that is a design or implementation which may not hold
any surprises but does things in a way that is reasonably intutive
and relatively easy to comprehend from the outside. The antonym is
GRUNGY or CRUFTY.
CLOCKS n. Processor logic cycles, so called because each generally
corresponds to one clock pulse in the processor's timing. The
relative execution times of instructions on a machine are usually
discussed in `clocks' rather than absolute fractions of a second.
Compare CYCLES.
CLONE n. 1. An exact duplicate, as in "our product is a clone of
their product." 2. A shoddy, spurious copy, as in "their product
is a clone of our product." 3. A blatant ripoff, most likely
violating copyright, patent, or trade secret protections, as in
"your product is a clone of my product." This usage implies legal
action is pending. 4. A PC-BUS/ISA or EISA-compatible 80x86 based
microcomputer (in-context shorthand for "PC clone"). 5. In the
construction UNIX CLONE: An OS designed to deliver a UNIX-lookalike
environment sans UNIX license fees, or with additional
"mission-critical" features such as support for real-time
programming.
CLOSE /klohz/ [from the verb "to close", thus the `z' sound] 1. n.
Abbreviation for "close (or right) parenthesis", used when
necessary to eliminate oral ambiguity. See OPEN. 2. adj. Of a
delimiting character, used at the right-hand end of a grouping.
Used in such terms as "close parenthesis", "close bracket",
etc. 3. vt. To release a file or communication channel after
access.
CLUSTERGEEKING /kluh'ster-gee`king/ [CMU] n. An activity defined by
spending more time at a computer cluster doing CS homework than
most people spend breathing.
COBOL FINGERS /koh'bol fing'grs/ n. Reported from Sweden, a
(hypothetical) disease one might get from programming in COBOL.
The language requires extremely voluminous code. Programming too
much in COBOL causes the fingers to wear down (by endless typing),
until short stubs remain. This malformity is called COBOL FINGERS.
"I refuse to type in all that source code again, it will give me
cobol fingers!"
CODE GRINDER n. 1. A SUIT-wearing minion of the sort hired in legion
strength by banks and insurance companies to implement payroll
packages in RPG and other such unspeakable horrors. This is about
as far from hackerdom as you can get and still touch a computer.
Connotes pity. See REAL WORLD. 2. Used of or to a hacker, a really
serious slur on the person's creative ability; connotes a design
style characterized by primitive technique, rule-boundedness, and
utter lack of imagination. Compare CARD WALLOPER.
CODE POLICE [by analogy with "thought police"] n. A mythical team of
Gestapo-like storm troopers that might burst into one's office and
arrest one for violating style rules. May be used either
seriously, to underline a claim that a particular style violation
is dangerous, or ironically, to suggest that the practice under
discussion is condemned mainly by anal-retentive weenies. The
ironic usage is perhaps more common.
CODEWALKER n. A program component that traverses other programs for a
living. Compilers have codewalkers in their front ends; so do
cross-reference generators and some database front-ends. Other
utility programs which try to do too much with source code may turn
into codewalkers. As in "This new vgrind feature would require a
codewalker to implement."
COKEBOTTLE /kohk'bot-l/ n. Any very unusual character, particularly
one that isn't on your keyboard so you can't type it. MIT people
used to complain about the "control-meta-cokebottle" commands at
SAIL, and SAIL people complained right back about the
"altmode-altmode-cokebottle" commands at MIT. Since the demise
of the SPACE-CADET KEYBOARD this is no longer a serious usage, but
may be invoked humorously to describe an (unspecified) weird or
non-intuitive keystroke command.
COME FROM n. A semi-mythical language construct dual to the `go to';
COME FROM <label> would cause the referenced label to act as a sort
of trapdoor, so that if the program ever reached it control would
quietly fall through to the statement following the COME FROM.
COME FROM was first proposed in a Datamation article in 1973 that
parodied the then-raging `structured programming' wars (see
CONSIDERED HARMFUL). Mythically, some variants are the "assigned
come from", and the "computed come from" (parodyong some nasty
control constructs in BASIC and FORTRAN). Notionally, multi-tasking
can be implemented by having more than one COME FROM statement
coming from the same label.
COME FROM was actually implemented under a different name in
Univac's Fortran, c.1975. The statement "AT 100" would perform a
"COME FROM 100". It was intended strictly as a debugging aid, with
dire consequences promised to anyone so deranged as to use it in
production code. It was supported under its own name for the first
time fifteen years later, in C-INTERCAL (see INTERCAL,
RETROCOMPUTING); knowledgeable observers are still reeling from
shock.
COMMONWEALTH HACKISH n. Hacker slang as spoken outside the U.S., esp.
in the British Commonwealth. It is reported that Commonwealth
speakers are more likely to pronounce "char", "soc" etc. as
spelled (/char/, /sok/) as opposed to American /keir/ or /sohsh/.
Dots in names tend to be pronounced more often (/sok dot wi'bble/
rather than /sohsh wib'ble/). Preferred metasyntactic variables
include FRODO and BILBO; WIBBLE, WOBBLE and in emergencies WUBBLE;
BANANA, WOMBAT and FROG and so on and on. Alternatives to verb
doubling include suffixes "-o-rama", "frenzy" (as in feeding
frenzy) and "city" (as in "barf city!" "hack-o-rama!" "core
dump frenzy!"). Finally, note that the American usages `parens'
`brackets' and `braces' for (), [], and {} are uncommon;
Commonwealth hackish prefers "bracket", "square bracket" and
"curly bracket". Also, the use of "pling" for BANG is common
outside the U.S.. See also CALCULATOR, CHEMIST, GRUNGE, HEAVY
METAL, LEAKY HEAP, LORD HIGH FIXER, PSYCHEDELICWARE, PLINGNET,
RASTER BLASTER, SEGGIE, SPIN-LOCK, TICK-LIST FEATURES, WEEBLE,
WEASEL, YABA and notes or definitions under BARF, BOGUS, CHASE
POINTERS, COSMIC RAYS, CRIPPLEWARE, CRUNCH, DODGY, GONK, ROOT,
TWEAK, and BUM.
COMPRESS [UNIX] vt. When used without a qualifier, generally refers to
CRUNCHing of a file using a particular C implementation of
Lempel-Ziv compression by James A. Woods et al and widely
circulated via USENET. Use of CRUNCH (q.v.) itself in this sense is
rare among UNIX hackers.
COMPUTER GEEK n. One who eats [computer] bugs for a living. One who
fulfills all of the dreariest negative stereotypes about hackers:
an asocial, malodorous, pasty-faced monomaniac with all the
personality of a cheese grater. Cannot be used by outsiders
without implied insult to all hackers; compare black-on-black usage
of "nigger". A computer geek may be either a fundamentally
clueless individual or a true-hacker in LARVAL STAGE. Also called
TURBO NERD, TURBO GEEK. See also CLUSTERGEEKING.
COMPUTRON /kom-pyoo-tron/ n. 1. A notional unit of computing power
combining instruction speed and storage capacity, dimensioned
roughly in instructions-per-sec times megabytes-of-main-store times
megabytes-of-mass-storage. "That machine can't run GNU Emacs, it
doesn't have enough computrons!" This usage is usually found in
metaphors that treat computing power as a fungible commodity good
like a crop yield or diesel horsepower. See BITTY BOX, GET A REAL
COMPUTER, TOY, CRANK. 2. A mythical subatomic particle that bears
the unit quantity of computation or information, in much the same
way that an electron bears one unit of electric charge (see BOGON).
An elaborate pseudo-scientific theory of computrons has been worked
out based on the physical fact that the molecules in a solid object
move more rapidly as it is heated. It is argued that an object
melts because the molecules have lost their information about where
they are supposed to be (that is, they have emitted computrons).
This explains why computers get so hot and require air
conditioning; they use up computrons. Conversely, you should be
able to cool down an object by placing it in the path of a
computron beam. It is believed that this may also explain why
machines that work at the factory fail in the computer room ---
because the computrons there have been all used up by your other
hardware.
CONNECTOR CONSPIRACY [probably came into prominence with the
appearance of the KL-10, none of whose connectors match anything
else] n. The tendency of manufacturers (or, by extension,
programmers or purveyors of anything) to come up with new products
which don't fit together with the old stuff, thereby making you buy
either all new stuff or expensive interface devices.
CONS /kons/ [from LISP] 1. v. To add a new element to a list, esp. at
the top. 2. CONS UP: vt. To synthesize from smaller pieces: "to
cons up an example".
CONSIDERED HARMFUL adj. Edsger Dijkstra's infamous March 1968 CACM
note, _Goto_Statement_Considered_Harmful_, fired the first salvo in
the "structured programming" wars. In the years since then a
number of both serious papers and parodies have borne titles of the
form "X considered Y" in reference to it. The "structured
programming" wars eventually blew over with the realization that
both sides were wrong, but use of such titles has remained as a
persistent minor in-joke (the "considered silly" found at various
places in this jargon file is related).
CONTENT-FREE adj. Ironic analogy with "context-free", used of a
message which adds nothing to the recipient's knowledge. Though
this adjective is sometimes applied to FLAMAGE, it more usually
connotes derision for comunication styles which exalt form over
substance, or are centered on concerns irrelevant to the subject
ostensibly at hand. Perhaps most used with reference to speeches
by company presidents and like animals. "Content-free?
Uh...that's anything printed on glossy paper".
CONWAY'S LAW n. The rule that the organization of the software and the
organization of the software team will be congruent; originally
stated as "If you have four groups working on a compiler, you'll
get a four-pass compiler."
This was originally promulgated by Melvin Conway, an early
proto-hacker who wrote an assembler for the Burroughs 220 called
SAVE. "SAVE" didn't stand for anything, it was just that you
lost fewer decks and listings because they all had SAVE written on
top of them.
COOKIE MONSTER [from "Sesame Street"] n. Any of a family of early
(1970s) hacks reported on TOPS-10, ITS and elsewhere that would
lock up either the victim's terminal (on a time-sharing machine) or
the operator's console (on a batch mainframe), repeatedly demanding
"I WANT A COOKIE". The required responses ranged in complexity
from "COOKIE" through "HAVE A COOKIE" and upward. See also
WABBIT.
COPYLEFT /kop'ee-left/ n. 1. The copyright notice ("General Public
License") carried by GNU EMACS and other Free Software Foundation
software, granting re-use and reproduction rights to all comers
(but see also GENERAL PUBLIC VIRUS). 2. By extension, any copyright
notice intended to achieve similar aims.
CORE n. Main storage or DRAM. Dates from the days of ferrite-core
memory; now archaic, but still used in the UNIX community and by
old-time hackers or those who would sound like same. See CORE
DUMP.
CORE DUMP n. [UNIX] 1. A symptom of catastrophic program failure due
to internal error. 2. By extension, used for humans passing out,
vomiting, or registering extreme shock. "He dumped core. All over
the floor. What a mess." "He heard about ... and dumped core."
3. Occasionally used for a human rambling on pointlessly at great
length; esp. in apology: "Sorry I dumped core on you". 4. A
recapitulation of knowledge (compare BITS, sense 1). Hence, spewing
all one knows about a topic, esp. in a lecture or answer to an exam
question. "Short, concise answers are better than core dumps"
[From the instructions to a qual exam at Columbia]. See
CORE.
CORE LEAK n. Syn. with MEMORY LEAK (q.v.).
CORE WARS n. A game between "assembler" programs in a simulated
machine, where the objective is to kill your opponent's program by
overwriting it. This was popularized by A.K. Dewdney's column in
_Scientific_American_. It is rumored that the game is a civilized
version of an amusement common on pre-MMU multitasking machines.
See CORE.
CORGE /korj/ [originally, the name of a cat] n. Yet another
meta-syntactic variable, invented by Mike Gallaher and propagated
by the Gosmacs documentation. See GRAULT.
COSMIC RAYS n. Notionally, the cause of BIT ROT (q.v.). However, this
is a semi-independent usage which may be invoked as a humorous way
of HANDWAVING away any minor RANDOMNESS that doesn't seem worth the
bother of investigating. "Hey, Eric --- I just got a burst of
garbage on my TUBE, where did that come from?" "Cosmic rays, I
guess". Compare SUNSPOTS, PHASE OF THE MOON. The British seem to
prefer the usage `cosmic showers'.
CP/M (see-pee-em) [Control Program for Microcomputers] An early
microcomputer OS written by hacker Gary Kildall for 8080 and Z-80
based machines, very popular in the late 1970s until virtually
wiped out by MS-DOS after the release of the IBM PC in 1981 (legend
has it that Kildall's company blew their chance to write the PC's
OS because Kildall decided to spend the day IBM's reps wanted to
meet with him enjoying the perfect flying weather in his private
plane). Many of its features and conventions strongly resemble
those of early DEC operating systems such as OS-8, RSTS and RSX-11.
See MS-DOS, OPERATING SYSTEM.
CPU WARS n. A 1979 large-format comic by Chas Andres chronicling the
attempts of the brainwashed androids of "IPM" (Impossible to
Program Machines) to conquer and destroy the peaceful denizens of
HEC (Human Engineered Computers). This rather transparent allegory
featured many references to ADVENT (q.v.) and the immortal line
"Eat flaming death, minicomputer mongrels!" (uttered, of course,
by an IPM stormtrooper). It is alleged that the author subsequently
received a letter of appreciation on IBM company stationery from
the then-head of IBM's Thomas J. Watson research laboratories (then
as now one of the few islands of true hackerdom in the IBM
archipelago). The lower loop of the `B' in the IBM logo, it is
said, had been carefully whited out. See EAT FLAMING DEATH, X!.
CRACKER n. One who breaks security on a system. Coined c.1985 by
hackers in defense against journalistic misuse of HACKER, (q.v.,
sense #7).
CRANK [from automotive slang] vt. Verb used to describe the performance
of a machine, especially sustained performance. "This box cranks
about 6 MegaFLOPS, with a burst mode of twice that on vectorized
operations."
CRASH 1. n. A sudden, usually drastic failure. Most often said of the
system (q.v., definition #1), sometimes of magnetic disk drives.
"Three lusers lost their files in last night's disk crash." A
disk crash which entails the read/write heads dropping onto the
surface of the disks and scraping off the oxide may also be
referred to as a "head crash", whereas the term "system crash"
usually, though not always, implies that the operating system or
other software was at fault. 2. vi. To fail suddenly. "Has the
system just crashed?" Also used transitively to indicate the
cause of the crash (usually a person or a program, or both).
"Those idiots playing SPACEWAR crashed the system." 3. Sometimes
said of people hitting the sack after a long HACKING RUN, see GRONK
OUT.
CRASH AND BURN vi.,n. A spectacular crash, in the mode of the
conclusion of the car chase scene from Steve McQueen's "Bullitt".
Sun-3 monitors losing the flyback transformer and lightning strikes
on VAX-11/780 backplanes are notable crash and burn generators.
CRAWLING HORROR n. Ancient crufty hardware or software that forces
beyond the control of the hackers at a site refuse to let die.
Like DUSTY DECK or GONKULATOR, but connotes that the thing
described is not just an irritation but an active menace to health
and sanity. "Mostly we code new stuff in C, but they pay us to
maintain one big Fortran II application from nineteen-sixty-X
that's a real crawling horror...". Compare WOMBAT.
CRAY /kray/ n. 1. One of the line of supercomputers designed by Cray
Research. 2. Any supercomputer at all.
CRAYOLA n. A super-mini or -micro computer that provides some
reasonable percentage of supercomputer perfermance for an
unreasonably low price. Now known also as KILLER MICROS.
CRAYON n. Someone who works on Cray supercomputers. More specifically
implies a programmer, probably of the CDC ilk, probably male, and
almost certainly wearing a tie (irrespective of gender). Unicos
systems types who have a Unix background tend not to be described
as crayons.
CREEPING FEATURITIS /kree'ping fee-ch@r-ie't@s/ n. 1. Describes a
systematic tendency to load more CHROME onto systems at the expense
of whatever ELEGANCE they may have posessed when originally
designed. See FEEPING CREATURITIS. "You know, the main problem
with BSD UNIX has always been creeping featuritis". At MIT, this
tends to be called CREEPING FEATUR*ISM* (and likewise, FEEPING
CREATURISM). (After all, -ism means "condition" whereas -itis
usually means "inflammation of"...) 2. More generally, The
tendency for anything complicated to become even more complicated
because people keep saying, "Gee, it would be even better if it
had this feature too." (See FEATURE.) The result is usually a
patchwork because it grew one ad-hoc step at a time, rather than
being planned. Planning is a lot of work, but it's easy to add
just one extra little feature to help someone... and then
another... and another.... When creeping featurism gets out of
hand it's like a cancer. Usually this term is used to describe
computer programs, but it could also be said of the federal
government, the IRS 1040 form, and new cars.
CRETIN /kre'tn/ or /kree'tn/ n. Congenital LOSER (q.v.); an obnoxious
person; someone who can't do anything right. It has been observed
that American hackers tend to favor the British pronunciation
/kret'n/ over standard American /kreet'n/; it is thought this may
be due to the phonetic influence Monty Python's Flying Circus.
CRETINOUS /kre't@n-us/ or /kree't@n-us/ adj. Wrong; non-functional;
very poorly designed (Also used pejoratively of people). Synonyms:
BLETCHEROUS, BAGBITING, LOSING, BRAIN-DAMAGED.
CRIPPLEWARE n. 1. SHAREWARE which has some important functionality
deliberately removed, so as to entice potential users to pay for a
working version. See also GUILTWARE. 2. [Cambridge] GUILTWARE
(q.v.) which exhorts you to donate to some charity.
CRLF /ker'l@f/, sometimes /kru'l@f/ n. A carriage return (CR) followed
by a line feed (LF). More loosely, whatever it takes to get you
from the end of one line of text to the beginning of the next line.
See NEWLINE, TERPRI. Under UNIX influence this usage has become
less common (UNIX uses a bare line feed as its `CRLF').
CROCK [from the obvious mainstream scatologism] n. 1. An awkward
feature or programming technique that ought to be made cleaner.
Example: Using small integers to represent error codes without the
program interpreting them to the user (as in, for example, UNIX
make(1)) is a crock. 2. Also, a technique that works acceptably
but which is quite prone to failure if disturbed in the least, for
example depending on the machine opcodes having particular bit
patterns so that you can use instructions as data words too; a
tightly woven, almost completely unmodifiable structure. See
KLUGE. Also in the adjectives CROCKISH, CROCKY and the noun
CROCKITUDE.
CROSS-POST [USENET] v. To post a single article directed to several
newsgroups. Distinguished from posting the article repeatedly,
once to each newsgroup, which causes people to see it multiple
times.
CRUDWARE n. Pejorative term for the hundreds of megabytes of
low-quality FREEWARE circulated by user's groups and BBS systems in
the micro-hobbyist world. "Yet *another* set of disk catalog
utilities for MS-DOS? What crudware!" The related usage "fuckware"
is reported for software so bad it mutilates your disk, broadcasts
to the Internet, or some similar fiasco.
CRUFT /kruhft/ 1. [back-formation from CRUFTY] n. 1. An unpleasant
substance. The dust that gathers under your bed is cruft. 2. n.
The results of shoddy construction. 3. v. [from hand cruft, pun on
hand craft] to write assembler code for something normally (and
better) done by a compiler (see HAND HACKING).
CRUFT TOGETHER, CRUFT UP /kruhft too-ge'thr/, /kruhft uhp/ vt. To
throw together something ugly but temporarily workable. Like v.
KLUGE, but more pejorative. "There isn't any program now to
reverse all the lines of a file, but I can probably cruft one
together in about ten minutes." See CRUFTY.
CRUFTSMANSHIP n. [from CRUFT] The antithesis of craftsmanship.
CRUFTY /kruhf'tee/ [origin unknown; poss. from "crusty" or
"cruddy"] adj. 1. Poorly built, possibly overly complex. The
CANONICAL example is "This is standard old crufty DEC software".
In fact, one theory of the origin of "crufty" holds that was
originally a mutation of "crusty" applied to DEC software so old
that the Ss were tall and skinny, looking more like Fs. Hence
CRUFT, n. shoddy construction. 2. Unpleasant, especially to the
touch, often with encrusted junk. Like spilled coffee smeared with
peanut butter and catsup. 3. Generally unpleasant. CRUFTY or
CRUFTIE n. A small crufty object (see FROB); often one which
doesn't fit well into the scheme of things. "A LISP property list
is a good place to store crufties (or, random cruft)."
CRUMB n. Two binary digits; a quad. Larger that a BIT, smaller than a
NYBBLE (q.v.).
CRUNCH 1. vi. To process, usually in a time-consuming or complicated
way. Connotes an essentially trivial operation which is
nonetheless painful to perform. The pain may be due to the
triviality being imbedded in a loop from 1 to 1000000000.
"FORTRAN programs do mostly number crunching." 2. vt. To reduce
the size of a file by a complicated scheme that produces bit
configurations completely unrelated to the original data, such as
by a Huffman code. (The file ends up looking like a paper document
would if somebody crunched the paper into a wad.) Since such
compression usually takes more computations than simpler methods
such as counting repeated characters (such as spaces) the term is
doubly appropriate. (This meaning is usually used in the
construction "file crunch(ing)" to distinguish it from "number
crunch(ing)".) See COMPRESS. 3. n. The character "#". Usage:
used at Xerox and CMU, among other places. See ASCII. 4.
[Cambridge] To squeeze program source into a minimum-size
representation that will still compile. The term came into being
specifically for a famous program on the BBC micro which crunched
Basic source in order to make it run more quickly (it was a
wholly-interpretive basic).
CRUNCHA CRUNCHA CRUNCHA /kruhn'chah kruhn'chah kruhn'chah/ interj. An
encouragement sometimes muttered to a machine bogged down in
serious GROVELLING. Also describes a notional sound made by
grovelling hardware. See WUGGA WUGGA, GRIND GRIND.
CRYONICS n. The practice of freezing oneself in hopes of being revived
in the future by CELL-REPAIR MACHINES. A possible route to
technological immortality already taken by 1990 by more than a
handful of persons with terminal illnesses.
CRYPPIE /krip'ee/ n. A cryptographer. One who hacks or implements
cryptographic software or hardware.
CTSS /see-tee-ess-ess/ n. Compatible Time-Sharing System. An early
(1963) experiment in the design of interactive time-sharing
operating systems. Cited here because it was ancestral to MULTICS,
UNIX, and ITS (q.v.).
CTY /sit'ee/ or /see tee wie/ n. [MIT] The terminal physically
associated with a computer's operating console. The term is a
contraction of "Console TTY", that is, "Console TeleTYpe".
This ITS and TOPS-10-associated term has become less common than
formerly, as most UNIX hackers simply refer to the CTY as `the
console'.
CUBING [parallel with "tubing"] vi. 1. Hacking on an IPSC (Intel
Personal SuperComputer) hypercube. "Louella's gone cubing
AGAIN!!" 2. An indescribable form of self-torture (see sense #1).
CUSPY /kuhs'pee/ [coined at WPI from the DEC acronym CUSP, for
Commonly Used System Program, i.e., a utility program used by many
people] adj. 1. (of a program) Well-written. 2. Functionally
excellent. A program which performs well and interfaces well to
users is cuspy. See RUDE. 2. [NYU] An attractive woman,
especially one regarded as available.
CYBERPUNK /sie'ber-puhnk/ [orig. by SF critic Gardner Dozois] n.,adj.
A subgenre of SF launched in 1982 by William Gibson's epoch-making
novel _Neuromancer_. Gibson's near-total ignorance of computers
and the present-day hacker culture enabled him to speculate about
the role of computers and hackers in futures in ways hackers have
since found both irritatingly naive and tremendously stimulating.
Gibson's work was widely imitated, in particular by the short-lived
but innovative "Max Headroom" TV series. See CYBERSPACE, ICE, GO
FLATLINE.
CYBERSPACE /sie'ber-spays/ n. Notional "information-space" loaded
with visual cues and navigable with brain-computer interfaces
called "cyberspace decks"; a characteristic prop of CYBERPUNK SF.
At time of writing (1990) serious efforts to construct VIRTUAL
REALITY interfaces modelled explicitly on CYBERSPACE are already
under way, using more conventional devices such as glove sensors
and binocular TV headsets. Few hackers are prepared to outright
deny the possibility of a cyberspace someday evolving out of THE
NETWORK.
CYCLE n. The "basic unit of computation". What every hacker wants
more of. One might think that single machine instructions would be
the measure of computation, and indeed computers are often compared
by how many instructions they can process per second, but some
instructions take longer than others. Nearly all computers have an
internal clock, though, and you can describe an instruction as
taking so many "clock cycles". Frequently the computer can
access its memory once on every clock cycle, and so one speaks also
of "memory cycles". These are technical meanings of "cycle".
The slang meaning comes from the observation that there are only so
many cycles per second, and when you are sharing a computer, the
cycles get divided up among the users. The more cycles the
computer spends working on your program rather than someone else's,
the faster your program will run. That's why every hacker wants
more cycles: so he can spend less time waiting for the computer to
respond.
CYCLE CRUNCH n. The situation where the number of people trying to use
the computer simultaneously has reached the point where no one can
get enough cycles because they are spread too thin. Usually the
only solution is to buy more computer. Happily, this has rapidly
become easier in recent years, so much so that the very term CYCLE
CRUNCH now has a faintly archaic flavor (most hackers now use
workstations or personal computers as opposed to traditional
timesharing systems).
CYCLE DROUGHT n. A scarcity of cycles. It may be due to a CYCLE
CRUNCH, but could also occur because part of the computer is
temporarily not working, leaving fewer cycles to go around.
Example: "The HIGH MOBY is DOWN, so we're running with only half
the usual amount of memory. There will be a CYCLE DROUGHT until
it's fixed."
{= D =}
DAEMON /day'mun/ or /dee'mun/ [Disk And Execution MONitor] n. A
program which is not invoked explicitly, but which lies dormant
waiting for some condition(s) to occur. The idea is that the
perpetrator of the condition need not be aware that a daemon is
lurking (though often a program will commit an action only because
it knows that it will implicitly invoke a daemon). For example,
under ITS writing a file on the LPT spooler's directory would
invoke the spooling daemon, which prints the file. The advantage
is that programs which want (in this example) files printed need
not compete for access to the lpt. They simply enter their
implicit requests and let the daemon decide what to do with them.
Daemons are usually spawned automatically by the system, and may
either live forever or be regenerated at intervals. Usage: DAEMON
and DEMON (q.v.) are often used interchangeably, but seem to have
distinct connotations. DAEMON was introduced to computing by CTSS
people (who pronounced it dee'mon) and used it to refer to what is
now called a DRAGON or PHANTOM (q.v.). The meaning and
pronunciation have drifted, and we think this glossary reflects
current usage.
DAY MODE n. See PHASE (of people).
DD /dee-dee/ [from IBM JCL via archaic UNIX dd(1)] vt. Equivalent to
CAT or BLT. A specialized UNIX copy command for block-oriented
devices. Often used in heavy-handed system abuse, as in "Let's dd
the root partition onto a tape, then use the boot prom to load it
back on to a new disk". The UNIX dd(1) was originally written
with a weird, distinctly non-UNIXy keyword option syntax
reminiscent of IBM System/360 JCL (which had a similar DD command);
though the command filled a need the design choice looks to have
been somebody's joke. The slang usage is now very rare outside
UNIX sites and now nearly obsolescent even there, as dd(1) has been
DEPRECATED for a long time (though it has no replacement).
Replaced by BLT or simple English `copy'.
DDT /dee'dee'tee'/ n. 1. Generic term for a program that helps you to
debug other programs by showing individual machine instructions in
a readable symbolic form and letting the user change them. In this
sense the term DDT is now slightly archaic, having been widely
displaced by `debugger' 2. [ITS] Under MIT's fabled ITS operating
system (q.v.), its DDT was also used as the SHELL or top level
command language used to execute other programs. 3. Any one of
several specific DDTs (sense 1) supported on early DEC hardware.
The DEC PDP-10 Reference Handbook (1969) contained a footnote on
the first page of the documentation for DDT which illuminates the
origin of the term:
Historical footnote: DDT was developed at MIT for the PDP-1
computer in 1961. At that time DDT stood for "DEC Debugging
Tape". Since then, the idea of an on-line debugging program
has propagated throughout the computer industry. DDT programs
are now available for all DEC computers. Since media other
than tape are now frequently used, the more descriptive name
"Dynamic Debugging technique" has been adopted, retaining
the DDT acronym. Confusion between DDT-10 and another well
known pesticide, dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane
(C14-H9-Cl5) should be minimal since each attacks a different,
and apparently mutually exclusive, class of bugs.
Sadly, this quotation was removed from later editions of the
handbook as DEC became much more "businesslike".
DEADLOCK n. 1. A situation wherein two or more processes are unable to
proceed because each is waiting for another to do something. A
common example is a program communicating to a server, which may
find itself waiting for output from the server before sending
anything more to it, while the server is similarly waiting for more
input from the controlling program before outputting anything. (It
is reported that this particular flavor of deadlock is sometimes
called a "starvation" deadlock, though that term is more properly
used for situations where a program can never run simply because it
never gets high enough priority. Another common flavor is
"constipation", where each process is trying to send stuff to the
other, but all buffers are full because nobody is reading
anything.) See DEADLY EMBRACE. 2. Also used of deadlock-like
interactions between humans, as when two people meet in a narrow
corridor, and each tries to be polite by moving aside to let the
other pass, but they end up swaying from side to side without
making any progress because they always both move the same way at
the same time.
DEADLY EMBRACE n. Same as DEADLOCK (q.v.), though usually used only
when exactly two processes are involved. DEADLY EMBRACE is the
more popular term in Europe; DEADLOCK in the United States. Also
DEADLY EMBRACE is often restricted to the case where exactly two
processes are involved, while DEADLOCK can involve any number.
DEATH STAR [from the movie _Star_Wars_] The AT&T corporate logo, which
appears on computers sold by AT&T and bears an uncanny resemblence
to the "Death Star" in the movie. This usage is particularly
common among partisans of BSD UNIX, who tend to regard the AT&T
versions as inferior and AT&T as a bad guy.
DEC WARS n. A 1983 USENET posting by Alan Hastings and Steve Tarr,
spoofing the _Star_Wars_ movies in hackish terms. Some years later,
ESR (disappointed by Hastings/Tarr's failure to exploit a great
premise more thoroughly) posted a three-times-longer complete
rewrite called `UNIX WARS'; the two are often confused.
DECKLE /dek'l/ n. Two NICKLES; 10 bits. Reported among developers for
Mattel's GI 1600 (the Intellivision games processor), a chip with
16-bit-wide RAM but 10-bit-wide ROM.
DEFENESTRATION [from the traditional Czechoslovak method of
assassinating prime ministers, via ESR and SF fandom] n. 1. Proper
karmic retribution for an incorrigible punster. "Oh, ghod, that
was *awful*!" "Quick! Defenestrate him!" See also H INFIX.
2. [proposed] The requirement to support a command-line interface. As:
"It has to run on a VT100." "Curses! I've been defenestrated".
DEFINED AS adj. Currently in the role of, usually in an
off-the-organization-chart sense. "Pete is currently defined as
bug prioritizer". From the C language MACRO feature.
DEHOSE vt. To clear a HOSED condition.
DELINT vt. To modify code to remove problems detected when linting.
See LINT.
DEEP MAGIC n. An awesomely arcane technique central to a program or
system, esp. one not generally published and available to hackers
at large (compare BLACK ART). one which could only have been
uttered by a true WIZARD. Compiler optimization techniques and
many aspects of OS design used to be DEEP MAGIC; many techniques in
cryptography, signal processing, graphics and AI still are. Compare
HEAVY WIZARDRY. Esp. found in comments of the form "Deep magic
begins here...".
DEEP SPACE adj. 1. Describes the "location" of any program which has
gone OFF THE TROLLEY (q.v.). Esp. used of programs which just sit
there silently grinding long after either failure or some output is
expected. Compare BUZZ, CATATONIA. 2. The metaphorical
"location" of a human so dazed and/or confused or caught up in
some esoteric form of BOGOSITY that he/she no longer responds
coherently to normal communication. Compare PAGE OUT.
DELTA n. 1. A change, especially a small or incremental change.
Example: "I just doubled the speed of my program!" "What was
the delta on program size?" "About thirty percent." (He
doubled the speed of his program, but increased its size by only
thirty percent.) 2. [UNIX] A DIFF (q.v.), especially a DIFF stored
under the set of version-control tools called SCCS (Source Code
Control System). 3. n. A small quantity, but not as small as
EPSILON. The slang usage of DELTA and EPSILON stems from the
traditional use of these letters in mathematics for very small
numerical quantities, particularly in so-called "epsilon-delta"
proofs in the differential calculus. DELTA is often used once
EPSILON has been mentioned to mean a quantity that is slightly
bigger than EPSILON but still very small. For example, "The cost
isn't epsilon, but it's delta" means that the cost isn't totally
negligible, but it is nevertheless very small. Compare WITHIN
DELTA OF, WITHIN EPSILON OF: that is, close to and even closer to.
DEMENTED adj. Yet another term of disgust used to describe a program.
The connotation in this case is that the program works as designed,
but the design is bad. For example, a program that generates large
numbers of meaningless error messages implying it is on the point
of imminent collapse.
DEMIGOD n. Hacker with years of experience, a national reputation, and
a major role in the development of at least one design, tool or
game used by or known to more than 50% of the hacker community. To
qualify as a genuine demigod, the person must recognizably identify
with the hacker community and have helped shape it. Major demigods
include Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie (co-inventors of UNIX and
C) and Richard M. Stallman (inventor of EMACS). In their hearts of
hearts most hackers dream of someday becoming demigods themselves,
and more than one major software project has been driven to
completion by the author's veiled hopes of apotheosis. See also
NET.GOD, TRUE-HACKER.
DEMON n. 1. [MIT] A portion of a program which is not invoked
explicitly, but which lies dormant waiting for some condition(s) to
occur. See DAEMON. The distinction is that demons are usually
processes within a program, while daemons are usually programs
running on an operating system. Demons are particularly common in
AI programs. For example, a knowledge manipulation program might
implement inference rules as demons. Whenever a new piece of
knowledge was added, various demons would activate (which demons
depends on the particular piece of data) and would create
additional pieces of knowledge by applying their respective
inference rules to the original piece. These new pieces could in
turn activate more demons as the inferences filtered down through
chains of logic. Meanwhile the main program could continue with
whatever its primary task was. 2. [outside MIT] Often used
equivalently to DAEMON, especially in the UNIX world where the
latter spelling and pronunciation is considered mildly archaic.
DEPRECATED n. Said of a program or feature that is considered
obsolescent and in the process of being phased out, usually in
favor of a specified replacement. Deprecated features can,
unfortunately, linger on for many years.
DE-REZZ, DEREZ /dee rez/ [from the movie TRON] 1. vi. To disappear or
dissolve; the image that goes with it is of an object breaking up
into raster lines and static and then dissolving. Occasionally
used of a person who seems to have suddenly "fuzzed out" mentally
rather than physically. Usage: extremely silly, also rare. This
verb was actually invented as *fictional* hacker slang, and adopted
in a spirit of irony by real hackers years after the fact. 2. vt.
On a Macintosh, the data is compiled separately from the program,
in small segments of the program file known as "resources". The
standard resource compiler is Rez. The standard resource decompiler
is DeRez. Usage: very common.
DEVO /dee'vo/ [orig. in-house slang at Symbolics] n. A person in a
development group. See also DOCO and MANGO.
DICKLESS WORKSTATION n. Extremely pejorative hackerism for "diskless
workstation", a class of botches including the Sun 3/50 and other
machines designed exclusively to network with an expensive central
disk server. These combine all the disadvantages of time-sharing
with all the disadvantages of distributed personal computers.
DIDDLE 1. vt. To work with in a not particularly serious manner. "I
diddled a copy of ADVENT so it didn't double-space all the time."
"Let's diddle this piece of code and see if the problem goes
away." See TWEAK and TWIDDLE. 2. n. The action or result of
diddling. See also TWEAK, TWIDDLE, FROB.
DIFFS n. 1. Differences, especially difference in source code or
documents. Includes additions. "Send me your diffs for the jargon
file!" 2. (often in the singular DIFF) the output from the diff(1)
utility, esp. when used as specification input to the patch(1)
utility (which can actually perform the mods). This is a common
method of distributing patches and source updates in the UNIX/C
world.
DIKE vt. To remove or disable a portion of something, as a wire from a
computer or a subroutine from a program. A standard slogan runs:
"When in doubt, dike it out." (The implication is that it is
usually more effective to attack software problems by reducing
complexity rather than increasing it). The word "dikes" is
widely used among mechanics and engineers to mean "diagonal
cutters", a heavy-duty metal-cutting device; to "dike something
out" means to use such cutters to remove something. Among hackers
this term has been metaphorically extended to non-physical objects
such as sections of code.
DING /ding/ n.,v. 1. Synonym for FEEP (q.v.). Usage: rare among
hackers, but commoner in THE REAL WORLD. 2. DINGED: What happens
when someone in authority gives you a minor bitching about
something, esp. something you consider trivial. "I was dinged for
having a messy desk".
DINOSAUR n. Any hardware requiring raised flooring and special power.
Used especially of old minis and mainframes when contrasted with
newer microprocessor-based machines. In a famous quote from the
'88 UNIX EXPO, Bill Joy compared the mainframe in the massive IBM
display with a grazing dinosaur, "with a truck outside pumping its
bodily fluids through it". IBM was not amused. Compare BIG IRON.
DINOSAUR PEN n. A traditional mainframe computer room complete with
raised flooring, special power, its own ultra-heavy-duty air
conditioning, and a side order of Halon fire extinguishers. See
BOA.
DISCORDIANISM /dis-kor'di-uhn-ism/ n. The veneration of ERIS, aka
Discordia; widely popular among hackers. Popularized by Robert
Anton Wilson's _Illuminatus!_ trilogy as a sort of self-subverting
dada-Zen for Westerners --- it should on no account be taken
seriously but is far more serious than most jokes. Usually
connected with an elaborate conspiracy theory/joke involving
millenia-long warfare between the anarcho-surrealist partisans of
Eris and a malevolent, authoritarian secret society called the
Illuminati. See Appendix C, CHURCH OF THE SUB-GENIUS, and HA HA
ONLY SERIOUS.
DISPLAY HACK n. A program with the same approximate purpose as a
kaleidoscope: to make pretty pictures. Famous display hacks
include MUNCHING SQUARES, SMOKING CLOVER, the BSD UNIX rain(6)
program, worms(6) on miscellaneous UNIXes, and the X kaleid
program. Display hacks can also be implemented without programming
by creating text files containing numerous escape sequences for
interpretation by a video terminal; one notable example displayed,
on any VT100, a christmas tree with twinkling lights and a toy
train circling its base.
DOCO /do'ko/ [orig. in-house slang at Symbolics] n. A documentation
writer. See also DEVO and MANGO.
DO PROTOCOL [from network protocol programming] vt. To perform an
interaction with somebody or something that follows a clearly
defined procedure. For example, "Let's do protocol with the
check" at a restaurant means to ask the waitress for the check,
calculate the tip and everybody's share, generate change as
necessary, and pay the bill.
DODGY adj. Syn. with FLAKEY (q.v.). Preferred outside the U.S.
DOGWASH [From a quip in the "urgency" field of a very optional
software change request, about 1982. It was something like,
"Urgency: Wash your dog first."] n. A project of minimal
priority, undertaken as an escape from more serious work. Also, to
engage in such a project. Many games and much FREEWARE gets
written this way.
DON'T DO THAT, THEN [from an old doctor's office joke about a patient
with a trivial complaint] interj. Stock response to a user
complaint. "When I type control-S, the whole system comes to a
halt for thirty seconds." "Don't do that, then." Compare RTFM.
DONGLE /don-gl/ n. 1. A security device for commercial microcomputer
programs consisting of a serialized EPROM and some drivers in an
RS-232 connector shell. Programs that use a dongle query the port
at startup and programmed intervals thereafter, and terminate if it
does not respond with the dongle's programmed validation code.
Thus, users could make as many copies of the program as they want
but must pay for each dongle. The idea was clever but initially a
failure, as users disliked tying up a serial port this way. Most
dongles on the market today (1990) will pass through the port, and
monitor for "magic codes" (and combinations of status lines) with
minimal if any interference with devices further down the line
(this innovation was necessary to allow daisy chained dongles for
multiple pieces of software). The devices are still not widely
used, as the industry has trended away from copy-protection schemes
in general. 2. By extension, any physical electronic key or
transferrable ID required for a program to function. See
DONGLE-DISK.
DONGLE-DISK /don'g@l disk/ n. See DONGLE; a DONGLE-DISK is a floppy
disk with some coding which allows an application to identify it
uniquely. It can therefore be used as a DONGLE. Also called a
"key disk".
DONUTS n. Collective noun for any set of memory bits. This is really
archaic and may no longer be live slang; it dates from the days of
ferrite-core memories in which each bit was represented by a
donut-shaped magnetic flip-flop. Compare CORE.
DOORSTOP n. Used to describe equipment that is non-functional and
halfway expected to remain so, especially obsolescent equipment
kept around for political reasons or ostensibly as a backup.
"When we get another Wyse-50 in here that ADM3 will turn into a
doorstop." Compare BOAT ANCHOR.
DOT FILE [UNIX] n. A file that is not visible to normal
directory-browsing tools (on UNIX, files named beginning with a dot
are normally invisible).
DOUBLE BUCKY: adj. Using both the CTRL and META keys. "The command
to burn all LEDs is double bucky F." See also META BIT,
COKEBOTTLE, QUADRUPLE BUCKY, SPACE-CADET KEYBOARD. The following
lyrics were written on May 27, 1978, in celebration of the Stanford
keyboard. A typical MIT comment was that the Stanford BUCKY BITS
(control and meta shifting keys) were nice, but there weren't
enough of them; you could only type 512 different characters on a
Stanford keyword. An obvious thing was simply to add more shifting
keys, and this was eventually done; one problem, is that a keyboard
with that many shifting keys is hard on touch-typists, who don't
like to move their hands away from the home position on the
keyboard. It was half-seriously suggested that the extra shifting
keys be pedals; typing on such a keyboard would be very much like
playing a full pipe organ. This idea is mentioned below, in a
parody of a very fine song by Jeffrey Moss called "Rubber
Duckie", which was published in "The Sesame Street Songbook".
Double Bucky
Double bucky, you're the one!
You make my keyboard lots of fun.
Double bucky, an additional bit or two:
(Vo-vo-de-o!)
Control and meta, side by side,
Augmented ASCII, nine bits wide!
Double bucky! Half a thousand glyphs, plus a few!
Oh,
I sure wish that I
Had a couple of
Bits more!
