eric@snark.thyrsus.com (Eric S. Raymond) (01/04/91)
---- Cut Here and unpack ---- #!/bin/sh # This is a shell archive (shar 3.10) # made 01/03/1991 21:07 UTC by eric@snark.thyrsus.com # Source directory /usr2/eric/jargon # # existing files WILL be overwritten # # This shar contains: # length mode name # ------ ---------- ------------------------------------------ # 51920 -rw-r--r-- jsplit.ai # touch 2>&1 | fgrep '[-amc]' > /tmp/s3_touch$$ if [ -s /tmp/s3_touch$$ ] then TOUCH=can else TOUCH=cannot fi rm -f /tmp/s3_touch$$ # ============= jsplit.ai ============== sed 's/^X//' << 'SHAR_EOF' > jsplit.ai && X to a random text address. This can produce some of the most X insidious data-dependent bugs known to mankind. Variants include X `trash the stack', `<scribble> the stack', `<mangle> the stack'; X `<mung> the stack' is not used as this is never done intentionally. X See <spam>; see also <aliasing bug>, <fandango on core>, <memory X leak>, <precedence lossage>, <overrun screw>. X X<smiley> n. See <emoticon>. X X<smoke test> n. 1. A rudimentary form of testing applied to electronic X equipment following repair or reconfiguration in which AC power is X applied and during which the tester checks for sparks, smoke, or X other dramatic signs of fundamental failure. 2. By extension, the X first run of a piece of software after construction or a critical X change. See <magic smoke>. X X<smoking clover> [ITS] n. A <display hack> originally due to Bill X Gosper. Many convergent lines are drawn on a color monitor in AOS X mode (so that every pixel struck has its color incremented). The X color map is then rotated. The lines all have one endpoint in the X middle of the screen; the other endpoints are spaced one pixel X apart around the perimeter of a large square. This results in a X striking, rainbow-hued, shimmering four-leaf clover. Gosper joked X about keeping it hidden from the FDA lest it be banned. X X<SMOP> /smop/ [Simple (or Small) Matter of Programming] n. 1. A piece X of code, not yet written, whose anticipated length is significantly X greater than its complexity. Usage: used to refer to a program X that could obviously be written, but is not worth the trouble. It X is also used ironically to imply that a difficult problem can be X easily solved because a program can be written to do it; the irony X is that it is very clear that writing such a program will be a X great deal of work. Example: "It's easy to change a FORTRAN X compiler to compile COBOL as well; it's just a SMOP." 2. Often X used ironically by the intended victim when a suggestion for a X program is made which seems easy to the suggester, but is obviously X a lot of work to the programmer. X X<snail-mail> n. Paper mail, as opposed to electronic. Sometimes X written as the single word `SnailMail'. Derives from earlier X coinage `USnail' for which there have been parody posters and X stamps made. Oppose <email>. X X<snarf> /snarf/ v. 1. To grab, esp. a large document or file for the X purpose of using it either with or without the author's permission. X See <BLT>. Variant: "snarf down", to snarf, sometimes with the X connotation of absorbing, processing, or understanding. "I think X I'll snarf down the list of DDT commands so I'll know what's X changed recently." 2. [in the UNIX community] to fetch a file or X set of files across a network. See also <blast>. X X<snarf & barf> /snarf-n-barf/ n. The act of grabbing a region of text X using a <WIMP> environment and then stuffing the contents of that X region into another region or into the same region, to avoid X re-typing a command line. X X<snark> [Lewis Carroll, via the Michigan Terminal System] n. 1. A X system failure. When a user's process bombed, the operator would X get a message "Help, Help, Snark in MTS!". 2. More generally, X any kind of unexplained or threatening event on a computer. Often X used to refer to events or log file entries which might indicate an X attempted security violation. 3. UUCP name of snark.thyrsus.com, X home site of the Jargon File 2.x.x versions. X X<sneakernet> n. Term used (generally with ironic intent) for transfer X of electronic information by physically carrying tape, disks, or X some other media from one machine to another. "Never X underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon filled with magtape, X or a 747 filled with CD-ROMs." Also called "Tennis-Net", X "Armpit-Net". X X<sniff> v.,n. Synonym for POLL. X X<S.O.