Perhaps a
Set of pedals to
Make the number of
Bits four:
Double double bucky!
Double bucky, left and right
OR'd together, outta sight!
Double bucky, I'd like a whole word of
Double bucky, I'm happy I heard of
Double bucky, I'd like a whole word of you!
--- The Great Quux (with apologies to Jeffrey Moss)
[This is, by the way, an excellent example of computer FILK --- ESR]
DOUBLED SIG /duh'b@ld sig/ [USENET] n. A SIG BLOCK (q.v.) that has
been included twice in a USENET article or, less frequently, in an
electronic mail message. An article or message with a doubled sig
can be caused by improperly configured software. More often,
however, it reveals the author's lack of experience in electronic
communication. See BIFF, PSEUDO.
DOWN 1. adj. Not working. "The up escalator is down." That is
considered a humorous thing to say, but "The elevator is down"
always means "The elevator isn't working" and never refers to
what floor the elevator is on. 2. GO DOWN vi. To stop functioning;
usually said of the SYSTEM. The message every hacker hates to hear
from the operator is, "The system will go down in five minutes."
3. TAKE DOWN, BRING DOWN vt. To deactivate purposely, usually for
repair work. "I'm taking the system down to work on that bug in
the tape drive."
DOWNLOAD vt. To transfer data or (esp.) code from a larger `host'
system (esp. a mainframe) over a digital comm link to a smaller
`client' system, esp. a microcomputer or specialized peripheral
device. Oppose UPLOAD.
DRAGON n. [MIT] A program similar to a "daemon" (q.v.), except that
it is not invoked at all, but is instead used by the system to
perform various secondary tasks. A typical example would be an
accounting program, which keeps track of who is logged in,
accumulates load-average statistics, etc. Under ITS, many
terminals displayed a list of people logged in, where they are,
what they're running, etc. along with some random picture (such as
a unicorn, Snoopy, or the Enterprise) which is generated by the
"NAME DRAGON". See PHANTOM. Usage: rare outside MIT --- under
UNIX and most other OSs this would be called a `background DEMON'
or `DAEMON' (q.v).
DRAGON BOOK, THE n. Aho, Sethi and Ullman's classic compilers text
_Principles_Of_Compiler_Design_, so called because of the cover
design depicting a knight slaying a dragon labelled "compiler
complexity". See also BLUE BOOK, RED BOOK, GREEN BOOK, SILVER
BOOK, PURPLE BOOK, ORANGE BOOK, WHITE BOOK, PINK-SHIRT BOOK.
DRAIN [IBM] v. Syn. for FLUSH (sense 4).
DREAD HIGH BIT DISEASE n. A condition endemic to PRIME (formerly
PR1ME) minicomputers which results in all the characters having
their high (\200) bit ON rather than OFF. This of course makes
transporting files to other systems much more difficult, not to
mention talking to true eightbit devices. It is reported that
PRIME adopted the reversed eight bit convention in order to save 25
cents/serial line/machine. This probably qualifies as one of the
most CRETINOUS design tradeoffs ever made. See META BIT.
DRECNET /drek'net/ [fr. Yiddish `dreck'] n. Deliberate distortion of
DECNET, a networking protocol used in the VMS community. So-called
because DEC helped write the Ethernet specification, and then
(either stupidly or as a malignant customer-control tactic)
violated that spec in the design of DRECNET (among other things,
they implemented the wrong HEARTBEAT speed). See also CONNECTOR
CONSPIRACY.
DROOL-PROOF PAPER n. Documentation which has been obsessively dumbed
down, to the point where only a CRETIN could bear to read it, is
said to have succumbed to the "drool-proof paper syndrome" or to
have been "written on drool-proof paper". For example, this is
an actual quote from Apple's LaserWriter manual: "Do not expose
your LaserWriter to open fire or flame."
DROP ON THE FLOOR vt. To react to an error condition by silent
discarding messages or other valuable data. Example: "The gateway
ran out of memory, so it just started dropping packets on the
floor." Also frequently used of faulty mail and netnews relay
sites that lose messages. See also BLACK HOLE.
DRUGGED adj., also ON DRUGS. 1. Conspicuously stupid, heading towards
BRAIN DAMAGE. Often accompanied by a pantomime of toking a joint.
2. Of hardware, very slow relative to normal preformance.
DRUNK MOUSE SYNDROME n. A malady exhibited by the mouse pointing
device of some workstations. The typical symptom is for the mouse
cursor on the screen to move to random directions and not in sync
with the moving of the actual mouse. Can usually be corrected by
unplugging the mouse and plugging it back again. Another
recommended fix is to the rotate optical mouse pad 90
degrees.
DUMBASS ATTACK /duhm'ass @-tak'/ [Purdue] n. A novice's mistake made
by the experienced, especially one made by running as root under
UNIX, eg. typing "rm *" or mkfs on a mounted file system. Compare
ADGER.
DUSTY DECK n. Old software (especially applications) with which one is
obliged to remain compatible. The term implies that the software
in question is a holdover from card-punch days. Used esp. when
referring to old scientific and number-crunching software, much of
which was written in FORTRAN and very poorly documented but would
be too expensive to replace. See FOSSIL.
DWIM /dwim/ [Do What I Mean] 1. adj. Able to guess, sometimes even
correctly, what result was intended when provided with bogus input.
Often suggested in jest as a desired feature for a complex program;
also occasionally described as the single instruction the ideal
computer would have (back when proof of program correctness were in
vogue, there were also jokes about DWIMC: Do What I Mean,
Correctly). A related term, more often seen as a verb, is DTRT (Do
The Right Thing), see RIGHT THING, THE. 2. n. The INTERLISP
function that attempts to accomplish this feat by correcting many
of the more common errors. See HAIRY.
DYNNER /din'r/ 32 bits, by analogy with NYBBLE and BYTE. Usage: rare
and extremely silly. See also PLAYTE.
{= E =}
EARTHQUAKE [IBM] n. The ultimate REAL WORLD shock test for computer
hardware. Hacker sources at IBM deny the rumor that the Bay Area
quake of 1989 was initiated by the company to test QA at its
California plants.
EASTER EGG n. 1. A message hidden in the object code of a program as a
joke, intended to be found by persons disassembling or browsing the
code. 2. A message, graphic, or sound-effect emitted by a program
(or, on a PC, the BIOS ROM) in response to some undocumented set of
commands or keystrokes, intended as a joke or to display program
credits. One well-known early easter egg found in a couple of OSs
and SOS (q.v.) caused them to respond to the command `make love'
with `not war?'. Many personal computers (other than the IBM PC)
have much more elaborate eggs hidden in ROM, including lists of the
developers' names, political exhortations, snatches of music, and
(in one case) graphics images of the entire development team.
EASTER EGGING [IBM] n. The act of replacing unrelated parts more or
less at random in hopes that a malfunction will go away. Hackers
consider this the normal operating mode of FIELD CIRCUS techs and
do not love them for it.
EAT FLAMING DEATH, X! expl. A construction popularized among hackers
by the infamous DEC WARS comic (q.v.); supposed to derive from a
famously turgid line in a WWII-era anti-Nazi propaganda comic
in which X was "non-Aryan mongrels" or something of the sort.
Used in humorously overblown expressions of hostility. "Eat
flaming death, EBCDIC users!"
EIGHTY-COLUMN MIND [IBM] n. The sort said to be employed by persons
for whom the transition from card to tape was traumatic (nobody has
dared tell them about disks yet). It is said that these people,
like (according to an old joke) the founder of IBM, will be buried
`9-EDGE-FORWARD-FACE-DOWN'. These people are thought by most
hackers to dominate IBM's customer base, and its thinking.
EL CAMINO BIGNUM /el' k@-mee'noh big'num/ n. El Camino Real. El
Camino Real is the name of a street through the San Francisco
peninsula that originally extended (and still appears in places)
all the way down to Mexico City. Navigation on the San Francisco
peninsula is usually done relative to El Camino Real, which is
assumed to run north and south even though it doesn't really in
many places (see LOGICAL). El Camino Real runs right past Stanford
University, and so is familiar to hackers. The Spanish word
"real" (which has two syllables (ree-ahl')) means "royal"; El
Camino Real is "the royal road". Now the English word "real"
is used in mathematics to describe numbers (and by analogy is
misused in computer jargon to mean floating-point numbers). In the
FORTRAN language, for example, a "real" quantity is a number
typically precise to seven decimal places, and a "double
precision" quantity is a larger floating-point number, precise to
perhaps fourteen decimal places. When a hacker from MIT visited
Stanford in 1976 or so, he remarked what a long road El Camino Real
was. Making a pun on "real", he started calling it "El Camino
Double Precision" --- but when the hacker was told that the road
was hundreds of miles long, he renamed it "El Camino Bignum", and
that name has stuck. (See BIGNUM.)
ELEGANT [from mathematical usage] adj. Combining simplicity, power,
and a certain ineffable grace of design. Higher praise than
`clever', `winning' or even CUSPY.
ELEPHANTINE adj. Used of programs or systems which are both
conspicuous HOGs (due perhaps to poor design founded on BRUTE FORCE
AND IGNORANCE) and exceedingly HAIRY in source form. An
elephantine program may be functional and even friendly, but (like
the old joke about being in bed with an elephant) it's tough to
have around all the same, esp. a bitch to maintain. In extreme
cases, hackers have been known to make trumpeting sounds or perform
expressive zoomorphic mime at the mention of the offending program.
Usage: semi-humorous. Compare "has the elephant nature" and the
somewhat more pejorative MONSTROSITY. See also SECOND-SYSTEM
SYNDROME.
EMACS /ee'maks/ [from Editing MACroS] n. The ne plus ultra of hacker
editors, a program editor with an entire LISP interpreter inside
it. Originally written by Richard Stallman in TECO at the MIT-AI
lab, but the most widely used versions now run under UNIX. It
includes facilities to run compilation subprocesses and send and
receive mail; many hackers spend up to 80% of their tube time
inside it. Some versions running under window managers iconify as
a kitchen sink, perhaps to suggest the one feature the editor
doesn't include. See also VI.
EMAIL /ee-mayl/ vt.,n. Electronic mail automatically passed through
computer networks and/or via modems common-carrier lines. Contrast
SNAIL-MAIL. See NETWORK ADDRESS.
EMOTICON /ee-moh'ti-cahn/ n. An ASCII glyph used to indicate an
emotional state in email or news. Hundreds have been proposed, but
only a few are in common use. These include:
:-) Smiley face (indicates laughter)
:-( Frowney face (indicates sadness, anger or upset)
;-) Half-smiley (ha ha only serious), aka winkey face.
:-/ Wry face
Of these, the first two are by far the most frequently encountered.
Hyphenless forms of them are common on CompuServe, GEnie and BIX;
see also BIXIE. On USENET, "smiley" is often used as a generic
(synonym for emoticon) as well as specifically for the happy-face
emoticon.
Note for the NEWBIE: overuse of the smiley is a mark of loserhood!
More than one per paragraph is a sure sign that you've gone over
the line.
EMPIRE n. Any of a family of military simulations derived from a game
written by Peter Langston many years ago. There are 5 or 6
multi-player variants of varying degrees of sophistication, and one
single-player version implemented for both UNIX and VMS which is
even available as MS-DOS freeware. All are notoriously addictive.
ENQ /enkw/ [from the ASCII mnemonic for 0000101] 1. An on-line
convention for querying someone's availability. After opening a
TALK MODE connection to someone apparently in heavy hack mode, one
might type "SYN SYN ENQ?" (the SYNs representing notional
synchronization bytes) expecting a return of ACK or NAK depending
on whether or not the person felt interruptible. See ACK; compare
PING, FINGER, and the usage of `FOO?' listed under TALK MODE.
EOF /ee-oh-ef/ [UNIX/C] n. End Of File. 1. Refers esp. to whatever
pseudo-character value is returned by C's sequential input
functions (and their equivalents in other environments) when the
logical end of file has been reached (this was 0 under V6 UNIX, is
-1 under V7 and all subsequent versions and all non-UNIX C library
implementations). 2. Used by extension in non-computer contexts
when a human is doing something that can be modelled as a
sequential read and can't go further. "Yeah, I looked for a list
of 360 mnemonics to post as a joke, but I hit EOF pretty fast, all
the library had was a JCL manual."
EPOCH, THE [UNIX] n. The time and date corresponding to zero in an
operating system's clock and timestamp values. Under most UNIX
versions, 00:00 of January 1st 1970 GMT. System time is measured
in seconds or TICKS past the era. Syn. with EPOCH. See TICKS,
WALL TIME. Note that weird problems may ensue when the clock wraps
around, and that this is actually not a rare event; on systems
counting 10 TICKS per second, a 32 bit count of ticks is only good
for 6.8 years.
EPSILON [from standard mathematical notation for a small quantity] 1.
n. A small quantity of anything. "The cost is epsilon." 2. adj.
Very small, negligible; less than marginal. "We can get this
feature for epsilon cost." 3. WITHIN EPSILON OF: Close enough to
be indistinguishable for all practical purposes. This is even
closer than being WITHIN DELTA OF. Example: "That's not what I
asked for, but it's within epsilon of what I wanted."
Alternatively, it may mean not close enough, but very little is
required to get it there: "My program is within epsilon of
working." See ASYMPTOTIC.
EPSILON SQUARED n. A quantity even smaller than EPSILON, as small in
comparison to it as it is to something normal. If you buy a
supercomputer for a million dollars, the cost of the
thousand-dollar terminal to go with it is EPSILON, and the cost of
the ten-dollar cable to connect the two is EPSILON SQUARED.
ERA, THE n. Syn. for EPOCH.
ERIC CONSPIRACY n. Notional group of mustachioed hackers named Eric
first pinpointed as a sinister conspiracy by an infamous
talk.bizarre posting c. 1986; this was doubtless influenced by the
numerous `Eric' jokes in the Monty Python oeuvre. There do indeed
seem to be considerably more mustachioed hacker-Erics than the
frequency of these three traits can account for unless they are
correlated in some arcane way. Well known examples include Eric
Allman of BSD fame, Erik Fair (coauthor of NNTP) and your editor
[ESR]; your editor has heard from about fourteen others by email.
ERIS /e'r@s/ pn. The Greco-Roman goddess of Chaos, Discord, Confusion
and Things You Know Not Of; aka Discordia. Not a very friendly
deity in the Classical original, she was re-invented as a more
benign personification of creative anarchy starting in 1959 by the
adherents of DISCORDIANISM and has since been a semi-serious
subject of veneration in several `fringe' cultures including
hackerdom. See DISCORDIANISM, CHURCH OF THE SUB-GENIUS.
EROTICS /ee-ro'tiks/ n. Reported from Scandinavia as English-language
university slang for electronics. Often used by hackers, maybe
because of its exciting aspects.
ESSENTIALS n. Things necessary to maintain a productive and secure
hacking environment. "A jug of wine, a loaf of bread, a
20-megahertz 80386 box with 8 meg of core and a 300-megabyte disk
supporting full UNIX with source and X windows and EMACS and UUCP
to a friendly Internet site, and thou."
EVIL adj. As used by hackers, implies that some system, program,
person or institution is sufficiently mal-designed as to be not
worth the bother of dealing with. Unlike the adjectives in the
CRETINOUS/LOSING/BRAIN-DAMAGED series, EVIL does not imply
incompetence or bad design, but rather a set of goals or design
criteria fatally incompatible with the speaker's. This is more an
esthetic and engineering judgement than a moral one in the
mainstream sense. "We thought about adding a BLUE GLUE interface
but decided it was too evil to deal with." "TECO is neat, but it
can be pretty evil if you're prone to typos." Often pronounced
with the first syllable lengthened, as /eeeevil/.
EXAMINING THE ENTRAILS n. The process of rooting through a core dump
or hex image in the attempt to discover the bug that brought your
program or system down. Compare RUNES, INCANTATION, BLACK ART.
EXCH /eks'ch@, ekstch/ vt. To exchange two things, each for the other;
to swap places. If you point to two people sitting down and say
"Exch!", you are asking them to trade places. EXCH, meaning
EXCHange, was originally the name of a PDP-10 instruction that
exchanged the contents of a register and a memory location.
EXCL /eks'kl/ n. Abbreviation for "exclamation point". See BANG,
SHRIEK, WOW.
EXE /ex'ee/ An executable binary file. Some operating systems
(notably MS-DOS) use the extension .EXE to mark such files. This
usage is also occasionally found among UNIX programmers even though
UNIX executables don't have any required extension.
EXEC /eg'zek/ [shortened from "executive" or "execute"] vt.,n. 1.
[UNIX] Synonym for CHAIN, derives from the exec(2) call. 2. (obs)
The command interpreter for an OS (see SHELL); term esp. used on
mainframes, and prob. derived from UNIVAC's archaic EXEC 2 and EXEC
8 operating systems.
{= F =}
FALL OVER [IBM] vi. Yet another synonym for CRASH or LOSE. `Fall over
hard' equates to CRASH AND BURN.
FALL THROUGH vu. 1. To exit a loop by exhaustion, i.e. by having
fulfilled its exit condition rather than via a break or exception
condition that exits from the middle of it. This usage appears to
be *really* old, as in dating from the '40s and '50s. It may no
longer be live slang. 2. In C, `fall-through' is said to occur when
the flow of execution in a switch statement reaches a `case' label
for the second or subsequent time, passing a point where one would
normally expect to find a `break'. A trivial example:
switch (color)
{
case GREEN:
do_green();
break;
case PINK:
do_pink();
case RED:
do_red();
break;
default:
do_blue();
break;
}
The effect of this code is to do_green() when color is GREEN,
do_red() when color is RED, do_blue() on any other color than PINK,
and (this is the important part) do_pink() and *then* do_red() when
color is PINK. It is considered good practice to include a comment
highlighting the fall through, at ytje point one would normally
expect a break.
FANDANGO ON CORE [UNIX/C hackers, from the Mexican dance] n. In C, a
wild pointer that runs out of bounds causing a CORE DUMP, or
corrupts the malloc(3) ARENA in such a way as to cause mysterious
failures later on, is sometimes said to have `done a fandango on
core'. On low-end personal machines without an MMU this can
corrupt the OS itself, causing massive lossage. Other third-world
dances such as the rhumba, cha-cha or watusi may be substituted.
See ALIASING BUG, PRECEDENCE LOSSAGE, SMASH THE STACK, MEMORY LEAK,
OVERRUN SCREW, CORE.
FAQ LIST /ef-ay-kyoo list/ [Usenix] n. Compendium of accumulated lore,
posted periodically to high-volume newsgroups in an attempt to
forestall Frequently Asked Questions.
The jargon file itself serves as a good example of a collection
of one kind of lore, although it is far too big for a regular
posting. Several extant FAQ lists do (or should) make reference
to the jargon file. "How do you pronounce `char'?" and "What's
that funny name for the `#' character?" are, for example, both
Frequently Asked Questions.
FASCIST adj. Said of a computer system with excessive or annoying
security barriers, usage limits or access policies. The
implication is that said policies are preventing hackers from
getting interesting work done. The variant "fascistic" seens to
have been preferred at MIT, poss. by analogy with TOURISTIC.
FAULTY adj. Non-functional; buggy. Same denotation as "bagbiting",
"bletcherous", "losing", q.v., but the connotation is much
milder.
FD LEAK /ef dee leek/ n. A kind of programming bug analogous to a CORE
LEAK, in which a program fails to close file descriptors ("fd"s)
after file operations are completed, and thus eventually runs out.
See LEAK.
FEAR AND LOATHING [from Hunter Thompson] n. State inspired by the
prospect of dealing with certain REAL WORLD systems and standards
which are totally BRAIN DAMAGED but ubiquitous --- Intel 8086s, or
COBOL, or any IBM machine except the Rios (aka the RS/6000). "Ack.
They want PCs to be able to talk to the AI machine. Fear and
loathing time!" See also IBM.
FEATURE n. 1. An intended property or behavior (as of a program).
Whether it is good or not is immaterial. 2. A good property or
behavior (as of a program). Whether it was intended or not is
immaterial. 3. A surprising property or behavior; in particular,
one that is purposely inconsistent because it works better that
way. For example, in some versions of the EMACS text editor, the
"transpose characters" command exchanges the two characters on
either side of the cursor on the screen, *except* when the cursor
is at the end of a line, in which case the two characters before
the curspor are exchanged. While this behavior is perhaps
surprising, and certainly inconsistent, it has been found through
extensive experimentation to be what most users want; the
inconsistency is therefore a FEATURE and not a BUG. 4. A property
or behavior that is gratuitous or unnecessary, though perhaps also
impressive or cute. For example, one feature of the MACLISP
language is the ability to print numbers as Roman numerals. See
BELLS AND WHISTLES. 5. A property or behavior that was put in to
help someone else but that happens to be in your way. 6. A BUG that
has been documented. To call something a feature sometimes means
the author of the program did not consider the particular case, and
the program responded in a way that was unexpected, but not
strictly incorrect. A standard joke is that a BUG can be turned
into a FEATURE simply by documenting it (then theoretically no one
can complain about it because it's in the manual), or even by
simply declaring it to be good. "That's not a bug, that's a
feature!" See also FEETCH FEETCH.
FEATURECTOMY /fee`ch@r-ek'to-mee/ n. The act of removing a feature
from a program. Featurectomies generally come in two varieties,
the RIGHTEOUS and the RELUCTANT. Righteous featurectomies are
performed because the remover believes the program would be more
elegant without the feature, or there is already an equivalent and
"better" way to achieve the same end. (This is not quite the
same thing as removing a MISFEATURE.) Reluctant featurectomies are
performed to satisfy some external constraint such as code size or
execution speed.
FEEP /feep/ 1. n. The soft bell of a display terminal (except for a
VT-52!); a beep. 2. vi. To cause the display to make a feep sound.
TTY's do not have feeps; they have mechanical bells that ring.
Alternate forms: BEEP, BLEEP, or just about anything suitably
onomatopoeic. (Jeff Macnelly, in his comic strip `Shoe', uses the
word `eep' for sounds made by computer terminals and video games;
this is perhaps the closest written approximation yet.) The term
BREEDLE was sometimes heard at SAIL, where the terminal bleepers
are not particularly "soft" (they sound more like the musical
equivalent of a raspberry or Bronx cheer; for a close
approximation, imagine the sound of a Star Trek communicator's beep
lasting for five seconds.). The "feeper" on a VT-52 has been
compared to the sound of a '52 Chevy stripping its gears. See also
DING.
FEEPER /fee'pr/ n. The device in a terminal or workstation (usually a
loudspeaker of some kind) that makes the FEEP sound.
FEEPING CREATURITIS /fee'ping kree`ch@r-ie'tis/ n. Deliberate
spoonerization of CREEPING FEATURITIS, meant to imply that the
system or program in question has become a misshapen creature of
hacks.This term isn't really well-defined, but it sounds so neat
that most hackers have said or heard it. It probably derives from
an image of terminals prowling about in the dark making their
customary noises.
FEETCH FEETCH interj. If someone tells you about some new improvement
to a program, you might respond, "Feetch, feetch!" The meaning
of this depends critically on vocal inflection. With enthusiasm,
it means something like, "Boy, that's great! What a great hack!"
Grudgingly or with obvious doubt, it means "I don't know; it
sounds like just one more unnecessary and complicated thing."
With a tone of resignation, it means, "Well, I'd rather keep it
simple, but I suppose it has to be done."
FENCEPOST ERROR n. 1. The discrete equivalent of a boundary condition.
Often exhibited in programs by iterative loops. From the following
problem: "If you build a fence 100 feet long with posts ten feet
apart, how many posts do you need?" (Either 9 or 11 is a better
answer than the obvious 10.) For example, suppose you have a long
list or array of items, and want to process items m through n; how
many items are there? The obvious answer is n - m, but that is off
by one; the right answer is n - m + 1. A program that used the
"obvious" formula would have a fencepost error in it. See also
OFF-BY-ONE ERROR, and note that not all off-by-one errors are
fencepost errors. The game of Musical Chairs involves an
off-by-one problem where N people try to sit in N-1 chairs, but
it's not a fencepost error. Fencepost errors come from counting
things rather than the spaces between them, or vice versa, or by
neglecting to consider whether one should count one or both ends of
a row. 2. Occasionally, an error induced by unexpectedly regular
spacing of inputs, which can (for instance) screw up your hash
table.
FIELD CIRCUS [a derogatory pun on "field service"] n. The field
service organization of any hardware manufacturer, but especially
DEC. There is an entire genre of jokes about DEC field circus
engineers:
Q: How can you recognize a DEC field circus engineer with a flat
tire?
A: He's swapping tires to see which one is flat.
Q: How can you recognize a DEC field circus engineer who is out
of gas?
A: He's swapping tires to see which one is flat.
FILK /filk/ [from SF fandom, where a typo for "folk" was adopted as
a new word] n.,v. A "filk" is a popular or folk song with lyrics
revised or completely new lyrics, intended for humorous effect when
read and/or to be sung late at night at SF conventions. There is a
flourishing subgenre of these called "computer filks", written by
hackers and often containing technical humor of quite sophisticated
nature. See DOUBLE BUCKY for an example.
FILM AT 11 [MIT, in parody of TV newscasters], interj. Used in
conversation to announce ordinary events, with a sarcastic
implication that these events are earth-shattering. "ITS crashes;
film at 11." "Bug found in scheduler; film at 11."
FILTER [orig. UNIX, now also in MS-DOS] n. A program which processes
an input text stream into an output text stream in some
well-defined way, and does no I/O to anywhere else except possibly
on error conditions; one designed to be used as a stage in a
PIPELINE (q.v.).
FINE [WPI] adj. Good, but not good enough to be CUSPY. The word FINE
is used elsewhere, of course, but without the implicit comparison
to the higher level implied by CUSPY.
FINGER [SAIL's ITS, via BSD UNIX] 1. n. A program that displays a
particular user or all users logged on the system or a remote
system. Typically shows full name, last login time, idle time,
terminal line and terminal location. May also display a "plan
file" left by the user. 2. vt. To apply finger to a username. 3.
v. By extension, to check a human's current state by any means.
"Foodp?" "T!" "OK, finger Lisa and see if she's idle".
FIREBOTTLE n. A large, primitive, power-hungry active electrical
device, similar to an FET constructed out of glass, metal, and
vacuum. Characterized by high cost, low density, low reliability,
high-temperature operation, and high power dissipation. Sometimes
mistakenly called a "tube" in the U.S. or a "valve" in England.
FIREFIGHTING n. The act of throwing lots of manpower and late nights
at a project to get it out before deadline.
FIREWALL MACHINE n. A dedicated gateway machine with special security
precautions on it, used to service outside network/mail/news
connections and/or accept remote logins for (read only)
shared-file-system access via FTP. The idea is to protect a
cluster of more loosely administered machines `hidden' behind it
from crackers. The typical `firewall' is an inexpensive
micro-based UNIX box kept clean of critical data, with a bunch of
modems and public network ports on it but just one carefully
watched connection back to the rest of the cluster. The special
precautions may include threat monitoring, callback, and even a
complete IRON BOX keyable to particular incoming IDs or activity
patterns. Syn. FLYTRAP, VENUS FLYTRAP.
FIRMWARE n. Software installed into a computer-based piece of
equipment on ROM. So-called because it's harder to change than
software but easier than hardware.
FLAG n. A variable or quantity that can take on one of two values; a
bit, particularly one that is used to indicate one of two outcomes
or is used to control which of two things is to be done. Examples:
"This flag controls whether to clear the screen before printing
the message." "The program status word contains several flag
bits." See also BIT.
FLAG DAY n. A software change which is neither forward nor backward
compatible, and which is costly to make and costly to revert.
"Can we install that without causing a flag day for all users?"
This term has nothing to do with the use of the word FLAG to mean a
variable that has two values. It came into use when a massive
change was made to the MULTICS timesharing system to convert from
the old ASCII code to the new one; this was scheduled for Flag Day,
June 14, 1966.
FLAKEY, FLAKY adj. Subject to frequent lossages. See LOSSAGE. This
use is of course related to the common slang use of the word, to
describe a person as eccentric or crazy. A system that is flakey
is working, sort of, enough that you are tempted to try to use it,
but it fails frequently enough that the odds in favor of finishing
what you start are low. Commonwealth hackish prefers DODGY (q.v.).
FLAMAGE /flay'm@j/ n. High-noise, low-signal postings to USENET or
other electronic fora. Often in the phrase "the usual flamage".
FLAME 1. vi. To speak incessantly and/or rabidly on some relatively
uninteresting subject or with a patently ridiculous attitude. When
a discussion degenerates into useless controversy, one might tell
the participants, "Now you're just flaming" or "Stop all that
flamage!" to try to get them to cool down (so to speak). 2. To
post an email message intended to insult and provoke. FLAME ON: vi.
To continue to flame. See RAVE, BURBLE. The punning reference to
Marvel comics's Human Torch has been lost as recent usage completes
the circle: "Flame on" now usually means "beginning of flame".
A USENETter who was at WPI from 1972 to 1976 adds: I am 99% certain
that the use of "FLAME" originated at WPI. Those who made a
nuisance of themselves insisting that they needed to use a TTY for
"real work" came to be known as "flaming asshole lusers". Other,
particularly annoying people became "flaming asshole ravers", which
shortened to "flaming ravers", and ultimately "flamers". I
remember someone picking up on the Human Torch pun, but I don't
think "FLAME ON/OFF" was ever much used at WPI.
FLAME WAR n. Acrimonious dispute, especially when conducted on a
public electronic forum such as USENET.
FLAMER v. One who habitually flames others. Said esp. of obnoxious
USENET personalities.
FLAP vt. To unload a DECtape (so it goes flap, flap, flap...). Old
hackers at MIT tell of the days when the disk was device 0 and
microtapes were 1, 2,... and attempting to flap device 0 would
instead start a motor banging inside a cabinet near the disk!
FLAVOR n. 1. Variety, type, kind. "DDT commands come in two
flavors." "These lights come in two flavors, big red ones and
small green ones." See VANILLA. 2. The attribute that causes
something to be FLAVORFUL. Usually used in the phrase "yields
additional flavor." "This convention yields additional flavor by
allowing one to print text either right-side-up or upside-down."
See VANILLA.
FLAVORFUL adj. Aesthetically pleasing. See RANDOM and LOSING for
antonyms. See also the entries for TASTE and ELEGANT.
FLIPPY /flip'ee/ n. A single-side floppy disk altered for double-sided
use by addition of a second write-notch, so called because it must
be flipped over for the second side to be accessible. No longer
common.
FLUSH v. 1. To delete something, usually superfluous. "All that
nonsense has been flushed." Standard ITS terminology for aborting
an output operation (but note sense 4 below!); one speaks of the
text that would have been printed, but was not, as having been
flushed. Under ITS, if you asked to have a file printed on your
terminal, it was printed a page at a time; at the end of each page,
it asked whether you want to see more, and if you said no, it
replied "FLUSHED". (It is speculated that this term arose from a
vivid image of flushing unwanted characters by hosing down the
internal output buffer, washing the characters away before they can
be printed.) 2. To leave at the end of a day's work (as opposed to
leaving for a meal). "I'm going to flush now." "Time to
flush." 3. To exclude someone from an activity. 4. [UNIX/C] To
force buffered I/O to disk, as with an fflush(3) call. This is
*not* an abort as in sense 1 but a demand for early completion!
UNIX hackers find the ITS usage confusing and vice versa.
FLYTRAP n. See FIREWALL.
FOAF [USENET] n. Written-only acronym for Friend Of A Friend. The
source of an unverified, possibly untrue story.
FOO /foo/ 1. [from Yiddish "feh" or the Anglo-Saxon "fooey!"]
interj. Term of disgust. 2. [from FUBAR (Fucked Up Beyond All
Recognition), from WWII, often seen as FOOBAR] Name used for
temporary programs, or samples of three-letter names. Other
similar words are BAR, BAZ (Stanford corruption of BAR), and rarely
RAG. These have been used in Pogo as well. 3. Used very generally
as a sample name for absolutely anything. The old `Smokey Stover'
comic strips often included the word FOO, in particular on license
plates of cars. 4. First on the standard list of metasyntactic
variables used in syntax examples. See also: BAR, BAZ, QUX, QUUX,
QUUUX, CORGE, GRAULT, GARPLY, WALDO, FRED, PLUGH, XYZZY. MOBY FOO:
See MOBY. It is possible that hacker usage of FOO actually springs
from the title "FOO, Lampoons and Parody" of a comic book first
issued in September 1958; the byline read "C. Crumb" but this may
well have been a sort-of pseudonym for noted weird-comix artist
Robert Crumb. The title FOO was featured in large letters on the
front cover.
FOOL n. As used by hackers, specifically describes a person who
habitually reasons from obviously or demonstrably incorrect
premises and cannot be persuaded to do otherwise by evidence; it is
not generally used in its other senses, i.e. to describe a person
with a native incapacity to reason correctly, or a clown. Indeed,
in hackish experience many fools are capable of reasoning all too
effectively in executing their errors. See also CRETIN, LOSER.
FOOTPRINT n. 1. The floor or desk area taken up by a piece of
hardware. 2. [IBM] The audit trail (if any) left by a crashed
program (often in plural, `footprints').
FOREGROUND [UNIX] adj.v. On a time-sharing system, a task executing in
foreground is one able to accept input from and return output to
the user; oppose BACKGROUND. Normally, there is only one
foreground task per terminal (or terminal window); having multiple
processes simultaneously reading the keyboard is a good way to
LOSE. By extension, "to foreground" a task is to bring it to the
top of one's PDL or STACK for immediate processing, and in this
sense hackers often use it for non-computer tasks.
FORKED [UNIX] adj. Terminally slow, or dead. Originated when the
system slowed to incredibly bad speeds due to a process recursively
spawning copies of itself (using the Unix system command fork(2))
and taking up all the process table entries.
FORTUNE COOKIE [UNIX] n. A random quote, item of trivia, joke or maxim
printed to the user's tty at login time or (less commonly) at
logout time. Items from this jargon file have often been used as
fortune cookies.
FOSSIL n. 1. In software, a misfeature that becomes understandable
only in historical context, as a remnant of times past retained so
as not to break compatibility. Example: the retention of octal as
default base for string escapes in C in spite of the better match
of hexadecimal to modern byte-addressible architectures. See DUSTY
DECKS. 2. More restrictively, a feature with past but no present
utility. Example: the force-all-caps (LCASE) bits in the V7 and
BSD UNIX tty driver, designed for use with monocase terminals. In
a perversion of the usual backwards compatibility goal, this
functionality has actually been expanded and renamed in some later
USG UNIX releases as the IUCLC and OLCUC bits.
FRED n. The personal name most frequently used as a metasyntactic
variable (see FOO). Allegedly popular because it's easy to type on
a standard QWERTY keyboard.
FREEWARE n. Free software, often written by enthusiasts and usually
distributed by electronic mail, local bulletin boards, USENET, or
other electronic media. See SHAREWARE.
FRIED adj. 1. Non-working due to hardware failure; burnt out.
Especially used of hardware brought doen by a power glitch, short,
or other electrical event. (Sometimes this literally happens to
electronic circuits! In particular, resistors can burn out and
transformers can melt down, emitting terribly-smelling smoke.
However, this term is also used metaphorically.) 2. Of people,
exhausted. Said particularly of those who continue to work in such
a state. Often used as an explanation or excuse. "Yeah, I know
that fix destroyed the file system, but I was fried when I put it
in."
FROB /frob/ 1. n. [MIT] The official Tech Model Railroad Club
definition is "FROB = protruding arm or trunnion", and by
metaphoric extension any somewhat small thing; an object that you
can comfortably hold in one hand; something you can frob. See
FROBNITZ. 2. v. Abbreviated form of FROBNICATE.
FROBNICATE /frob'ni-kayt/ v. To manipulate or adjust, to tweak. Thus:
"Please frob the light switch." (That is, flip the light
switch.), but also "Stop frobbing that clasp; you'll break it."
Poss. derived from FROBNITZ (q.v.). Usually abbreviated to FROB,
but FROBNICATE is recognized as the official full form. Thus one
has the saying "to frob a frob". See TWEAK and TWIDDLE. Usage:
FROB, TWIDDLE, and TWEAK sometimes connote points along a
continuum. FROB connotes aimless manipulation; TWIDDLE connotes
gross manipulation, often a coarse search for a proper setting;
TWEAK connotes fine-tuning. If someone is turning a knob on an
oscilloscope, then if he's carefully adjusting it he is probably
tweaking it; if he is just turning it but looking at the screen he
is probably twiddling it; but if he's just doing it because turning
a knob is fun, he's frobbing it.
FROBNITZ /frob'nits/, pl. FROBNITZEM (frob'nitsm) n. An unspecified
physical object, a widget. Also refers to electronic black boxes.
This rare form is usually abbreviated to FROTZ, or more commonly to
FROB. Also used are FROBNULE and FROBULE. Starting perhaps in
1979, FROBOZZ (fruh-bahz'), plural FROBBOTZIM (fruh-bot'z@m) has
also become very popular, largely due to its exposure as a name via
ZORK. These can also be applied to nonphysical objects, such as
data structures.
FROG alt. PHROG 1. interj. Term of disgust (we seem to have a lot of
them). 2. Used as a name for just about anything. See FOO. 3. n.
Of things, a crock. Of people, somewhere inbetween a turkey and a
toad. 4. FROGGY: adj. Similar to BAGBITING (q.v.), but milder.
"This froggy program is taking forever to run!"
FRONT END n. 1. A subsidiary computer that doesn't do much. 2. What
you're talking to when you have a conversation with someone who is
making replies without paying attention. "Look at the dancing
elephants!" "Uh-huh" "Do you know what I just said?"
"Sorry, you were talking to the front end".
FROTZ /frotz/ 1. n. See FROBNITZ. 2. MUMBLE FROTZ: An interjection of
very mild disgust.
FROTZED /frotzt/ adj. DOWN due to hardware problems.
FRY 1. vi. To fail. Said especially of smoke-producing hardware
failures. More generally, to become non-working. Usage: never
said of software, only of hardware and humans. See FRIED, MAGIC
SMOKE. 2. vt. To cause to fail; to ROACH, TOAST or HOSE a piece of
hardware (never used of software or humans).
FTP /ef-tee-pee/, *not* /fit'ip/ 1. n. The File Transfer Protocol for
transmitting files between systems on the Internet. 2. vt. To
transfer a file using the File Transfer Protocol. 3. Sometimes used
as a generic even for file transfers not using FTP. "Lemme get
this copy of Wuthering Heights FTP'd from uunet."
FUCK ME HARDER excl. Sometimes uttered in response to egregious
misbehavior, esp. in software, and esp. of those which seem
unfairly persistent (as though designed in< by the imp of the
perverse). Often theatrically elaborated: "Aiighhh! Fuck me with
a piledriver and sixteen feet of curare-tipped wrought-iron fence
*and no lubricants!*" The phrase is sometimes heard abbreviated
FMH in polite company.
FUD WARS /fud worz/ n. [from `Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt'] Political
posturing engaged in by hardware and software vendors ostensibly
committed to standardization but actually willing to fragment the
market to protect their own share. The OSF vs. UNIX International
conflict, for example.
FUDGE 1. v. To perform in an incomplete but marginally acceptable way,
particularly with respect to the writing of a program. "I didn't
feel like going through that pain and suffering, so I fudged it."
2. n. The resulting code.
FUDGE FACTOR n. A value or parameter that is varied in an ad hoc way
to produce the desired result. The terms "tolerance" and
"slop" are also used, though these usually indicate a one-sided
leeway, such as a buffer which is made larger than necessary
because one isn't sure exactly how large it needs to be, and it is
better to waste a little space than to lose completely for not
having enough. A fudge factor, on the other hand, can often be
tweaked in more than one direction. A good example is the FUZZ
typically needed in floating-point calculations: two numbers being
compared for equality must be allowed to differ by a small amount;
if that amount is too small, a computation may never terminate,
while if it is too large, results will be needlessly inaccurate.
Fudge factors are frequently adjusted incorrectly by programmers
who don't fully understand their import.
FUEL UP vi. To eat or drink hurriedly in order to get back to hacking.
"Food-p?" "Yeah, let's fuel up." "Time for a GREAT-WALL!".
See also ORIENTAL FOOD.
FUGGLY /fuhg'lee/ adj. Emphatic form of FUNKY; funky + ugly (or
possibly a contraction of "fuckin' ugly"). Unusually for hacker
slang, this may actually derive from black street-jive. To say it
properly, the first syllable should be growled rather than spoken.
Usage: humorous. "Man, the ASCII-to-EBCDIC code in that printer
driver is *fuggly*." See also WONKY.
FUNKY adj. Said of something which functions, but in a slightly
strange, klugey way. It does the job and would be difficult to
change, so its obvious non-optimality is left alone. Often used to
describe interfaces. The more bugs something has that nobody has
bothered to fix because workarounds are easier, the funkier it is.
TECO and UUCP are funky. The Intel i860's exception handling is
extraordinarily funky. Most standards acquire funkiness as they
age. "The new mailer is installed, but is still somewhat funky;
if it bounces your mail for no reason, try resubmitting it."
"This UART is pretty funky. The data ready line is active-high in
interrupt mode, and active-low in DMA mode." See FUGGLY.
FUNNY MONEY n. 1. Notional `dollar' units of computing time and/or
storage handed to students at the beginning of a computer course by
professors; also called "purple money" (in implicit opposition to
real or "green" money). When your funny money ran out, your
account froze and you needed to go to a professor to get more.
Formerly a common practice, this has now been made sufficiently
rare by the plunging cost of timesharing CYCLES that it has become
folklore. The amounts allocated were almost invariably too small,
even for the non-hackers who wanted to slide by with minimum work.
In extreme cases the practice led to small-scale black markets in
bootlegged computer accounts. 2. By extension, phantom money or
quantity tickets of any kind used as a resource-allocation hack
within a system.
FUZZ n. In floating-point arithmetic, the maximum difference allowed
between two quantities for them to compare equal. Has to be set
properly relative to the FPU's precision limits. See FUDGE FACTOR.
FUZZBALL [TCP/IP hackers] n. A DEC LSI-11 running a particular suite
of homebrewed software by Dave Mills and assorted co-conspirators,
used in the early 80's for Internet protocol testbedding and
experimentation. These were used as NSFnet backbone sites in its
early 56KB-line days; a few of these are still active on the
Internet as of early 1990, doing odd jobs such as network time
service.
{= G =}
GABRIEL /gay'bree-@l/ [for Dick Gabriel, SAIL volleyball fanatic] n.
An unnecessary (in the opinion of the opponent) stalling tactic,
e.g., tying one's shoelaces or hair repeatedly, asking the time,
etc. Also used to refer to the perpetrator of such tactics. Also,
"pulling a Gabriel", "Gabriel mode".
GAG vi. Equivalent to CHOKE, but connotes more disgust. "Hey, this is
Fortran code. No wonder the C compiler gagged." See also BARF.
GARBAGE COLLECT vi., GARBAGE COLLECTION n. See GC.
GARPLY /gar'plee/ n. [Stanford] Another meta-word popular among SAIL
hackers.
GAS [as in "gas chamber"] interj. 1. A term of disgust and hatred,
implying that gas should be dispensed in generous quantities,
thereby exterminating the source of irritation. "Some loser just
reloaded the system for no reason! Gas!" 2. A term suggesting
that someone or something ought to be flushed out of mercy. "The
system's wedging every few minutes. Gas!" 3. vt. FLUSH (q.v.).
"You should gas that old crufty software." 4. GASEOUS adj.
Deserving of being gassed. Usage: primarily used by Geoff
Goodfellow at SRI, but spreading; became particularly popular after
the Moscone/Milk murders in San Francisco, when it was learned that
Dan White (who supported Proposition 7) would get the gas chamber
under 7 if convicted.
GC /jee-see/ [from LISP terminology; "Garbage Collect"] 1. vt. To
clean up and throw away useless things. "I think I'll GC the top
of my desk today." When said of files, this is equivalent to GFR
(q.v.). 2. vt. To recycle, reclaim, or put to another use. 3. n.
An instantiation of the garbage collector process. `Garbage
collection' is computer science jargon for a particular class of
strategies for dynamically reallocating computer memory. One such
strategy involves periodically scanning all the data in memory and
determining what is no longer useful; useless data items are then
discarded so that the memory they occupy can be recycled and used
for another purpose. Implementations of the LISP language usually
use garbage collection. In slang, the full phrase is sometimes
heard but the acronym is more frequently used because it's shorter.
Note that there is an ambiguity in usage that has to be resolved by
context: "I'm going to garbage-collect my desk" usually means to
clean out the drawers, but it could also mean to throw away or
recycle the desk itself.
GCOS n. A quick and dirty clone of System/360 DOS that emerged from GE
about 1970; originally called GECOS (the General Electric
Comprehensive Operating System) and later kluged to support
primitive timesharing and transaction processing. After the buyout
of GE's computer division by Honeywell the name was changed to
General Comprehensive Operating System (GCOS). Other OS groups at
Honeywell began referring to it as `God's Chosen Operating System',
allegedly in reaction to the GCOS crowd's uninformed and snotty
attitude about the superiority of their product. All this might be
of zero interest, except for two facts: 1) the GCOS people won the
political war, resulting in the orphaning and eventual death of
Honeywell MULTICS (q.v.), and 2) GECOS/GCOS left one permanent mark
on UNIX. Some early UNIX systems at Bell Labs were used as front
ends to GCOS machines; the field added to /etc/passwd to carry GCOS
ID information was called `the GECOS field' and survives today as
the pw_gecos member used for the user's full name and other
human-id information. GCOS itself played a major rule in keeping
Honeywell a dismal also-ran in the mainframe market, and was itself
ditched for UNIX in the late 1980s when Honeywell retired its aging
BIG IRON designs.
GECOS n. See GCOS
GEDANKEN /g@-dahn'kn/ adj. Wild-eyed; impractical; not
well-thought-out; untried; untested. "Gedanken" is a German word
for "thought". A thought experiment is one you carry out in your
head. In physics, the term "gedanken experiment" is used to
refer to an experiment that is impractical to carry out, but useful
to consider because you can reason about it theoretically. (A
classic gedanken experiment of relativity theory involves thinking
about a man flying through space in an elevator.) Gedanken
experiments are very useful in physics, but you have to be careful.
It was a gedanken experiment that led Aristotle to conclude that
heavy things always fall faster than light things (he thought about
a rock and a feather); this was accepted until Galileo proved
otherwise. Among hackers, however, the word has a pejorative
connotation. It is said of a project, especially one in artificial
intelligence research, which is written up in grand detail
(typically as a Ph.D. thesis) without ever being implemented to any
great extent. Such a project is usually perpetrated by people who
aren't very good hackers or find programming distasteful or are
just in a hurry. A gedanken thesis is usually marked by an obvious
lack of intuition about what is programmable and what is not, and
about what does and does not constitute a clear specification an
algorithm.
GEEK OUT vi. To temporarily enter techno-nerd mode while in a
non-hackish context, for example at parties held near computer
equipment. Especially used when you need to do something highly
technical and don't have time to explain: "Pardon me while I geek
out for a moment."
GENDER MENDER n. (also "gender bender" and "sex changer") A cable
connector shell with either two male or two female connectors on
it, used to correct the mismatches that result when some LOSER
didn't understand the RS232C specification and the distinction
between DTE and DCE. Used esp. for RS-232C parts in either the
original D-25 or the IBM PC's bogus D-9 format.
GENERAL PUBLIC VIRUS n. Pejorative name for some versions of the GNU
project COPYLEFT (q.v.) or General Public License, which requires
that any tools or apps incorporating copylefted code must be
source-distributed on the same anti-commercial terms as GNU stuff.
Thus it is alleged that the copyleft `infects' software generated
with GNU tools. FSF's official position is that only code
incorporating either the Bison parser skeleton or GNU CC libraries
is so infected. Nevertheless, widespread suspicion that the
COPYLEFT language is `boobytrapped' has caused many developers to
avoid using GNU tools and the GPL license.
GENERATE vt. To produce something according to an algorithm or program
or set of rules, or as a (possibly unintended) side effect of the
execution of an algorithm or program. The opposite of PARSE. This
term retains its mechanistic connotations (though often humorously)
when used of human behavior.
GET A LIFE! imp. Hacker-standard way of suggesting that the person to
whom you are speaking has succumbed to terminal geekdom (see
COMPUTER GEEK). Often heard on USENET. It is alleged that this
exhortation was originally uttered by William Shatner to a crowd of
eager trekkies in a speach which ended "Get a job! Get a
*life*!".
GET A REAL COMPUTER imp. Typical hacker response to news that somebody
is having trouble getting work done on a system that is a)
single-tasking, b) has no Winchester, or c) has an address space
smaller than 4 megabytes. This is as of 1990; note that the
threshold for `real computer' rises with time, and it may well be
(for example) that machines with character-only displays will be
considered `unreal' in a few years. See BITTY BOX and TOY.
GFR /jee eff ar/ vt. [acronym, ITS] From "Grim File Reaper", an ITS
utility. To remove a file or files according to some
program-automated or semi-automatic manual procedure, especially
one designed to reclaim mass storage space or reduce namespace
clutter. Often generalized to pieces of data below file level.
"I used to have his phone number but I guess I GFRed it." See
also PROWLER, REAPER.
GIG (gig) n. Short for "gigabyte" (1000 megabytes); esp. used in
describing amounts of CORE or mass storage. "My machine just got
upgraded to a quarter-gig".
GIGO /gie'goh/ [acronym] 1. Garbage In, Garbage out -- Usually said in
response to lusers who complain that a program didn't complain
about faulty data. Also commonly used to describe failures in
human decision making due to faulty, incomplete or imprecise data.
2. Garbage In, Gospel Out -- this more recent expansion is a
comment on the tendency human beings have to put excessive trust in
"computerized" data.
GILLION /jill'yun/ n. 10^9. [From giga, following construction of
mega/million and tera/trillion] Same as an American billion or a
British `myriad'.
GLARK /glark/ vt. To figure something out from context, taken from an
old Scientific American "Mathematical Games" column. "The System
III manuals are pretty poor, but you can generally glark the
meaning from context". Interestingly, the original sentence was
"This gubblick contains many nonsklarkish English flutzpahs, but
the overall pluggandisp can be glorked [sic] from context." by
David Moser, quoted by Douglas Hofstadter in his "Metamagical
Themas" column in the January 1981 Scientific American. It is
conjectured that hackish usage mutated the verb to `glark' because
GLORK (q.v.) was already an established jargon term.
GLASS [IBM] n. Synonym for SILICON.
GLASS TTY /glas tee-tee-wie/ or /glas ti-tee/ n. A terminal which has a
display screen but which, because of hardware or software
limitations, behaves like a teletype or other printing terminal ,
thereby combining the disadvantages of both: like a printing
terminal, it can't do fancy display hacks, and like a display
terminal, it doesn't produce hard copy An example is Lear-Siegler
the ADM-3 (without cursor control). See TUBE, TTY. See Appendix A
for an interesting true story about glass TTYs.
GLITCH /glich/ [from German "glitchen" to slip, via Yiddish
"glitshen", to slide or skid] 1. n. A sudden interruption in
electric service, sanity,, continuity, or program function.
Sometimes recoverable. An interruption in electric service is
specfically called a POWER GLITCH. This is of grave concern
because it usually crashes all the computers. More common in
slang, though, a hacker who got to the middle of a sentence and
then forgotten how he or she intended to complete it might say,
"Sorry, I just glitched". 2. vi. To commit a glitch. See
GRITCH. 3. vt. [Stanford] To scroll a display screen several
lines at a time. This derives from some oddities in the terminal
behavior on the ITS machines formerly used at SAIL. 4. (obs.) Same
as MAGIC COOKIE, sense #2.
GLOB /glob/, *not* /glohb/ [UNIX, from "glob", the name of a
subprogram that translated wildcards in archaic Bourne Shell
versions] v. To expand special characters in a wildcarded name (the
action is "globbing"). The UNIX conventions for filename
wildcarding have become sufficiently pervasive that many hackers
use some of them in written English, especially in email or news on
technical topics. Those commonly encountered include:
* wildcard for any string (see UN*X, U*IX).
? wildcard for any character (generally only read this
way at the beginning or in the middle of a word).
[] wildcard matching one character from a specified set.
Some examples: "He said his name was [KC]arl" (expresses
ambiguity). "That got posted to talk.politics.*" (all the
talk.politics subgroups on USENET). Other examples are given under
the entry for `X'. GLOB as a noun refers to the act of expanding a
string using these conventions. It is also used as a verb.
GLORK /glork/ 1. interj. Term of mild surprise, usually tinged with
outrage, as when one attempts to save the results of two hours of
editing and finds that the system has just crashed. 2. Used as a
name for just about anything. See FOO. 3. vt. Similar to GLITCH
(q.v.), but usually used reflexively. "My program just glorked
itself."
GNARLY adj. Both OBSCURE and HAIRY in the sense of complex. "Yeech
--- the tuned assembler implementation of BitBlt is really gnarly!"
From a similar but less specific usage in surfer slang.
GNU /gnoo/, *not* /noo/ 1. [acronym for "GNU's Not UNIX!"] A
UNIX-workalike development effort of the Free Software Foundation
headed by Richard Stallman (rms@prep.ai.mit.edu). GNU EMACS and
the GNU C compiler, two tools designed for this project, have
become very popular in hackerdom. See EMACS, COPYLEFT. 2. Noted
UNIX hacker John Gilmore (gnu@hoptoad.com), ironically enough one
of the best-known and most vocal opponents of the "information
should not be property" philosophy behind GNU (sense #1).
GNUMACS /gnoo'maks/ [contraction of "Gnu Emacs"] Often-heard
abbreviated name for the GNU project's flagship tool, EMACS. Used
esp. in contrast with GOSMACS.
GO FLATLINE [from cyberpunk SF, refers to flattening of EEG traces
upon brain-death] vi., also adjectival FLATLINED. 1. To die,
terminate, or fail, esp. irreversibly. In hacker parlance this is
used of machines only, human death being considered somewhat too
serious a matter to employ jargon-jokes about. 2. To go completely
quiescent; said of machines undergoing controlled shutdown. "You
can suffer file damage if you shut down UNIX but power off before
the system has gone flatline." 3. A particular failure mode of
video tubes in which vertical scan is lost, so all one sees is a
bright horizontal line bisecting the screen.
GOBBLE vt. To consume or to obtain. GOBBLE UP tends to imply
"consume", while GOBBLE DOWN tends to imply "obtain". "The
output spy gobbles characters out of a TTY output buffer." "I
guess I'll gobble down a copy of the documentation tomorrow." See
SNARF.
GONK /gonk/ vt.,n. 1. To prevaricate or to embellish the truth beyond any
reasonable recognition. In German the term is (fictively)
"GONKEN", in spanish the verb becomes "GONKAR." "You're
gonking me. That story you just told me is a bunch of gonk." In
German, "Du Gonkst mir." (You're pulling my leg.) See also
GONKULATOR. 2. [British] To grab some sleep at an odd time.
GONKULATOR /gon'kyoo-lay-tr/ [from the old "Hogan's Heroes" TV
series] n. A pretentious piece of equipment that actually serves no
useful purpose. Usually used to describe one's least favorite
piece of computer hardware. See GONK.
GONZO /gon'zo/ [from Hunter S. Thompson] adj. Overwhelming;
outrageous; over the top; very large, esp. used of collections of
source code, source files or individual functions. Has some of the
connotations of MOBY and HAIRY, q.v.
GOOD THING adj. Always capitalized. 1. Self-evidently wonderful to
anyone in a position to notice: "The Trailblazer's 19.2Kbaud PEP
mode with on-the-fly Lempel-Ziv compression is a Good Thing for
sites relaying netnews." 2. Something which can't possibly have
any ill side effects and may save considerable grief later:
"Removing the self-modifying code from that shared library would
be a Good Thing." 3. When said of software tools or libraries, as
in "YACC is a Good Thing", specifically connotes that the thing
has drastically reduced a programmer's work load. Oppose BAD
THING.
GORILLA ARM n. The side-effect that destroyed touch-screens as a
mainstream input technology despite a promising start in the early
eighties. It seems the designers of all those SPIFFY touch-menu
systems failed to notice that humans aren't designed to hold their
arms in front of their faces making small motions. After more than
a very few selects the arm begins to feel sore, cramped, and
oversized, hence "gorilla arm". This is now considered a classic
Horrible Example and cautionary tale to human-factors designers;
"remember the gorilla arm" is shorthand for "how's this gonna
fly in *real* use?"
GORP /gorp/ [CMU, perhaps from a brand of dried hiker's food?]
Another metasyntactic variable, like FOO and BAR.
GOSMACS /goz'maks/ [contraction of "Gosling Emacs"] n. The first
EMACS-in-C implementation, predating but now largely eclipsed by
GNUMACS (q.v.). Originally freeware; a commercial version is now
modestly popular as "UniPress Emacs".
GOSPERISM /goss'p@r'iz'm/ A hack, invention, or saying by
arch-hacker R. William (Bill) Gosper. This notion merits its own
term because there are so many of them. Many of the entries in
HAKMEM are Gosperisms; see also LIFE.
GRAULT /grawlt/ n. Yet another meta-syntactic variable, invented by
Mike Gallaher and propagated by the GOSMACS documentation. See
CORGE.
GRAY GOO n. A hypothetical substance composed of billions of
sub-micron-sized Von Neumann machines (self-replicating robots)
programmed to make copies of themselves out of whatever is
available. The image that goes with the term is one of the entire
biosphere of Earth being eventually converted to robot goo. This
is the simplest of the NANOTECHNOLOGY (q.v.) disaster scenarios and
is easuky refuted by arguments from energy requirements and
elemental abundances.
GREAT RENAMING n. The FLAG DAY on which all of the groups on the
USENET had their names changed from the net.* format to the current
multiple-hierarchies scheme.
GREAT-WALL [from SF fandom] vi.,n. A mass expedition to an oriental
restaurant, esp. one where food is seved family-style and shared.
There is a common heuristic about the amount of food to order
expressed as "For N people, get N - 1 entrees.". See ORIENTAL
FOOD, RAVS, STIR-FRIED RANDOM.
GREEN BOOK n. 1. The X/Open Compatibility Guide. Defines an
international standard UNIX environment that is a proper superset
of POSIX/SVID; also includes descriptions of a standard utility
toolkit, systems administrations features, and the like. This
grimoire is taken with particular seriousness in Europe. See
PURPLE BOOK. 2. One of the three standard PostScript references
(see also RED BOOK, BLUE BOOK). 3. The P1003.1 POSIX Utilities
standard has been dubbed THE UGLY GREEN BOOK. 4. Any of the 1992
standards which will be issued by the CCIT 10th plenary assembly.
They change color each review cycle (1984 was RED BOOK, 1988 BLUE
BOOK). These include, among other things, the X.400 email spec and
the Group 1 through 4 fax standards. See also BLUE BOOK, RED BOOK,
GREEN BOOK, SILVER BOOK, PURPLE BOOK, ORANGE BOOK, WHITE BOOK,
DRAGON BOOK, PINK-SHIRT BOOK.
GREEN LIGHTNING [IBM] n. Apparently random flashing streaks on the
face of 3278-9 terminals while a programmable symbol set is being
loaded. This hardware bug was left deliberately unfixed, as some
bright spark suggested that this would let the user know that
`something is happening'. It certainly does. 2. [proposed] Any bug
perverted into an alleged feature by adroit rationalization or
marketing. E.g. "Motorola calls the CISC cruft in the 8800
architecture `compatibility logic', but I call it green
lightning".
GREP /grep/ [from the qed/ed editor idiom g/re/p (Global search for
Regular Expression and Print) via UNIX grep(1)] vt. To rapidly scan
a file or file set looking for a particular string or pattern. By
extension, to look for something by pattern. "Grep the bulletin
board for the system backup schedule, would you?"
GRIND vt. 1. [MIT and Berkeley] To format code, especially LISP code,
by indenting lines so that it looks pretty. This usage was
associated with the MACLISP community and is now rare; PRETTY PRINT
was and is the generic term for such operations. 2. [UNIX] To
generate the formatted version of a document from the nroff, troff,
TeX or Scribe source. 3. To run seemingly interminably, performing
some tedious and inherently useless task. Similar to CRUNCH,
GROVEL. 3. GRIND GRIND excl. "Isn't the machine slow today!"
GRIND CRANK n. A mythical accessory to a terminal. A crank on the
side of a monitor, which when operated makes a zizzing noise and
causes the computer to run faster. Usually one does not refer to a
grind crank out loud, but merely makes the appropriate gesture and
noise. See GRIND, and WUGGA WUGGA.
Historical note: At least one real machine actually had a grind
crank --- the R1, a research machine built towards the the end of
the great days of vacuum tube computers in 1959. R1 (also known as
"The Rice Institute Computer" - TRIC, and later as "The Rice
University Computer" - TRUC) had a single step/free run switch for
use when debugging programs. Since single stepping through a large
program was rather tedious, there was also a crank with a cam and
gear arrangement that repeatedly pushed the single step button.
This allowed one to "crank" through a lot of code, then slow down
to single step a bit when you got near the code of interest, poke
at some registers using the "console typewriter", and then keep on
cranking.
GRITCH /grich/ 1. n. A complaint (often caused by a GLITCH (q.v.)).
2. vi. To complain. Often verb-doubled: "Gritch gritch". 3. A
synonym for GLITCH (as verb or noun).
GROK /grok/ [from the novel "Stranger in a Strange Land", by Robert
Heinlein, where it is a Martian verb meaning literally "to drink"
and metaphorically "to be one with"] vt. 1. To understand,
usually in a global sense. Connotes intimate and exhaustive
knowledge. Contrast ZEN, similar supernal understanding as a
single brief flash. 2. Used of programs, may connote merely
sufficient understanding, e.g., "Almost all C compilers grok void
these days."
GRONK /gronk/ [popularized by the cartoon strip "B.C." by Johnny
Hart, but the word apparently predates that] vt. 1. To clear the
state of a wedged device and restart it. More severe than "to
frob" (q.v.). 2. To break. "The teletype scanner was gronked,
so we took the system down." 3. GRONKED: adj. Of people, the
condition of feeling very tired or sick. Oppose BROKEN, which
means about the same as GRONK used of hardware but connotes
depression or mental/emotional problems in people. 4. GRONK OUT:
vi. To cease functioning. Of people, to go home and go to sleep.
"I guess I'll gronk out now; see you all tomorrow."
GROVEL vi. 1. To work interminably and without apparent progress.
Often used transitively with "over" or "through". "The file
scavenger has been grovelling through the file directories for ten
minutes now." Compare GRIND and CRUNCH. Emphatic form: GROVEL
OBSCENELY. 2. To examine minutely or in complete detail. "The
compiler grovels over the entire source program before beginning to
translate it." "I grovelled through all the documentation, but I
still couldn't find the command I wanted."
GRUNGE [Cambridge] n. Code which is `dead' (can never be accessed) due
to changes in other parts of the program.
GRUNGY /gruhn'jee/ adj. Incredibly dirty, greasy, or grubby. Anything
which has been washed within the last year is not really grungy.
Also used metaphorically; hence some programs (especially crocks)
can be described as grungy. Now (1990) also common in mainstream
slang.
GUBBISH /guh'bish/ [a portmanteau of "garbage" and "rubbish"?] n.
Garbage; crap; nonsense. "What is all this gubbish?"
GUILTWARE n. FREEWARE decorated with a message telling one how long
and hard the author worked on this program and intimating that one
is a no-good shit if one does not immediately send the poor
suffering martyr gobs of money.
GUMBY /guhm'bee/ [from a class of Monty Python characters] n. An act
of minor but conspicuous stupidity, often in GUMBY MANEUVER or PULL
A GUMBY.
GUN [from the GUN command on ITS] vt. To forcibly terminate a program
or job (computer, not career). "Some idiot left a background
process running soaking up half the cycles, so I gunned it."
Compare CAN.
GURFLE /ger'fl/ interj. An expression of shocked disbelief. "He said
we have to recode this thing in FORTRAN by next week. Gurfle!"
Compare WEEBLE.
GURU n. 1. A UNIX expert. Implies not only WIZARD skill but a history
of being a knowledge resource for others. Less often, used (with a
qualifier) for other experts on other systems, as in "VMS guru".
2. Amiga equivalent of "panic" in UNIX. When the system crashes a
cryptic message "GURU MEDITATION #XXXXXXXX.YYYYYYYY" appears,
indicating what the problem was. An Amiga guru can figure things
out from the numbers. Generally a GURU event must be followed by a
VULCAN NERVE PINCH.
{= H =}
H INFIX [from SF fandom] A method of "marking" common words in the
linguist's sense, i.e. calling attention to the fact that they are
being used in a nonstandard, ironic or humorous way. Orig. in the
fannish catchphrase "Bheer is the One True Ghod" from decades
ago. H-infix marking of "Ghod" and other words spread into the
Sixties counterculture via underground comix, and into early
hackerdom either from the counterculture or SF fandom (all three
overlapped heavily at the time). More recently, the h infix has
become an expected feature of benchmark names, i.e. Whetstone,
Dhrystone, Rhealstone, etc; this is prob. patterning on the
original Whetstone name but influenced by the
fannish/counterculture H infix.
HA HA ONLY SERIOUS [from SF fandom, orig. as mutation of HHOK, "Ha Ha
Only Kidding"] A phrase that aptly captures the flavor of much
hacker discourse (often seen abbreviated as HHOS). Applied
especially to parodies, absurdities and ironic jokes that are both
intended and perceived to contain a possibly disquieting amount of
truth, or truths which are constructed on in-joke and self-parody.
The jargon file contains many examples of ha-ha-only-serious in
both form and content. Indeed, the entirety of hacker culture is
often perceived as ha-ha-only-serious by hackers themselves; to
take it either too lightly or too seriously marks a person as an
outsider or one in LARVAL STAGE. For further enlightenment on this
subject, consult any Zen master. See also HUMOR, HACKER and AI
KOANS.
HACK 1. n. Originally a quick job that produces what is needed, but
not well. 2. n. An incredibly good, and perhaps very
time-consuming, piece of work that produces exactly what is needed.
3. The result of a hack (sense 1 or 2); 3. NEAT HACK: A clever
technique. Also, a brilliant practical joke, where neatness is
correlated with cleverness, harmlessness, and surprise value.
Example: the Caltech Rose Bowl card display switch circa 1961. 4.
REAL HACK: A crock (occasionally affectionate). vt. 5. With
"together", to throw something together so it will work. 6. To
bear emotionally or physically. "I can't hack this heat!" 7. To
work on something (typically a program). In specific sense: "What
are you doing?" "I'm hacking TECO." In general sense: "What
do you do around here?" "I hack TECO." (The former is
time-immediate, the latter time-extended.) More generally, "I
hack x" is roughly equivalent to "x is my major interest (or
project)". "I hack solid-state physics." 8. To pull a prank
on. See definition 3 and HACKER (def #6). 9. v.i. To waste time
(as opposed to TOOL). "Watcha up to?" "Oh, just hacking."
10. HACK UP (ON): To hack, but generally implies that the result is
meanings 1-2. 11. [UNIX] A dungeon game similar to ROGUE (q.v.)
but more elaborate, distributed in C source over USENET and very
popular at UNIX sites and on PC-class machines. Recent versions
are called `nethack'. HAPPY HACKING: A farewell. HOW'S HACKING?:
A friendly greeting among hackers. HACK HACK: A somewhat pointless
but friendly comment, often used as a temporary farewell. For more
on the meaning of HACK, see Appendix A.
HACK ATTACK n. Nearly synonymous with HACKING RUN (q.v.) though the
latter implies an all-nighter more strongly.
HACK VALUE n. Often adduced as the reason or motivation for expending
effort toward a seemingly useless goal, the point being that the
accomplished goal is a hack. For example, MacLISP has features for
reading and printing roman numerals, which was installed purely for
hack value. As a musician once said of jazz, if you don't
understand hack value there is no way it can be explained.
HACKER [originally, someone who makes furniture with an axe] n. 1. A
person who enjoys learning the details of programming systems and
how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users who
prefer to learn only the minimum necessary. 2. One who programs
enthusiastically, or who enjoys programming rather than just
theorizing about programming. 3. A person capable of appreciating
HACK VALUE (q.v.). 4. A person who is good at programming quickly.
Not everything a hacker produces is a hack. 5. An expert at a
particular program, or one who frequently does work using it or on
it; example: "A UNIX hacker". (Definitions 1 to 5 are
correlated, and people who fit them congregate.) 6. An expert of
any kind. One might be an astronomy hacker, for example. 7.
(deprecated) A malicious or inquisitive meddler who tries to
discover information by poking around. Hence "password hacker",
"network hacker". See CRACKER.
HACK MODE n. 1. What one is in when hacking, of course. 2. More
specifically, a Zen-like state of total focus on The Problem which
may be achieved when one is hacking. Ability to enter such
concentration at will correlates strongly with wizardliness; it is
one of the most important skills learned during LARVAL STAGE.
Sometimes amplified as "deep hack mode". Being yanked out of hack
mode (see PRIORITY INTERRUPT) may be experienced as an almost
physical shock, and the sensation of being in it is more than a
little habituating. The intensity of this experience is probably
by itself sufficient explanation for the existence of hackers, and
explains why many resist being promoted out of positions where they
can do code.
HACKING RUN [analogy with `bombing run' or `speed run'] n. A hack
session extended long outside `normal' working times, especially
one longer than 12 hours. May cause you to CHANGE PHASE THE HARD
WAY (see PHASE).
HACKISH /hak'ish/ adj. (also HACKISHNESS n.) 1. Being or involving a
hack. 2. Of or pertaining to hackers or the hacker subculture. See
also TRUE-HACKER. It is better to be described as hackish by others
than to describe oneself that way. Hackers consider themselves
somewhat of an elite, though one to which new members are gladly
welcome. It is a meritocracy based on ability. There is a certain
self-satisfaction in identifying yourself as a hacker (but if you
claim to be one and are not, you'll quickly be labelled BOGUS).
HACKISHNESS, HACKITUDE n. The quality of being or involving a hack.
(The word HACKITUDE is considered silly; the standard term is
HACKISHNESS.)
HAIR n. The complications which make something hairy. "Decoding TECO
commands requires a certain amount of hair." Often seen in the
phrase INFINITE HAIR, which connotes extreme complexity. Also in
HAIRIFEROUS (tending to promote hair growth): "GNU elisp
encourages lusers to write complex editing modes." "Yeah, it's
pretty hairiferous all right." (or just: "Hair squared!")
HAIRY adj. 1. Overly complicated. "DWIM is incredibly hairy." 2.
Incomprehensible. "DWIM is incredibly hairy." 3. Of people,
high-powered, authoritative, rare, expert, and/or incomprehensible.
Hard to explain except in context: "He knows this hairy lawyer who
says there's nothing to worry about."
HAKMEM /hak'mem/ n. MIT AI Memo 239 (February 1972). A legendary
collection of neat mathematical and programming hacks contributed
by many people at MIT and elsewhere. (The title of the memo really
is "HAKMEM", which is an acronym of sorts for "hacks memo".)
Some of them are very useful techniques or powerful theorems, but
most fall into the category of mathematical and computer trivia. A
sampling of the entries (with authors), slightly paraphrased:
Item 41 (Gene Salamin) There are exactly 23,000 prime numbers less
than 2 to the 18th power.
Item 46 (Rich Schroeppel) The most *probable* suit distribution in
bridge hands is 4-4-3-2, as compared to 4-3-3-3, which is the most
*evenly* distributed. This is because the world likes to have
unequal numbers: a thermodynamic effect saying things will not be
in the state of lowest energy, but in the state of lowest
disordered energy.
Problem 81 (Rich Schroeppel) Count the magic squares of order 5
(that is, all the 5-by-5 arrangements of the numbers from 1 to 25
such that all rows, columns, and diagonals add up to the same
number). There are about 320 million, not counting those that
differ only by rotation and reflection.
Item 174 (Bill Gosper and Stuart Nelson) 21963283741 is the only
number such that if you represent it on the PDP-10 as both an
integer and a floating-point number, the bit patterns of the two
representations are identical.
HAKMEM also contains some rather more complicated mathematical and
technical items, but these examples show some of its fun flavor.
HAND-HACKING n. 1. The practice of translating HOT SPOTS from an HLL
into custom hand-optimized assembler, as opposed to trying to
coerce the compiler into generating better code. Both the term and
the practice are becoming uncommon. See TUNE, BUM; syn. with v.
CRUFT. 2. More generally, manual construction or patching of data
sets that would normally be ground out by a translation utility and
interpreted by another program, and aren't really designed to be
read or modified by humans.
HANDWAVE 1. v. To gloss over a complex point; to distract a listener;
to support a (possibly actually valid) point with blatantly faulty
logic. If someone starts a sentence with "Clearly..." or
"Obviously..." or "It is self-evident that...", you can be
sure he is about to handwave. The theory behind this term is that
if you wave your hands at the right moment, the listener may be
sufficiently distracted to not notice that what you have said is
BOGUS. Alternatively, if a listener does object, you might try to
dismiss the objection with a wave of your hand. 2. n. The act of
handwaving. "Boy, what a handwave!" The use of this word is
often accompanied by gestures: both hands up, palms forward,
swinging the hands in a vertical plane pivoting at the elbows
and/or shoulders (depending on the magnitude of the handwave);
alternatively, holding the forearms still while rotating the hands
at the wrist to make them flutter. In context, the gestures alone
can suffice as a remark; if a speaker makes an outrageous
unsupported assumption, you might simply wave your hands in this
way, as an accusation more eloquent than words could express that
his logic is faulty
HANG v. 1. To wait for some event to occur; to hang around until
something happens. "The program displays a menu and then hangs
until you type a character." 2. More commonly, to wait for an
event that will never occur. "The system is hanging because it
can't read from the crashed drive". See WEDGED.
HANLON'S RAZOR n. A "murphyism" parallel 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 similar epigram has been attributed to William 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 experience of environments created by
the well-intentioned but shortsighted.
HARDWARILY /hard-weir'i-lee/ adv. In a way pertaining to hardware.
"The system is hardwarily unreliable." The adjective
"hardwary" is *not* used. See SOFTWARILY.
HAS THE X NATURE [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 embedded in it
truly has the LOSER nature!"
HASH COLLISION [from the technical usage] n. 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 with a friend about to move out to
Berkeley. 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." The variant "hash clash" is also reported.
HCF /aych-see-eff/ 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 as the IBM 360.
The MC6800 microprocessor 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 can; in some
configurations this can actually cause lines to burn up.
HEARTBEAT n. 1. The master clock signal propagated across an Ethernet;
by extension, the time-baseline synchronization signal at the
physical level of any network. 2. The `natural' oscillation
frequency of a computer's clock crystal, before frequency division
down to the machine's CLOCK RATE.
HEAVY METAL [Cambridge] n. Syn. with BIG IRON (q.v).
HEAVY WIZARDRY n. Code or designs which 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 *theoretical* knowledge.
Writing device drivers is heavy wizardry; so is interfacing to X
(sense #2) without a toolkit. Esp. found in comments of the form
"Heavy wizardry begins here...".
HEISENBUG /hie'sen-buhg/ [from Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle
quantum physics] n. A bug which disappears or alters its behavior
when one attempts to probe or isolate it. Antonym of BOHR BUG
(q.v.). In C, 9 out of 10 heisenbugs result from either FANDANGO ON
CORE phenomena (esp. lossage related to corruption of the malloc
ARENA) or errors which SMASH THE STACK.
HELEN KELLER MODE n. State of a hardware or software system which 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 Helen Keller, whose success
at learning speech was triumphant.) See also GO FLATLINE.
HELLO SAILOR! interj. Occasional West Coast equivalent of `Hello,
world!'; seems to have originated at SAIL, later associated with
the game ZORK. See HELLO WORLD.
HELLO WALL! excl. See WALL.
HELLO WORLD! interj. 1. The canonical minimal test message in the
C/UNIX universe. In folklore, the first program a C coder is
supposed to write in a new environment is one that just prints
"Hello, world!" to standard output. 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 LOSE. 2. Greeting uttered by a hacker making an
entrance or requesting information from anyone present. "Hello,
world! Is the VAX back up yet?"
HIGH BIT n. 1. See META BIT. Also meaning most significant part of
something other than a data byte, e.g. "Spare me the whole saga,
just give me the high bit."
HIGH MOBY /hie mohb'ee/ n. The high half of a stock PDP-10's 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 D.C Area Science Fiction Conclave
(DISCLAVE) when a miscommunication resulted in two separate @-SIGN
PARTIES 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. All parties involved grokked this
instantly. See MOBY in main text and Appendix B.
HIRSUTE adj. Occasionally used humorously as a synonym for HAIRY.
HLL /aych-el-el/ 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 = `Very-High-Level
Language' and is used to describe a BONDAGE-AND-DISCIPLINE LANGUAGE
that the speaker happens to like; Prolog and Backus's FP are often
called VHLLs. `MLL' = `Medium-Level Language' and is sometimes used
half-jokingly to describe C, alluding to its `structured-assembler'
image. See also LANGUAGES OF CHOICE.
HOG n.,v. Favored term to describe programs or hardware which seem to
eat far more than their share of a system's resources, esp. those
which noticeably degrade general timesharing response. *Not* used
of programs which are simply extremely large or complex or which
are merely painfully 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". Example: "A
controller that never gives up the I/O bus gets killed after the
bus hog timer expires."
HOLY WARS [from USENET, but may predate it] n. FLAME WARS over
RELIGIOUS ISSUES. The 1980 paper by Danny Cohen that popularized
the terms BIG-ENDIAN and LITTLE-ENDIAN in connection with the
LSB-first/MSB-first controversy was entitled "On Holy Wars and a
Plea for Peace". Other perennial Holy Wars have included: EMACS vs.
VI, <my personal computer> vs. <everyone else's personal computer>,
UNIX vs. VMS, BSD UNIX vs. AT&T UNIX, C vs. Pascal, etc. etc. etc.
The characteristic that distinguishes HOLY WARS from normal
technical disputes is that (regardless of the technical merits of
the case on either side) most participants spend their time trying
to pass off personal value choices and cultural attachments as
objective technical evaluations.
HOOK n. An extraneous piece of software or hardware included in order
to simplify later additions or changes by a user. For instance, a
program might execute a location that is normally a JFCL, but by
changing the JFCL to a PUSHJ one can insert a debugging routine at
that point. As another example, a simple program that prints
numbers might always print them in base ten, but a more flexible
version would let a variable determine what base to use; setting
the variable to 5 would make the program print numbers in base
five. 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 as the address of a
user-supplied routine for printing a number. This is a very
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 good
program and a superb one is that the 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.
HOME BOX n. A hacker's personal machine, especially one he owns.
"Yeah? Well, *my* home box runs a full 4.2BSD, so there!"
HOSE 1. v. To make non-functional or greatly degraded in performance,
as in "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 in a system that represent
performance bottlenecks. 3. Cabling, especially thick Ethernet
cable. This is sometimes called "bit hose" or "hosery" (play
on "hosiery"). See also WASHING MACHINES.
HOSED adj. Same as DOWN. Used primarily by UNIX hackers. Humorous:
also implies a condition thought to be relatively easy to reverse.
Probably a back-formation from the Canadian slang `hoser'
popularized by the Bob and Doug skits on SCTV. See HOSE.
There is a story that a Cray which had been experiencing periodic
difficulties once CRASHED, and it was announced to have been HOSED.
It was discovered that the crash was due to the disconnection of
some coolant hoses. The problem was connected, and users were then
assured that everything was OK because the system had been rehosed.
[This is an excellent example of hackish wordplay --- ESR].
HOT SPOT n. 1. [primarily C/UNIX programmers, but spreading] n. 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
would typically see a few huge spikes amidst a lot of low-level
noise. Such spikes are called "hot spots" and are good candidates
for micro-optimization or HAND-HACKING. The term is especially used
of tight loops and recursions in the code's central algorithm, as
opposed to (say) initial set-up costs or large but 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."
HOUSE WIZARD [prob. from ad-agency lingo, cf. `house freak'] n. A lone
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 ostensible rank and
still not have to wear a suit. Used esp. of UNIX experts. The
term HOUSE GURU is equivalent.
HP-SUX /aych pee suhx/ n. Unflattering hackerism for HP-UX,
Hewlett-Packard's UNIX port. Features some truly unique bogosities
in the filesystem internals and elsewhere that occasionally create
portability problems. HP-UX is often referred to as "hockey-pux"
inside HP, and one outside correspondent claims that the proper
pronunciation is /aych-pee ukkkhhhh/ as though one were spitting.
See also TELERAT, SUN-STOOLS, TERMINAK.
HUMMA 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 System (MTS) a now-defunct
educational time-sharing system running in Michigan during the
1970s and early '80s, but was later sighted on early UNIX systems.
HUMONGOUS /hyoo-mohng'gus/ alt. HUMUNGOUS (hyoo-muhng'gus) See HUNGUS.
HUMOR, HACKER n. A distinctive style of shared intellectual humor
found among hackers, having the following marked characteristics:
1) Fascination with form-vs.-content jokes, paradoxes, and humor
having to do with confusion of metalevels (see META). One way to
make a hacker laugh: hold an index card in front of him/her with
"THIS IS GREEN" written on it in bold red ink, or vice-versa
(note, however, that this is only funny the first time).
2) Elaborate deadpan parodies of large intellectual constructs such
as standards documents, language descriptions (see INTERCAL) and
even entire scientific theories (see QUANTUM BOGODYNAMICS,
COMPUTRON).
3) Jokes which involve screwily precise reasoning from bizarre,
ludicrous or just grossly counter-intuitive premises.
4) Fascination with 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, Charlie Chaplin movies, the B-52s,
and Monty Python's Flying Circus. Humor which combines 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,
DISCORDIANISM, ZEN, HA HA ONLY SERIOUS, AI KOANS.
See also FILK, COMPUTER; RETROCOMPUTING; and Appendix C.
If you have an itchy feeling that all six of these traits are
really aspects of one thing that is incredibly difficult to talk
about exactly, you are a) correct and b) responding like a hacker.
These traits are also recognizable (though in a less marked form)
throughout SCIENCE-FICTION FANDOM.
HUNG [from "hung up"] adj. Equivalent to WEDGED, q.v. but more
common at UNIX/C sites. Not generally used of people. Syn. with
LOCKED UP, WEDGED; compare HOSED.
HUNGUS /hung'ghis/ [perhaps related to current slang "humongous";
which one came first (if either) is unclear] adj. Large, unwieldy,
usually unmanageable. "TCP is a hungus piece of code." "This
is a hungus set of modifications."
HYPERSPACE (hie'per-spays) n. A memory location within a virtual
memory machine that is many, many megabytes (or gigabytes) away
from where the program counter should be pointing, usually
inaccessible because it is not even mapped in. "Another core
dump... looks like the program jumped off to hyperspace somehow."
{= I =}
IBM /ie bee em/ 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 Machines". See TLA.
These abbreviations illustrate the considerable antipathy most
hackers have long felt for the "industry leader" (see FEAR AND
LOATHING). What galls hackers about most IBM machines above the PC
level isn't so much that they're underpowered and overpriced
(though that counts against them) 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
them. With the release of the UNIX-based RIOS 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 marked `IBM'; these derive
from a rampantly unofficial jargon list circulated among IBM's own
beleaguered hacker underground.
ICE [from William Gibson's cyberpunk SF: notionally, "Intrusion
Countermeasure Electronics"] Security software (in Gibson's
original, software that responds to intrusion by attempting to
literally kill the intruder). Also, ICEBREAKER: a program designed
for cracking security on a system. Neither term is in serious use
yet as of 1990, but many hackers find the metaphor attractive and
they may be in the near future.
ILL-BEHAVED adj. 1. [numerical analysis] Said of an algorithm or
computational method that tends to blow up due to accumulated
roundoff error or poor convergence properties. 2. Software which
bypasses the defined OS interfaces to do things (like screen,
keyboard and disk I/O) 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 the effect that
(due to gross inadequacies and performance penalties in the OS
interface) all interesting applications are ill-behaved. Oppose
WELL-BEHAVED, compare PC-ISM. See MESS-DOS.
IMHO [from SF fandom via USENET] Written acronym for In My Humble
Opinion. Example: "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."
INCANTATION n. Any particularly arbitrary or obscure command that must
be muttered 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 they must be learned from a
WIZARD. E.g. "This compiler normally locates initialized data in
the data segment, but if you mutter the right incantation they will
be forced into text space". See MUTTER.
INFINITE adj. Consisting of a large number of objects; extreme. Used
very loosely as in: "This program produces infinite garbage."
"He is an infinite loser." This is an abuse of the word's
mathematical meaning.
INFINITY 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. Note that
this is different from TIME T EQUALS MINUS INFINITY, which is
closer to a mathematician's usage of infinity.
INFANT MORTALITY 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 mechanical wear in I/O devices and thermal-cycling stress in
components has accumulated enough 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 (or, occasionally, as "sudden
infant death syndrome").