> /ess-oh/ n. Acronym for Significant Other, almost invariably X written abbreviated and pronounced "ess-oh" by hackers. In fact X the form without periods "SO" is most common. Used to refer to X one's primary relationship, esp. a live-in to whom one is not X married. See <MOTAS>, <MOTOS>, <MOTSS>. X X<softcopy> n. [by analogy with `hardcopy'] A machine readable form of X corresponding hardcopy. See <bits>. X X<software bloat> n. The results of <second system effect>. Commonly X cited examples include `ls(1)', <X>, <BSD>, <Missed'em-five> and X <OS/2>OS/2. X X<software rot> n. (Also known as <bit decay>, <bit rot>) Hypothetical X disease the existence of which has been deduced from the X observation that unused programs or features will often stop X working after sufficient time has passed, even if "nothing has X changed". The theory explains that bits decay as if they were X radioactive. As time passes, the contents of a file or the code in X a program will become increasingly garbled. X X There actually are physical processes that produce such effects X (the alpha particles such as are found in cosmic rays can change X the contents of a computer memory unpredictably, and various kinds X of subtle media failures can corrupt files in mass storage) but X they are quite rare. X X More commonly, "software rot" strikes when a program's X assumptions become out of date. If the design was insufficiently X <robust> it may fail in mysterious ways. For example, due to X endemic shortsightedness in the design of COBOL programs, most will X succumb to software rot when their two-digit year counters wrap X around at the beginning of the year 2000. X X Historical note: software rot in an even funnier sense than the X mythical one was a real problem on early research computers (e. g. X the R1, see <grind crank>). If a program that depended on a X peculiar instruction hadn't been run in quite a while, the user X might discover that the opcodes no longer did the things as they X used to. ("Hey, so-and-so needs an instruction to do X such-and-such. We can snarf this one, right? No one uses it.") X X<softwarily> /soft-weir'i-lee/ adv. In a way pertaining to software. X "The system is softwarily unreliable." The adjective X "softwary" is *not* used. See <hardwarily>. X X<some random X> adj. Used to indicate a member of class X, with the X implication that the particular X is interchangeable with most X other Xs in whatever context was being discussed. "I think some X random cracker tripped over the guest timeout last night." X X<sorcerer's apprentice mode> n. A bug in a protocol where, under some X circumstances, the receipt of a message causes more than one X message to be sent, each of which, when received, triggers the same X bug. Used esp. of such behavior caused by <bounce message> loops X in <email> software. Compare <broadcast storm>. X X<SOS> n.,obs. /ess-oh-ess/ 1. An infamously <losing> text editor. X Once, back in the 1960's, when a text editor was needed for the X PDP-6, a hacker crufted togrther a quick-and-dirty "stopgap X editor" to be used until a better one was written. Unfortunately, X the old one was never really discarded when new ones (in X particular, <TECO>) came along. SOS is a descendant of that X editor; SOS means "Son of Stopgap", and many PDP-10 users gained X the dubious pleasure of its acquaintance. Since then other X programs similar in style to SOS have been written, notably BILOS X (bye'lohss) the Brother-In-Law Of Stopgap. See also <TECO>. 2. X /sahss/ n. Inverse of <AOS>, from the PDP-10 instruction set. X X<space-cadet keyboard> n. The Knight keyboard, a now-legendary device X used on MIT LISP machines which inspired several still-current X slang terms and influenced the design of <EMACS>. It was inspired X by the Stanford keyboard and equipped with no less than X *seven* shift keys: four keys for <bucky bits> (`control', X `meta', `hyper', and `super') and three like the regular shift key, X called `shift', `top', and `front'. Many keys have three symbols X on them: a letter and a symbol on the top, and a Greek letter on X the front. For example, the "L" key has an "L" and a two-way X arrow on the top, and the Greek letter lambda on the front. If you X press this key with the right hand while playing an appropriate X "chord" with the left hand on the shift keys, you can get the X following results: X X L lower-case "l" X shift-L upper-case "L" X front-L Greek lower-case lambda X front-shift-L Greek upper-case lambda X top-L two-way arrow (front and shift are ignored) X X And of course each of these may also be typed with any combination X of the control, meta, hyper, and super keys. On this keyboard you X can type over 8000 different characters! This allows the user to X type very complicated mathematical text, and also to have thousands X of single-character commands at his disposal. Many hackers were X actually willing to memorize the command meanings of that many X characters if it will reduce typing time (this view rather X obviously shaped the interface of EMACS). Other hackers, however, X thought having that many bucky bits is overkill, and object that X such a keyboard can require three or four hands to operate. See X <bucky bits>, <cokebottle>, <meta bit>. X X<SPACEWAR> n. A space-combat simulation game first implemented on the X PDP-1 at MIT in 1960-61. SPACEWAR aficionados formed the