INTERCAL /in'tr-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 languages in all ways but one; it
is purely a written language, being totally unspeakable. An
excerpt from the INTERCAL Reference Manual will make the style of
the language clear. In most languages, if you wanted the variable
A to have the value 65536, you would write something like
LET A = 65536;
The INTERCAL Reference Manual, however, explains that "It is a
well-known and oft-demonstrated fact that a person whose work is
incomprehensible is held in high esteem. For example, if 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 simplest method, the programmer would be made to look
foolish in front of his boss, who would of course 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 peculiar features designed to make it even more
unspeakable. The Woods/Lyons implementation was actually used by
many (well, at least several) people at Princeton. The language
has been recently re-implemented as C-INTERCAL and is consequently
enjoying an unprecedented level of unpopularity; there is even an
alt.lang.intercal newsgroup devoted to the study and ...
appreciation of the language on USENET.
INTERESTING adj. In hacker parlance, this word is not simply
synonymous with "intriguing", but has strong connotations of
"annoying", or "difficult", or both. Hackers relish a
challenge. Oppose UNININTERESTING.
INTERNET ADDRESS n. An `absolute' network address of the form
foo@bar.baz, where foo is a user name, bar is a SITENAME (q.v.),
and baz is a `domain' name, possibly including periods itself.
Contrasts with BANG PATH, q.v.; see also NETWORK, THE and NETWORK
ADDRESS. All 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.
INTERRUPT interj. 1. On a computer, an event which interrupts normal
processing and temporarily diverts flow-of-control through an
"interrupt handler" routine. See also TRAP. 2. A request for
attention from a hacker. Often explicitly spoken. "Interrupt ---
have you seen Joe recently?". See PRIORITY INTERRUPT.
INTERRUPTS LOCKED OUT adj. When someone is ignoring you. In a
restaurant, after several fruitless attempts to get the waitress's
attention, a hacker might well observe that "She must have
interrupts locked out." Variations of this abound; "to have one's
interrupt mask bit set" is also heard.
IRON n. Hardware, especially older/larger hardware of mainframe class
with big metal cabinets housing relatively low-density electronics
(but also used of modern supercomputers). Often in the phrase BIG
IRON. Oppose SILICON. See also DINOSAUR.
IRON BOX [UNIX/Internet] n. A special environment set up to trap a
CRACKER logging in over remote or network connections long enough
so he can be traced. May include a specially-gimmicked SHELL
restricting the hacker's movements in unobvious ways, and `bait'
files designed to keep him interested and logged on. See also BACK
DOOR, FIREWALL, VENUS FLYTRAP.
IRONMONGER [IBM] n. A hardware specialist. Derogatory. Compare
SANDBENDER, POLYGON PUSHER.
ITS /ie-tee-ess/ n. Incompatible Time-Sharing System, an influential
but highly idiosyncratic operating system written for PDP-10s at
MIT and long used at the MIT AI lab; much AI-hacker slang derives
from ITS folklore. After about 1982 most actual work was shifted
to newer machines, with the remaining ITS boxes run 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. The Royal
Institute of Technology in Sweden is maintaing one `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. See Appendix B.
IWBNI [acronym] It Would Be Nice If. No pronunciation, as this is
never spoken, only written. Compare WIBNI.
IYFEG [USENET] Abbreviation for "Insert Your Favourite Ethnic
Group". Used as a meta-name when telling racist jokes in email to
avoid offending anyone.
{= J =}
J. RANDOM /jay rand'm/ n. [generalized from J. RANDOM HACKER, q.v.]
Arbitrary; ordinary; any one; "any old". "Would you let J.
Random Loser marry your daughter?". See RANDOM.
J. RANDOM HACKER /jay rand'm hak'r/ n. A mythical figure like the
Unknown Soldier; the archetypal hacker nerd. See RANDOM, LITTLE
SUZIE COBOL.
JAGGIES /jag'eez/ n. The `stairstep' effect observable when an edge
(esp. a linear edge of slope far from a multiple of 45 degrees) is
rendered on a pixel device (as opposed to a vector display).
JIFFY n. 1. The width of one tick of the system clock on the computer
(see TICK). Often 1 AC cycle time (1/60 second in the U.S. and
1/50 elsewhere) but more recently 1/100 sec has become common. 2.
Confusingly, the term is sometimes also used for a 1-millisecond
WALL TIME interval. "The swapper runs every six jiffies" means
that the virtual memory management routine is executed once for
every six ticks of the clock, or about ten times a second. 3.
Indeterminate time from a few seconds to forever. "I'll do it in a
jiffy" means certainly not now and possibly never. This is a bit
contrary to the more widespread use of the word.
JOCK n. 1. 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 `systems jock' seem to be the best
established examples of this.
JOE CODE /joh kohd/ [said to commemmorate a notoriously bad coder
named Joe at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory] n. Badly written,
possibly buggy source code. "Perl may be a handy program, but if
you look at the source, it's complete joe code." Correspondents
wishing to remain anonymous have fingered a particular Joe and
observed that usage has drifted slightly; they described his code
as "overly TENSE and unmaintainable".
{= K =}
KAHUNA /k@-hoo'nuh/ [IBM, from the Hawaiian title for a shaman] n.
Synonym for WIZARD, GURU (q.v.).
KEN /ken/ n. A flaming user. This noun was in use by the Software
Support group at Symbolics because the two greatest flamers in the
user community were both named Ken.
KGBVAX /kay-jee-bee-vaks/ n. See KREMVAX
KILL FILE [USENET] n. Per-user file used by some USENET reading
programs to discard summarily (without presenting for reading)
articles which match some particularly uninteresting (or unwanted)
patterns of subject, author, or 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 your newsreader in future. By extension,
it may be used for a decision to ignore the person or subject in
other media.
KILLER MICRO [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 the downsizers. Used
esp. of RISC architectures.
KILLER POKE n. A recipe for inducing hardware damage on a machine via
insertion of invalid values in a memory-mapped control register;
used esp. of various fairly well-known tricks on MMU-less BITTY
BOXES like the IBM PC and Commodore PET that can overload and trash
analog electronics in the monitor. See also HCF.
KLUGE /klooj/ alt. KLUDGE /kluhj/ [from the German "klug", clever]
(`klooj' is the original pronunciation, more common in the US;
`kluhj' is reported more common in England). n. 1. A Rube Goldberg
(or Heath Robinson) device in hardware or software. (A long-ago
Datamation article said: "An ill-assorted collection of poorly
matching parts, forming a distressing whole.") 2. n. A 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. 3. Something
that works for the wrong reason. 4. v. 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." Also KLUGE UP. 5. KLUGE
AROUND: To avoid by inserting a kluge. 6. [WPI] A feature which
is implemented in a RUDE manner.
KNIGHTS OF THE LAMBDA CALCULUS 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 list and the criteria for
induction are unclear, but one well-known LISPer has been known to
give out buttons and, in general, the *members* know who they
are...
KREMVAX /krem-vaks/ [From the then large number of USENET VAXEN with
names of the form "foovax"] n. A fictitious USENET site at the
Kremlin, announced on April 1, 1984, in a posting ostensibly from
Soviet leader Konstantin Chernenko. The posting was actually
forged by Piet Beertema as an April Fool's joke. Other 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 April Fool's forgeries perpetrated on USENET
(which has negligible security against them), because the notion
that USENET might ever penetrate the Iron Curtain seemed so totally
absurd at the time. But in fact, the first genuine site in Moscow
(demos.su) joined USENET only 6 years later --- and some readers
needed convincing that it wasn't a hoax.
[Ed. note: Vadim Antonov (avg), the major poster from demos.su up
to at least the end of 1990, was well acquainted with the kremvax
hoax and referred to it in his own postings --- even to the extent
of twitting a number of credulous netters on alt.folklore.computers
by blandly "admitting" that *he* was a hoax! Mr. Antonov,
BTW, also contributed the Russian-language material for this File
--- ESR]
{= L =}
LACE CARD n. obs. A Hollerith card with all holes punched (also called
a WHOOPEE CARD). Card readers jammed when they got to one of
these, as the resulting card had too little structural strength to
avoid buckling inside the mechanism. When some practical joker fed
a LACE CARD through the reader you needed to clear the jam with a
card knife --- which you use on the joker first.
LANGUAGE LAWYER n. A person, usually an experienced or senior software
engineer, who is intimately familiar with many or most of the
numerous syntactic and semantic restrictions (both useful and
esoteric) applicable to one or more computer programming languages.
Compare WIZARD.
LANGUAGES OF CHOICE n. C or LISP. Essentially all hackers know one of
these and most good ones are fluent in both. Smalltalk and Prolog
are popular in small but influential communities. Assembler used
to be a language of choice, but is generally no longer considered
interesting or appropriate for anything but compiler code
generation and a few time-critical uses in systems programs.
LARVAL STAGE 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 other activities including
usual basics like food and sex, and a chronic case of advanced
bleary-eye. Can last from six months to two years, with the
apparent median being around eighteen months. A few so afflicted
never resume a more `normal' life, but the ordeal seems to be
necessary to produce really wizardly (as opposed to merely
competent) programmers. A less protracted and intense version of
larval stage (typically lasting about a month) may recur when
learning a new OS or programming language.
LASE /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." Compare DIABLO in Appendix B.
LASER CHICKEN n. Kung Pao Chicken, a standard Chinese dish containing
chicken, peanuts, and bell peppers in a spicy pepper-oil sauce. A
few hackers call it "laser chiicken" for two reasons; it can ZAP
you just like a laser, and the pepper-oil sauce has a red color
reminiscent of a laser beam.
LEAK 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, leading to eventual exhaustion as new
allocation requests come in. MEMORY LEAK and FD LEAK have their
own entries; one might also refer, say, to a "window handle leak"
in a window system.
LEAKY HEAP [Cambridge] n. Syn. MEMORY LEAK (q.v.).
LERP /lerp/ v.,n. Quasi-acronym for Linear Interpolation, used as a
verb or noun for the operation. Ex. Bresenham's algorithm lerps
incrementally between the two endpoints of the line.
LEXER /lek'sr/ n. Common hacker shorthand for "lexical analyzer",
the input-tokenizing stage in the parser for a language. "Some C
lexers get confused by the old-style compound ops like =-".
LIFE n. 1. A cellular-automata game invented by John Horton Conway,
and first introduced publicly by Martin Gardner (Scientific
American, October 1970). Many hackers pass through a stage of
fascination with it, and hackers at various places contributed
heavily to the mathematical analysis of this game (most notably
Bill Gosper at MIT; see GOSPERISM). When a hacker mentions
"life", he is much more likely to mean this game than the
magazine, the breakfast cereal, or the human state of existence.
2. The opposite of USENET. As in "Get a life!".
LIKE KICKING DEAD WHALES DOWN THE BEACH adj. A slow and disgusting
process. First popularized by a famous quote about the difficulty
of getting work done under one of IBM's mainframe OSs. "Well, you
*could* write a C compiler in COBOL, but it would be like kicking
dead whales down the beach."
LINE EATER, THE [USENET] n. 1. A bug in some now-obsolete versions of the
netnews software used to cause the first parts of articles to be
discarded under some circumstances. This bug was quickly
personified as a mythical creature called "the line eater", and
postings often included a dummy line of "line eater food". The
practice of "sacrificing to the line eater" continued for some
time after the bug had been NAILED TO THE WALL, and is still
humorously referred to. The bug itself is still (in mid-1990)
occasionally reported to be lurking in some mail-to-netnews
gateways. 2. The mythical NSA trawling program sometimes assumed
to be reading USENET for the U.S. Government's spooks. Some
netters put loaded phrases like `Uzi' `nuclear materials'
`Palestine' `cocaine' and `assassination' in their SIG BLOCKs in an
attempt to confuse and overload the creature.
LINE STARVE [MIT] 1. v. To feed the paper through the terminal the
wrong way by one line (most terminals can't do this!). On a
display terminal, to move the cursor up to the previous line of the
screen. Example: "To print X squared, you just output X, line
starve, 2, line feed." (The line starve causes the 2 to appear on
the line above the X, and the line feed gets back to the original
line.) 2. n. A "character" (or character sequence) that causes a
terminal to perform this action. Unlike "line feed", "line
starve" is *not* standard ASCII terminology. Even among hackers
it is considered a bit silly. 3. [proposed] A sequence like \c
(used in System V echo, as well as nroff/troff) which suppresses a
line feed that would normally implicitly be emitted.
LINK FARM [UNIX] n. A directory tree that contains many links to files
in another, master directory tree of files. Link farms save space
when maintaining several nearly identical copies of the same source
tree, e.g. when the only difference is architecture-dependent
object files. Example use: `Let's freeze the source and then
rebuild the FROBOZZ-3 and FROBOZZ-4 link farms.' Link farms may
also be used to get around restrictions on the number of -I
arguments on older C preprocessors.
LINT [from UNIX's lint(1), named perhaps for the bits of fluff it
picks from programs] v. To examine a program closely for style,
language usage, and portability problems, esp. if in C, esp. if via
use of automated analysis tools, most esp. if the UNIX utility
lint(1) is used. This term used to be restricted to use of lint(1)
itself but (judging by references on USENET) has become a shorthand
for `desk-check' at some non-UNIX shops, even in some languages
other than C. See also DELINT.
LION FOOD [IBM] n. Middle management or HQ staff (by extension,
administrative drones in general). From an old joke about two lions
who, escaping from the zoo, split up to increase their chances but
agreed to meet after two months. When they do meet, one is skinny
and the other overweight. The thin one says "How did you manage?
I ate a human just once and they turned out a small army to chase
me --- guns, nets, it was terrible. Since then I've been reduced to
eating mice, insects, even grass." The fat one replies "Well, *I*
hid near an IBM office and ate a manager a day. And nobody even
noticed!"
LISP n. The name of AI's mother tongue, a language based on the ideas
of 1) variable-length lists and trees as fundamental data types,
and 2) the interpretation of code as data and vice-versa. Invented
by John McCarthy at Stanford in the late 1950s, it is actually
older than any other HLL still in use except FORTRAN. Accordingly,
it has undergone considerable adaptive radiation over the years;
modern variants (of which Scheme is perhaps the most successful)
are quite different in detail from the original LISP 1.5 at
Stanford. The hands-down favorite of hackers until the early
1980s, LISP now shares the throne with C (q.v.). See LANGUAGES OF
CHOICE.
LITTLE-ENDIAN adj. Describes a computer architecture in which, within
a given 16- or 32-bit word, lower byte addresses have lower
significance (the word is stored `little-end-first'). The PDP-11
and VAX families of computers and Intel microprocessors and a lot
of communications and networking hardware are little-endian. See
BIG-ENDIAN, MIDDLE-ENDIAN.
LIVE FREE OR DIE! imp. 1. The state motto of New Hampshire. 2. A
slogan associated with UNIX in the romantic days when UNIX
aficionados saw themselves as a tiny, beleaguered underground
tilting against the windmills of industry. Armando Stettner, one of
the early UNIX developers, used to give out fake license plates
bearing this motto under a large UNIX, all in New Hampshire colors
of green and white. These are now valued collector's items.
LIVELOCK n. A situation in which some critical stage of a task is
unable to finish because its clients perpetually create more work
for it to do after they've been serviced but before it can clear.
Differs from DEADLOCK in that the process is not blocked or waiting
for anything, but has a virtually infinite amount of work to do and
accomplishes nothing.
LIVEWARE n. Synonym for WETWARE (q.v.) Less common.
LOCKED UP adj. Syn. for HUNG, WEDGED.
LOGIC BOMB n. Code surreptitiously inserted in an application or OS
which causes it to perform some destructive or
security-compromising activity whenever specified conditions are
met. Compare BACK DOOR.
LOGICAL [from the technical term "logical device", wherein a
physical device is referred to by an arbitrary name] adj.
Understood to have a meaning not necessarily corresponding to
reality. E.g., if a person who has long held a certain post (e.g.,
Les Earnest at SAIL) left and was replaced, the replacement would
for a while be known as the "logical Les Earnest". Compare
VIRTUAL, oppose PHYSICAL. This use of LOGICAL is an extension from
its technical use in computer science. A program can be written to
do input or output using a "logical device"; when the program is
run, the user can specify which "physical" (actual) device to use
for that logical device. For example, a program might write all
its error messages to a logical device called ERROR; the user can
then specify whether logical device ERROR should be associated to
the terminal, a disk file, or the BIT BUCKET (to throw the error
messages away). Perhaps the word "logical" is used because even
though a thing isn't the actual object in question, you can reason
logically about the thing as if it were the actual object.
At Stanford, "logical" compass directions denoted a coordinate
system in which "logical north" is toward San Francisco,
"logical west" is toward the ocean, etc., even though logical
north varies between physical (true) north near San Franscisco and
physical west near San Jose. (The best rule of thumb here is that
El Camino Real by definition always runs logical north-and-south.)
In giving directions, one might say, "To get to Rincon Tarasco
restaurant, get onto El Camino Bignum going logical north." Using
the word "logical" helps to prevent the recipient from worrying
about that the fact that the sun is setting almost directly in
front of him. The concept is perpetuated by North American
highways which are almost, but not quite, consistently labelled
with logical rather than physical directions. A similar situation
exists at MIT. Route 128 (famous for the electronics industries
that have grown up along it) is a three-quarters circle surrounding
Boston at a radius of ten miles, terminating at the coastline at
each end. It would be most precise to describe the two directions
along this highway as being "clockwise" and "counterclockwise",
but the road signs all say "north" and "south", respectively.
A hacker would describe these directions as "logical north" and
"logical south", to indicate that they are conventional
directions not corresponding to the usual convention for those
words. (If you went logical south along the entire length of route
128, you would start out going northwest, curve around to the
south, and finish headed due east!)
LORD HIGH FIXER [primarily British] n. The person in an organisation
who knows the most about some aspect of a system. See WIZARD.
LOSE [from MIT jargon] v. 1. To fail. A program loses when it
encounters an exceptional condition or fails to work in the
expected manner. 2. To be exceptionally unaesthetic. 3. Of
people, to be obnoxious or unusually stupid (as opposed to
ignorant). 4. DESERVES TO LOSE: v. Said of someone who willfully
does the wrong thing; humorously, if one uses a feature known to be
marginal. What is meant is that one deserves the consequences of
one's losing actions. "Boy, anyone who tries to use MESS-DOS
deserves to lose!" (ITS fans used to say this of UNIX; many still
do) See also SCREW, CHOMP, BAGBITER. LOSE LOSE --- a reply or
comment on a situation. 5. LOSE as a noun refers to something which
is losing, especially in the phrases "That's a lose!" or "What a
lose!".
LOSE LOSE interj. A reply or comment on an undesirable situation. "I
accidentally deleted all my files!" "Lose lose."
LOSER n. An unexpectedly bad situation, program, programmer, or
person. Someone who habitually loses (even winners can lose
occasionally). Someone who knows not and knows not that he knows
not. emphatic forms are "real loser", "total loser", and
"complete loser" (but not "moby loser", which would be a
contradiction in terms). See LUSER.
LOSS n. Something (not a person) which loses; a situation in which
something is losing. Emphatic forms include "moby loss" "total
loss", "complete loss". WHAT A (MOBY) LOSS!: interjection.
Compare LOSSAGE.
LOSSAGE /los'@j/ n. The result of a bug or malfunction. This is a
collective noun. "What a loss!" and "What lossage!" are nearly
synonymous remarks. The former is slightly more particular to the
speaker's present circumstances while the latter implies a
continuing lose of which the speaker is presently victim. Thus
(for example) a temporary hardware failure is a loss, but bugs in
an important tool (like a compiler) are serious lossage.
LPT /lip'it/ [ITS] n. Line printer, of course. Rare under UNIX,
commoner in hackers with MS-DOS or CP/M background (the printer
device is called LPT: on those systems, which like ITS were
strongly influenced by early DEC conventions).
LURKER n. One of the `silent majority' in a USENET or BBS newsgroup;
one who posts occasionally or not at all but is known to read the
group regularly. Often in `the lurkers', the hypothetical audience
for the group's FLAMAGE-emitting regulars.
LUNATIC FRINGE [IBM] n. Customers who can be relied upon to accept
release 1 versions of software.
LUSER /loo'zr/ n. A USER who is probably also a LOSER. (LUSER and
LOSER are pronounced identically.) This word was coined about 1975
at MIT. Under ITS, when you first walked up to a terminal at MIT
and typed Control-Z to get the computer's attention, it prints out
some status information, including how many people are already
using the computer; it might print "14 users", for example.
Someone thought it would be a great joke to patch the system to
print "14 losers" instead. There ensued a great controversy, as
some of the users didn't particularly want to be called losers to
their faces every time they used the computer. For a while several
hackers struggled covertly, each changing the message behind the
back of the others; any time you logged into the computer it was
even money whether it would say "users" or "losers". Finally,
someone tried the compromise "lusers", and it stuck until ITS
died in early 1990. The usage lives on, however, and the term
`luser' is often seen in program comments.
{= M =}
MACDINK /mak'dink/ [from the Apple Macintosh, which is said to
encourage such behavior] v. To make many incremental and
unnecessary cosmetic changes to a program or file. Frequently the
subject of the macdinking would be better off without them. Ex:
"When I left at 11pm last night, he was still macdinking the
slides for his presentation."
MACINTRASH /mak'in-trash/ The Apple Macintosh, as described by a
hacker who doesn't appreciate being kept away from the
_real_computer_ by the interface. See also WIMP ENVIRONMENT,
DROOL-PROOF PAPER, USER FRIENDLY.
MACRO /mak'ro/ n. A name (possibly followed by a formal ARG list)
which is equated to a text expression to which it is to be expanded
(possibly with substitution of actual arguments) by a language
translator. This definition can be found in any technical
dictionary; what those won't tell you is how the hackish
connotations of the term have changed over time. The term `macro'
originated in early assemblers, which encouraged use of macros as a
structuring and information-hiding device. During the early 70s
macro assemblers became ubiquitous and sometimes quite as powerful
and expensive as HLLs, only to fall from favor as improving
compiler technology marginalized assembler programming (see
LANGUAGES OF CHOICE). Nowadays the term is most often used in
connection with the C preprocessor, LISP, or one of several
special-purpose languages built around a macro-expansion facility
(such as TeX or UNIX's nroff, troff and pic suite). Indeed, the
meaning has drifted enough that the collective `macros' is now
sometimes used for code in any special-purpose application-control
language (whether or not the language is actually translated by
text expansion) as well as other "expansions" such as the
"keyboard macros" supported in some text editors (and PC TSR
keyboard enhancers).
MACROLOGY /mak-ro'l@-jee/ n. Set of usually complex or crufty macros,
e.g. as part of a large system written in LISP, TECO or (less
commonly) assembler. Sometimes studying the macrology of a system
is not unlike archaeology, hence the sound-alike construction.
Prob. influenced by THEOLOGY (q.v.).
MACROTAPE /ma'kro-tayp/ n. An industry standard reel of tape, as
opposed to a MICROTAPE.
MAGIC adj. 1. As yet unexplained, or too complicated to explain
(compare AUTOMAGICALLY and Clarke's Third Law: "Any sufficiently
advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"). "TTY
echoing is controlled by a large number of magic bits." "This
routine magically computes the parity of an eight-bit byte in three
instructions." 2. Characteristic of something that works but no
one really understands why. 3. [Stanford] A feature not generally
publicized which allows something otherwise impossible, or a
feature formerly in that category but now unveiled. Example: The
keyboard commands which override the screen-hiding features.
MAGIC COOKIE [UNIX] n. 1. Something passed between routines or
programs that enables the receiver to perform some OBSCURE
operation; a capability ticket. Especially used of small data
objects which contain data encoded in a strange or intrinsically
machine-dependent way. For example, on non-UNIX OSs with a
non-byte-stream model of files, the result of ftell(3) may be a
`magic cookie' rather than a byte offset; it can be passed to
fseek(3) but not operated on in any meaningful way. 2. An in-band
code for changing graphic rendition (i.e. inverse video or
underlining) or performing other control functions. Some older
terminals would leave a blank on the screen corresponding to
mode-change cookies; this was also called a GLITCH.
MAGIC NUMBER [UNIX/C] n. 1. Special data located at the beginning of a
binary data file to indicate its type to a utility. Under UNIX the
system and various applications programs (especially the linker)
distinguish between types of executable by looking for a magic
number. 2. In source code, some non-obvious constant whose value is
significant to the operation of a program and is inserted
inconspicuously in line, rather than expanded in by a symbol set by
a commented #define. Magic numbers in this sense are bad style.
MAGIC SMOKE n. A notional substance trapped inside IC packages that
enables them to function (also called "blue smoke"). Its
existence is demonstrated by what happens when a chip burns up ---
the magic smoke gets let out, so it doesn't work any more. See
SMOKE TEST.
MANGLE v. Used similarly to MUNG or SCRIBBLE, but more violent in its
connotations; something that is mangled has been irreversibly and
totally trashed.
MANGO [orig. in-house slang at Symbolics] n. A manager. See also
DEVO and DOCO.
MARGINAL adj. 1. Extremely small. "A marginal increase in core can
decrease GC time drastically." In everyday terms, this means that
it's a lot easier to clean off your desk if you have a spare place
to put some of the junk while you sort through it. 2. Of extremely
small merit. "This proposed new feature seems rather marginal to
me." 3. Of extremely small probability of winning. "The power
supply was rather marginal anyway; no wonder it fried." 4.
MARGINALLY: adv. Slightly. "The ravs here are only marginally
better than at Small Eating Place." See EPSILON. 4. MARGINAL
HACKS: n. Margaret Jacks Hall, a building into which the Stanford
AI Lab was moved near the beginning of the '80s.
MARKETROID /mar'k@-troyd/ alt. MARKETING SLIME, MARKETING DROID,
MARKETEER n. Member of a company's marketing department, esp. one
who promises users that the next version of a product will have
features which are unplanned, extremely difficult to implement,
and/or violate the laws of physics; and/or one who describes
existing features (and misfeatures) in ebullient, buzzword-laden
adspeak. Derogatory. Used by techies.
MARTIAN n. A packet sent on a TCP/IP network with a source address of
the test loopback interface (127.0.0.1). As in "The domain server
is getting lots of packets from Mars. Does that gateway have a
Martian filter?"
MASSAGE v. Vague term used to describe `smooth' transformations of a
data set into a more useful form, esp. transformations which do
not lose information. Connotes less pain and more ELEGANCE than
MUNCH or CRUNCH (q.v.). "He wrote a program that massages X bitmap
files into GIF format." Compare SLURP.
MEATWARE n. Synonym for WETWARE (q.v.). Less common.
MEGAPENNY /meg'a-pen'ee/ n. $10,000 (1 cent * 10e6). Used
semi-humorously as a unit in comparing computer cost/performance
figures.
MEGO /mego/ or /meego/ [My Eyes Glaze Over, often Mine Eyes Glazeth
Over, attributed to the futurologist Herman Kahn] Also MEGO FACTOR.
1. Handwaving intended to confuse the listener and hopefully
induce agreement because the listener does not want to admit to not
understanding what is going on. MEGO is usually directed at senior
management by engineers and contains a high proportion of TLAs
(q.v.). 2. excl. An appropriate response to MEGO tactics.
MELTDOWN, NETWORK n. A state of complete network overload; the network
equivalent of THRASHing. See also BROADCAST STORM.
MEME /meem/ [coined on analogy with `gene' by Richard Dawkins] n. An
idea considered as a REPLICATOR. Used esp. in the prase `meme
complex' denoting a group of mutually supporting memes which form
an organized belief system, such as a religion. This dictionary is
a vector of the "hacker subculture" meme complex; each entry
might be considered a meme. However, "meme" is often misused to
mean "meme complex". Use of the term connotes acceptance of the
idea that in humans (and presumably other tool-and language-using
sophonts) cultural evolution by selection of adaptive ideas has
superseded biological evolution by selection of hereditary traits.
Hackers find this idea congenial for tolerably obvious reasons.
MEMETICS /me-me-tiks/ [from MEME] The study of memes. As of 1990,
this is still an extremely informal and speculative endeavor,
though the first steps towards at least statistical rigor have been
made by H. Keith Henson and others. Memetics is a popular topic
among hackers, who like to see themselves as the architects of the
new information ecologies in which memes live and replicate.
MEME PLAGUE n. The spread of a successful but pernicious MEME, esp.
one which `parasitizes' the victims into giving their all to
propagate it. Astrology, BASIC, and the other guy's religion are
often considered to be examples. This usage is given point by the
historical fact that `joiner' ideologies like Naziism or various
forms of millenarian Christianity have exhibited plague-like cycles
of exponential growth followed by collapse to small `reservoir'
populations.
MEMORY LEAK [C/UNIX programmers] n. An error in a program's
dynamic-store allocation logic that causes it to fail to reclaim
discarded memory, leading to attempted hogging of main store and
eventual collapse due to memory exhaustion. Also (esp. at CMU)
called CORE LEAK, LEAKY HEAP. See ALIASING BUG, FANDANGO ON CORE,
SMASH THE STACK, PRECEDENCE LOSSAGE, OVERRUN SCREW.
MENUITIS /men`yoo-i'tis/ n. Notional disease suffered by software with
an obsessively simple-minded menu interface and no escape. Hackers
find this intensely irritating and much prefer the flexibility of
command-line or language-style interfaces, especially those
customizable via macros or a special-purpose language in which one
can encode useful hacks. See USER-OBSEQUIOUS, DROOL-PROOF PAPER,
WIMP ENVIRONMENT.
MESS-DOS /mes-dos/ [UNIX hackers] n. Derisory term for MS-DOS. Often
followed by the ritual expurgation "Just Say No!". See MS-DOS.
Most hackers (even many MS-DOS hackers) loathe MS-DOS for its
single-tasking nature, its limits on application size, its nasty
primitive interface, and its ties to IBMness (see FEAR AND
LOATHING). Also "mess-loss", "messy-dos", "mess-dog"
"mess-loss" "mess-dross" and various combinations thereof.
META /meta@/ or /mayt'@/ [from analytic philosophy] adj. One level of
description up. Thus, a meta-syntactic variable is a variable in
notation used to describe syntax and meta-language is language used
to describe language. This is difficult to explain out of context,
but much hacker humor turns on deliberate confusion between
meta-levels. See HUMOR, HACKER.
META BIT /meta@ bit/ or /mayt'@ bit/ n. Bit 8 of an 8-bit character,
on in values 128-255. Also called HIGH BIT or ALT BIT. Some
terminals and consoles (especially those designed for LISP
traditions) have a META-shift key. Others (including, mirabile
dictu, keyboards on IBM PC-class machines) have an ALT key. See
also BUCKY BITS.
MICROFLOPPIES n. 3-1/2 inch floppies, as opposed to 5-1/4 VANILLA or
mini-floppies and the now-obsolescent 8-inch variety. This term
may be headed for obsolescence as 5-1/4 inchers pass out of use,
only to be revived if anybody floats a sub-3-inch floppy standard.
MICROTAPE n. Occasionally used to mean a DECtape, as opposed to a
MACROTAPE. A DECtape is a small reel of magnetic tape about four
inches in diameter and an inch wide. Unlike standard magnetic
tapes, microtapes allow "random access" to the data. In their
heyday they were used in pretty much the same ways one would now
use a floppy disk: as a small, portable way to save and transport
files and programs. Apparently the term "microtape" was actually
the official term used within DEC for these tapes until someone
consed up [invented] the word "DECtape", which of course had more
commercial appeal.
MIDDLE-ENDIAN adj. Not BIG-ENDIAN or LITTLE-ENDIAN. Used of byte
orders like 3-4-1-2 occasionally found in the packed-decimal
formats from minicomputer manufacturers who shall remain nameless.
MILLILAMPSON /mil'i-lamp-sn/ n. How fast people can talk. Most
people run about 200 millilampsons. Butler Lampson (a CS theorist
highly regarded among hackers) goes at 1000. A few people speak
faster.
MIPS /mips/ [acronym] 1. A measure of computing speed; formally,
"Millions of Instructions Per Second"; often rendered by hackers
as "Meaningless Indication of Processor Speed". This joke
expresses a nearly universal attitude about the value of BENCHMARK
(q.v.) claims, said attitude being one of the great cultural
divides between hackers and MARKETROIDS. 2. The corporate name of
a RISC-chip maker; among other things, they supplied silicon for the
DEC 3100 workstation series.
MISBUG [MIT] n. An unintended property of a program that turns out to
be useful; something that should have been a BUG but turns out to be
a FEATURE.
MISFEATURE /mis-fee'chr/ n. A feature which eventually screws someone,
possibly because it is not adequate for a new situation which has
evolved. It is not the same as a bug because fixing it involves a
gross philosophical change to the structure of the system involved.
A misfeature is different from a simple unforeseen side effect; the
term implies that the misfeature was actually carefully planned to
be that way, but future consequences or circumstances just weren't
predicted accurately. This is different from just not having
thought ahead about it at all. Often a former feature becomes a
misfeature because a tradeoff was made whose parameters
subsequently changed (possibly only in the judgment of the
implementors). "Well, yeah, it's kind of a misfeature that file
names are limited to six characters, but the original implementors
wanted to save directory space and we're stuck with it for now."
MOBY [seems to have been in use among model railroad fans years ago.
Derived from Melville's "Moby Dick" (some say from "Moby
Pickle").] 1. adj. Large, immense, complex, impressive. "A
Saturn V rocket is a truly moby frob." "Some MIT undergrads
pulled off a moby hack at the Harvard-Yale game." (see Appendix
A). 2. n. obs. The maximum address space of a machine (see
Appendix B). Examples: for a PDP-10, a moby is 256K 36-bit words;
for a PDP-8, it is 4096 12-bit words; for a 68000 or VAX or most
modern 32-bit architectures, it is 4294967296 8-bit bytes. 3. A
title of address (never of third-person reference), usually used to
show admiration, respect, and/or friendliness to a competent
hacker. "Greetings, moby Dave. How's that address-book thing for
the Mac going?" 4. adj. In backgammon, doubles on the dice, as
in "moby sixes", "moby ones", etc. Compare this with BIGNUMS:
double sixes are both bignums and moby sixes, but moby ones are not
bignums (the use of term "moby" to describe double ones is
sarcastic). MOBY FOO, MOBY WIN, MOBY LOSS: standard emphatic
forms. FOBY MOO: a spoonerism due to Greenblatt.
MODE n. A general state, usually used with an adjective describing the
state. Use of the word "mode" rather than "state" implies that
the state is extended over time, and probably also that some
activity characteristic of that state is being carried out. "No
time to hack; I'm in thesis mode." Usage: in its jargon sense,
MODE is most often said of people, though it is sometimes applied
to programs and inanimate objects. "The E editor normally uses a
display terminal, but if you're on a TTY it will switch to
non-display mode." This term is normally used in a technical sense
to describe the state of a program. Extended usage --- for example,
to describe people --- is definitely slang. In particular, see HACK
MODE, DAY MODE, NIGHT MODE, and YOYO MODE; also TALK MODE and
GABRIEL MODE.
MODULO /mod'yuh-low/ prep. Except for. From mathematical terminology:
one can consider saying that 4=22 "except for the 9's" (4=22 mod
9) (the precise meaning is a bit more complicated, but that's the
idea). "Well, LISP seems to work okay now, modulo that GC bug."
"I feel fine today modulo a slight headache."
MONKEY UP v. To hack together hardware for a particular task,
especially a one-shot job. Connotes an extremely CRUFTY and
consciously temporary solution.
MONSTROSITY 1. n. A ridiculously ELEPHANTINE program or system, esp.
one which is buggy or only marginally functional. 2. The quality
of being monstrous (see `Peculiar nouns' in the discussion of
jargonification).
MOORE'S LAW /morz law/ n. The observation that the logic density of
silicon integrated circuits has closely followed the curve (bits
per inch ** 2) = 2 ** (n - 1962); that is, the amount of
information storable in one square inch of silicon has roughly
doubled yearly every year since the technology was invented.
MOTAS /moh-tahs/ [USENET, Member Of The Appropriate Sex] n. A
potential or (less often) actual sex partner. See MOTOS, MOTSS,
S.O.
MOTOS /moh-tohs/ [from the 1970 census forms via USENET, Member Of The
Opposite Sex] n. A potential or (less often) actual sex partner.
See MOTAS, MOTSS, S.O. Less common than MOTSS or MOTAS, which has
largely displaced it.
MOTSS /motss/ [from the 1970 census forms via USENET, Member Of The
Same Sex] n. Esp. one considered as a possible sexual partner, e.g.
by a gay or lesbian. The gay-issues newsgroup on USENET is called
soc.motss. See MOTOS and MOTAS, which derive from it. Also see
S.O.
MOUNT v. 1. To attach a removable storage volume to a machine. In
elder days and on mainframes this verb was used almost exclusively
of tapes; nowadays (especially under UNIX) it is more likely to
refer to a disk volume. 2. By extension, to attach any removable
device such as a sensor, robot arm, or MEATWARE subsystem (see
Appendix A).
MOUSE AHEAD v. To manipulate a computer's pointing device (almost
always a mouse in this usage, but not necessarily) and its
selection or command buttons before a computer program is ready to
accept such input, in anticipation of the program accepting the
input. Handling this properly is rare, but it can help make a USER
FRIENDLY program usable by real users, assuming they are familiar
with the behavior of the user interface. Point-and-click analog of
"type ahead".
MOUSE AROUND v. To explore public portions of a large system, esp. a
network such as Internet via FTP or TELNET, looking for interesting
stuff to SNARF.
MOUSO /mow'so/ n. [by analogy with `typo'] An error in mouse usage
resulting in an inappropriate selection or graphic garbage on the
screen. Compare THINKO.
MS-DOS /em-es-das/ [MicroSoft Disk Operating System] n. A clone of
CP/M (q.v.) for the 8088 crufted together in six weeks by hacker
Tim Paterson, who is said to have regretted it ever since. Now the
highest-unit-volume OS in history. Often known as DOS, which
annoys people familiar with other similarly-abbreviated operating
systems. See MESS-DOS.
MULTICIAN /muhl-ti'sh@n/ [coined at Honeywell, c.1970] n. Competent
user of MULTICS (q.v.).
MULTICS /muhl'tiks/ n. [from "MULTiplexed Information and Computing
Service"] An early (late 1960s) timesharing operating system
co-designed by a consortium including MIT, GE and Bell
Laboratories, very innovative for its time (among other things, it
introduced the idea of treating all devices uniformly as special
files). All the members but GE eventually pulled out after
determining that SECOND-SYSTEM EFFECT had bloated MULTICS to the
point of practical unusability (the `lean' predecessor in question
is said to have been CTSS, (q.v.)). Honeywell comercialized
MULTICS after buying out GE's computer group, but it was never very
successful (amomg other things, one was required to enter a
password to log out). One of the developers left in the lurch by
the project's breakup was Ken Thompson, a circumstance which led
directly to the birth of UNIX (q.v.). For this and other reasons
aspects of the Multics design remain a topic of occasional debate
among hackers. See also BRAIN DAMAGE.
MUMBLAGE /mum'bl@j/ n. The topic of one's mumbling (see MUMBLE).
"All that mumblage" is used like "all that stuff" when it is
not quite clear what it is or how it works, or like "all that
crap" when "mumble" is being used as an implicit replacement for
obscenities.
MUMBLE interj. 1. Said when the correct response is either too
complicated to enunciate or the speaker has not thought it out.
Often prefaces a longer answer, or indicates a general reluctance
to get into a big long discussion. "Don't you think that we could
improve LISP performance by using a hybrid reference-count
transaction garbage collector, if the cache is big enough and there
are some extra cache bits for the microcode to use?" "Well,
mumble... I'll have to think about it." 2. Sometimes used as an
expression of disagreement. "I think we should buy a VAX."
"Mumble!" Common variant: MUMBLE FROTZ. 3. Yet another
metasyntactic variable, like FOO.
MUNCH [often confused with "mung", q.v.] v. To transform information
in a serial fashion, often requiring large amounts of computation.
To trace down a data structure. Related to CRUNCH and nearly
synonymous with GROVEL, but connotes less pain.
MUNCHING SQUARES n. A DISPLAY HACK dating back to the PDP-1, which
employs a trivial computation (involving XOR'ing of x-y display
coordinates --- see HAKMEM items 146-148) to produce an impressive
display of moving, growing, and shrinking squares. The hack
usually has a parameter (usually taken from toggle switches) which
when well-chosen can produce amazing effects. Some of these,
(re)discovered recently on the LISP machine, have been christened
MUNCHING TRIANGLES, MUNCHING W'S, and MUNCHING MAZES. More
generally, suppose a graphics program produces an impressive and
ever-changing display of some basic form FOO on a display terminal,
and does it using a relatively simple program; then the program (or
the resulting display) is likely to be referred to as "munching
FOOs" (this is a good example of the use of the word FOO as a
metasyntactic variable).
MUNCHKIN /muhnch'kin/ n. A teenage-or-younger micro enthusiast bashing
BASIC or something else equally constricted. A term of mild
derision --- munchkins are annoying but some grow up to be hackers
after passing through a LARVAL STAGE. The term URCHIN is also used.
See also BITTY BOX.
MUNDANE [from SF fandom] n. 1. A person who is not in science
fiction fandom. 2. A person who is not in the computer industry.
In this sense, most often an adjectival modifier as in "in my
mundane life..."
MUNG /muhng/ alt. MUNGE /muhnj/ [in 1960 at MIT, "Mash Until No
Good"; sometime after that the derivation from the recursive
acronym "Mung Until No Good" became standard] v. 1. To make
changes to a file, often large-scale, usually irrevocable.
Occasionally accidental. See BLT. 2. To destroy, usually
accidentally, occasionally maliciously. The system only mungs
things maliciously; this ia a consequence of Murphy's Law. See
SCRIBBLE, MANGLE, TRASH. Reports from USENET suggest that the
pronunciation /muhnj/ is now usual in speech, but the spelling
`mung' is still common in program comments. 3. The kind of beans of
which the sprouts are used in Chinese food. (That's their real
name! Mung beans! Really!)
MUSIC n. A common extracurricular interest of hackers (compare
SCIENCE-FICTION FANDOM, ORIENTAL FOOD; see also FILK). It is
widely believed among hackers that there is a substantial
correlation between whatever mysterious traits underlie hacking
ability (on the one hand) and musical talent and sensitivity (on
the other). It is certainly the case that hackers, as a rule, like
music and often develop musical appreciation in unusual and
interesting directions. Folk music is very big in hacker circles;
so is the sort of elaborate instrumental jazz/rock that used to be
called `progressive' and isn't recorded much any more. Also, the
hacker's musical range tends to be wide; many can listen with equal
appreciation to (say) Talking Heads, Yes, Spirogyra, Scott Joplin,
King Sunny Ade, The Pretenders, or one of Bach's Brandenburg
Concerti. It is also apparently true that hackerdom includes a
much higher concentration of talented amateur musicians than one
would expect from a similar-sized control group of MUNDANES.
MUTTER v. To quietly enter a command not meant for the ears of
ordinary mortals. Frequently in "mutter an INCANTATION".
{= N =}
N /en/ adj. 1. Some large and indeterminate number of objects; "There
were N bugs in that crock!"; also used in its original sense of a
variable name. 2. An arbitrarily large (and perhaps infinite)
number; "This crock has N bugs, as N goes to infinity". 3. A
variable whose value is specified by the current context. For
example, when ordering a meal at a restaurant N may be understood
to mean however many people there are at the table. From the
remark "We'd like to order N wonton soups and a family dinner for
N-1." you can deduce that one person at the table wants to eat
only soup, even though you don't know how many people there are. A
silly riddle: "How many computers does it take to shift the bits
in a register? N+1: N to hold all the bits still, and one to shove
the register over." 4. NTH: adj. The ordinal counterpart of N.
"Now for the Nth and last time..." In the specific context
"Nth-year grad student", N is generally assumed to be at least 4,
and is usually 5 or more. See also RANDOM NUMBERS, TWO-TO-THE-N.
NAILED TO THE WALL [like a trophy] adj. Said of a bug finally
eliminated after protracted and even heroic effort.
NANOACRE /nan'o-ay-kr/ n. An areal init (about 2mm.sq.) of
"real-estate" on a VLSI chip. The term derives its amusement
value from the fact that VLSI nanoacres have costs in the same
range as real acres once one figures in design and
fabrication-setup costs.
NANOBOT /nan'oh-bot/ n. A robot of microscopic proportions, presumably
built by means of NANOTECHNOLOGY (q.v.). As yet, only used
informally (and speculatively!). Also sometimes called a
`nanoagent'.
NANOCOMPUTER /nan'oh-k@m-pyoo-tr/ n. A computer whose switching
elements are molecular in size. Designs for mechanical
nanocomputers which use single-molecule sliding rods for their
logic have been proposed. The controller for a NANOBOT would be a
nanocomputer.
NANOTECHNOLOGY /nan'-oh-tek-naw`l@-ji/ n. A hypothetical fabrication
technology in which objects are designed and built with the
individual specification and placement of each separate atom. The
first unequivocal nano-fabrication experiments are taking place now
(1990), for example with the deposition of individual xenon atoms
on a nickel substrate to spell the logo of a certain very large
computer company by two of its physicists. Nanotechnology has been
a hot topic in the hacker subculture ever since the term was coined
by K. Eric Drexler in his book "Engines of Creation", where he
predicted that nanotechnology could give rise to replicating
assemblers, permitting an exponential growth of productivity and
personal wealth.
NASTYGRAM n. 1. A protocol packet or item of email (the latter is also
called a `letterbomb') that takes advantage of misfeatures or
security holes on the target system to do untoward things. 2.
Disapproving mail, esp. from a net.god, pursuant to a violation of
NETIQUETTE. Compare SHITOGRAM. 3. (deprecated) An error reply by
mail from a DAEMON; in particular, a BOUNCE MESSAGE.
NEOPHILIA /nee-oh-fil'-ee-uh/ n. The trait of being excited and
pleased by novelty. Common trait of most hackers, SF fans, and
members of several other connected "leading-edge" subcultures
including the pro-technology "Whole-Earth" wing of the ecology
movement, space activists, theater people, the membership of MENSA,
and the Discordian/neo-pagan underground. All these groups overlap
heavily and (where evidence is available) seem to share
characteristic hacker tropisms for SF, MUSIC and ORIENTAL FOOD.
NETHACK /net'hak/ n. See HACK, sense #12.
NETIQUETTE /net'ee-ket, net'i-ket/ n. Conventions of politeness
recognized on USENET, such as: avoidance of cross-posting to
inappropriate groups, or refraining from commercial pluggery on the
net.
NEEP-NEEP /neep neep/ [onomatopoeic, from New York SF fandom] n. One
who is fascinated by computers. More general than HACKER, as it
need not imply more skill than is required to boot games on a PC.
The gerund NEEP-NEEPING applies specifically to the long
conversations about computers that tend to develop in the corners
at most SF-convention parties. Fandom has a related proverb to the
effect that "Hacking is a conversational black hole!"
NET. (net dot) [USENET] Prefix used to describe people and events
related to USENET. From the time before the GREAT RENAMING, when
when all non-local newsgroups had names beginning "net.".
Includes net.god(s) (q.v.), net.goddesses (various charismatic
women with circles of on-line admirers), net.lurkers, (see LURKER),
net.parties (a synonym for BOINK sense #2 (q.v.)) and many similar
constructs. See also NET.POLICE.
NET.GOD (net god) n. Used to refer to anyone who satisfies some
combination of the following conditions: has been visible on USENET
for more than five years, ran one of the original backbone sites,
moderated an important newsgroup, wrote news software, or knows
Gene, Mark, Rick, Henry, Chuq, and Greg personally. See DEMIGOD.
NET.POLICE n. Those USENET readers who feel it is their
responsibility to pounce on and FLAME any posting which they regard
as offensive, or in violation of their understanding of NETIQUETTE.
Generally used sarcastically or pejoratively. Also spelled
`net.police'. See also NET., CODE POLICE.
NETWORK ADDRESS n. As used by hackers, means an address on THE NETWORK
(almost always a BANG PATH or INTERNET ADDRESS). An essential to be
taken seriously by hackers; in particular, persons or organizations
claiming to understand, work with, sell to, or recruit from among
hackers that *don't* display net addresses are quietly presumed to
be clueless poseurs and mentally FLUSHED (sense #3). Hackers often
put their net addresses on their business cards and wear them
prominently in contexts where they expect to meet other hackers
face-to-face (see also SCIENCE-FICTION FANDOM) This is mostly
functional, but is also a connotative signal that one identifies
with hackerdom (like lodge pins among Masons or tie-died T-shirts
among Grateful Dead fans). Net addresses are often used in email
text as a more concise substitute for personal names; indeed,
hackers may come to know each other quite well by network names
without ever learning each others' `legal' monikers. See also
SITENAME.
NETWORK, THE n. 1. The union of all the major academic and
noncommercial/hacker-oriented networks such as Internet, the old
ARPANET, NSFNet, BITNET and the virtual UUCP and USENET
"networks", plus the corporate in-house networks that gate to
them. A site is generally considered `on the network' if it can be
reached through some combination of Internet-style (@-sign) and
UUCP (bang-path) addresses. See BANG PATH, INTERNET ADDRESS,
NETWORK ADDRESS. 2. A fictional conspiracy of libertarian
hacker-subversives and anti-authoritarian monkeywrenchers described
in Robert Anton Wilson's novel _Schrodinger's_Cat_, to which many
hackers have subsequently decided they belong (this is an example
of HA HA, ONLY SERIOUS).
NEW TESTAMENT n. [C programmers] The second edition of K&R's "The C
Programming Language", defining ANSI Standard C. See WHITE BOOK.
NEWBIE /n./ [orig. fr. British military & public-school slang] A
USENET neophyte. This term originated in the NEWSGROUP
"talk.bizarre" but is now in wide use. Criteria for being
considered a newbie vary wildly; a person can be called a newbie in
one newsgroup while remaining a respected participant in another.
The label "newbie" is sometimes applied as a serious insult, to a
person who has been around USENET for a long time, but who
carefully hides all evidence of having a clue. See BIFF.
NEWGRP WARS /n[y]oo'grp wohrz/ [USENET] n. Salvos of dueling `newgrp'
and `rmgroup' messages sometimes exchanged by persons on opposite
sides of a dispute over whether a NEWSGROUP should be created
netwide. These usually settle out within a week or two as it
becomes clear whether the group has a natural constituency
(usually, it doesn't). At times, especially in the completely
anarchic `alt' hierarchy, the names of newsgroups themselves become
a form of comment or humor; cf. the spinoff of
alt.swedish.chef.bork.bork.bork from alt.tv.muppets in early 1990,
or any number of specialized abuse groups named after particularly
notorious FLAMERs.
NEWLINE /n[y]oo'lien/ n. 1. [UNIX] The ASCII LF character (decimal
10), used under UNIX as a text line terminator. A Bell-Labs-ism
rather than a Berkeleyism; interestingly (and unusually for UNIX
slang) it is said originally to have been an IBM usage. 2. More
generally, any magic character sequence or operation (like Pascal's
writeln() function) required to terminate a text record. See CRLF,
TERPRI.
NEWSFROUP /n[y]oos'froop/ [USENET] n. Silly written-only synonym for
NEWSGROUP, originated as a typo but now in regular use on USENET'S
talk.bizarre and other not-real-tightly-wrapped groups.
NEWSGROUP [USENET] n. One of USENET's large collection of topic
groups. Among the best-known are comp.lang.c (the C-language
forum), comp.1.wizards (for UNIX wizards), rec.arts.sf-lovers
(for science-fiction fans) and talk.politics.misc (miscellaneous
political discussions and FLAMAGE).
NICKLE n. A NYBBLE + 1; 5 bits. Reported among developers for Mattel's
GI 1600 (the Intellivision games processor), a chip with
16-bit-wide RAM but 10-bit-wide ROM. See also DECLE.
NIGHT MODE n. See PHASE (of people).
NIL [from LISP terminology for "false"] No. Usage: used in reply to
a question, particularly one asked using the "-P" convention.
See T.
NMI n. Non-Maskable Interrupt. See PRIORITY INTERRUPT.
NON-OPTIMAL (or SUB-OPTIMAL) SOLUTION n. An astoundingly stupid way to
do something. This term is generally used in deadpan sarcasm, as
its impact is greatest when the person speaking looks completely
serious. Compare STUNNING. See also BAD THING.
NONTRIVIAL adj. Requiring real thought or significant computing power.
Often used as an understated way of saying that a problem is quite
difficult. See TRIVIAL, UNINTERESTING, INTERESTING.
NO-OP /noh-op/ alt. NOP (nop) [no operation] n. 1. A machine
instruction that does nothing (sometimes used in assembler-level
programming as filler for data areas). 2. A person who contributes
nothing to a project, or has nothing going on upstairs, or both.
As in "he's a no-op.". 3. Any operation or sequence of operations
with no effect, such as circling the block without finding a
parking space, or putting money into a vending machine and having
it fall immediately into the coin-return box, or asking someone for
help and being told to go away. "Oh well, that was a no-op."
NP-* /en pee/ pref. Extremely. Used to modify adjectives describing a
level or quality of difficulty. "Getting this algorithm to
perform correctly in every case is NP-annoying." This is
generalized from the computer science terms "NP-hard" and
"NP-easy". NP is the set of Nondeterministic-Polynomial
algorithms, those which can be completed by a nondeterministic
finite state machine in an amount of time that is a polynomial
function of the size of the input.
NUKE v. 1. To intentionally delete the entire contents of a given
directory or storage volume. "On UNIX, rm -r /usr will nuke
everything in the usr filesystem." Never used for accidental
deletion. Oppose BLOW AWAY. 2. Syn. for DIKE, applied to smaller
things such as files, features or code sections. 3. Used of
processes as well as files; frequently an alias for "kill -9" on
UNIX.
NULL DEVICE n. A LOGICAL input/output device connected to the BIT
BUCKET; when you write to it nothing happens, when you reaad from
it you get a zero-length record full of nothing. Useful for
discarding unwanted output or using interactive programs in a
non-interactive way. See /DEV/NULL.
NUXI PROBLEM, THE /nuk'see pro'blm, dh@/ n. This refers to the problem
of transferring data between machines with differing byte-order.
The string "UNIX" might look like "NUXI" on a machine with a
different "byte sex" (i.e. when transferring data from a
little-endian to a big endian or vice-versa). See also, BIG-ENDIAN,
LITTLE-ENDIAN, SWAB, and BYTESEXUAL.
NYBBLE /nib'l/ [from v. `nibble' by analogy with `bite' -> `byte'] n.
Four bits; one hexadecimal digit; a half-byte. Though `byte' is now
accepted technical jargon found in dictionaries, this useful
relative is still slang. Compare CRUMB, see also BIT.
{= O =}
OB /ob/ pref. Obligatory. A piece of NETIQUETTE that acknowledges the
author has been straying from the newsgroup's charter. For
example, if a posting in alt.sex has nothing particularly to do
with sex, the author may append "ObSex" (or "Obsex") and toss
off a question or vignette about some unusual erotic act.
OBSCURE adj. Used in an exaggeration of its normal meaning, to imply a
total lack of comprehensibility. "The reason for that last crash
is obscure." "The find(1) command's syntax is obscure."
MODERATELY OBSCURE implies that it could be figured out but
probably isn't worth the trouble. OBSCURE IN THE EXTREME is a
preferred emphatic form.
OBFUSCATED C CONTEST n. Annual contest run since 1984 over THE NETWORK
by Landon Curt Noll & friends. The overall winner is he who
produces the most unreadable, creative and bizarre working C
program; various other prizes are awarded at the judges' whim.
Given C's terse syntax and macro-preprocessor facilities, this
gives contestants a lot of maneuvering room. The winning programs
often manage to be simultaneously a) funny, b) breathtaking works
of art, and c) Horrible Examples of how *not* to code in C.
This relatively short and sweet entry might help convey the flavor
of obfuscated C:
main(v,c)char**c;{for(v[c++]="Hello, world!\n)";(!!c)[*c]&&
(v--||--c&&execlp(*c,*c,c[!!c]+!!c,!c));**c=!c)write(!!*c,*c,
!!**c);}
OCTAL FORTY /ok'tl for'tee/ n. Hackish way of saying "I'm drawing a
blank" (octal 40 is the ASCII space character). See WALL.
OFF-BY-ONE ERROR n. Exceedingly common error induced in many ways,
such as by starting at 0 when you should have started at 1 or vice
versa, or by writing < N instead of <= N or vice-versa. Also
applied to giving an object to the person next to the one who
should have gotten it. Often confused with FENCEPOST ERROR, which
is properly a particular subtype of it.
OFF THE TROLLEY adj. Describes the behavior of a program which
malfunctions but doesn't actually CRASH or get halted by the
operating system. See GLITCH, BUG, DEEP SPACE.
OFFLINE adv. Not now or not here. Example: "Let's take this
discussion offline." Specifically used on USENET to suggest that
a discussion be taken off a public newsgroup to email.
OLD FART n. Tribal elder. A title self-assumed with remarkable
frequency by (esp.) USENETters who have been programming for more
than about twenty five years; frequently appears in SIGs attached
to jargon file contributions of great archeological significance.
This is a term of insult in second or third person but pride in
first person.
OLD TESTAMENT n. [C programmers] The first edition of the book
describing CLASSIC C; see WHITE BOOK.
ONE BELL SYSTEM (IT WORKS) This was the output from the old Unix V6
"1" command. The "1" command also contained a random number
generator which gave it a one in ten chance of recursively
executing itself.
ONE-LINER WARS n. Popular game among hackers who code in the language
APL (see WRITE-ONLY LANGUAGE). The objective is to see who can code
the most interesting and/or useful routine in one line of operators
chosen from APL's exceedingly HAIRY primitive set. [This is not
*quite* as silly as it sounds; I myself have coded one-line LIFE
(q.v.) programs and once uttered a one-liner that performed lexical
analysis of its input string followed by a dictionary lookup for
good measure --- ESR]
OOBLICK /oo'blik/ [from Dr. Seuss' "Bartholomew and the Ooblick"] n.
A bizarre semi-liquid sludge made from cornstarch and water.
Enjoyed among hackers who make batches for playtime at parties for
its amusing and extremely non-Newtonian behavior; it pours and
splatters, but resists rapid motion like a solid and will even
crack when hit by a hammer. Often found near lasers.
OPEN n. Abbreviation for "open (or left) parenthesis", used when
necessary to eliminate oral ambiguity. To read aloud the LISP form
(DEFUN FOO (X) (PLUS X 1)) one might say: "Open def-fun foo, open
eks close, open, plus ekx one, close close." See CLOSE.
OPEN SWITCH [IBM] n. An unresolved issue.
OPERATING SYSTEM n. (Often abbreviated "OS") The foundation software
of a machine, of course; that which schedules tasks, allocates
storage, and presents a default interface to the user between
applications. The facilities the operating system provides and its
general design philosophy exert an extremely strong influence on
programming style and the technical culture that grows up around a
machine. Hacker folklore has been shaped primarily by the UNIX,
ITS, TOPS-10, TOPS-20/TWENEX, VMS, CP/M, MS-DOS, and MULTICS
operating systems (most importantly by ITS and UNIX). Each of these
has its own entry, which see.
ORANGE BOOK, THE n. The U.S. Government's standards document (Trusted
Computer System Evaluation Criteria, DOD standard 5200.28-STD,
December, 1985) characterizing secure computing architectures,
defining levels A1 (most secure) through C3 (least). Stock UNIXes
are roughly C2. See also RED BOOK, BLUE BOOK, GREEN BOOK, SILVER
BOOK, PURPLE BOOK, WHITE BOOK, PINK-SHIRT BOOK, DRAGON BOOK.
ORIENTAL FOOD n. Hackers display an intense tropism towards Oriental
cuisine, especially Chinese, and especially of the spicier
varieties such as Szechuan and Hunan. This phenomenon (which has
also been observed in subcultures which overlap heavily with
hackerdom, most notably science-fiction fandom) has never been
satisfactorily explained, but is sufficiently intense that one can
assume the target of a hackish dinner expedition to be the best
local Chinese place and be right at least 3 times out of 4. See
also RAVS, GREAT-WALL, STIR-FRIED RANDOM. Thai, Indian, Korean and
Vietnamese cuisines are also quite popular.
ORPHAN [UNIX] n. A process whose parent has died; one inherited by
init(1). Compare ZOMBIE.
ORTHOGONAL [from mathematics] adj. Mutually independent;
well-separated; sometimes, irrelevant to. Used in a generalization
of its mathematical meaning to describe sets of primitives or
capabilities which, like a vector basis in geometry, span the
entire `capability space' of the system and are in some sense
non-overlapping or mutually independent. For example, in
architectures such as the MC68000 where all or nearly all registers
can be used interchangeably in any role with respect to any
instruction, the register set is said to be orthogonal. Or, in
logic, the set of operators `not' and `or' is orthogonal, but the
set `nand', `or' and `not' is not (because any one of these can
be expressed in terms of the other two via De Morgan's Laws). Also
used in comment on human discourse; "This may be orthogonal to the
discussion, but...".
OS /oh ess/ 1. [Operating System] n. Acronym heavily used in email,
occasionally in speech. 2. obs. n. On ITS, an output spy. See
Appendix B.
OS/2 (oh ess too) n. The anointed successor to MS-DOS for Intel-286
and (allegedly) 386-based micros; proof that IBM/Microsoft couldn't
get it right the second time, either. Cited here because
mentioning it is always good for a cheap laugh among hackers --- the
design was so bad that three years after introduction you could
still count the major APPs shipping for it on the fingers of two
hands. Often called "Half-an-OS". See VAPORWARE, MONSTROSITY,
CRETINOUS, SECOND-SYSTEM EFFECT.
OVERRUN SCREW [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 be to SMASH THE STACK. 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 ARENA, producing
massive lossage within malloc and (frequently) a core dump on the
next operation to use stdio or malloc(3) itself. See also MEMORY
LEAK, ALIASING BUG, PRECEDENCE LOSSAGE, FANDANGO ON CORE.
{= P =}
PAGE IN [MIT] v. To become aware of one's surroundings again after
having paged out (see PAGE OUT). Usually confined to the sarcastic
comment, "So-and-so pages in. Film at 11." See FILM AT 11.
PAGE OUT [MIT] v. 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.
PANIC [UNIX] v. An action taken by a process or the entire operating
system when an unrecoverable error is discovered. The action
usually consists of: (1) displaying localized information on the
controlling terminal, (2) saving, or preparing for saving, a memory
image of the process or operating system, and (3) terminating the
process or rebooting the system.
PARAM /p@-ram'/ n. Speeech-only shorthand for "parameter". Compare
ARG, VAR. The plural `params' is often further compressed to
`parms'.
PARITY ERRORS pl.n. Those 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." Derives from a
relatively common but nearly always correctable transient error in
RAM hardware.
PARSE [from linguistic terminology via AI research] v. 1. To determine
the syntactic structure of a sentence or other utterance (close to
the standard English meaning). Example: "That was the one I saw
you." "I can't parse that." 2. More generally, to understand
or comprehend. "It's very simple; you just kretch the glims and
then aos the zotz." "I can't parse that." 3. Of fish, to have
to remove the bones yourself (usually at a Chinese restaurant).
"I object to parsing fish" means "I don't want to get a whole
fish, but a sliced one is okay." A "parsed fish" has been
deboned. There is some controversy over whether "unparsed"
should mean "bony", or also mean "deboned".
PATCH 1. n. A temporary addition to a piece of code, usually as a
quick-and-dirty remedy to an existing bug or misfeature. A patch
may or may not work, and may or may not eventually be incorporated
permanently into the program. 2. v. To insert a patch into a piece
of code. 3. [in the UNIX world] n. a set of differences between two
versions of source code, generated with diff(1) and intended to be
mechanically applied using patch(1); often used as a way of
distributing source code upgrades and fixes over USENET.
PBD [abbrev of `Programmer Brain Damage'] n. Applied to bug reports
revealing places where the program was obviously broken due to an
incompetent or short-cited programmer. Compare UBD; see also
BRAIN-DAMAGED.
PC-ISM n. A piece of code or coding technique that takes advantage of
the unprotected single-tasking environment in IBM PCs and the like.
e.g. by busy-waiting on a hardware register, direct diddling of
screen memory, or using hard timing loops. Compare ILL-BEHAVED,
VAXISM, UNIXISM. Also, PC-WARE n., a program full of PC-ISMs on a
machine with a more capable operating system. Pejorative.
PD /pee-dee/ adj. Common abbreviation for "public domain", applied
to software distributed over USENET and from Internet archive
sites. Much of this software is not in fact "public domain" in
the legal sense but travels under various copyrights granting
reproduction and use rights to anyone who can SNARF a copy. See
COPYLEFT.
PDL /pid'l/ or /pud'l/ [acronym for Push Down List] n. 1. A LIFO queue
or stack; more loosely, any priority queue; even more loosely, any
queue. A person's pdl is the set of things he has to do in the
future. One speaks of the next project to be attacked as having
risen to the top of the pdl. "I'm afraid I've got real work to
do, so this'll have to be pushed way down on my pdl." "I haven't
done it yet because every time I pop my pdl something new gets
pushed." If you are interrupted several times in the middle of a
conversation, "my pdl overflowed" means "I forget what we were
talking about" (the implication is that too many items were pushed
onto the pdl than could be remembered, and so the least recent
items were lost). All these usages are also frequently found with
STACK (q.v) itself as the subject noun. See PUSH and POP. 2. Dave
Lebling, one of the coauthors of ZORK (q.v.); (his NETWORK ADDRESS
on the ITS machines was at one time pdl@dms).
PDP-10 [Programmable Data Processor model 10] n. The machine that made
timesharing real. Looms large in hacker folklore due to early
adoption in the mid-70s by many university computing facilities and
research labs including the MIT AI lab, Stanford and CMU. Some
aspects of the instruction set (most notably the bit-field
instructions) are still considered unsurpassed. Later editions
were labelled `DECsystem-10' as a way of differentiating them from
the PDP-11. The '10 was eventually eclipsed by the PDP-11 and VAX
machines and dropped from DEC's line in the early '80s, and in 1990
to have cut one's teeth on one is considered something of a badge
of honorable old-timerhood among hackers. See TOPS-10, ITS,
Appendix B.
PERCENT-S /per-sent' ess/ [From "%s", the formatting sequence in C's
printf(3) library function used to indicate that an arbitrary
string may be inserted] n. An unspecified person or object. "I
was just talking to some percent-s in administration." Compare
RANDOM.
PERF /perf/ n. See CHAD (sense #1).
PERL [Practical Extraction and Report Language, aka Pathologically
Eclectic Rubbish Lister] n. An interpreted language developed by
Larry Wall (lwall@jpl.nasa.gov, author of patch(1)) and distributed
over USENET. Superficially resembles awk(1), but is much more
arcane (see AWK). Increasingly considered a LANGUAGE OF CHOICE by
UNIX sysadmins, who are almost always incorrigible hackers. Perl
has been described, in a parody of a famous remark about lex(1), as
the "Swiss-army chainsaw" of UNIX programming.
PESSIMAL /pes'i-ml/ [Latin-based antonym for "optimal"] adj.
Maximally bad. "This is a pessimal situation." Also PESSIMIZE v.
to make as bad as possible. These words are the obvious
Latin-based antonyms for "optimal" and "optimize", but for some
reason they do not appear in most English dictionaries, although
"pessimize" is listed in the Oxford English Dictionary.
PESSIMIZING COMPILER /pes'i-miez-ing kuhm-pie'lr/ [antonym of
`optimizing compiler'] n. A compiler that produces object code that
is worse than the straightforward or obvious translation. The
implication is that the compiler is actually trying to optimize the
program, but through stupidity is doing the opposite. A few
pessimizing compilers have been written on purpose, however, as
pranks.
PHANTOM n. At Stanford, the term PHANTOM was formerly used to mean a
DRAGON (q.v.).
PHASE 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 according to no fixed schedule. It
is not uncommon to change one's phase by as much as six hours/day
on a regular basis. "What's your phase?" "I've been getting in
about 8 PM lately, but I'm going to work 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". (The term "day mode" is
also , but less frequently, used, meaning you're working 9 to 5 (or
more likely 10 to 6)) 2. CHANGE PHASE THE HARD WAY: To stay awake
for a very long time in order 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, an
that it's *shortening* your day or night that's hard. The
phenomenon of "jet lag" that afflicts 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 period of time, particularly the hard way, experience
something very like jet lag without travelling.
PHASE OF THE MOON 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 determine. "This feature
depends on having the channel open in mumble mode, having the foo
switch set, and on the phase of the moon."
True story: Once upon a time, a program written by Gerry Sussman
(professor of Electrical Engineering at MIT) and Guy Steele had a
bug that really did depend on the phase of the moon! There is a
little subroutine that had traditionally been used in various
programs at MIT to calculate an approximation to the moon's true
phase; the phase is then printed out at the top of program
listings, for example, along with the date and time, purely for
fun. (Actually, since hackers spend a lot of time indoors, this
might be the only way they would ever know what the moon's phase
was!) Steele 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 the first line of the message
would be too long 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 the precise time when the timestamp
was printed, and so the bug literally depended on the phase of the
moon!
PIG, RUN LIKE A adj. To run very slowly on given hardware, said of
software. Distinct from HOG, q.v.
PING /ping/ [from TCP/IP terminology] n.,v. 1. Slang term for a small
network message (ICMP ECHO) sent by a computer to check for the
presence and aliveness of another. Occasionally used as a phone
greeting. See ACK, also ENQ. 2. To verify the presence of. 3. To
get the attention of. From the Unix command by the same name (an
acronym of "Packet INternet Groper) that sends an ICMP ECHO packet
to another host. This was probably contrived to match submariners'
"ping" (sonar ranging pulse).
PINK SHIRT BOOK "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 a different picture of Norton
wearing a pink shirt.
PIP /pip/ v. obs. To copy, from the program PIP on CP/M and RSX-11
that was used for file copying (and in RSX for just about every
other file operation you might want to do). Obsolete, but still
occasionally heard.
PIPELINE [UNIX, orig. by Doug McIlroy; now also used under MS-DOS and
elsewhere] n. A chain of FILTER programs connected
"head-to-tail", so that the output of one becomes the input of
the next. Under UNIX, user utilities can often be implemented or
at least prototyped by a suitable collection of pipelines and
temp-file grinding encapsulated in a shell script; this is much
less effort than writing C every time, and the capability is
considered one of UNIX's major WINNING features.
PIZZA, ANSI STANDARD /pee'tz@, an'see stan'd@rd/ [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.
PLAYPEN [IBM] n. A room where programmers work. Compare SALT MINES.
PLAYTE /din'r/ 16 bits, by analogy with NYBBLE and BYTE. Usage: rare
and extremely silly. See also DYNNER.
PLINGNET /pling'net/ n. See UUCPNET. (Usage: British)
PLONK [USENET] The sound a NEWBIE makes as he falls to the bottom of a
KILL FILE. Almost exclusively used in the NEWSGROUP
"talk.bizarre", this term (usually written "*plonk*") is a form
of public ridicule.
PLUGH /ploogh/ [from the ADVENT game] v. See XYZZY.
PM /pee em/ 1. [from "preventive maintenence"] v. to bring down a
machine for inspection or test purposes; see SCRATCH MONKEY. 2. n.
Abbrev. for "Presentation Manager", an ELEPHANTINE OS/2 graphical
user interface.
P.O.D. /pee-oh-dee/ Acronym for `Piece Of Data' (as opposed to a code
section). Usage: pedantic and rare.
POD n. A diablo 630 (or, latterly, any impact letter quality printer).
From the DEC-10 PODTYPE program used to feed formatted text to
same.
POLL v.,n. 1. The action of checking the status of an input line,
sensor, or memory location to see if a particular external event
has been registered. 2. To ask. "I'll poll everyone and see where
they want to go for lunch."
POLYGON PUSHER n. A chip designer who spends most of his/her time at
the physical layout level (which requires drawing *lots* of
multi-colored polygons). Also "rectangle slinger".
POM /pee-oh-em/ n. Phase of the moon (q.v.). Usage: usually used in
the phrase "POM dependent" which means FLAKEY (q.v.).
POP also POPJ /pop-jay/ [based on the stack operation that removes the
top of a stack, and the fact that procedure return addresses are
saved on the stack] 1. v. To remove something from a stack or PDL.
If a person says he has popped something from his pdl, he means he
has finally finished working on it and can now remove it from the
list of things hanging over his head. 2. To return from a
digression (the J-form derives specifically from a PDP-10 assembler
instruction). By verb doubling, "Popj, popj" means roughly,
"Now let's see, where were we?" See RTI.
PRECEDENCE LOSSAGE /pre's@-dens los'j/ [C programmers] n. Coding error
in an expression due to unexpected grouping of arithmetic or
logical operators by the compiler. Used esp. of certain common
coding errors in C due to the nonintuitively low precedence levels
of &, | and ^. Can always be avoided by suitable use of
parentheses. See ALIASING BUG, MEMORY LEAK, SMASH THE STACK,
FANDANGO ON CORE, OVERRUN SCREW.
PRETTY PRINT or PRETTYPRINT v. 1. To generate `pretty' human-readable
output from a hairy internal representation; esp. used for the
process of GRINDing (sense #2) LISP code. 2. To format in some
particularly slick and nontrivial way. See GRIND.
PRIME TIME [from TV programming] n. Normal high-usage hours on a
timesharing system, the `day shift'. Avoidance of prime time is a
major reason for NIGHT MODE hacking.
PRIORITY INTERRUPT [from the hardware term] n. Describes any stimulus
compelling enough to yank one right out of HACK MODE. Classically
used to describe being dragged away by an SO for immediate sex, but
may also refer to more mundane interruptions such as a fire alarm
going off in the near vicinity. Also called an NMI (non maskable
interrupt) especially in PC-land.
PROGRAMMER'S CHEER "Shift to the left! Shift to the right! Push
down, pop up! Byte! Byte! Byte!" A joke so old it has hair on
it...
PROPELLER HEAD n. Used by hackers, this is syn. with COMPUTER GEEK.
Non-hackers sometimes use it to describe all techies. Prob.
derives from SF fandom's tradition of propeller beanies as fannish
insignia (though nobody actually wears them except as a joke).
PROTOCOL n. See DO PROTOCOL.
PROWLER [UNIX] n. A DEMON that is run periodically (typically once a
week) to seek out and erase core files, truncate administrative
logfiles, nuke lost+found directories, and otherwise clean up the
cruft that tends to pile up in the corners of a file system. See
also GFR, REAPER.
PSEUDO /soo'do/ [USENET] n. 1. An electronic-mail or USENET persona
adopted by a human for amusement value or as a means of avoiding
negative repercussions of his/her net.behavior; a `nom de USENET',
often associated with forged postings designed to conceal message
origins. Perhaps the best-known and funniest hoax of this type is
BIFF (q.v.). 2. Notionally, a FLAMAGE-generating AI program
simulating a USENET user. Many FLAMERS have been accused of
actually being such entities, despite the fact that no AI program
of the required sophistication exists. However, in 1989 there was a
famous series of forged postings that used a phrase-frequency-based
travesty generator to simulate the styles of several well-known
flamers based on large samples of their back postings. A
significant number of people were fooled by these, and the debate
over their authenticity was only settled when the perpetrator of
the hoax came publicly forward to admit the deed.
PSEUDOPRIME n. A backgammon prime (six consecutive occupied points)
with one point missing. This term is an esoteric pun derived from
a mathematical method which, rather than determining precisely
whether a number is prime (has no divisors), uses a statistical
technique to decide whether the number is "probably" prime. A
number that passes this test is called a pseudoprime. The hacker
backgammon usage stems from the idea that pseudoprime is almost as
good as a prime: it does the job of a prime until proven otherwise,
and that probably won't happen.
PSEUDOSUIT n. A SUIT wannabee; a hacker who's decided that he wants to
be in management or administration and begins wearing ties, sport
coats and (shudder!) suits voluntarily. Chacun a son gout...
PUNT [from the punch line of an old joke referring to American
football: "Drop back 15 yards and punt"] v. To give up, typically
without any intention of retrying. "Let's punt the movie
tonight." "I was going to hack all night to get this feature in,
but I decided to punt" may mean that you've decided not to stay up
all night, and may also mean you're not ever even going to put in
the feature.
PURPLE BOOK, THE n. The System V Interface Definition. The covers of
the first editions were an amazingly nauseating shade of
off-lavender. See also RED BOOK, BLUE BOOK, GREEN BOOK, SILVER
BOOK, ORANGE BOOK, WHITE BOOK, PINK-SHIRT BOOK, DRAGON BOOK.
PUSH [based on the stack operation that puts the current information
on a stack, and the fact that procedure call addresses are saved on
the stack] Also PUSHJ (push-jay), based on the PDP-10 procedure
call instruction. 1. To put something onto a stack or PDL. If a
person says something has been pushed onto his pdl, he means yet
another thing has been added to the list of things hanging over his
head for him to do. 2. v. To enter upon a digression, to save the
current discussion for later. Antonym of POP, POPJ; see also PDL.
PSYCHEDELICWARE [Great Britain] n. Syn. DISPLAY HACK.
{= Q =}
QUADRUPLE BUCKY n., obs. On a SPACE-CADET KEYBOARD (q.v.), use of all
four of the shifting keys control, meta, hyper, and super while
typing a character key. This was very difficult to do! One
accepted technique was to press the left-control and left-meta keys
with your left hand, the right-control and right-meta keys with
your right hand, and the fifth key with your nose. Thus, this
combination was very seldom used in practice, because when you
invent a new command you usually assign it to some character that
is easier to type. If you want to imply that a program has
ridiculously many commands or features, you can say something like
"Oh, the command that makes it spin all the tapes while whistling
Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is quadruple-bucky-cokebottle". See
DOUBLE BUCKY, BUCKY BITS.
QUANTUM BOGODYNAMICS /kwahn'tm boh`goh-die-nam'iks/ n. Theory
promulgated by ESR which characterizes the universe in terms of
bogon sources (such as politicians, used-car salesmen, TV
evangelists, and SUITs in general), bogon sinks (such as taxpayers
and computers), and bogosity potential fields. Bogon absorption,
of course, causes human beings to behave mindlessly and machines to
fail (and may cause them to emit secondary bogons as well);
however, the precise mechanics of the bogon-computron interaction
are not yet understood and remain to be elucidated. Quantum
bogodynamics is most frequently invoked to explain the sharp
increase in hardware and software failures in the presence of
suits; the latter emit bogons which the former absorb. See BOGON,
COMPUTRON, SUIT.
QUES /kwess/ 1. n. The question mark character ("?"). 2. interj.
What? Also QUES QUES? See WALL.
QUX /kwuhks/ The fourth of the standard metasyntactic variables, after
BAZ and before the QUU*X series. See FOO, BAR, BAZ, QUUX. Note
that this appears to a be recent mutation from QUUX, and that many
versions of the standard series just run FOO, BAR, BAZ, QUUX,
QUUUX...
QUUX /kwuhks/ [invented by Steele] Mythically, from the Latin
semi-deponent verb QUUXO, QUUXARE, QUUXANDUM IRI; noun form
variously QUUX (plural QUUCES, Anglicized to QUUXES) and QUUXU
(genitive plural is QUUXUUM, four U's in seven letters).] 1.
Originally, a meta-word like FOO and FOOBAR. Invented by Guy
Steele for precisely this purpose when he was young and naive and
not yet interacting with the real computing community. Many people
invent such words; this one seems simply to have been lucky enough
to have spread a little. In an eloquent display of poetic justice,
it has returned to the originator in the form of a nickname, as
punishment for inventing this bletcherous word in the first place.
2. interj. See FOO; however, denotes very little disgust, and is
uttered mostly for the sake of the sound of it. 3. Guy L. Steele
in his persona as "The Great Quux", which is somewhat infamous
for light verse and for the "Crunchly" cartoons. 4. QUUXY: adj.
Of or pertaining to a QUUX.
QWERTY /kwer'tee/ adj. Pertaining to a standard English typewriter
keyboard, as opposed to Dvorak or foreign-language layouts or a
SPACE-CADET or APL keyboard.
{= R =}
RANDOM adj. 1. Unpredictable (closest to mathematical definition);
weird. "The system's been behaving pretty randomly." 2.
Assorted; undistinguished. "Who was at the conference?" "Just
a bunch of random business types." 3. Frivolous; unproductive;
undirected (pejorative). "He's just a random loser." 4.
Incoherent or inelegant; not well organized. "The program has a
random set of misfeatures." "That's a random name for that
function." "Well, all the names were chosen pretty randomly."
5. Gratuitously wrong, i.e., poorly done and for no good apparent
reason. For example, a program that handles file name defaulting
in a particularly useless way, or an assembler routine that could
easily have been coded using only three registers, but randomly
uses seven for assorted non-overlapping purposes, so that no one
else can invoke it without first saving four extra registers. 6.
In no particular order, though deterministic. "The I/O channels
are in a pool, and when a file is opened one is chosen randomly."
n. 7. A random hacker; used particularly of high school students
who soak up computer time and generally get in the way. 8.
(occasional MIT usage) One who lives at Random Hall. J. RANDOM is
often prefixed to a noun to make a "name" out of it (by
comparison to common names such as "J. Fred Muggs"). It means
roughly "some particular" or "any specific one". The most
common uses are "J. RANDOM HACKER, "J. Random Loser" and "J.
Random Nerd" ("Should J. Random Loser be allowed to gun down other
people?"), but it can be used just as an elaborate version of
RANDOM in any sense. See also SOME RANDOM X.
RANDOM NUMBERS n. When one wishes to specify a large but random number
of things, and the context is inappropriate for `N' (q.v.), certain
numbers are preferred by hacker tradition (that is, easily
recognized as placeholders). These include
17 Long described at MIT as "the least random number", see 23.
23 Sacred number of Eris, Goddess of Discord (along with 17 & 5).
42 The Answer to the Question of Life, the Universe and Everything.
69 From the sexual act. This one was favored in MIT's ITS culture.
666 The Number of the Beast.
For further enlightenment, consult the _Principia_Discordia_,
_The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_To_The_Galaxy_, any porn movie, and the
Christian Bible's _Book_Of_Revelations_. See also DISCORDIANISM.
RANDOMNESS n. An unexplainable misfeature; gratuitous inelegance.
Also, a HACK or CROCK which depends on a complex combination of
coincidences (or rather, the combination upon which the crock
depends for its accidental failure to malfunction). "This hack
can output characters 40-57 by putting the character in the
accumulator field of an XCT and then extracting 6 bits --- the low
two bits of the XCT opcode are the right thing." "What
randomness!"
RAPE v. To (metaphorically) screw someone or something, violently; in
particular, to destroy a program or information irrecoverably
Usage: often used in describing file-system damage. "So-and-so
was running a program that did absolute disk I/O and ended up
raping the master directory."
RARE [UNIX] adj. CBREAK mode (character-by-character with interrupts
enabled). Distinguished from `raw' and `cooked', but unlike them
this term is strictly a creature of folklore, not found in the
manuals (though it is alleged that some versions of the V7 manuals
used the term `half-cooked'). Usage: rare.
RASTER BLASTER n. [Cambridge] Specialized hardware for BITBLT (q.v.)
operations. Allegedly inspired by analogy with `Rasta Blasta',
British slang for the sort of portable stereo/radio/tapedeck
Americans call a `boom box' or `ghetto blaster'.
RASTER BURN n. Eyestrain brought on by too many hours of looking at
low-res, poorly tuned or glare-ridden monitors, esp. graphics
monitors. See TERMINAL ILLNESS.
RAVE [WPI] v. 1. To persist in discussing a specific subject. 2. To
speak authoritatively on a subject about which one knows very
little. 3. To complain to a person who is not in a position to
correct the difficulty. 4. To purposely annoy another person
verbally. 5. To evangelize. See FLAME. Also used to describe a
less negative form of blather, such as friendly bullshitting. RAVE
differs slightly from FLAME in that RAVE implies that it is the
manner or persistence of speaking that is annoying, while FLAME
implies somewhat more strongly that the subject matter is annoying
as well.
RAVE ON! imp. Sarcastic invitation to continue a RAVE, often by
someone who wishes the raver would get a clue but realizes this is
unlikely.
RAVS /ravz/, also CHINESE RAVS n. Kuo-teh. A Chinese appetizer,
known variously in the plural as dumplings, potstickers and (around
Boston) `Peking Ravioli'. The term "rav" is short for
"ravioli", which among hackers always means the Chinese kind
rather than the Italian kind. Both consist of a filling in a pasta
shell, but the Chinese kind uses a thinner pasta and is cooked
differently, either by steaming or frying. A rav or dumpling can
be steamed or fried, but a potsticker is always the fried kind (so
called because it sticks to the frying pot and has to be scraped
off). "Let's get hot-and-sour soup and three orders of ravs."
See also ORIENTAL FOOD.
READ.ME FILE n. By convention, the top-level directory of a UNIX
source distribution always contains a file named `READ.ME' (or
README, or (rarely) ReadMe) which is a hacker's-eye introduction
containing a pointer to more detailed documentation, credits,
miscellaneous revision history notes, etc.
READ-ONLY USER n. Describes a LUSER who uses computers almost
exclusively for reading USENET, bulletin boards and email, as
opposed to writing code or purveying useful information. See
TWINK.