core of X the early hacker culture at MIT. Ten years later a descendant of X the game motivated Ken Thompson to build, in his spare time on a X scavenged PDP-7, the operating system that became <UNIX>. Ten years X after that, SPACEWAR was commercialized as one of the first video X games; descendants are still feeping in video arcades everywhere. X X<spaghetti code> n. Describes code with a complex and tangled control X structure, esp. one using many GOTOs, exceptions or other X `unstructured' branching constructs. Pejorative. The synonym X "kangaroo code" has been reported. X X<spaghetti inheritance> n. [Encountered among users of object-oriented X languages that use inheritance, such as Smalltalk] A convoluted X class-subclass graph, often resulting from carelessly deriving X subclasses from other classes just for the sake of reusing their X code. Coined in a (successful) attempt to discourage such X practice, through guilt by association with <spaghetti code>. X X<spam> [from the <MUD> community] v. To crash a program by overrunning X a fixed-size buffer with excessively large input data. See also X <overrun screw>, <smash the stack>. X X<spell> n. Syn. <incantation>. X X<spiffy> /spi'fee/ adj. 1. Said of programs having a pretty, clever or X exceptionally well-designed interface. "Have you seen the spiffy X X version of <empire> yet?" 2. Said sarcastically of programs which X are perceived to have little more than a flashy interface going for X them. Which meaning should be drawn depends delicately on tone of X voice and context. X X<spin> v. Equivalent to <buzz>. More common among C and UNIX X programmers. X X<spin-lock> [Cambridge] n. A <busy-wait>. Preferred in Britain. X X<splat> n. 1. Name used in many places (DEC, IBM, and others) for the X ASCII asterisk ("*") character. 2. [MIT] Name used by some X people for the ASCII number-sign ("#") character. 3. [Stanford] X Name used by some people for the Stanford/ITS extended ASCII X circle-x character. (This character is also called "circle-x", X "blobby", and "frob", among other names.) 4. [Stanford] Name X for the semi-mythical extended ASCII circle-plus character. 5. X Canonical name for an output routine that outputs whatever the X local interpretation of splat is. 5. [Rochester Institute of X Technology] The command key on a Macintosh. Usage: nobody really X agrees what character "splat" is, but the term is common. X X<spooge> /spooj/ 1. n. Inexplicable or arcane code, or random and X probably incorrect output from a computer program. 2. v. To X generate code or output as in definition 1. X X<spool> [fr. early IBM "Simultaneous Peripheral Operation Off-Line", X but this acronym is widely thought to have been contrived for X effect] v. To send files to some device or program (a `spooler') X that queues them up and does something useful with them later. The X spooler usually understood is the `print spooler' controlling X output of jobs to a printer, but the term has been used in X connection with other peripherals (especially plotters and graphics X devices). X X<stack> n. A person's stack is the set of things he has to do in the X future. One speaks of the next project to be attacked as having X risen to the top of the stack. "I'm afraid I've got real work to X do, so this'll have to be pushed way down on my stack." "I X haven't done it yet because every time I pop my stack something new X gets pushed." If you are interrupted several times in the middle X of a conversation, "my stack overflowed" means "I forget what we X were talking about" (the implication is that too many items were X pushed onto the stack than could be remembered, and so the least X recent items were lost). The usual physical example of a stack is X to be found in a cafeteria: a pile of plates sitting on a spring in X a well in a cart, so that when you put a plate on the top they all X sink down, and when you take one off the top the rest spring up a X bit. See also <PUSH> and <POP>. X X At MIT, all the <stack> usages used to be more commonly found with X <pdl>, and this may still be true. Everywhere else <stack> seems X to be the preferred term. X X<stack puke> n. Some micros are said to "puke their guts onto the X stack" to save their internal state during exception processing. X On a pipelined machine this can take a while (up to 92 bytes for a X bus fault on the 68020, for example). X X<stale pointer bug> n. Synonym for <aliasing bug> used esp. among X microcomputer hackers. X X<state> n. Condition, situation. "What's the state of your latest X hack?" "It's winning away." "The system tried to read and X write the disk simultaneously and got into a totally wedged X state." A standard question is "What's your state?" which means X "What are you doing?" or "What are you about to do?" Typical X answers might be "I'm about to gronk out", or "I'm hungry". X Another standard question is "What's the state of the world?" X