REAL PROGRAMMER [indirectly, from the book "Real Men Don't Eat
Quiche"] n. A particular sub-variety of hacker, one possessed of a
flippant attitude towards complexity that is arrogant even when
justified by experience. The archetypal `real programmer' likes to
program on the BARE METAL, and is very good at same; he remembers
the binary opcodes for every machine he's every programmed and
thinks that HLLs are for wimps. Real Programmers aren't satisfied
with code that hasn't been BUMmed into a state of TENSEness just
short of rupture. Real Programmers never use comments or write
documentation; "If it was hard to write", says the Real
Programmer, "it should be hard to understand." Real Programmers
can make machines do things that were never in their spec sheets;
in fact, they're seldom really happy unless doing so. A Real
Programmer's code can awe you with its fiendish brilliance even as
it appalls by its level of CROCKISHNESS. Real Programmers live on
junk food and coffee, hang line-printer art on their walls, and
terrify the crap out of other programmers --- because someday,
somebody else might have to try to understand their code in order
to change it. Their successors generally consider it a GOOD THING
that there aren't many Real Programmers around any more.
REAL SOON NOW [orig. from SF's fanzine community. popularized by Jerry
Pournelle's BYTE column] adj. 1. Supposed to be available (or
fixed, or cheap, or whatever) real soon now according to somebody,
but the speaker is quite skeptical. 2. When the gods/fates/other
time commitments permit the speaker to get to it. Often
abbreviated RSN.
REAL TIME adv. Doing something while people are watching or waiting.
"I asked her how to find the calling procedure's program counter
on the stack and she came up with an algorithm in real time."
REAL USER n. 1. A commercial user. One who is paying "real" money
for his computer usage. 2. A non-hacker. Someone using the system
for an explicit purpose (research project, course, etc.). See
USER. Hackers who are also students may also be REAL USERS. "I
need this fixed so I can do a problem set. I'm not complaining out
of randomness, but as a real user." See also LUSER.
REAL WORLD, THE n. 1. In programming, those institutions at which
programming may be used in the same sentence as FORTRAN, COBOL,
RPG, IBM, etc. Places where programs do such commercially
necessary but intellectually uninspiring things as compute payroll
checks and invoices. 2. To programmers, the location of
non-programmers and activities not related to programming. 3. A
universe in which the standard dress is shirt and tie and in which
a person's working hours are defined as 9 to 5. 4. The location of
the status quo. 5. Anywhere outside a university. "Poor fellow,
he's left MIT and gone into the real world." Used pejoratively by
those not in residence there. In conversation, talking of someone
who has entered the real world is not unlike talking about a
deceased person. See also FEAR AND LOATHING, MUNDANE, and
UNINTERESTING.
REAPER n. A PROWLER which GFRs files (see GFR). A file removed in this
way is said to have been "reaped".
RECTANGLE SLINGER n. See POLYGON PUSHER.
RECURSION n. See RECURSION, TAIL RECURSION.
RECURSIVE ACRONYMS pl.n. A hackish (and especially MIT) tradition is
to choose acronyms which refer humorously to themselves or to other
acronyms. The classic examples were two MIT editors called EINE
("EINE Is Not EMACS") and ZWEI ("ZWEI Was EINE Initially").
More recently, GNU (q.v., sense #1) is said to stand for "GNU's
Not UNIX!"
RED BOOK n. 1. Informal name for one of the three standard references
on PostScript; the others are known as the GREEN BOOK and BLUE
BOOK. 2. Any of the 1984 standards issued by the CCIT 8th plenary
assembly. They change color each review cycle (1988 was BLUE BOOK,
1992 will be GREEN BOOK). These include, among other things, the
X.400 email spec and the Group 1 through 4 fax standards. See also
GREEN BOOK, BLUE BOOK, PURPLE BOOK, SILVER BOOK, ORANGE BOOK, WHITE
BOOK, PINK-SHIRT BOOK, DRAGON BOOK.
REGEXP /reg'exp/ [UNIX] n. 1. Common written and spoken abbreviation
for `regular expression', one of the wildcard patterns used, e.g.,
by UNIX utilities such as grep(1), sed(1) and awk(1). These use
conventions similar to but more elaborate than those described
under GLOB. 2. Name of a well-known PD regexp-handling package in
portable C, written by revered USENETter Henry Spencer
(henry@utzoo.uucp).
REINCARNATION, CYCLE OF n. Term used to refer to a well-known effect
whereby function in a computing system family is migrated out to
special purpose peripheral hardware for speed, then the peripheral
evolves towards more computing power as it does its job, then
somebody notices that it's inefficient to support two asymmetrical
processors in the architecture and folds the function back into the
main CPU, at which point the cycle begins again. Several
iterations of this cycle have been observed in graphics processor
design, and at least one or two in communications and
floating-point processors. Also known as "the Wheel of Life",
"the Wheel of Samsara", and other variations of the basic
Hindu/Buddhist theological idea.
RELIGIOUS ISSUES n. Questions which seemingly cannot be raised without
touching off a HOLY WAR, such as "What is the best
editor/language/operating system/architecture/shell/mail
reader/news reader". See also THEOLOGY.
REPLICATOR n. Any construct that acts to produce copies of itself;
this could be a living organism, an idea (see MEME), a program (see
WORM, WABBIT and VIRUS), a pattern in a cellular automaton (see
LIFE, sense #1), or (speculatively) a robot.
RETCON /ret'-con/ ["retroactive continuity", from USENET's
rec.arts.comics] 1. n. the common situation in pulp fiction (esp.
comics, soaps) where a new story "reveals" new things about
events previous stories, usually leaving the "facts" the same
(thus preserving "continuity") while completely changing their
interpretation. E.g., revealing that a whole season's episodes of
Dallas was a dream was a retcon. 2. v.t. To write such a story
about (a character or fictitious object). Thus, "Byrne has
retconned Superman's cape so that it is no longer unbreakable".
3. v.i. Used of something "transformed" in this way -
"Marvelman's old adventures were retconned into synthetic
dreams", "Swamp Thing was retconned from a transformed person
into a sentient vegetable."
[Ed.note: This is included because it's a good example of hackish
innovation in a field completely unrelated to computers. The word
"retcon" will probably spread through comics fandom and lose its
association with hackerdom within a couple of years; for the
record, it started here.]
RETROCOMPUTING /ret'-roh-k@m-pyoo'ting/ n. Refers to emulations of
way-behind-the state-of-the-art hardware or software, or
implementations of never-was-state-of-the-art; esp. if such
implementations are elaborate practical jokes and/or parodies of
more `serious' designs. Perhaps the most widely distributed
retrocomputing utility was the pnch(6) program on V7 and other
early UNIX versions, which would accept up to 80 characters of text
argument and display the corresponding pattern in Hollerith card
code. Other well-known retrocomputing hacks have included the
programming language INTERCAL (q.v.), a jcl-emulating shell for
UNIX, the card-punch-emulating editor named 029, and various
elaborate PDP-11 hardware emulators and RT-11 OS emulators written
just to keep an old, sourceless ZORK binary running.
RFC /ahr ef see/ n. Request For Comment. One of a long-established
series of numbered Internet standards widely followed by commercial
and PD software in the Internet and UNIX communities. Perhaps the
single most influential one has been RFC-822 (the Internet
mail-format standard). The RFCs are unusual in that they are
floated by technical experts acting on their own initiative and
reviewed by the Internet at large, rather than formally promulgated
through an institution such as ANSI. For this reason they remain
known as RFCs even once adopted.
RICE BOX [from ham radio slang] n. Any Asian-made commodity computer,
esp. an 8086, 80286, 80386 or 80486-based machine built to IBM
PC-compatible ISA or EISA-bus standards.
RIGHT THING, THE n. That which is "obviously" the correct or
appropriate thing to use, do, say, etc. Use of this term often
implies that in fact reasonable people may disagree. "Never let
your conscience keep you from doing the right thing!" "What's
the right thing for LISP to do when it reads a mod 0? Should it
return a, or give a divide-by-zero error?" Antonym: WRONG THING,
THE (q.v.).
ROACH [Bell Labs] v. To destroy, esp. of a data structure. Hardware
gets TOASTed, software gets roached.
ROBUST adj. Said of a system which has demonstrated an ability to
recover gracefully from the whole range of exception conditions in
a given environment. One step below BULLETPROOF. Compare SMART,
oppose BRITTLE.
ROOT n. [UNIX] 1. The top node of the system directory structure (home
directory of the root user). 2. The "superuser" account that
ignores permission bits, user number zero on a UNIX system. This
account has the user name `root'. 3. By extension, the privileged
system-maintenance login on any OS. 4. Thus, ROOT MODE: Syn. with
WIZARD MODE or WHEEL MODE. Like these, it is often generalized to
describe privileged states in systems other than OSs. 5. GO ROOT:
to temporarily enter ROOT MODE in order to perform a privileged
operation. This use is deprecated in Australia, where v. "root"
is slang for "to have sex with".
ROTARY DEBUGGER [Commodore] n. Essential equipment for those late
night or early morning debugging sessions. Mainly used as
sustenance for the hacker. Comes in many decorator colors such as
Sausage, Pepperoni, and Garbage. See ANSI-STANDARD PIZZA.
ROGUE [UNIX] n. Graphic Dungeons-And-Dragons-like game written under
BSD UNIX and subsequently ported to other UNIX systems. The
original BSD curses(3) screen-handling package was hacked together
by Ken Arnold to support ROGUE, and has since become one of UNIX's
most important and heavily used application libraries. See HACK.
ROOM-TEMPERATURE IQ [IBM] 80 or below. Used in describing the
expected intelligence range of the LUSER. As in "Well, but how's
this interface gonna play with the room-temperature IQ crowd?" See
DROOL-PROOF PAPER.
ROT13 /rot-ther'teen/ [USENET, from "rotate alphabet 13 places"]
n.,v. The simple encryption of replacing each English letter with
the one 13 places forward or back along the alphabet, so that "The
butler did it!" becomes "Gur ohgyre qvq vg!" Most Usenet news
reading and posting programs include a rot13 feature. It is used
as if to enclose the text in a sealed wrapper that the reader must
choose to open, for posting things that might offend some readers,
answers to puzzles, or discussion of movie plot surprises.
RTFM /ahr-tee-ef-em/ [UNIX] Abbrev. for "Read The Fucking Manual".
1. Used by GURUs to brush off questions they consider trivial or
annoying. Compare DON'T DO THAT, THEN. 2. Used when reporting a
problem to indicate that you aren't just asking out of RANDOMNESS.
"No, I can't figure out how to interface UNIX to my toaster and
yes I have RTFM." Unlike sense #1 this use is considered polite.
RTI /ahr-tee-ie/ interj. The mnemonic for the `return from interrupt'
instruction on Intel microprocessors. Equivalent to "Now, where
was I?" or used to end a conversational digression. See POP,
POPJ.
RUDE [WPI] adj. 1. (of a program) Badly written. 2. Functionally
poor, e.g. a program which is very difficult to use because of
gratuitously poor (random?) design decisions. See CUSPY.
RUNES pl.n. 1. Anything that requires HEAVY WIZARDRY or BLACK ART to
PARSE; core dumps, JCL commands, or even code in a language you
don't have the faintest idea how to read. Compare CASTING THE
RUNES. 2. Special display characters (for example, the high-half
graphics on an IBM PC). 3. RUNIC adj. Syn. OBSCURE. VMS fans
sometimes refer to UNIX as `Runix'; UNIX fans return the compliment
by expanding VMS to `Vachement Mauvais Systeme'.
{= S =}
SACRED adj. Reserved for the exclusive use of something (a
metaphorical extension of the standard meaning). "Accumulator 7
is sacred to the UUO handler." Often means that anyone may look
at the sacred object, but clobbering it will screw whatever it is
sacred to. Example: The comment "Register 7 is sacred to the
interrupt handler" appearing in a program would be interpreted by
a hacker to mean that one part of the program, the "interrupt
handler", uses register 7, and if any other part of the program
changes the contents of register 7 dire consequences are likely to
ensue.
SADISTICS /s@'dis'tiks/ n. University slang for statistics and
probability theory, often used by hackers.
SAGA [WPI] n. A cuspy but bogus raving story dealing with N random
broken people.
SAIL n. Stanford University Artificial Intelligence Lab. An important
site in the early development of LISP; with the MIT AI LAB, CMU and
the UNIX community, one of the major founts of hacker culture
traditions. The SAIL machines were shut down in late May 1990,
scant weeks after the MIT AI lab's ITS cluster went down for the
last time.
SALESCRITTER /sayls'kri-tr/ n. Pejorative hackerism for a computer
salesperson. Hackers tell the following joke:
Q. What's the difference between a used car dealer and a
computer saleman?
A. The used car dealer knows he's lying.
This reflects the widespread hacker belief that salescritters are
self-selected for stupidity (after all, if they had brains and the
inclination to use them they'd be making more money programming).
Compare MARKETROID, SUIT.
SALT MINES n. Dense quarters housing large numbers of programmers
working long hours on grungy projects, with some hope of seeing the
end of the tunnel in N years. Noted for their absence of sunshine.
Compare PLAYPEN.
SANDBENDER [IBM] n. A person involved with silicon lithography and the
physical design of chips. Compare IRONMONGER, POLYGON PUSHER.
SCIENCE-FICTION FANDOM n. Another voluntary subculture having a very
heavy overlap with hackerdom; most hackers read SF and/or fantasy
fiction avidly, and many go to "cons" (SF conventions) or are
involved in fandom-connected activities like the Society for
Creative Anachronism. Some hacker slang originated in SF fandom;
see DEFENESTRATION, GREAT-WALL, CYBERPUNK, H INFIX, HA HA ONLY
SERIOUS, IMHO, MUNDANE, NEEP-NEEP, REAL SOON NOW. Additionally,
the jargon terms CYBERSPACE, DE-REZZ, GO FLATLINE, ICE, VIRUS,
WIREHEAD and WORM originated in SF itself.
SCRATCH [from "scratchpad"] 1. adj. A device or recording medium
attached to a machine for testing or temporary-use purposes; one
which can be SCRIBBLED on without loss. Usually in the combining
forms SCRATCH MEMORY, SCRATCH DISK, SCRATCH TAPE, SCRATCH VOLUME.
See SCRATCH MONKEY. 2. [primarily IBM] v. To delete (as in a file).
SCRATCH MONKEY n. As in, "Before testing or reconfiguring, always
mount a". A proverb used to advise caution when dealing with
irreplacable data or devices. Used in memory of Mabel, the
Swimming Wonder Monkey who expired when a computer vendor PM'd a
machine which was regulating the gas mixture that the monkey was
breathing at the time. See Appendix A. See SCRATCH.
SCREW [MIT] n. A LOSE, usually in software. Especially used for
user-visible misbehavior caused by a bug or misfeature.
SCREWAGE /scroo'@j/ n. Like LOSSAGE (q.v.) but connotes that the
failure is due to a designed-in misfeature rather than a simple
inadequacy or mere bug.
SCROG /skrog/ [Bell Labs] v. To damage, trash or corrupt a data
structure. "The cblock got scrogged." Also reported as SKROG,
and ascribed to "The Wizard of Id" comix. Equivalent to SCRIBBLE
or MANGLE (q.v.)
SCROZZLE /skroh'zl/ v. Used when a self-modifying code segment runs
incorrectly and corrupts the running program, or vital data. "The
damn compiler scrozzled itself again!"
SCRIBBLE n. To modify a data structure in a random and unintentionally
destructive way. "Bletch! Somebody's disk-compactor program went
berserk and scribbled on the i-node table." "It was working fine
until one of the allocation routines scribbled on low core."
Synonymous with TRASH; compare MUNG, which conveys a bit more
intention, and MANGLE, which is more violent and final.
SEARCH-AND-DESTROY MODE n. Hackerism for the search-and-replace
facility in an editor, so called because an incautiously chosen
match pattern can cause INFINITE damage.
SECOND-SYSTEM EFFECT n. When designing the successor to a relatively
small, elegant and successful system, there is a tendency to become
grandiose in one's success and perpetrate an ELEPHANTINE
feature-laden monstrosity. The term was first used by Fred Brooks
in his classic book "The Mythical Man-Month". It described the jump
from a set of nice, simple, operating monitors on the IBM 70xx
series to OS/360 on the 360 series.
SEGGIE /seg'ee/ [UNIX] n. Reported from Britain as a shorthand for
`segment violation', an attempted access to a protected memory area
usually resulting in a CORE DUMP.
SEGMENT v. To CORE DUMP with a segment violation error (see SEGGIE).
Used of programs.
SELF-REFERENCE n. See SELF-REFERENCE.
SELVAGE /selv'@j/ [from sewing] n. See CHAD (sense #1).
SEMI /se'mee/ 1. n. Abbreviation for "semicolon", when speaking.
"Commands to GRIND are prefixed by semi-semi-star" means that the
prefix is ";;*", not 1/4 of a star. 2. Prefix with words such as
"immediately", as a qualifier. "When is the system coming up?"
"Semi-immediately." (That is, maybe not for an hour). "We did
consider that possibility semi-seriously."
SERVER n. A kind of DAEMON which performs a service for the requester,
which often runs on a computer other than the one on which the
server runs. A particularly common term on the Internet, which is
rife with "name servers" "domain servers" "news servers"
"finger servers" and the like.
SEX [Sun User's Group & elsewhere] n. 1. Software EXchange. A
technique invented by the blue-green algae hundereds of millions of
years ago to speed up their evolution, which had been terribly slow
up until then. Today, SEX parties are popular among hackers and
others. 2. The rather Freudian mnemonic often used for Sign Extend,
a machine instruction found in many architectures. The Intel 8048
even had logical-or and logical-and instructions ORL and ANL.
SHAREWARE n. FREEWARE for which the author requests some payment,
usually in the accompanying documentation files or in an
announcement made by the software itself. Such payment may or may
not buy additional support or functionality. See GUILTWARE,
CRIPPLEWARE.
SHELFWARE n. Software purchased on a whim (by an individual user) or
in accordance with policy (by a corporation or government) but not
actually required for any particular use. Therefore, it often ends
up on some shelf.
SHELL [UNIX, now used elsewhere] n. 1. The command interpreter used to
pass commands to an operating system. 2. More generally, any
interface program which mediates access to a special resource or
SERVER for convenience, efficiency or security reasons; for this
meaning, the usage is usually "a shell around" whatever. This sort
of program is also called a "wrapper".
SHELL OUT [UNIX] n. To spawn an interactive subshell from within a
program such as a mailer or editor. "BANG FOO runs FOO in a
SUBSHELL, while BANG alone shells out."
SHIFT LEFT (or RIGHT) LOGICAL [from any of various machines'
instruction sets] 1. v. To move oneself to the left (right). To
move out of the way. 2. imper. "Get out of that (my) seat! You
can move to that empty one to the left (right)." Usage: often
used without the "logical", or as "left shift" instead of
"shift left". Sometimes heard as LSH (lish), from the PDP-10
instruction set.
SHITOGRAM /shit'oh-gram/ n. A *really* nasty piece of email. Compare
NASTYGRAM, FLAME.
SHRIEK See EXCL. Occasional CMU usage, also in common use among
mathematicians, especially category theorists.
SIG /sig/ or SIG BLOCK /sig blok/ [UNIX; often written ".sig"
there] n. Short for "signature", used specifically to refer to
the electronic signature block which most UNIX mail- and
news-posting software will allow you to automatically append to
outgoing mail and news. The composition of one's sig can be quite
an art form, including an ASCII logo or one's choice of witty
sayings (see SIG QUOTE); but many consider large sigs a waste of
bandwidth, and it has been observed that the size of one's sig
block is usually inversely proportional to one's longevity and
level of prestige on THE NETWORK.
SIG QUOTE /sig kwoht/ [USENET] n. A maxim, quote, proverb, joke or
slogan embedded in one's SIG (q.v.) and intended to convey
something of one's philosophical stance, pet peeves, or sense of
humor. "He *must* be a Democrat --- he posted a sig quote from Dan
Quayle."
SILICON n. Hardware, esp. ICs or microprocessor-based computer
systems (compare IRON). Contrasted with software.
SILLY WALK [from Monty Python] v. A ridiculous procedure required to
accomplish a task. Like GROVEL, but more RANDOM and humorous. "I
had to silly-walk through half the /usr directories to find the
maps file."
SILO n. The FIFO input-character buffer in an RS-232 line card. So
called from DEC terminology used on DH and DZ line cards for the
VAX and PDP-11.
SILVER BOOK, THE n. Jensen & Wirth's infamous "Pascal User Manual and
Report", so called because of the silver cover of the
widely-distributed Springer-Verlag second edition of 1978. See
RED BOOK, GREEN BOOK, BLUE BOOK, WHITE BOOK, PURPLE BOOK, ORANGE
BOOK, PINK-SHIRT BOOK, DRAGON BOOK.
SITENAME [UNIX/Internet] n. The unique electronic name of a computer
system, used to identify it in UUCP mail, USENET or other forms of
electronic information interchange. The folklore interest of
sitenames stems from the creativity and humor they often display.
Interpreting a sitename is not unlike interpreting a vanity license
plate; one has to mentally unpack it, allowing for mono-case and
length restrictions and the lack of whitespace. Hacker tradition
deprecates dull, institutional-sounding names in favor of punchy,
humorous and clever coinages (except that it is considered
appropriate for the official public gateway machine of an
organization to bear the organization's name or acronym).
Mythological references, cartoon characters, animal names, and
allusions to SF or fantasy literature are probably the most popular
sources for sitenames (in roughly that order). See also NETWORK
ADDRESS.
SLEEP v. On a timesharing system, a process which relinquishes its
claim on the scheduler until some given event occurs or a specified
time delay elapses is said to `go to sleep'.
SLOP n. 1. A one-sided fudge factor (q.v.), that is, an allowance for
error but only in one of two directions. For example, if you need
a piece of wire ten feet long and have to guess when you cut it,
you make very sure to cut it too long, by a large amount if
necessary, rather than too short by even a little bit, because you
can always cut off the SLOP but you can't paste it back on again.
When discrete quantities are involved, slop is often introduced to
avoid the possibility of a FENCEPOST ERROR (q.v.). 2. n. The ratio
of the size code generated by a compiler to the size of equivalent
HAND-HACKED assembler code, minus 1; i.e., the space (or maybe
time) you lose because you didn't do it yourself. This number is
often used as a measure of the goodness of a compiler; slop below
5% is very good, and 10% is usually acceptable for most purposes.
With modern compiler technology, esp. on RISC machines, the
compiler's slop may actually be *negative*; that is, humans may be
unable to generate code as good. This is one of the reasons
assembler programming is no longer common.
SLOPSUCKER n. A lowest-priority task that must wait around until
everything else has "had its fill" of machine resources. Only
when the machine would otherwise be idle is the task allowed to
"suck up the slop." Also called a HUNGRY PUPPY. One common
variety of slopsucker hunts for large prime numbers. Compare
BACKGROUND.
SLUGGY /sluh'gee/ adj. Hackish variant of `sluggish'. Used only of
people, esp. someone just waking up after a long GRONK-OUT.
SLURP v. To read a large data file entirely into core before working
on it (This may be contrasted with the strategy of reading a small
piece at a time, processing it, and then reading the next piece).
"This program slurps in a 1K-by-1K matrix and does an FFT."
SMART adj. Said of a program that does the RIGHT THING (q.v.) in a
wide variety of complicated circumstances. There is a difference
between calling a program smart and calling it intelligent; in
particular, there do not exist any intelligent programs (yet).
Compare ROBUST (smart programs can be BRITTLE).
SMART TERMINAL n. A terminal that has enough computing capability to
perform useful work independently of the main computer. The
development of workstations and personal computers has made this
term and the product it describes semi-obsolescent, but one may
still hear variants of the phrase "act like a smart terminal"
used to describe the behavior of workstations/PCs with respect to
programs that execute almost entirely out of a remote SERVER's
storage, using said devices as displays.
There's a classic quote from Rob Pike (inventor of the BLIT (q.v.)
terminal): "A smart terminal is not a smart*ass* terminal,
but rather a terminal you can educate." This illustrates a common
design problem; the attempt to make peripherals (or anything else)
intelligent sometimes results in finicky, rigid "special
features" that become just so much dead weight if you try to use
the device in any way the designer didn't anticipate. Flexibility
and programmability, on the other hand, are *really* smart.
SMASH THE STACK [C programming] n. On many C implementations it is
possible to corrupt the execution stack by writing past the end of
an array declared auto in a routine. Code that does this is said
to `smash the stack', and can cause return from the routine to jump
to a random text address. This can produce some of the most
insidious data-dependent bugs known to mankind. Variants include
`trash the stack', `SCRIBBLE ON the stack', `MANGLE the stack';
`MUNG the stack' is not used as this is never done intentionally.
See ALIASING BUG, FANDANGO ON CORE, MEMORY LEAK, PRECEDENCE
LOSSAGE, OVERRUN SCREW.
SMILEY n. See EMOTICON.
SMOKE TEST n. 1. A rudimentary form of testing applied to electronic
equipment following repair or reconfiguration in which AC power is
applied and during which the tester checks for sparks, smoke, or
other dramatic signs of fundamental failure. 2. By extension, the
first run of a piece of software after construction or a critical
change. See MAGIC SMOKE.
SMOKING CLOVER [ITS] n. A DISPLAY HACK originally due to Bill Gosper.
Many convergent lines are drawn on a color monitor in AOS mode (so
that every pixel struck has its color incremented). The color map
is then rotated. The lines all have one endpoint in the middle of
the screen; the other endpoints are spaced one pixel apart around
the perimeter of a large square. This results in a striking,
rainbow-hued, shimmering four-leaf clover. Gosper joked about
keeping it hidden from the FDA lest it be banned.
SMOP /smop/ [Simple (or Small) Matter of Programming] n. 1. A piece of
code, not yet written, whose anticipated length is significantly
greater than its complexity. Usage: used to refer to a program
that could obviously be written, but is not worth the trouble. It
is also used ironically to imply that a difficult problem can be
easily solved because a program can be written to do it; the irony
is that it is very clear that writing such a program will be a
great deal of work. Example: "It's easy to change a FORTRAN
compiler to compile COBOL as well; it's just a Small Matter of
Programming." 2. Often used ironically by the intended victim
when a suggestion for a program is made which seems easy to the
suggester, but is obviously a lot of work to the programmer.
SNAIL-MAIL n. Paper mail, as opposed to electronic. Sometimes written
as the single word `SnailMail'. Derives from earlier coinage
`USnail' for which there have been parody posters and stamps made.
Oppose EMAIL.
SNARF /snarf/ v. 1. To grab, esp. a large document or file for the
purpose of using it either with or without the author's permission.
See BLT. Variant: SNARF (IT) DOWN. to snarf, sometimes with the
connotation of absorbing, processing, or understanding. "I think
I'll snarf down the list of DDT commands so I'll know what's
changed recently." 2. [in the UNIX community] to fetch a file or
set of files across a network. See also BLAST.
SNARF & BARF /snarf-n-barf/ n. The act of grabbing a region of text
using a WIMP (q.v.) environment and then stuffing the contents of
that region into another region or into the same region, to avoid
re-typing a command line.
SNARK [Lewis Carroll, via the Michigan Terminal System] n. 1. A system
failure. When a user's process bombed, the operator would get a
message "Help, Help, Snark in MTS!". 2. More generally, any kind
of unexplained or threatening event on a computer. Often used to
refer to events or log file entries which might indicate an
attempted security violation. 3. UUCP name of snark.thyrsus.com,
home site of the Jargon File 2.x.x versions.
SNEAKERNET n. Term used (generally with ironic intent) for transfer of
electronic information by physically carrying tape, disks, or some
other media from one machine to another. "Never underestimate the
bandwidth of a station wagon filled with magtape, or a 747 filled
with CD-ROMs." Also called "Tennis-Net", "Armpit-Net".
SNIFF v.,n. Synonym for POLL.
S.O. /ess-oh/ n. Acronym for Significant Other, almost invariably
written abbreviated and pronounced "ess-oh" by hackers. In fact
the form without periods "SO" is most common. Used to refer to
one's primary relationship, esp. a live-in to whom one is not
married. See MOTAS, MOTOS, MOTSS.
SOFTCOPY n. [back-formation from `hardcopy'] A machine readable form
of corresponding hardcopy. See BITS.
SOFTWARE ROT n. (Also known as BIT DECAY, BIT ROT) Hypothetical
disease the existence of which has been deduced from the
observation that unused programs or features will often stop
working after sufficient time has passed, even if "nothing has
changed". The theory explains that bits decay as if they were
radioactive. As time passes, the contents of a file or the code in
a program will become increasingly garbled. There actually are
physical processes that produce such effects (the alpha particles
such as are found in cosmic rays can change the contents of a
computer memory unpredictably, and various kinds of subtle media
failures can corrupt files in mass storage) but they are quite
rare. Nevertheless, when you can't figure out why something
stopped working, it is often humorously convenient to blame
SOFTWARE ROT.
Historical note: software rot in an even funnier sense than the
mythical one was a real problem on early research computers (e. g.
the R1, see GRIND CRANK). If a program that depended on a peculiar
instuction hadn't been run in quite a while, the user might
discover that the opcodes no longer did the things as they used to.
("Hey, so-and-so needs an instruction to do such-and-such. We can
snarf this one, right? No one uses it.")
SOFTWARILY /soft-weir'i-lee/ adv. In a way pertaining to software.
"The system is softwarily unreliable." The adjective
"softwary" is *not* used. See HARDWARILY.
SOME RANDOM X adj. Used to indicate a member of class X, with the
implication that the particular X is interchangeable with most
other Xs in whatever context was being discussed. "I think some
random cracker tripped over the guest timeout last night."
SORCERER'S APPRENTICE MODE n. A bug in a protocol where, under some
circumstances, the receipt of a message causes more than one
message to be sent, each of which, when received, triggers the same
bug. Used esp. of such behavior caused by BOUNCE MESSAGE loops in
EMAIL software. Compare BROADCAST STORM.
SPACE-CADET KEYBOARD n. The Knight keyboard, a now-legendary device
used on MIT LISP machines which inspired several still-current
slang terms and influenced the design of EMACS (q.v.). It was
inspired by the Stanford keyboard and equipped with no less than
*seven* shift keys: four BUCKY BIT (q.v.) keys (`control', `meta',
`hyper', and `super') and three like the regular shift key, called
`shift', `top', and `front'. Many keys have three symbols on them:
a letter and a symbol on the top, and a Greek letter on the front.
For example, the "L" key has an "L" and a two-way arrow on the
top, and the Greek letter lambda on the front. If you press this
key with the right hand while playing an appropriate "chord" with
the left hand on the shift keys, you can get the following results:
L lower-case "l"
shift-L upper-case "L"
front-L Greek lower-case lambda
front-shift-L Greek upper-case lambda
top-L two-way arrow (front and shift are ignored)
And of course each of these may also be typed with any combination
of the control, meta, hyper, and super keys. On this keyboard you
can type over 8000 different characters! This allows the user to
type very complicated mathematical text, and also to have thousands
of single-character commands at his disposal. Many hackers were
actually willing to memorize the command meanings of that many
characters if it will reduce typing time (this view rather
obviously shaped the interface of EMACS). Other hackers, however,
thought having that many bucky bits is overkill, and object that
such a keyboard can require three or four hands to operate. See
BUCKY BITS, COKEBOTTLE, META BIT.
SPACEWAR n. A space-combat simulation game first implemented on the
PDP-1 at MIT in 1960-61. SPACEWAR aficionados formed the core of
the early hacker culture at MIT. Ten years later a descendant of
the game motivated Ken Thompson to build, in his spare time on a
scavenged PDP-7, the operating system that became UNIX (q.v.). Ten
years after that, SPACEWAR was commercialized as one of the first
video games; descendants are still feeping in video arcades
everywhere.
SPAGHETTI CODE n. Describes code with a complex and tangled control
structure, esp. one using many GOTOs, exceptions or other
`unstructured' branching constructs. Pejorative. The synonym
"kangaroo code" has been reported.
SPAGHETTI INHERITANCE n. [Encountered among users of object-oriented
languages that use inheritance, such as Smalltalk] A convoluted
class-subclass graph, often resulting from carelessly deriving
subclasses from other classes just for the sake of reusing their
code. Coined in a (successful) attempt to discourage such
practice, through guilt by association with SPAGHETTI CODE.
SPIFFY /spi'fee/ adj. 1. Said of programs having a pretty, clever or
exceptionally well-designed interface. "Have you seen the spiffy X
version of EMPIRE yet?" 2. Said sarcastically of programs which
are perceived to have little more than a flashy interface going for
them. Which meaning should be drawn depends delicately on tone of
voice and context.
SPIN v. Equivalent to BUZZ (q.v.). More common among C and UNIX
programmers.
SPIN-LOCK [Cambridge] n. A BUSY-WAIT. Preferred in Britain.
SPLAT n. 1. Name used in many places (DEC, IBM, and others) for the
ASCII asterisk ("*") character. 2. [MIT] Name used by some
people for the ASCII number-sign ("#") character. 3. [Stanford]
Name used by some people for the Stanford/ITS extended ASCII
circle-x character. (This character is also called "circle-x",
"blobby", and "frob", among other names.) 4. [Stanford] Name
for the semi-mythical extended ASCII circle-plus character. 5.
Canonical name for an output routine that outputs whatever the
local interpretation of splat is. Usage: nobody really agrees what
character "splat" is, but the term is common.
SPOOGE /spooj/ 1. n. Inexplicable or arcane code, or random and
probably incorrect output from a computer program. 2. v. To
generate code or output as in definition 1.
SPOOL [fr. early IBM "Simultaneous Peripheral Operation On-Line",
but this acronym is widely thought to have been contrived for
effect] v. To send files to some device or program (a `spooler')
that queues them up and does something useful with them later. The
spooler usually understood is the `print spooler' controlling
output of jobs to a printer, but the term has been used in
connection with other peripherals (especially plotters and graphics
devices).
STACK n. See PDL. The STACK usage is probably more common outside
universities. The usual physical example of a stack is to be found
in a cafeteria: a pile of plates sitting on a spring in a well in a
cart, so that when you put a plate on the top they all sink down,
and when you take one off the top the rest spring up a bit.
STACK PUKE n. Some micros are said to "puke their guts onto the
stack" to save their internal state during exception processing.
On a pipelined machine this can take a while (up to 92 bytes for a
bus fault on the 68020, for example).
STALE POINTER BUG n. Synonym for ALIASING BUG used esp. among
microcomputer hackers.
STATE n. Condition, situation. "What's the state of your latest
hack?" "It's winning away." "The system tried to read and
write the disk simultaneously and got into a totally wedged
state." A standard question is "What's your state?" which means
"What are you doing?" or "What are you about to do?" Typical
answers might be "I'm about to GRONK OUT", or "I'm hungry".
Another standard question is "What's the state of the world?"
meaning "What's new?" or "What's going on?". The more terse and
humorous way of asking these conventions would be "State-p?".
STIR-FRIED RANDOM alt. STIR-FRIED MUMBLE n. Term used for frequent
best dish of those hackers who can cook. Consists of random fresh
veggies and meat wokked with random spices. Tasty and economical.
See RANDOM, GREAT-WALL, CHINESE RAVS, ORIENTAL FOOD; see also
MUMBLE.
STOMP ON v. To inadvertently overwrite something important, usually
automatically. Example: "All the work I did this weekend got
stomped on last night by the nightly-server script." Compare
SCRIBBLE, MANGLE, TRASH, SCROG, ROACH.
STOPPAGE /sto'p@j/ n. Extreme lossage (see LOSSAGE) resulting in
something (usually vital) becoming completely unusable. "The
recent system stoppage was caused by a FRIED transformer."
STUBROUTINE /stuhb'roo-teen/ [contr. of "stub routine"] n. Tiny,
often vacuous placeholder for a subroutine to be written or fleshed
out later.
STUNNING adj. Mind-bogglingly stupid. Usually used in sarcasm. "You
want to code *what* in ADA? That's...a stunning idea!" See also
NON-OPTIMAL SOLUTION.
SUBSHELL [UNIX, MS-DOS] n. An OS command interpreter (see SHELL)
spawned from within a program, such that exit from the command
interpreter returns one to the parent program in a state that
allows it to continue execution. Oppose CHAIN.
SUIT n. 1. Ugly and uncomfortable `business clothing' often worn by
non-hackers. Invariably worn with a `tie', a strangulation device
which partially cuts off the blood supply to the brain. It is
thought that this explains much about the behavior of suit-
wearers. 2. A person who habitually wears suits, as distinct from a
techie or hacker. See LOSER, BURBLE and BRAIN-DAMAGED. English,
BTW, is relatively kind; our Soviet correspondent informs us that
the corresponding idiom in Russian hacker jargon is `sovok', lit. a
tool for grabbing garbage.
SUNSPOTS n. Notional cause of an odd error. "Why did the program
suddenly turn the screen blue?" "Sunspots, I guess". Also cause
of bitrot, from the genuine, honest-to-god fact that sunspots will
increase cosmic radiation which can flip single bits in memory.
Needless to say, although real sunspot errors happen, they are
extremely rare. See PHASE OF THE MOON.
SUN-STOOLS n. Unflattering hackerism for SunTools, a pre-X windowing
environment notorious in its day for size, slowness and misfeatures
(X, however, is larger and slower; see SECOND SYSTEM EFFECT).
SUPDUP /soop'doop/ v. To communicate with another ARPAnet host using
the SUPDUP program, which is a SUPer-DUPer TELNET talking a special
display protocol used mostly in talking to ITS sites. Sometimes
abbreviated to SD.
SUPERPROGRAMMER n. A prolific programmer; one who can code
exceedingly well and quickly. Not all hackers are
superprogrammers, but many are. (Productivity can vary from one
programmer to another by factors of as much as 1000. For example,
programmer A might be able to write an average of 3 lines of
working code in one day, while another, with the proper tools and
skill, might be able to write 3,000 lines of working code in one
day. This variance is astonishing, appearing in very few other
areas of human endeavor.) The term SUPERPROGRAMMER is more
commonly used within such places as IBM than in the hacker
community. It tends to stress productivity rather than creativity
or ingenuity. Hackers tend to prefer the terms HACKER and WIZARD.
SUZIE COBOL /soo'zee koh'bol/ 1. [IBM, prob. fr. Frank Zappa's
"little Suzy Creamcheese"] n. A coder straight out of training
school who knows everything except the benefits of comments in
plain English. Also (fashionable among personkind wishing to avoid
accusations of sexism) `Sammy Cobol' or (in some non-IBM circles)
`Cobol Charlie'. 2. [proposed] Meta-name for any CODE GRINDER,
analogous to J. RANDOM HACKER.
SWAB [From the PDP-11 "byte swap" instruction, and immortallized in
the option "conv=swab" to DD (q.v.)] 1. v. to solve the NUXI
PROBLEM by swapping bytes in a file. 2. Also, the program in V7
UNIX used to perform this action, or anything functionally
equivalent to it. See also BIG-ENDIAN, LITTLE-ENDIAN, BYTESEXUAL.
SWAP SPACE n. Storage space. "I'm just using that corner of the machine
room for swap space".
SWAPPED adj. From the older (per-task) method of using secondary
storage devices to implement support for multitasking. Something
which is SWAPPED IN is available for immediate use in main memory,
and otherwise is SWAPPED OUT. Often used metaphorically to refer
to people's memories ("I read the Scheme Report every few months
to keep the information swapped in.") or to their own availability
("I'll swap you in as soon as I finish looking at this other
problem."). Compare PAGE IN, PAGE OUT.
SWIZZLE v. To convert external names or references within a data
structure into direct pointers when the data structure is brought
into main memory from external storage; also called "pointer
swizzling"; the converse operation is sometimes termed UNSWIZZLING.
SYNC /sink/ [UNIX] n.,v. 1. To force all pending I/O to the disk. 2.
More generally, to force a number of competing processes or agents
to a state that would be `safe' if the system were to crash; thus,
to checkpoint. See FLUSH.
SYNTACTIC SUGAR n. Features added to a language or formalism to make
it `sweeter' for humans, that do not affect the expressiveness of
the formalism (compare CHROME). Used esp. when there is an obvious
and trivial translation of the `sugar' feature into other
constructs already present in the notation. Example: C's "a[i]"
notation in syntactic sugar for "*(a + i)". Coined by Peter
Landin. "Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semicolon." - Alan
Perlis.
SYS-FROG [the PLATO system] n. Playful hackish variant of "sysprog"
which is in turn short for "systems-programmer".
SYSTEM n. 1. The supervisor program or OS on a computer. 2. n. The
entire computer system, including input/output devices, the
supervisor program or OS, and possibly other software. 3. Any
large-scale program. 4. Any method or algorithm. 5. The way
things are usually done. Usage: a fairly ambiguous word. "You
can't beat the system." SYSTEM HACKER: one who hacks the system
(in sense 1 only; for sense 2 one mentions the particular program:
e.g., LISP HACKER)
{= T =}
T /tee/ 1. [from LISP terminology for "true"] Yes. Usage: used in
reply to a question, particularly one asked using the "-P"
convention). See NIL. In LISP, the name T means "true", among
other things. Some hackers use "T" and "NIL" instead of
"yes" and "no" almost reflexively. This sometimes causes
misunderstandings. When a waiter or flight attendant asks whether
a hacker wants coffee, he may well respond "T", meaning that he
wants coffee; but of course he will be brought a cup of tea
instead. As it happens, most hackers like tea at least as well as
coffee, particularly those who frequent Chinese restaurants, so
it's not that big a problem. 2. See TIME T. 3. In
transaction-processing circles, an abbreviation for the noun
"transaction". 4. [Purdue] Alternate spelling of TEE (q.v.)
TAIL RECURSION n. See TAIL RECURSION.
TALK MODE n. The state a terminal is in when linked to another via a
bidirectional character pipe to support on-line dialogue between
two or more users. Talk mode has a special set of jargon words,
used to save typing, which are not used orally:
BCNU Be seeing you.
BTW By the way...
BYE? Are you ready to unlink? (This is the standard way to
end a talk mode conversation; the other person types
BYE to confirm, or else continues the conversation.)
CUL See you later.
ENQ? Are you busy? Expects ACK or NAK in return.
FOO? A greeting, also meaning R U THERE? Often used in the
case of unexpected links, meaning also "Sorry if I
butted in" (linker) or "What's up?" (linkee).
FYI For your information...
FYA For your amusement...
GA Go ahead (used when two people have tried to type
simultaneously; this cedes the right to type to
the other).
HELLOP A greeting, also meaning R U THERE? (An instance
of the "-P" convention.)
JAM Just a minute... Equivalent to SEC...
NIL No (see the main entry for NIL).
O Over to you (lower-case works too).
OO Over and out (lower-case works too).
/ Another form of "Over to you"
OBTW Oh, by the way...
R U THERE? Are you there?
SEC Wait a second (sometimes written SEC...).
T Yes (see the main entry for T).
TNX Thanks.
TNX 1.0E6 Thanks a million (humorous).
WTF The universal interrogative particle. WTF knows what
it means?
WTH What the hell
<double CRLF>When the typing party has finished, he types
two CRLFs to signal that he is done; this leaves a
blank line between individual "speeches" in the
conversation, making it easier to re-read the
preceding text.
<name>: When three or more terminals are linked, each speech
is preceded by the typist's login name and a colon (or
a hyphen) to indicate who is typing. The login name
often is shortened to a unique prefix (possibly a
single letter) during a very long conversation.
/\/\/\ A giggle or chuckle (rare).
Most of the above "sub-jargon" is used at both Stanford and MIT.
Several of these are also common in EMAIL, esp. FYI, FYA, BTW,
BCNU, and CUL. A few other abbreviations have been reported from
commercial networks such as GEnie and Compuserve where on-line
`live' chat including more than two people is common and usually
involves a more `social' context, notably
<g> grin
BRB be right back
HHOJ ha ha only joking
HHOS HA HA ONLY SERIOUS
LOL laughing out loud
ROTF rolling on the floor
AFK away from keyboard
b4 before
CU l8tr see you later
MORF Male or Female?
TTFN ta-ta for now
OIC Oh, I see
rehi hello again
These are not used at universities or in the UNIX world;
conversely, most of the people who know these are unfamiliar with
FOO?, BCNU, HELLOP, NIL, and T.
TANKED adj. Same as DOWN, used primarily by UNIX hackers. See also
HOSED. Popularized as a synonym for "drunk" by Steve Dallas in
the late lamented "Bloom County" comics.
TAR AND FEATHER [from UNIX tar(1)] v. To create a transportable
archive from a group of files by first sticking them together with
the tape archiver tar(1) and then compressing the result (see
COMPRESS). The latter is dubbed `feathering' by analogy to what you
do with an airplane propeller to decrease wind resistance; smaller
files, after all, slip through comm links more easily.
TASTE n. [primarily MIT-DMS] The quality in programs which tends to be
inversely proportional to the number of features, hacks, and kluges
programmed into it. Also, TASTY, TASTEFUL, TASTEFULNESS. "This
feature comes in N tasty flavors." Although TASTEFUL and
FLAVORFUL are essentially synonyms, TASTE and FLAVOR are not.
TASTE refers to sound judgement on the part of the creator; a
program or feature can *exhibit* taste but cannot "have" taste.
On the other hand, a feature can have FLAVOR. Also, FLAVOR has the
additional meaning of "kind" or "variety" not shared by TASTE.
FLAVOR is a more popular word among hackers than TASTE, though both
are used.
TCB /tee see bee/ [IBM] 1. Trouble Came Back. Intermittent or
difficult-to reproduce problem which has failed to respond to
neglect. Compare HEISENBUG. Not to be confused with: 2. Trusted
Computing Base, an "official" jargon term from the ORANGE BOOK
(q.v.).
TECO /tee'koh/ v. obs. Originally, to edit using the TECO editor in
one of its infinite variations (see Appendix B); sometimes still
used to mean "to edit" even when not using TECO! Usage: rare and
now primarily historical.
TEE n.,v. [Purdue] A carbon copy of an electronic transmisson, "Oh,
you're sending him the BITS to that? Slap on a tee for me." From
the UNIX command tee(1). Can also mean `save one for me' as in
"Tee a slice for me!". Also spelled `T'.
TELERAT /tel'@-rat/ n. Unflattering hackerism for "Teleray", a line
of extremely losing terminals. See also TERMINAK, SUN-STOOLS,
HP-SUX.
TELNET /telnet/ v. To communicate with another ARPAnet host using the
TELNET program. TOPS-10 people use the word IMPCOM since that is
the program name for them. Sometimes abbreviated to TN. "I
usually TN over to SAIL just to read the AP News."
TEN FINGER INTERFACE n. The interface between two networks which
cannot be directly connected for security reasons; refers to the
practice of placing two terminals side by side and having an
operator read from one and type into the other.
TENSE adj. Of programs, very clever and efficient. A tense piece of
code often got that way because it was highly BUMMED, but sometimes
it was just based on a great idea. A comment in a clever display
routine by Mike Kazar, a student hacker at CMU: "This routine is
so tense it will bring tears to your eyes. Much thanks to Craig
Everhart and James Gosling for inspiring this HACK ATTACK." A
tense programmer is one who produces tense code.
TENURED GRADUATE STUDENT n. One who has been in graduate school for
ten years (the usual maximum is five or six): a "ten-yeared"
student (get it?). Students don't really get tenure, of course,
the way professors do, but a tenth-year graduate student has
probably been around the university longer than any non-tenured
professor.
TERAFLOP CLUB /ter'a-flop kluhb/ [FLOP = Floating Point Operation] n.
Mythical group of people who consume outragous amounts of computer
time in order to produce a few simple pictures of glass balls with
intricate ray tracing techniques. Cal Tech professor James Kajiya
is said to have been the founding member.
TERMINAK /ter'mi-nak/ [Caltech, ca. 1979] n. Any malfunctioning
computer terminal. A common failure mode of Lear-Siegler ADM3a
terminals caused the "L" key to produce the "K" code instead;
complaints about this tended to look like "Terminak #3 has a bad
keyboard. Pkease fix." See SUN-STOOLS, TELERAT, HP-SUX.
TERMINAL BRAIN DEATH n. Extreme form of TERMINAL ILLNESS (sense #1).
TERMINAL ILLNESS n. 1. Syn. with RASTER BURN. 2. The `burn-in'
condition your CRT tends to get if you don't have a screen saver.
TERPRI /ter'pree/ [from the LISP 1.5 (and later, MacLISP) function to
start a new line of output] v. To output a CRLF (q.v.). Now rare.
It is a contraction of "TERminate PRInt line".
TEX /tekh/ n. An extremely powerful MACRO-based text-formatter written
by Donald E. Knuth, very popular in the computer-science community
(it is good enough to have displaced UNIX troff(1), the other
favored formatter, even at many UNIX installations). TeX fans
insist on the correct (guttural) pronunciation and mixed-case
spelling (TeX) of the name. They like to proliferate names from
the word `TeX' --- such as TeXnichian (TeX user), TeXhacker (TeX
programmer), TeXmaster (competent TeX programmer), TeXhax,
TeXnique.
THANKS IN ADVANCE [USENET] Conventional net.politeness ending a posted
request for information or assistance. Sometimes written
"advTHANKSance". See "NET.", NETIQUETTE.
THEOLOGY n. 1. Ironically used to refer to RELIGIOUS ISSUES. 2.
Technical fine points of an abstruse nature, esp. those where the
resolution is of theoretical interest but relatively MARGINAL with
respect to actual use of a design or system. Used esp. around
software issues with a heavy AI or language design component.
Example: the deep- vs. shallow-binding debate in the design of
dynamically-scoped LISPS.
THEORY n. Used in the general sense of idea, plan, story, or set of
rules. This is a generalization and abuse of the technical
meaning. "What's the theory on fixing this TECO loss?" "What's
the theory on dinner tonight?" ("Chinatown, I guess.")
"What's the current theory on letting lusers on during the day?"
"The theory behind this change is to fix the following well-known
screw..."
THINKO /thin'ko/ [by analogy with `typo'] n. A bubble in the stream of
consciousness; a momentary, correctable glitch in mental
processing, especially one involving recall of information learned
by rote. Syn. BRAINO. Compare MOUSO.
THIS TIME, FOR SURE! Ritual affirmation frequently uttered during
protracted debugging sessions involving numerous small obstacles
(as, in for example, attempts to bring up a UUCP connection). For
the proper effect, this must be uttered in a fruity imitation of
Bullwinkle the Moose. Also heard: "Hey, Rocky! Watch me pull a
rabbit out of my hat!". The canonical response is, of course,
"Oh, Bullwinkle...that trick *never* works!". See HUMOR,
HACKER.
THRASH v. To move wildly or violently, without accomplishing anything
useful. Paging or swapping systems which are overloaded waste most
of their time moving data into and out of core (rather than
performing useful computation), and are therefore said to thrash.
Someone who keeps changing his mind is said to be thrashing.
THREAD /thred/ n. [USENET, GEnie] Common abbreviation of `topic
thread', a more or less continuous chain of postings on a single
topic. Also in 2. UPTHREAD: earlier in the discussion. "As Joe
pointed out upthread..."
THREE-FINGER SALUTE n. Syn. for VULCAN NERVE PINCH.
THUNK n. [from the implementation model for ALGOL-60's "call by
name", a design accident that resulted from a THINKO when
attempting to describe "call by reference"] 1. An expression,
frozen together with its environment for later evaluation if and
when needed. The process of unfreezing a THUNK is called
`forcing'. 2. Stub routine, in an overlay programming environment,
which loads and jumps to the correct overlay. 3. People and and
activities scheduled in a thunklike manner. "It occurred to me the
other day that I am rather accurately modelled by a thunk --- I
frequently need to be forced to completion." --- paraphrased from a
.plan file.
TICK n. 1. The width of one tick of the system clock on the computer.
Often 1 AC cycle time (1/60 second in the U.S. and 1/50 elsewhere)
but more recently 1/100 sec has become common. Syn JIFFY. 2. In
simulations, the discrete unit of time that passes "between"
iterations of the simulation mechanism. In AI applications, this
amount of time is often left unspecified, since the only constraint
of interest is that caused things happen after their causes. This
sort of AI simulation is often pejoratively referred to as
"tick-tick-tick" simulation, especially when the issue of
simultaneity of events with long, independent chains of causes is
handwaved.
TICK-LIST FEATURES [Acorn Computers] n. Features in software or
hardware that customers insist on but never use (calculators in
desktop TSRs and that sort of thing).
TIME T /tiem tee/ n. 1. An unspecified but usually well-understood
time, often used in conjunction with a later time T+1. "We'll
meet on campus at time T or at Louie's at time T+1." means, in the
context of going out for dinner, "If we meet at Louie's directly,
we can meet there a little later than if we meet on campus and then
have to travel to Louie's." (Louie's is a Chinese restaurant in
Palo Alto that is a favorite with hackers. Had the number 30 been
used instead of "one", it would have implied that the travel time
from campus to Louie's is thirty minutes; whatever time T is (and
that hasn't been decided on yet), you can meet half an hour later
at Louie's than you could on campus and end up eating at the same
time. 2. SINCE (or AT) TIME T EQUALS MINUS INFINITY: A long time
ago; for as long as anyone can remember; at the time that some
particular frob was first designed. Sometimes the word "time" is
omitted if there is no danger of confusing "T" as a time with
"T" meaning "yes".
TIP OF THE ICE-CUBE [IBM] n. The visible part of something small and
insignificant. Used as an ironic comment in situations where "tip
of the iceberg" might be appropriate if the subject were actually
nontrivial.
TIRED IRON [IBM] n. Hardware that is perfectly functional but enough
behind the state of the art to have been superseded by new
products, presumably with enough improvement in bang-per-buck that
the old stuff is starting to look a bit like a DINOSAUR.
TITS ON A KEYBOARD n. Small bumps on certain keycaps to keep
touch-typists registered. (Usually on the 5 of a numeric keypad,
and on F and J of a QWERTY keyboard.)
TLA /tee el ay/ [Three-Letter-Acronym] n. 1. Self-describing acronym
for a species with which computing terminology is infested. 2. Any
confusing acronym at all. Examples include MCA, FTP, SNA, CPU,
MMU, SCCS, DMU, FPU, TLA, NNTP. People who like this looser usage
argue that not all TLAs have three letters, just as not all four
letter words have four letters. One also hears of "ETLA"
(Extended Three Letter Acronym, pronounced /ee tee el ay/ ) being
used to describe four-letter acronyms.
TOAST 1. n. Any completely inoperable system, esp. one that has just
crashed; "I think BUACCA is toast." 2. v. To cause a system to
crash accidentally, especially in a manner that requires manual
rebooting. "Rick just toasted harp again."
TOASTER n. 1. The archetypal really stupid application for an embedded
microprocessor controller esp. `toaster oven'; often used in
comments which imply that a scheme is inappropriate technology.
"DWIM for an assembler? That'd be as silly as running UNIX on
your toaster!" 2. A very very dumb computer. "You could run this
program on any dumb toaster." See BITTY BOX, TOASTER, TOY.
TOGGLE v. To change a BIT from whatever state it is in to the other
state; to change from 1 to 0 or from 0 to 1. This probably comes
from "toggle switches", such as standard light switches, though
the word "toggle" apparently originally referred to the mechanism
that keeps the switch in the position to which it is flipped,
rather than to the fact that the switch has two positions. There
are four things you can do to a bit: set it (force it to be 1),
clear (or zero) it, leave it alone, or toggle it. (Mathematically,
one would say that there are four distinct boolean-valued functions
of one boolean argument, but saying that is much less fun than
talking about toggling bits.)
TOOL 1. n. A program primarily used to create other programs, such as
a compiler or editor or cross-referencing program. Oppose APP,
OPERATING SYSTEM. 2. [UNIX] An application program with a simple,
"transparent" (typically text-stream) interface designed
specifically to be used in programmed combination with other tools
(see FILTER). 3. [MIT] v.i. To work; to study. See HACK (def #9).
TOPS-10 /tops-ten/ n. DEC's proprietary OS for the fabled PDP-10
machines, long a favorite of hackers but now effectively extinct.
A fountain of hacker folklore; see Appendix B. See also ITS,
TOPS-20, TWENEX, VMS, OPERATING SYSTEM.
TOPS-20 /tops-twen'tee/ n. See TWENEX.
TOURIST [from MIT's ITS system] n. A guest on the system, especially
one who generally logs in over a network from a remote location for
games and other trivial purposes. One step below LUSER.
TOURISTIC adj. Having the quality of a TOURIST (q.v.). Often used as
a pejorative, as in "losing touristic scum".
TOY n. A computer system; always used with qualifiers. 1. NICE TOY:
One which supports the speaker's hacking style adequately. 2. JUST
A TOY: A machine that yields insufficient COMPUTRONS for the
speaker's preferred uses. This is not condemnatory as is BITTY BOX;
toys can at least be fun. See also GET A REAL COMPUTER, BITTY BOX.
TOY PROBLEM [AI] n. A deliberately simplified or even oversimplified
case of a challenging problem used to investigate, prototype, or
test algorithms for the real problem. Sometimes used pejoratively.
See also GEDANKEN.
TRAP 1. n. A program interrupt, usually used specifically to refer to
an interrupt caused by some illegal action taking place in the user
program. In most cases the system monitor performs some action
related to the nature of the illegality, then returns control to
the program. See UUO in Appendix B. 2. v. To cause a trap.
"These instructions trap to the monitor." Also used transitively
to indicate the cause of the trap. "The monitor traps all
input/output instructions." This term is associated with assembler
programming (INTERRUPT is more common among HLL programmers) and
appears to be fading into history as the role of assembler
continues to shrink.
TRAP DOOR alt. TRAPDOOR n. Syn. with BACK DOOR (q.v.).
TRASH v. To destroy the contents of (said of a data structure). The
most common of the family of near-synonyms including MUNG, MANGLE
and SCRIBBLE.
TRIVIAL adj. 1. In explanation, too simple to bother detailing. 2. Not
worth the speaker's time. 3. Complex, but solvable by methods so
well-known that anyone not utterly CRETINOUS would have thought of
them already. Hackers' notions of triviality may be quite at
variance with those of non-hackers. See NONTRIVIAL, UNINTERESTING.
TROGLODYTE [Commodore] n. A hacker who never leaves his cubicle. The
term `Gnoll' (from D&D) is also reported.
TROGLODYTE MODE [Rice University] n. Programming with the lights
turned off, sunglasses on, and the (character) terminal inverted
(black on white) because you've been up for so many days straight
that your eyes hurt. Loud music blaring from a stereo stacked in
the corner is optional but recommended. See LARVAL STAGE, MODE.
TROJAN HORSE n. A program designed to break security or damage a
system that is disguised as something else benign, such as a
directory lister or archiver. See VIRUS, WORM.
TRUE-HACKER [analogy with "trufan" from SF fandom] n. One who
exemplifies the primary values of hacker culture, esp. competence
and helpfulness to other hackers. A high complement. "He spent
six hours helping me bring up UUCP and netnews on my FOOBAR 4000
last week --- unequivocally the act of a true-hacker." Compare
DEMIGOD, oppose MUNCHKIN.
TTY /tee-tee-wie/ [UNIX], /ti'tee/ [ITS, but some UNIX people say it
this way as well] n. 1. Terminal of the teletype variety,
characterized by a noisy mechanical printer, a very limited
character set, and poor print quality. Usage: antiquated (like the
TTYs themselves). 2. [especially UNIX] Any terminal at all;
sometimes used to refer to the particular terminal controlling a
given job.
TUBE n. A CRT terminal. Never used in the mainstream sense of TV;
real hackers don't watch TV, except for Loony Toons and Rocky &
Bullwinkle and the occasional cheesy old swashbuckle movie.
TUNE [from automotive or musical usage] v. To optimize a program or
system for a particular environment. One may `tune for time'
(fastest execution) `tune for space' (least memory utilization) or
`tune for configuration' (most efficient use of hardware). See BUM,
HOT SPOT, HAND-HACK.
TWEAK v. 1. To change slightly, usually in reference to a value. Also
used synonymously with TWIDDLE. If a program is almost correct,
rather than figuring out the precise problem, you might just keep
tweaking it until it works. See FROBNICATE and FUDGE FACTOR.
2. To TUNE or BUM a program. This is preferred usage in England.
TWENEX /twe-neks/ n. The TOPS-20 operating system by DEC. TOPS-10 was
a typically crufty DEC operating system for the PDP-10, so TOPS-20
was the obvious name choice for the DEC-20 OS. Bolt, Beranek and
Newman (BBN) had developed their own system, called TENEX (TEN
EXecutive), and in creating TOPS-20 DEC copied TENEX and adapted it
for the 20. The term TWENEX was therefore a contraction of "twenty
TENEX". DEC people cringed when they heard TOPS-20 referred to as
"Twenex", but the term caught on nevertheless. The written
abbreviation "20x" was also used. TWENEX was successful and very
popular; in fact, there was a period in the 1980s when it commanded
almost as fervent a culture of partisans as UNIX or ITS --- but
DEC's decision to scrap all the internal rivals to the VAX
architecture and the relatively stodgy VMS OS killed the DEC-20 and
put a sad end to TWENEX's brief day in the sun.
TWIDDLE n. 1. tilde (ASCII 176, "~"). Also called "squiggle",
"sqiggle" (sic---pronounced "skig'gul"), and "twaddle", but
twiddle is by far the most common term. 2. A small and
insignificant change to a program. Usually fixes one bug and
generates several new ones. 3. v. To change something in a small
way. Bits, for example, are often twiddled. Twiddling a switch or
knob implies much less sense of purpose than toggling or tweaking
it; see FROBNICATE. To speak of twiddling a bit connotes
aimlessnes, and at best doesn't specify what you're doing to the
bit; by contrast, TOGGLING a bit has a more specific meaning.
TWINK /twink/ [UCSC] n. Equivalent to READ-ONLY USER.
TWO-TO-THE-N q. Used like N, but referring to bigger numbers. "I
have two to the N things to do before I can go out for lunch"
means you probably won't show up.
TWO-PI q. The number of years it takes to finish one's thesis. Occurs
in stories in the form: "He started on his thesis; two pi years
later...".
{= U =}
UBD [abbreviation for "User Brain Damage"] An abbreviation used to
close out trouble reports obviously due to utter cluelessness on
the user's part. Compare PBD; see also BRAIN-DAMAGED.
UNINTERESTING adj. 1. Said of a problem which, while NONTRIVIAL, can
be solved simply by throwing sufficient resources at it. 2. Also
said of problems for which a solution would neither advance the
state of the art nor be fun to design and code. True hackers
regard uninteresting problems as an intolerable waste of time, to
be solved (if at all) by lesser mortals. See WOMBAT, SMOP; oppose
INTERESTING.
U*IX, UN*X n. Used to refer to the Unix operating system (trademark
and/or copyright AT&T) in writing, but avoiding the need for the
ugly (tm) typography. Also used to refer to any or all varieties
of Unixoid operating systems. Ironically, lawyers now say (1990)
that the requirement for superscript-tm has no legal force, but the
asterisk usage is entrenched anyhow. It has been suggested that
there may be a psychological connection to practice in certain
religions where the name of the deity is never written out in full,
e.g. JHWH or G-d is used.
UNWIND THE STACK v. 1. 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 to the level of the given caller. In C
this is done with longjmp/setjmp; in LISP with THROW/CATCH. This
is sometimes necessary when handling exceptional conditions. See
also SMASH THE STACK. 2. People can unwind the stack as well, by
quickly dealing with a bunch of problems "Oh hell, let's do lunch.
Just a second while I unwind my stack".
UNWIND-PROTECT [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."
UNIX /yoo'nix/ [In the authors' words, "A weak pun on MULTICS"] n. A
popular interactive time-sharing system originally invented in 1969
by Ken Thompson after Bell Labs left the MULTICS project, mostly so
he could play SPACEWAR on a scavenged PDP7. Dennis Ritchie, the
inventor of C, is considered a co-author of the system. The
turning point in UNIX's history came when it was reimplemented
almost entirely in C in 1974, making it the first source-portable
operating system. Fifteen years and a lot of changes later UNIX is
the most widely used multiuser general-purpose operating system in
the world. This fact probably represents the single most important
victory yet of hackerdom over industry opposition. See VERSION 7,
BSD UNIX, USG UNIX.
UNIXISM n. A piece of code or coding technique that depends on of the
protected multi-tasking environment with relatively low
process-spawn overhead that exists on UNIX systems. Common UNIXISMs
include: gratuitous use of fork(2); the assumption that certain
undocumented but well-known features of UNIX libraries like
stdio(3) are supported elsewhere; reliance on OBSCURE side-effects
of sytem calls (use of sleep(2) with a zero argument to clue the
scheduler that you're willing to give up your time-slice, for
example); the assumption that freshly-allocated memory is empty,
the assumption that it's safe to never free() memory, etc.
UP adj. 1. Working, in order. "The down escalator is up." 2.
BRING UP: v. To create a working version and start it. "They
brought up a down system."
UPLOAD /uhp'lohd/ v. 1. To transfer code or data over a digital comm
line from a smaller `client' system to a larger `host' one. Oppose
DOWNLOAD. 2. [speculatively] To move the essential patterns and
algorithms which make up one's mind from one's brain into a
computer. Only those who are convinced that such patterns and
algorithms capture the complete essence of the self view this
prospect with aplomb.
URCHIN n. See MUNCHKIN.
USENET /yoos'net/ or /yooz'net/ [from `User's Network'] n. A
distributed bulletin board system supported mainly by UNIX
machines, international in scope and probably the largest
non-profit information utility in existence. As of early 1990 it
hosts over 700 topic groups and distributes up to 15 megabytes of
new technical articles, news, discussion, chatter, and FLAMAGE
every day. See NEWSGROUP.
USER n. 1. Someone doing "real work" with the computer, who uses a
computer 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. (This is
slightly unfair. It 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 before
bothering the maintainer.) See LUSER. 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. Basically, there are two classes of
people who work with a program: there are implementors (hackers)
and users (losers). 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
REAL WINNERS.) The term is a relative one: a consummate 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 skillfully or not. Thus there is some overlap
between the two terms; the subtle distinctions must be resolved by
context.
USER FRIENDLY adj. Programmer-hostile. Generally used by hackers in a
critical tone, to describe systems which hold the user's hand so
obsessively that they make it painful for the more experienced and
knowledgeable to get any work done. See MENUITIS, DROOL-PROOF
PAPER, MACINTRASH, USER-OBSEQUIOUS.
USER-OBSEQUIOUS 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".
USG UNIX /yoo-ess-jee yoo'nix/ n. Refers to AT&T UNIX versions after
VERSION 7, especially System III and System V releases 1, 2 and 3.
So called because at that time AT&T's support crew was called the
`Unix Support Group'. See BSD UNIX.
UUCPNET n. The store-and-forward network consisting of all the world's
UNIX machines (and others running some clone of the UUCP
(Unix-to-Unix Copy Program) software). Any machine reachable via a
BANG PATH is on UUCPNET. See NETWORK ADDRESS.
{= V =}
VADDING /vad'ing/ [from VAD, a permutation of ADV (i.e. ADVENT
(q.v.)), used to avoid a particular sysadmin'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 large buildings --- basements, roofs, freight
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'. The most extreme and dangerous
form of vadding is ELEVATOR RODEO, aka ELEVATOR SURFING, a sport
played by wrasslin' down a thousand-pound elevator car with a
three-foot piece of string, and then exploiting this mastery in
various stimulating ways (such as elevator hopping, shaft
exploration, rat-racing and the ever-popular drop experiments).
Kids, don't try this at home!
VANILLA adj. Ordinary flavor, standard. See FLAVOR. When used of
food, very often does not mean that the food is flavored with
vanilla extract! For example, "vanilla-flavored wonton soup" (or
simply "vanilla wonton soup") means ordinary wonton soup, as
opposed to hot and sour wonton soup. Applied to hardware and
software. As in "Vanilla Version 7 UNIX can't run on a vanilla
11/34". Also used to orthogonalize TTL nomenclature; for instance
a 74V00 is what TI calls a 7400, as distinct from a 74LS00, etc.
This word differs from [CANONICAL in that the latter means "the
thing you always use (or the way you always do it) unless you have
some strong reason to do otherwise", whereas VANILLA simply means
"ordinary". For example, when hackers go on a GREAT WALL (q.v.),
hot-and-sour wonton soup is the CANONICAL wonton soup to get
(because that is what most of them usually order) even though it
isn't the VANILLA wonton soup.
VANNEVAR /van'@-var/ n. A bogus technological prediction or foredoomed
engineering concept, esp. one which fails by implicitly assuming
that technologies develop linearly, incrementally, and in isolation
from one another when in fact the learning curve tends to be highly
nonlinear, 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 relays,
at a time when the semiconductor effect had already been
demonstrated. Other famous vannevars have included magnetic-bubble
memory, LISP machines and a paper from the late 1970s that
purported to prove limits on maximum areal densities for ICs less
than those routinely achieved five years later.
VAPORWARE n. Products announced far in advance of any shipment (which
may or may not actually take place).
VAR /veir/ or /vahr/ n. Short for "variable". Compare ARG, PARAM.
VAX /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
eclipse by KILLER MICROS after about 1986 the VAX was probably the
favorite hacker machine of them all, esp. after the 1982 release of
4.2BSD UNIX (see BSD UNIX). Esp. noted for its large,
assembler-programmer-friendly instruction set, an asset which
became a liability after the RISC revolution following about 1985.
2. A major brand of vacuum cleaner in Britain. Cited here because
its alleged sales pitch, "Nothing sucks like a VAX!" became a
sort of battle-cry of RISC partisans. Ironically, the slogan was
actually that of a rival brand called Electrolux.
VAXEN /vak'sn/ [from "oxen", perhaps influenced by "vixen"] n. pl.
The plural standardly used among hackers for the DEC VAX computers.
"Our installation has four PDP-10's and twenty VAXEN." See
BOXEN.
VAXISM n. A piece of code that excebits VAXOCENTRISM (q.v.) in
critical areas. Compare PC-ISM, UNIXISM, PC-WARE.
VAXOCENTRISM /vak`soh-sen'trizm/ [analogy with "ethnocentrism"] n. A
notional disease said to afflict C programmers who persist in
coding according to certain assumptions valid (esp. under UNIX) on
VAXEN, but false elsewhere (this can create substantial portability
problems). Among these are:
1. The assumption that dereferencing a null pointer is safe
because location 0 is readable and zero (it may instead
cause an illegal-address trap on non-VAXEN, and even on
VAXEN under OSs other than BSD UNIX).
2. The assumption that pointer and integer types are the same
size, and that pointers can be stuffed into integer
variables and drawn back out without being truncated or
mangled.
3. The assumption that a data type of any size may begin at
any byte address in memory (for example, that you can
freely construct and dereference a pointer to a word-sized
object at an odd address). On many (esp. RISC) architectures
better optimized for HLL execution speed this is invalid and
can cause an illegal address fault or bus error.
4. The (related) assumption that there is no `padding' at the
end of types and that in an array you can thus step right
from the last byte of a previous component to the first
byte of the next one.
5. The assumption that memory address space is globally flat
and that the array reference foo[-1] is necessarily valid
This is not true on segment-addressed machines like Intel
chips (yes, segmentatation is universally considered a
BRAIN-DAMAGED way to design but that is a separate issue).
6. The assumption that objects can be arbitrarily large with
no special considerations (again, not true on segmented
architectures);
7. The assumption that the parameters of a routine are stored
in memory, contiguously, and in strictly ascending or
descending order (fails on many RISC architectures).
8. The assumption that bits and addressable units within an
object are ordered in the same way and that this order is
a constant of nature (fails on BIG-ENDIAN machines).
9. The assumption that it is meaningful to compare pointers to
different objects not located within the same array, or to
objects of different types (the former fails on segmented
architectures, the latter on word-oriented machines with
multiple pointer formats).
10. The assumption that a pointer to any one type can freely be
cast into a pointer to any other type (fails on word-
oriented machines with multiple pointer formats).
11. The assumption that "int" is 32 bits (fails on 286-based
systems under some compilers), or (nearly equivelantly) the
assumption that sizeof(int) == sizeof(long).
12. The assumption that argv[] is writeable (fails in some
embedded-systems C environments).
13. The assumption that characters are signed (fails on the
68000 series and elsewhere).
14. The assumption that all pointers are the same size and
format, which means you don't have to worry about getting
the types correct in calls (fails on word-oriented
machines with multiple pointer formats).
Note that a programmer can be validly be accused of VAXOCENTRISM
even if he/she has never seen a VAX. The terms "vaxocentricity"
and "all-the-world's-a-VAX syndrome" have been used synonymously.
VEEBLEFESTER /vee'b@l-fes-tr/ [from the "Born Loser" comix via
Commodore; prob originally from Mad Magazine's "Veeblefeetzer" c.
1960] n. Any obnoxious person engaged in the alleged professions
of marketing or management. Antonym of HACKER. Compare SUIT,
MARKETROID.
VENUS FLYTRAP [after the plant] n. See FIREWALL.
VERBIAGE /ver'bee-@j/ [IBM] n. Documentation.
VERSION 7 alt. V7 /vee-se'vn/ n. The 1978 unsupported release of UNIX
(q.v.) 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 BSD, USG UNIX, UNIX.
Some old-timers impatient with commercialization and kernel bloat
still maintain V7 was the Last True UNIX.
VI /vee ie/, *not* /vie/ and NEVER /siks/ [from `Visual Editor'] n. A
screen editor CRUFTED TOGETHER by Bill Joy for an early BSD
version. Became the de-facto standard UNIX editor until displaced
by EMACS after about 1984. Tends to frustrate new users no end, as
it will neither take commands while accepting input text nor vice
versa, and it is easy to forget which mode one is in (see CHOKE,
GAG, BARF). Nevertheless it is still widely used for small editing
jobs (mainly because it starts up faster than bulky EMACS) and many
hackers take some trouble to maintain their vi reflexes.
VIRGIN adj. Unused, in reference to an instantiation of a program.
"Let's bring up a virgin system and see if it crashes again."
Esp. useful after contracting a VIRUS (q.v.) through SEX (q.v.).
Also, by extension, unused buffers and the like within a program.
VIRUS [from SF] n. A cracker program that propagates itself by
`infecting' (embedding itself in) other trusted programs,
especially operating systems. See WORM, TROJAN HORSE.
VIRTUAL adj. 1. Common alternative to LOGICAL (q.v.), but never used
with compass directions. 2. Performing the functions of. Virtual
memory acts like real memory but isn't. This word is nearly
synonymous with LOGICAL, but is never used of directions. Note
that for any thing X, a logical X is either a real X or a virtual
X, but not both.
VIRTUAL REALITY n. 1. Computer simulations that involve 3D graphics
and use devices such as the Dataglove to allow the user interact
with the simulation. See CYBERSPACE. 2. A form of network
interaction incorporating aspects of role-playing games,
interactive theater, improvisational 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 complete with scenery, "foreground characters" which
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 consent of the person who "owns" it.
Otherwise anything goes. See BAMF, CYBERSPACE.
VISIONARY n. 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 computer. The problem
is, how can the computer be programmed to make use of the camera
information? See SMOP.)
VMS /vee em ess/ n. DEC's proprietary operating system for their 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 commercial OS if UNIX
didn't exist; though true, this makes VMS fans furious. One major
hacker gripe with it is 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
And runs on a VAX
And makes my poor stomach all squeamious.
---The Great Quux
See also VAX, TOPS-10, TOPS-20, UNIX.
VULCAN NERVE PINCH 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; on Macintoshes, it is
<Cmd>-<Power switch>! Also called THREE-FINGER SALUTE.
VULTURE CAPITALIST n. Pejorative hackerism for "venture capitalist",
deriving from the common practice of pushing contracts that deprive
inventors of both control over their own innovations and most of
the money they ought to have made from them.
{= W =}
WABBIT /wab'it/ [almost certainly from Elmer Fudd's immortal line
"you wascal wabbit!"] n. 1. A legendary early hack reported on
a System/360 at RPI and elsewhere around 1978. The program would
reproduce itself twice every time it was run, eventually crashing
the system. 2. By extension, any hack that includes infinite
self-replication but is not a VIRUS or WORM. See also COOKIE
MONSTER.
WALDO /wol'doh/ [probably taken from the story "Waldo", by
Heinlein, which is where the term was first used to mean a
mechanical adjunct to a human limb] At Harvard (particularly by Tom
Cheatham and students) this is used instead of FOOBAR as a
meta-syntactic variable and general nonsense word. See FOO, BAR,
FOOBAR, QUUX.
WALKING DRIVES n. An occasional failure mode of magnetic-disk drives
back in the days when they were 14" wide WASHING MACHINES. Those
old DINOSAURS carried terrific angular momentum; the combination of
a misaligned spindle or worn bearings and stick-slip interactions
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 jammed it shut; the staff had to cut a hole in
the 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).
It is known that some bands of old-time hackers figured out how to
induce disk-accessing patterns that would do this to particular
drive models and held disk-drive races. This is not a joke!
WALL [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 "talking to a blank
wall". It was initially used in situations where, after one
carefully answered a question, the questioner stared at you
blankly, having understood nothing that was explained. One would
then throw out a "HELLO, WALL?" to elicit some sort of response
from the questioner. Later, confused questioners began voicing
"WALL?" themselves.
There is an anecdote about a child in a hospital who is addressed
by a nurse over an intercom and replies "What do you want, Wall?"
WALL TIME n. 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 it (on a timesharing system these will differ, as no one
program gets all the CLOCKS).
WALLPAPER n. 1. A file containing a listing (e.g., assembly listing)
or transcript, esp. a file containing a transcript of all or part
of a login session. (The idea was that the LPT paper for such
listings was essentially good only for wallpaper, as evidenced at
Stanford where it was used as such to cover windows.) Usage: not
often used now, esp. since other systems have developed other terms
for it (e.g., PHOTO on TWENEX). However, the UNIX world doesn't
have an equivalent term, so perhaps WALLPAPER will take hold there.
The term probably originated on ITS, where the commands to begin
and end transcript files were :WALBEG and :WALEND, with default
file DSK:WALL PAPER. 2. The background pattern used on graphical
workstations (this is jargon under the "Windows" graphical user
interface to MS-DOS). 3. WALLPAPER FILE n. The file that contains
the wallpaper information before it is actually printed on paper.
(Sometimes you don't intend ever to produce a real paper copy of
the file, because you can look at the file directly on your
terminal, but it is still called a "wallpaper file".)
WASHING MACHINE n. Old-style hard disks in floor-standing cabinets.
So called because of the size of the cabinet and the
"top-loading" access to the media packs -- and, of coaurse, they
were always set on "spin cycle". The washing-machine idiom
transcends language barriers; it's even used in Russian hacker
jargon. See WALKING DRIVES. The thick channel cables connecting
these were called BIT HOSE (see HOSE).
WEASEL [Cambridge University] A "naive user", one who deliberately
or accidentally does things which are stupid or ill-advised.
Roughly synonymous with LUSER.
WEDGED adj. 1. To be stuck, incapable of proceeding without help.
This is different from having CRASHED. If the system has crashed,
then it has become totally non-functioning. If the system is
wedged, it is trying to do something but cannot make progress; it
may be capable of doing a few things, but not be fully operational.
For example, the system may become wedged if the disk controller
fries; there are some things you can do without using the disks,
but not many. Being wedged is slightly milder than being HUNG.
Also see GRONK, LOCKED UP, HOSED. 2. This term is sometimes used
as a synonym for DEADLOCKED (q.v). 3. Often refers to humans
suffering misconceptions. 4. [UNIX] Specifically used to describe
the state of a TTY left in a losing state by abort of a
screen-oriented program or one that has messed with the line
discipline in some obscure way. 5. WEDGITUDE (wedj'i-tood) n. The
quality or state of being wedged.
WEEBLE /weeb'l/ [Cambridge University] interj. Use to denote
frustration, usually at amazing stupidity. "I stuck the disk in
upside down." "Weeble..." Compare GURFLE.
WEEDS n. Refers to development projects or algorithms that have no
possible relevance or practical application. Comes from "off in
the weeds". Used in phrases like "lexical analysis for microcode
is serious weeds..."
WELL-BEHAVED adj. 1. [primarily MS-DOS] Said of software conforming to
system interface guidelines and standards. Well behaved software
uses the operating system to do chores such as keyboard input,
allocating memory and drawing graphics. Oppose ILL-BEHAVED. 2.
Software that does its job quietly and without counterintuitive
effects. Esp. said of software having an interface spec
sufficiently simple and well-defined that it can be used as a tool
by other software.
WELL-CONNECTED adj. Said of a computer installation, this means it has
reliable email links with THE NETWORK and/or relays a large
fraction of available USENET newsgroups.
WETWARE n. 1. The human brain, as opposed to computer hardware or
software (as in "Wetware has at most 7 +/- 2 registers"). 2.
Human beings (programmers, operators, administrators) attached to a
computer system, as opposed to the system's hardware or software.
WHAT n. The question mark character ("?"). See QUES. Usage: rare,
used particularly in conjunction with WOW.
WHEEL [from Twenex, q.v.] n. A privileged user or WIZARD (sense #2).
The term was invented on the TENEX operating system, and carried
over to TWENEX, Xerox-IFS, and others. It entered the UNIX culture
from TWENEX and has been gaining popularity there (esp. at
university sites). Privilege bits are sometimes called WHEEL BITS.
The state of being in a privileged logon is sometimes called WHEEL
MODE. See also ROOT.
WHEEL WARS [Stanford University] A period in LARVAL STAGE during which
student wheels hack each other by attempting to log each other out
of the system, delete each other's files, and otherwise wreak havoc,
usually at the expense of the lesser users.
WHITE BOOK, THE n. Kernighan & Ritchie's _The_C_Programming_Language_,
esp. the classic and influential first edition. Also called simply
"K&R". See RED BOOK, GREEN BOOK, BLUE BOOK, WHITE BOOK, PURPLE
BOOK, SILVER BOOK, ORANGE BOOK, PINK-SHIRT BOOK, DRAGON BOOK.
WIBNI [Bell Labs, Wouldn't It Be Nice If] n. What most requirements
documents/specifications consist entirely of. Compare IWBNI.
WIDGET n. 1. A meta-thing. Used to stand for a real object in
didactic examples (especially database tutorials). Legend has it
that the original widgets were holders for buggy whips. 2. A user
interface object in X Window System graphical user interfaces.
WIMP ENVIRONMENT n. [acronymic from Window, Icon, Mouse, Pointer] A
graphical-user-interface based environment, as described by a
hacker who prefers command-line interfaces for their superior
flexibility and extensibility.
WIN [from MIT jargon] 1. v. To succeed. A program wins if no
unexpected conditions arise. 2. Success, or a specific instance
thereof. A pleasing outcome. A FEATURE. 3. BIG WIN: n.
Serendipity. Emphatic forms: MOBY WIN, SUPER WIN, HYPER-WIN (often
used interjectively as a reply). For some reason SUITABLE WIN is
also common at MIT, usually in reference to a satisfactory solution
to a problem. 4. WIN BIG v. To experience serendipity. "I went
shopping and won big; there was a two-for-one sale." 5. WIN WIN
interj. Expresses pleasure at a WIN. Oppose LOSE.
WINNAGE /win'@j/ n. The situation when a lossage is corrected, or when
something is winning. Quite rare. Usage: also quite rare.
WINNER 1. n. An unexpectedly good situation, program, programmer or
person. 2. REAL WINNER: Often sarcastic, but also used as high
praise.
WINNITUDE /win'i-tood/ n. The quality of winning (as opposed to
WINNAGE, which is the result of winning). "That's really great!
Boy, what winnitude!"
WIREHEAD n. [prob. from notional SF slang for an electrical brain
stimulation junkie] 1. A hardware hacker, especially one who
concentrates on communications hardware. 2. An expert in local
area networks. A wirehead can be a network software wizard too,
but will always have the ability to deal with network hardware,
down to the smallest component. Wireheads are known for their
ability to lash up an Ethernet terminator from spare resistors, for
example.
WISH LIST n. A list of desired features or bug fixes that probably
won't get done for a long time, usually because the person
responsible for the code is too busy or can't think of a clean way
to do it.
WIZARD n. 1. A person who knows how a complex piece of software or
hardware works (that is, who GROKS it); esp. someone who can find
and fix bugs quickly in an emergency. This term differs somewhat
from HACKER. Someone is a hacker if he has general hacking
ability, but is only a wizard with respect to something if he has
specific detailed knowledge of that thing. A good hacker could
become a wizard for something given the time to study it. 2. A
person who is permitted to do things forbidden to ordinary people.
For example, an Adventure wizard at Stanford may play the Adventure
game during the day, which is forbidden (the program simply refuses
to play) to most people because it uselessly consumes too many
CYCLES. 3. A UNIX expert, esp. a UNIX systems programmer. This
usage is well enough established that UNIX WIZARD is a recognized
job title at some corporations and to most headhunters. See GURU.
WIZARD MODE [from nethack] n. A special access mode of a program or
system, usually passworded, that permits some users godlike
privileges. Generally not used for operating systems themselves
(ROOT MODE or WHEEL MODE would be used instead).
WIZARDLY adj. Pertaining to wizards. A wizardly FEATURE is one that
only a wizard could understand or use properly.
WOMBAT [Waste Of Money, Brains and Time] adj. Applied to problems
which are both profoundly UNINTERESTING in themselves and unlikely
to benefit anyone interesting even if solved. Often used in
fanciful constructions such as WRESTLING WITH A WOMBAT. See also
CRAWLING HORROR, SMOP.
WONKY /won'kee/ [from Australian slang] adj. Yet another approximate
synonym for BROKEN. Specifically connotes a malfunction which
produces behavior seen as crazy, humorous, or amusingly perverse.
"That was the day the printer's font logic went wonky and
everybody's listings came out in Elvish." Also in WONKED OUT. See
FUNKY.
WORM [from `tapeworm' in John Brunner's _Shockwave_Rider_, via XEROX
PARC] n. A cracker program that propagates itself over a network,
reproducing itself as it goes. See `VIRUS'. Perhaps the best known
example was RTM's `Internet Worm' in '88, a `benign' one that got
out of control and shut down hundreds of Suns and VAXen nationwide.
See VIRUS, TROJAN HORSE, ICE.
WOUND AROUND THE AXLE adj. In an infinite loop. Often used by older
computer types, along with "out in the WEEDS".
WOW See EXCL.
WRAP AROUND v., WRAPAROUND n. 1. This is "jargon" in its normal
computer usage, i.e., describing the action of a counter that
starts over at 0 or at MINUS INFINITY after its maximum value has
been reached, and continues incrementing, either because it is
programmed to do so, or because of an overflow like a car's
odometer starting over at 0. 2. To CHANGE PHASE gradually and
continuously by maintaining a steady wake-sleep cycle somewhat
longer than 24 hours, e.g. living 6 long days in a week.
WRITE-ONLY CODE [a play on "read-only memory"] n. Code sufficiently
arcane, complex, or ill-structured that it cannot be modified or
even comprehended by anyone but the original author. A BAD THING.
WRITE-ONLY LANGUAGE n. A language with syntax (or semantics)
sufficiently dense and bizarre that any routine of significant size
is WRITE-ONLY CODE. A sobriquet often applied to APL (q.v.), though
INTERCAL certainly deserves it more.
WRONG THING, THE n. A design, action or decision which is clearly
incorrect or inappropriate. Often capitalized; always emphasized
in speech as if capitalized. The opposite of the RIGHT THING; more
generally, anything that is not the RIGHT THING. In cases were
"the good is the enemy of the best", the merely good, while good,
is nevertheless the WRONG THING.
WUGGA WUGGA /wuh'guh wuh'guh/ n. Imaginary sound that a computer
program makes as it labors with a tedious or difficult task.
Compare CRUNCHA CHRUNCHA CRUNCHA, GRIND GRIND.
WYSIWYG /wiz'ee-wig/ adj. User interface (usu. text or graphics
editor) characterized as being "what you see is what you get;" as
opposed to one which uses more-or-less obscure commands which do
not result in immediate visual feedback. The term can be mildly
derogatory, as it is often used to refer to dumbed-down interfaces
targeted at non-programmers, while a hacker has no fear of obscure
commands. On the other hand, EMACS was one of the very first
WYSIWYG editors, replacing (actually, at first overlaying) the
extremely obscure, command-based TECO.
{= X =}
X /eks/ n. 1. Used in various speech and writing contexts in roughly
its algebraic sense of "unknown within a set defined by context"
(compare `N'). Thus: the abbreviation 680x0 stands for 68000,
68010, 68020, 68030 or 68040, and 80x86 stands for 80186, 80286
80386 or 80486 (note that a UNIX hacker might write these as
680[01234]0 and 80[1234]86 or 680?0 and 80?86 respectively; see
GLOB). 2. An over-sized, over-featured, over-engineered window
system developed at MIT and widely used on UNIX systems.
XOR /eks'ohr/ conj. Exclusive or. "A xor B" means "A or B, but
not both". Example: "I want to get cherry pie XOR a banana
split." This derives from the technical use of the term as a
function on truth-values that is true if either of two arguments is
true but not both.
XREF v.,n. Hackish standard abbreviation for `cross-reference'.
XYZZY /exs-wie-zee-zee-wie/ or /ik-zi'zee/ [from the ADVENT game] adj.
The CANONICAL "magic word". This comes from ADVENT (q.v.), in
which the idea is to explore an underground cave with many rooms to
collect treasure. If you type XYZZY at the appropriate time, you
can move instantly between two otherwise distant points. If,
therefore, you encounter some bit of MAGIC, you might remark on
this quite succinctly by saying simply "XYZZY"! Example:
"Ordinarily you can't look at someone else's screen if he has
protected it, but if you type quadruple-bucky-CLEAR the system will
let you do it anyway." "XYZZY!" XYZZY has actually been
implemented as an undocumented no-op command on several OSs; in
Data General's AOS/VS, for example, it would typically respond
"Nothing happens." just as ADVENT did before a player had
performed the action that enabled the word. See PLUGH.
{= Y =}
YA* ["Yet Another"] abbrev. In hackish acronyms this almost
invariably expands to `Yet Another' following the precedent set by
UNIX yacc(1). See YABA.
YABA /ya'buh/ [Cambridge University] n. Yet Another Bloody Acronym.
Whenever some program is being named, someone invariably suggests
that it be given a name which is acronymic. The response from
those with a trace of originality is to remark ironically that the
proposed name would then be "YABA-compatible". Also used in
response to questions like "What is WYSIWYG?" "YABA." See also
TLA.
YOU ARE NOT EXPECTED TO UNDERSTAND THIS cav. [UNIX] Canonical comment
describing something MAGIC or too complicated to bother explaining
properly. From a comment in the context-switching code of the V6
UNIX kernel.
YOU KNOW YOU'VE BEEN HACKING TOO LONG WHEN... The set-up line for a
genre of one-liners told by hackers about themselves. These include
the following:
* not only do you check your email more often than your paper
mail, but you remember your NETWORK ADDRESS faster than your
postal one.
* your SO kisses you on the neck and the first thing you
think is "Uh, oh, PRIORITY INTERRUPT" (q.v.).
* you go to balance your checkbook and discover that you're
doing it in octal.
* your computers have a higher street value than your car.
* `round numbers' are powers of 2, not 10.
* you've woken up more than once to recall of a dream in C
or LISP.
* you realize you've never met half of your best friends.
All but one of these have been reliably reported as hacker traits
(some of them quite often). Even hackers may have trouble spotting
the ringer.
YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY cav. [from the standard disclaimer attached to
EPA mileage ratings by American car manufacturers] A ritual warning
often found in UNIX freeware distributions. Translates roughly as
"Hey, I tried to write this portably but who *knows* what'll
happen on your system?"
YOW! /yow/ [from Zippy the Pinhead comix] interj. Favored hacker
expression of humorous surprise or emphasis. "Yow! Check out what
happens when you twiddle the foo option on this display hack!"
Compare GURFLE, MUMBLE FROTZ.
YOYO MODE n. State in which the system is said to be when it rapidly
alternates several times between being up and being down.
YU-SHIANG WHOLE FISH /yoo-shyang hohl fish/ n. obs. The character
gamma (extended SAIL ASCII 11), which with a loop in its tail looks
like a little fish swimming down the page. The term is actually
the name of a Chinese dish in which a fish is cooked whole (not
PARSED) and covered with Yu Shiang sauce. Usage: was used
primarily by people on the MIT LISP Machine, which could display
this character on the screen. Tends to elicit incredulity from
people who hear about it second-hand.
{= Z =}
ZAP 1. n. Spiciness. 2. v. To make food spicy. 3. v. To make someone
"suffer" by making his food spicy. (Most hackers love spicy
food. Hot-and-sour soup is considered wimpy unless it makes you
blow your nose for the rest of the meal.) 4. ZAPPED adj. Spicy.
This term is used to distinguish between food that is hot (in
temperature) and food that is "hot", that is, spicy. For
example, the Chinese appetizer Bon Bon Chicken is a kind of chicken
salad that is cold but zapped. See also ORIENTAL FOOD, LASER
CHICKEN.
ZEN v. To figure out something by meditation, or by a sudden flash of
enlightenment. Originally applied to bugs, but occasionally
applied to problems of life in general. "How'd you figure out the
buffer allocation problem?" "Oh, I zenned it". Contrast GROK,
which connotes a time-extended version of zenning a system. Compare
HACK MODE.
ZERO v. 1. To set to zero. Usually said of small pieces of data, such
as bits or words. 2. To erase; to discard all data from. Said of
disks and directories, where "zeroing" need not involve actually
writing zeroes throughout the area being zeroed. One may speak of
something being "logically zeroed" rather than being "physically
zeroed". See SCRIBBLE.
ZIPPERHEAD [IBM] n. A person with a closed mind.
ZOMBIE [UNIX] n. A process which has been killed but has not yet
relinquished its process table slot (because the parent process
hasn't executed a wait(2) for it yet). These show up in ps(1)
listings occasionally. Compare ORPHAN.
ZORK /zork/ n. Second of the great early experiments in computer
fantasy gaming; see ADVENT. Originally written on MIT-DMS during
the late seventies, later distributed with BSD UNIX and
commercialized as "The Zork Trilogy" by Infocom.
Appendix A: Hacker Folklore
***************************
This appendix contains several fables and legends which illuminate
the meaning of various entries in the main text. All of this material
except THE UNTIMELY DEMISE OF MABEL THE MONKEY appeared in the 1983
paper edition of the Jargon File (but not in the previous on-line
versions).
The Meaning of "Hack"
*********************
"The word HACK doesn't really have 69 different meanings," according
to Phil Agre, an MIT hacker. "In fact, HACK has only one meaning, an
extremely subtle and profound one which defies articulation. Which
connotation is implied by a given use of the word depends in similarly
profound ways on the context. Similar remarks apply to a couple of
other hacker words, most notably RANDOM."
Hacking might be characterized as "an appropriate application of
ingenuity". Whether the result is a quick-and-dirty patchwork job or
a carefully crafted work of art, you have to admire the cleverness
that went into it.
An important secondary meaning of `hack' is `a creative practical
joke'. This kind of hack is often easier to explain to non-hackers
than the programming kind. Accordingly, here are three examples of
practical joke hacks:
In 1961, students from Caltech (California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena) hacked the Rose Bowl football game. One student posed as a
reporter and "interviewed" the director of the University of
Washington card stunts (such stunts involve people in the stands who
hold up colored cards to make pictures). The reporter learned exactly
how the stunts were operated, and also that the director would be out
to dinner later.
While the director was eating, the students (who called themselves the
"Fiendish Fourteen") picked a lock and stole one of the direction
sheets for the card stunts. They then had a printer run off 2300
copies of the sheet. The next day they picked the lock again and
stole the master plans for the stunts, large sheets of graph paper
colored in with the stunt pictures. Using these as a guide, they
carefully made "corrections" for three of the stunts on the
duplicate instruction sheets. Finally, they broke in once more,
replacing the stolen master plans and substituting the stack of
altered instruction sheets for the original set.
The result was that three of the pictures were totally different.
Instead of spelling "WASHINGTON", the word "CALTECH" was flashed.
Another stunt showed the word "HUSKIES", the Washington nickname,
but spelled it backwards. And what was supposed to have been a
picture of a husky instead showed a beaver. (Both Caltech and MIT use
the beaver as a mascot. Beavers are nature's engineers.)
After the game, the Washington faculty athletic representative said,
"Some thought it ingenious; others were indignant." The Washington
student body president remarked, "No hard feelings, but at the time
it was unbelievable. We were amazed."
This is now considered a classic hack, particularly because revising
the direction sheets constituted a form of programming not unlike
computer programming.
Another classic hack:
One winter, late at night, an MIT fraternity hosed down an underpass
that is part of a commuter expressway near MIT. This produced an ice
slick that "trapped" a couple of small cars: they didn't have the
momentum or traction to climb out of the underpass. While it was
clever to apply some simple science to trap a car, it was also very
dangerous as it could have caused a collision. Therefore this was a
very poor hack overall. (There is another story about an even less
appealing hack in which some MIT students used thermite to weld a
trolley car to its tracks. The story may be apocryphal, however.)
And yet another:
On November 20, 1982, MIT hacked the Harvard-Yale football game. Just
after Harvard's second touchdown against Yale in the second quarter, a
small black ball popped up out of the ground at the 40-yard line, and
grew bigger, and bigger, and bigger. The letters "MIT" appeared all
over the ball. As the players and officials stood around gawking, the
ball grew to six feet in diameter and then burst with a bang and a
cloud of white smoke.
As the Boston Globe later reported, "If you want to know the truth,
M.I.T. won The Game."
The prank had taken weeks of careful planning by members of MIT's
Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. The device consisted of a weather
balloon, a hydraulic ram powered by Freon gas to lift it out of the
ground, and a vacuum-cleaner motor to inflate it. They made eight
separate expeditions to Harvard Stadium between 1 and 5 AM, in which
they located an unused 110-volt circuit in the stadium, and ran buried
wiring from the stadium circuit to the 40-yard line, where they buried
the balloon device. When the time came to activate the device, two
fraternity members had merely to flip a circuit breaker and push a
plug into an outlet.
This stunt had all the earmarks of a perfect hack: surprise,
publicity, the ingenious use of technology, safety, and harmlessness.
The use of manual control allowed the prank to be timed so as not to
disrupt the game (it was set off between plays, so the outcome of the
game would not be unduly affected). The perpetrators had even
thoughtfully attached a note to the balloon explaining that the device
was not dangerous and contained no explosives.
Harvard president Derek Bok commented: "They have an awful lot of
clever people down there at MIT, and they did it again." President
Paul E. Gray of MIT said, "There is absolutely no truth to the rumor
that I had anything to do with it, but I wish there were." Such is
the way of all good hacks.
The Untimely Demise of Mabel the Monkey (a Cautionary Tale)
***********************************************************
The following, modulo a couple of inserted commas and capitalization
changes for readability, is the exact text of a famous USENET message.
The reader may wish to review the definitions of PM and MOUNT in the main
text before continuing.
Date: Wed 3 Sep 86 16:46:31-EDT
From: "Art Evans" <Evans@TL-20B.ARPA>
Subject: Always Mount a Scratch Monkey
To: Risks@CSL.SRI.COM
My friend Bud used to be the intercept man at a computer vendor for
calls when an irate customer called. Seems one day Bud was sitting at
his desk when the phone rang.
Bud: Hello. Voice: YOU KILLED MABEL!!
B: Excuse me? V: YOU KILLED MABEL!!
This went on for a couple of minutes and Bud was getting nowhere, so he
decided to alter his approach to the customer.
B: HOW DID I KILL MABEL? V: YOU PM'ED MY MACHINE!!
Well, to avoid making a long story even longer, I will abbreviate what had
happened. The customer was a Biologist at the University of Blah-de-blah,
and he had one of our computers that controlled gas mixtures that Mabel (the
monkey) breathed. Now, Mabel was not your ordinary monkey. The University
had spent years teaching Mabel to swim, and they were studying the effects
that different gas mixtures had on her physiology. It turns out that the
repair folks had just gotten a new Calibrated Power Supply (used to
calibrate analog equipment), and at their first opportunity decided to
calibrate the D/A converters in that computer. This changed some of the gas
mixtures and poor Mabel was asphyxiated. Well, Bud then called the branch
manager for the repair folks:
Manager: Hello
B: This is Bud, I heard you did a PM at the University of
Blah-de-blah.
M: Yes, we really performed a complete PM. What can I do
for you?
B: Can you swim?
The moral is, of course, that you should always mount a scratch monkey.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There are several morals here related to risks in use of computers.
Examples include, "If it ain't broken, don't fix it." However, the
cautious philosophical approach implied by "always mount a scratch
monkey" says a lot that we should keep in mind.
Art Evans
Tartan Labs
TV Typewriters: A Tale Of Hackish Ingenuity
*******************************************
Here is a true story about a glass tty. One day an MIT hacker was in
a motorcycle accident and broke his leg. He had to stay in the
hospital quite a while, and got restless because he couldn't HACK (use
the computer). Two of his friends therefore took a display terminal
and a telephone connection for it to the hospital, so that he could
use the computer by telephone from his hospital bed.
Now this happened some years before the spread of home computers, and
computer terminals were not a familiar sight to the average person.
When the two friends got to the hospital, a guard stopped them and
asked what they were carrying. They explained that they wanted to
take a computer terminal to their friend who was a patient.
The guard got out his list of things that patients were permitted to
have in their rooms: TV, radio, electric razor, typewriter, tape
player... no computer terminals. Computer terminals weren't on the
list, so they couldn't take it in. Rules are rules.
Fair enough, said the two friends, and they left again. They were
frustrated, of course, because they knew that the terminal was as
harmless as a TV or anything else on the list... which gave them an
idea.
The next day they returned, and the same thing happened: a guard
stopped them and asked what they were carrying. They said, "This is
a TV typewriter!" The guard was skeptical, so they plugged it in and
demonstrated it. "See? You just type on the keyboard and what you
type shows up on the TV screen." Now the guard didn't stop to think
about how utterly useless a typewriter would be that didn't produce
any paper copies of what you typed; but this was clearly a TV
typewriter, no doubt about it. So he checked his list: "A TV is all
right, a typewriter is all right... okay, take it on in!"
Two Stories About "Magic" (As Told By Guy Steele)
*************************************************
When Barbara Steele was in her fifth month of pregnancy, her doctor
sent her to a specialist to have a sonogram made to determine whether
there were twins. She dragged her husband Guy along to the
appointment. It was quite fascinating; as the doctor moved an
instrument along the skin, a small TV screen showed cross-sectional
pictures of the abdomen.
Now Barbara and I had both studied computer science at MIT, and we
both saw that some complex computerized image-processing was involved.
Out of curiosity, we asked the doctor how it was done, hoping to learn
some details about the mathematics involved. The doctor, not knowing
our educational background, simply said, "The probe sends out sound
waves, which bounce off the internal organs. A microphone picks up
the echoes, like radar, and send the signals to a computer---and the
computer makes a picture." Thanks a lot! Now a hacker would have
said, "... and the computer *magically* makes a picture,"
implicitly acknowledging that he has glossed over an extremely
complicated process.
Some years ago I was snooping around in the cabinets that housed the
MIT AI Lab's PDP-10, and noticed a little switch glued to the frame of
one cabinet. It was obviously a homebrew job, added by one of the
lab's hardware hackers (no one know who).
You don't touch an unknown switch on a computer without knowing what
it does, because you might crash the computer. The switch was labeled
in a most unhelpful way. It had two positions, and scrawled in pencil
on the metal switch body were the words "magic" and "more magic".
The switch was in the "more magic" position.
I called another hacker over to look at it. He had never seen the
switch before either. Closer examination revealed that the switch
only had one wire running to it! The other end of the wire did
disappear into the maze of wires inside the computer, but it's a basic
fact of electricity that a switch can't do anything unless there are
two wires connected to it. This switch had a wire connected on one
side and no wire on its other side.
It was clear that this switch was someone's idea of a silly joke.
Convinced by our reasoning that the switch was inoperative, we flipped
it. The computer instantly crashed.
Imagine our utter astonishment. We wrote it off as coincidence, but
nevertheless restored the switch to the "more magic" position before
reviving the computer.
A year later, I told this story to yet another hacker, David Moon as I
recall. He clearly doubted my sanity, or suspected me of a
supernatural belief in the power of this switch, or perhaps thought I
was fooling him with a bogus saga. To prove it to him, I showed him
the very switch, still glued to the cabinet frame with only one wire
connected to it, still in the "more magic" position. We scrutinized
the switch and its lone connection, and found that the other end of
the wire, though connected to the computer wiring, was connected to a
ground pin. That clearly made the switch doubly useless: not only was
it electrically nonoperative, but it was connected to a place that
couldn't affect anything anyway. So we flipped the switch.
The computer promptly crashed.
This time we ran for Richard Greenblatt, a long-time MIT hacker, who
was close at hand. He had never noticed the switch before, either.
He inspected it, concluded it was useless, got some diagonal cutters
and diked it out. We then revived the computer and it ran fine ever
since.
We still don't know how the switch crashed the machine. There is a
theory that some circuit near the ground pin was marginal, and
flipping the switch changed the electrical capacitance enough to upset
the circuit as millionth-of-a-second pulses went through it. But
we'll never know for sure; all we can really say is that the switch
was MAGIC.
I still have that switch in my basement. Maybe I'm silly, but I
usually keep it set on "more magic."
A Selection of AI Koans
***********************
These are perhaps the funniest examples of a genre of jokes told at
the MIT AI lab about various noted computer scientists and hackers.
* * *
A novice was trying to fix a broken Lisp machine by turning the power
off and on.
Knight, seeing what the student was doing spoke sternly: "You can not
fix a machine by just power-cycling it with no understanding of what
is going wrong."
Knight turned the machine off and on.
The machine worked.
[Ed note: This is much funnier if you know that Tom Knight was one of the
Lisp machine's principal designers]
* * *
One day a student came to Moon and said, "I understand how to
make a better garbage collector. We must keep a reference count
of the pointers to each cons."
Moon patiently told the student the following story:
"One day a student came to Moon and said, "I understand how
to make a better garbage collector...
[Ed. note: The point here is technical. Pure reference-count garbage
collectors have problems with `pathological' structures that point
to themselves.]
* * *
In the days when Sussman was a novice Minsky once came to him as
he sat hacking at the PDP-6.
"What are you doing?", asked Minsky.
"I am training a randomly wired neural net to play Tic-Tac-Toe",
Sussman replied.
"Why is the net wired randomly?", asked Minsky.
"I do not want it to have any preconceptions of how to play",
Sussman said.
Minsky then shut his eyes.
"Why do you close your eyes?", Sussman asked his teacher.
"So that the room will be empty."
At that moment, Sussman was enlightened.
* * *
A disciple of another sect once came to Drescher as he was
eating his morning meal.
"I would like to give you this personality test", said the
outsider, "because I want you to be happy."
Drescher took the paper that was offered him and put it
into the toaster, saying:
"I wish the toaster to be happy, too."
Appendix B: The High Moby -- Obsolescent Terms From Jargon-1
************************************************************
The following terms appeared in the main listing of the original
Jargon File, but have been rendered obsolescent by the passage of
time, the march of technology, the death of the DEC PDP-10, and the
May 1990 shutdown of the ITS machines. They are collected here for
possible historical interest.
AOS /aus/ (East coast), /ay-ahs/ (West coast) [based on a PDP-10
increment instruction] v. 1. To increase the amount of something.
"Aos the campfire." Usage: considered silly, and now
obsolescent. See SOS. Now largely supplanted by BUMP. 2. A crufty
MULTICS-derived OS supported at one time by Data General.
Sense #1 was the name of a PDP-10 instruction that takes any memory
location in the computer and adds one to it; AOS means "Add One
and do not Skip". Why, you may ask, does the "S" stand for "do
not Skip" rather than for "Skip"? Ah, here is a beloved piece
of PDP-10 folklore. There are eight such instructions: AOSE adds
one and then skips the next instruction if the result is Equal to
zero; AOSG adds one and then skips if the result is Greater than
zero; AOSN adds one and then skips if the result is Not zero; AOSA
adds one and then skips Always; and so on. Just plain AOS doesn't
say when to skip, so it never skips. For similar reasons, AOJ
means "Add One and do not Jump". Even more bizarre, SKIP means
"do not SKIP"! If you want to skip the next instruction, you
must say "SKIPA". Likewise, JUMP means "do not JUMP" (see JRST
below).
BIG BLT, THE /big belt, th@/ n., obs. Shuffling operation on the
PDP-10 under some operating systems that consumes a significant
amount of computer time. See BLT in the main listing.
BIN /bin/ [short for BINARY; used as a second file name on ITS] 1. n.
BINARY. 2. BIN FILE: A file containing the BIN for a program.
Usage: used at MIT, which runs on ITS. The equivalent term at
Stanford was DMP (pronounced "dump") FILE. Other names used
include SAV ("save") FILE (DEC and Tenex), SHR ("share") and LOW
FILES (DEC), and COM FILES (CP/M), and EXE ("ex'ee") FILE (DEC,
Twenex, MS-DOS, occasionally UNIX). Also in this category are the
input files to the various flavors of linking loaders (LOADER,
LINK-10, STINK), called REL FILES. See EXE in main text.
CHINE NUAL n.,obs. The Lisp Machine Manual, so called because the
title was wrapped around the cover so only those letters show.
COM[M] MODE /kom mohd/ [from the ITS feature for linking two or more
terminals together so that text typed on any is echoed on all,
providing a means of conversation among hackers; spelled with one
or two Ms] Syn. for TALK MODE in main text.
DIABLO /dee-ah'blow/ [from the Diablo printer] 1. n. Any letter-
quality printing device. 2. v. To produce letter-quality output
from such a device. See LASE, POD in main listing.
DMP /dump/ See BIN.
DPB /duh-pib'/ [from the PDP-10 instruction set] v., obs. To plop
something down in the middle. Usage: silly. Example: "Dpb
yourself into that couch, there." The connotation would be that
the couch is full except for one slot just big enough for you to
sit in. DPB means "DePosit Byte", and was the name of a PDP-10
instruction that inserts some bits into the middle of some other
bits.
DRAGON [ITS; UNIX calls this a DAEMON or DEMON] n. A program similar
to a DAEMON, except that it doesn't sit around waiting for
something to happen, but is instead used by the system to perform
various useful tasks that just have to be done periodically. A
typical example would be an accounting program that accumulates
statistics, keeps track of who is logged in, and so on. Another
example: most timesharing systems have several terminals, and at
any given time some are in use and some are sitting idle; the idle
ones usually sit there with some idiotic message on their screens,
such as "Logged off.", from the last time someone used it. The
ITS timesharing system at MIT puts these idle terminals to good use
by displaying useful information on them, such as who is using the
computer, where they are, what they're doing, what their telephone
numbers are, and so on, along with other information such as pretty
pictures (the picture collection included a unicorn, Snoopy, and
the U.S.S. Enterprise from Star Trek). All this information was
displayed on idle terminals by the `name dragon', so called because
it originally printed just the names of the users. (That it now
shows all kinds of things, including useless though pretty
pictures, is an example of CREEPING FEATURISM.) The name dragon is
a program started up by the system, and it runs about every five
minutes and updates the information on all idle terminals.
ENGLISH /ing'lish/ n. The source code for a program, which may be in
any language, as opposed to BINARY. The idea behind the term is
that to a real hacker, a program written in his favorite
programming language is as readable as English. Usage: obsolete,
used mostly by old-time hackers, though recognizable in context.
On ITS, directory SYSENG was where the "English" for system
programs is kept, and SYSBIN, the binaries. SAIL had many such
directories, but the canonical one was [CSP,SYS].
EOU /ee oh yoo/ The mnemonic of a mythical ASCII control character
(End Of User) that could make a Model 33 Teletype explode on
receipt. This parodied the numerous obscure record-delimiter
control characters left in ASCII from the days when it was more
associated with wire-service teletypes than computers (e.g. FS, GS,
RS, US, EM, SUB, ETX and esp. EOT). It is worth remembering that
ASR-33s were big, noisy mechanical beasts with a lot of clattering
parts; the notion that one might explode was nowhere near as
ridiculous as it might seem to someone sitting in front of a TUBE
or flatscreen today.
EXCH /ex'chuh/ or /ekstch/ [from the PDP-10 instruction set] v., obs. To
exchange two things, each for the other.
IMPCOM /imp'kom/ See TELNET. This term is now nearly obsolete.
IRP /erp/ [from the MIDAS pseudo-op which generates a block of code
repeatedly, substituting in various places the car and/or cdr of
the list(s) supplied at the IRP] v. To perform a series of tasks
repeatedly with a minor substitution each time through. "I guess
I'll IRP over these homework papers so I can give them some random
grade for this semester." Usage: rare, now obsolescent.
JFCL /jif'kl/ or /jaf'kl/ v., obs. To cancel or annul something.
"Why don't you jfcl that out?" The fastest do-nothing instruction
on the PDP-10 happened to be JFCL, which stands for "Jump if Flag
set and then CLear the flag"; this does something useful, but is a
very fast no-operation if no flag is specified. Geoff Goodfellow,
one of the jargon-1 compilers, once had JFCL on the license plate
of his BMW.
JRN, JRL /jay ahr en/, /jay ahr el/ n. The names JRN and JRL were
sometimes used as example names when discussing PPNs (q.v.); they
were understood to be programmer names for (fictitious) programmers
named "J. Random Nerd" and "J. Random Loser" (see [J. RANDOM).
For example, one might say "To log in, type log one comma jay are
en" (that is, "[log1,JRN]"), and the listener will understand
that he should use his own computer id in place of "[JRN]".
JRST /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, and considered silly. "Jack
be nimble, Jack be quick; Jack jrst over the candle stick." This
is even sillier. Why JRST and not JUMP? The PDP-10 JUMP
instruction means "do not jump", as explained in the definition
of AOS. The JUMPA instruction ("JUMP Always") does jump, but it
isn't quite as fast as the JRST instruction (Jump and ReSTore
flags). The instruction was used so frequently that the speed
matters, so all PDP-10 hackers automatically used the faster though
more obscure JRST instruction.
JSYS /jay'sis/, pl. JSI /jay'sigh/ [Jump to SYStem] v.,obs. See UUO.
LDB /lid'dib/ [from the PDP-10 instruction set] v. To extract from the
middle.
MOBY /moh'bee/ n., sense 2. This term entered the world of AI with the
Fabritek 256K moby memory of MIT-AI. Thus, classically, 256K words,
the size of a PDP-10 moby. Back when address registers were
narrow, the term was more generally useful; because when a computer
had "virtual memory mapping" it might actually have more physical
memory attached to it than any one program could access directly.
One could then say "This computer has six mobies" to mean that
the ratio of physical memory to address space is six, without
having to say specifically how much memory there actually is. That
in turn implies that the computer can timeshare six "full-sized"
programs without having to swap programs between memory and disk.
Thus the MIT PDP-10s each had two mobies, usually referred to as
the "low moby" (0-777777) and "high moby" (1000000-1777777), or
as "moby 0" and "moby 1". MIT-AI had four mobies of address
space: moby 2 was the PDP-6 memory, and moby 3 the PDP-11
interface.) Nowadays the low cost of processor logic means
registers are typically wider than the most memory you can cram
onto a machine, so most systems have much *less* than 1 theoretical
`native' moby of core. However, the size of the PDP-10 "moby"
was often used as a generic unit of either address space (18. bits'
worth) or of memory (about a megabyte, or 9/8 megabyte (if one
accounts for difference between 32- and 36-bit words), or 5/4
megacharacters).
OUTPUT SPY n. On the ITS system there was a program that allowed you
to see what is being printed on someone else's terminal. It works
by "spying" on the other guy's output, by examining the insides
of the monitor system. It could do this because the MIT system
purposely had very little in the way of "protection" that
prevents one user from interfering with another. Fair is fair,
however. There was another program that would automatically notify
you if anyone starts to spy on your output. It worked in exactly
the same way, by looking at the insides of the operating system to
see if anyone else was looking at the insides that have to do with
your output. This "counterspy" program was called JEDGAR
(pronounced as two syllables: /jed'gr/), in honor of the former
head of the FBI. By the way, the output spy program is called OS.
Throughout the rest of computer science, and also at IBM, OS means
"operating system", but among old-time ITS hackers it almost
always meant "output spy".
PHANTOM /fan'tm/ [Stanford] n. The SAIL equivalent of a DRAGON (q.v.).
Typical phantoms included the accounting program, the news-wire
monitor, and the LPT and XGP spoolers. UNIX and most other
environments call this sort of program a background DEMON or
DAEMON.
PPN /pip'@n/ 1. A combination of a "project identifier" and
"programmer name", used to identify a specific file directory
belonging to that programmer. This was used in the TOPS-10
operating system that DEC provided for the PDP-10. The implicit
assumption is that there will be many projects, each with several
programmers working on it, and that a programmer may work on
several projects. This is not a bad organization; what was totally
BOGUS is that projects and programmers were identified by octal
(base eight) numbers! Hence the term Project-Programmer Number, or
PPN. If you were programmer 72534 and wanted to work on project
306, you would have had to tell the computer "login 306,72534".
This was absurd. At CMU the TOPS-10 system was modified to be
somewhat less ridiculous: projects were identified by a letter and
three decimal (not octal) digits, and programmers were identified
by his two initials, a digit indicating the first year he came to
CMU, and a fourth character that is used to distinguish between,
say, Fred Loser and Farley Luser who both happened to arrive the
same year. So to use the PDP-10 at CMU one might have said "login
A780GS70". The programmer name "GS70" was also called a "man
number" at CMU, even though it isn't really a number. At
Stanford, projects and programmers were identified by three letters
or digits each: if Guy Steele werre to work on a LISP project at
Stanford, he might log in as "login lsp,gls". This was much more
mnemonic. Programmer identifiers at Stanford were usually the
programmer's initials, though sometimes it is a nickname or other
three-letter sequence. Even though the CMU and Stanford forms were
not really (pairs of) numbers, the term PPN was used to refer to
the combination. 2. At Stanford, the term PPN was often used
loosely to refer to the programmer name alone. "I want to send
you some mail; what's your ppn?". This term is still used by
old-timers on the commercial time-sharing service CompuServe (which
uses PDP-10s) but has long since vanished from hackerdom. ITS and
UNIX, of course, never used PPNs; ITS had six-character UNAMEs, and
UNIX has 15-character `usernames' and hierararchical file system
rather than project areas.
REL /rel/ See BIN in the main listing. Short for `relocatable', used
on the old TOPS-10 OS.
SAV /sayv/ See BIN.
SHR /sheir/ See BIN.
SOS n. 1. /sahss/ Inverse of AOS, from the PDP-10 instruction set. 2.
/ess-oh-ess/ An infamously LOSING text editor. Once, back in the
1960's, when a text editor was needed for the PDP-6, a hacker
CRUFTED TOGETHER a quick-and-dirty "stopgap editor" to be used
until a better one was written. Unfortunately, the old one was
never really discarded when new ones (in particular, TECO) came
along. SOS is a descendant of that editor; SOS means "Son of
Stopgap", and many PDP-10 users gained the dubious pleasure of its
axquaintance. [Since then other programs similar in style to SOS
have been written, notably BILOS (bye'lohss) the Brother-In-Law Of
Stopgap.] See also TECO.
STY /stie/, *not* /ess tee wie/ [ITS] n. A pseudo-teletype, which is a
two-way pipeline with a job on one end and a fake keyboard-tty on
the other. Also, a standard program which provides a pipeline from
its controlling tty to a pseudo-teletype (and thence to another
tty, thereby providing a "sub-tty"). This is MIT terminology; the
SAIL, DEC and UNIX equivalent is PTY (see main text).
TECO /tee'koh/ [acronym for Tape (later, Text) Editor and COrrector]
n. 1. A text editor developed at MIT, and modified by just about
everybody. If all the dialects are included, TECO might have been
the single most prolific editor in use before EMACS (q.v.) to which
it was directly ancestral. Noted for its powerful
programming-language-like features and its incredibly hairy syntax.
It is literally the case that every possible sequence of ASCII
characters is a valid, though probably uninteresting, TECO program;
one common hacker game used to be mentally working out what the
teco commands corresponding to human names did. As an example,
here is a TECO program that takes a list of names like this:
Loser, J. Random
Quux, The Great
Dick, Moby
sorts them alphabetically according to last name, and then puts the
last name last, removing the comma, to produce this:
Moby Dick
J. Random Loser
The Great Quux
The program is:
[1 J ^P $ L $ $
J <.-Z; .,(S,$ -D .)FX1 @F^B $K :L I $ G1 L>$$
In fact, this very program was used to produce the second, sorted
list from the first list! The first time I tried the program it
had a BUG: I had accidentally omitted the "@" in front of
"F^B", which as anyone can see is clearly the wrong thing. It
worked fine the second time. There is no space to describe all the
features of TECO, but I will note that "^P" means "sort" and
"J <.-Z; ... L>" is an idiomatic series of commands for "do once
for every line".
Historical data from MRC: DEC grabbed an ancient version of MIT
TECO many years ago when it was still a TTY-oriented editor (that
is, didn't make use of display screens). By then, TECO at MIT had
become a highly display-oriented and is actually a language for
writing editors, rather than an editor. Meanwhile, the outside
world's various versions of TECO remained almost the same as the
MIT version of the early 1970s. DEC recently tried to discourage
its use, but an underground movement of sorts kept it alive. DEC
later tried to force their hackers by administrative decision to
use a hacked up and generally lobotomized version of SOS instead of
TECO, and they revolted.
1990 update: TECO is now pretty much one with the dust of history,
having been replaced (both functionally and psychologically) almost
everywhere by GNU EMACS -- ESR.
UUO /yoo-yoo-oh/ [short for "Un-Used Operation"] n. A PDP-10 system
monitor call. The term "Un-Used Operation" comes from the fact
that, on PDP-10 systems, monitor calls are implemented as invalid
or illegal machine instructions, which cause traps to the monitor
(see TRAP). The SAIL manual describing the available UUOs has a
cover picture showing an unidentified underwater object. See YOYO.
[Note: DEC salescritters have since decided that "Un-Used
Operation" sounds bad, so UUO now stands for "Unimplemented User
Operation".] Tenex and Twenex systems use the JSYS machine
instruction (q.v.), which is halfway between a legal machine
instruction and a UUO, since KA-10 Tenices implement it as a
hardware instruction which can be used as an ordinary subroutine
call (sort of a "pure JSR").
WORMHOLE /werm'hohl/ n. A location in a monitor which contains the
address of a routine, with the specific intent of making it easy to
substitute a different routine. The following quote comes from
"Polymorphic Systems", vol. 2, p. 54:
Any type of I/O device can be substituted for the standard
device by loading a simple driver routine for that device and
installing its address in one of the monitor's `wormholes.'
The term `wormhole' has been used to describe a hypothetical
astronomical situation where a black hole connects to the `other
side' of the universe. When this happens, information can pass
through the wormhole, in only one direction, much as `assumptions'
pass down the monitor's wormholes."
This term is now obsolescent. Modern operating systems use
clusters of wormholes extensively (for modularization of I/O
handling in particular, as in the UNIX device-driver organization)
but the preferred jargon for these clusters is `device tables',
`jump tables' or `capability tables'.
XGP /eks-jee-pee/ 1. n. Xerox Graphics Printer. 2. v. To print
something on the XGP. "You shouldn't XGP such a large file."
YOYO /yoh'yoh/ n. DEC service engineers' slang for UUO (q.v.). Usage:
rare at Stanford and MIT, has been found at random DEC
installations.
Appendix C: Bibliography
************************
Here are some other books you can read to help you understand the
hacker mindset.
Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
Hofstadter, Douglas
Basic Books, New York 1979
ISBN 0-394-74502-7
This book reads like an intellectual Grand Tour of hacker
preoccupations. Music, mathematical logic, programming, speculations
on the nature of intelligence, biology, and Zen are woven into a
brilliant tapestry themed on the concept of encoded self-reference.
The perfect left-brain companion to _Illuminatus_.
Illuminatus (three vols)
1. The Golden Apple
2. The Eye in the Pyramid
3. Leviathan
Shea, Robert & Wilson, Robert Anton
Dell Books, New York 1975
ISBN 0-440-{14688-7,34691-6,14742-5}
This work of alleged fiction is an incredible berserko-surrealist
rollercoaster of world-girdling conspiracies, intelligent dolphins,
the fall of Atlantis, who really killed JFK, sex, drugs, rock and roll
and the Cosmic Giggle Factor. First published in 3 volumes, but
there's now a one-volume trade paperback carried by most chain
bookstores under SF. The perfect right-brain companion to Hofstadter's
_Godel_Escher,_Bach:_An_Eternal_Golden_Braid_. See ERIS,
DISCORDIANISM, RANDOM NUMBERS, CHURCH OF THE SUB-GENIUS.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Douglas Adams
Pocket Books 1981, New York
ISBN 0-671-46149-4
This Monty-Python-in-Space spoof of SF genre traditions has been
popular among hackers ever since the original British radio show.
Read it if only to learn about Vogons (see BOGONS) and the
significance of the number 42 (see RANDOM NUMBERS) --- also why the
winningest chess program of 1990 was called DEEP THOUGHT.
The Tao of Programming
James Geoffrey
Infobooks 1987, Santa Monica,
ISBN 0-931137-07-1
This gentle, funny spoof of the _Tao_Te_Ching_ contains much that is
illuminating about the hacker way of thought. "When you have learned
to snatch the error code from the trap frame, it will be time for you
to leave."
Hackers
Steven Levy
Anchor/Doubleday 1984, New York
ISBN 0-385-19195-2
Levy's book is at its best in describing the early MIT hackers at the
Model Railroad Club and the early days of the microcomputer
revolution. He never understood UNIX or the networks, though, and his
enshrinement of RMS as "the last hacker" turns out (thankfully) to
have been quite misleading.
The Cuckoo's Egg
Clifford Stoll
Doubleday 1989, New York
ISBN 0-385-24946-2
Clifford Stoll's absorbing tale of how he tracked Markus Hess and the
Chaos Club cracking-ring nicely illustrates the difference between
`hacker' and `cracker'. And Stoll's portrait of himself and his lady
Barbara and his friends at Berkeley and on the Internet paints a
marvelously vivid picture of how hackers and the people around them
like to live and what they think.
The Devil's DP Dictionary
by Stan Kelly-Bootle
McGraw-Hill Inc, 1981
ISBN 0-07-034022-6
This pastiche of Ambrose Bierce's famous work is similar in format to
the Jargon File (and quotes several entries from jargon-1) but
somewhat different in tone and intent. It is more satirical and less
anthropological, and largely a product of the author's literate and
quirky imagination. For example, it defines "computer science" as
"A study akin to numerology and astrology, but lacking the precision
of the former and the success of the latter"; also as "The boring
art of coping with a large number of trivialities."
The Devouring Fungus: Tales from the Computer Age
by Karla Jennings
W. W. Norton 1990, New York
ISBN 0-393-30732-8
The author of this pioneering compendium knits together a great deal
of computer and hacker-related folklore with good writing and a few
well-chosen cartoons. She has a keen eye for the human aspects of the
lore and is very good at illuminating the psychology and evolution of
hackerdom. Unfortunately, a number of small errors and awkwardnesses
suggest that she didn't have the final manuscript vetted by a hackish
insider; the glossary in the back is particularly embarrassing, and at
least one classic tale (the Magic Switch story in this file's Appendix
A) is given in incomplete and badly mangled form. Nevertheless, this
book is a win overall and can be enjoyed by hacker and non-hacker
alike.
True Names...and Other Dangers
by Vernor Vinge
Baen Books 1987, New York
ISBN 0-671-65363
RMS believes the title story this book "expresses the spirit of
hacking best". This may well be true; it's certainly difficult to
recall anyone doing a better job. Certainly it holds a special place
in the hearts of hackers everywhere. The other stories in this
collection are also fine work by an author who is perhaps one of
today's very best practitioners of the hard-SF genre.