meaning "What's new?" or "What's going on?". The more terse and X humorous way of asking these conventions would be "State-p?". X X<stiffy> [ULowell] n. 3.5" <microfloppies>, so called because their X jackets are more firm than the 5.25" and 8" floppy. X X<stir-fried random> alt. <stir-fried mumble> n. Term used for frequent X best dish of those hackers who can cook. Consists of random fresh X veggies and meat wokked with random spices. Tasty and economical. X See <random>, <great-wall>, <ravs>, <ORIENTAL FOOD>; see also X <mumble>. X X<stomp on> v. To inadvertently overwrite something important, usually X automatically. Example: "All the work I did this weekend got X stomped on last night by the nightly-server script." Compare X <scribble>, <mangle>, <trash>, <scrog>, <roach>. X X<stoppage> /sto'p@j/ n. Extreme lossage (see <lossage>) resulting in X something (usually vital) becoming completely unusable. "The X recent system stoppage was caused by a <fried> transformer." X X<stubroutine> /stuhb'roo-teen/ [contr. of "stub routine"] n. Tiny, X often vacuous placeholder for a subroutine to be written or fleshed X out later. X X<stunning> adj. Mind-bogglingly stupid. Usually used in sarcasm. X "You want to code *what* in ADA? That's...a stunning idea!" X See also <non-optimal solution>. X X<subshell> [UNIX, MS-DOS] n. An OS command interpreter (see <shell>) X spawned from within a program, such that exit from the command X interpreter returns one to the parent program in a state that X allows it to continue execution. Oppose <chain>. X X<sucking mud> [Applied Digital Research] adj. Crashed or wedged. X Usually said of a machine that provides some service to a network, X such as a file server. This Dallas regionalism derives from the X East Texas oil field lament, "Shut 'er down, Ma, she's a-suckin' X mud." Often used as a query. "We are going to reconfigure the X network, are you ready to suck mud?" X X<suit> n. 1. Ugly and uncomfortable `business clothing' often worn by X non-hackers. Invariably worn with a `tie', a strangulation device X which partially cuts off the blood supply to the brain. It is X thought that this explains much about the behavior of suit- X wearers. 2. A person who habitually wears suits, as distinct from a X techie or hacker. See <loser>, <burble> and <brain-damaged>. X English, BTW, is relatively kind; our Soviet correspondent informs X us that the corresponding idiom in Russian hacker jargon is X `sovok', lit. a tool for grabbing garbage. X X<sunspots> n. Notional cause of an odd error. "Why did the program X suddenly turn the screen blue?" "Sunspots, I guess". Also cause X of bitrot, from the genuine, honest-to-god fact that sunspots will X increase cosmic radiation which can flip single bits in memory. X Needless to say, although real sunspot errors happen, they are X extremely rare. See <cosmic rays>, <phase of the moon>. X X<sun-stools> n. Unflattering hackerism for SunTools, a pre-X windowing X environment notorious in its day for size, slowness and misfeatures X (X, however, is larger and slower; see <second-system effect>). X X<SUPDUP> /soop'doop/ v. To communicate with another ARPAnet host using X the SUPDUP program, which is a SUPer-DUPer <TELNET> talking a X special display protocol used mostly in talking to ITS sites. X Sometimes abbreviated to SD. X X<superprogrammer> n. A prolific programmer; one who can code X exceedingly well and quickly. Not all hackers are X superprogrammers, but many are. (Productivity can vary from one X programmer to another by factors of as much as 1000. For example, X programmer A might be able to write an average of 3 lines of X working code in one day, while another, with the proper tools and X skill, might be able to write 3,000 lines of working code in one X day. This variance is astonishing, appearing in very few other X areas of human endeavor.) The term superprogrammer is more X commonly used within such places as IBM than in the hacker X community. It tends to stress productivity rather than creativity X or ingenuity. Hackers tend to prefer the terms <hacker> and X <wizard>. X X<Suzie COBOL> /soo'zee koh'bol/ 1. [IBM, prob. fr. Frank Zappa's X "little Suzy Creamcheese"] n. A coder straight out of training X school who knows everything except the benefits of comments in X plain English. Also (fashionable among personkind wishing to avoid X accusations of sexism) `Sammy Cobol' or (in some non-IBM circles) X `Cobol Charlie'. 2. [proposed] Meta-name for any <code grinder>, X analogous to <J. Random Hacker>. X X<swab> [From the PDP-11 "byte swap" instruction, and immortalized in X the option "conv=swab" to <DD>] 1. v. to solve the <NUXI problem> X by swapping bytes in a file. 2. Also, the program in V7 UNIX used X to perform this action, or anything functionally equivalent to it. X See also <big-endian>, <little-endian>, <bytesexual>. X X<swap space> n. Storage space. "I'm just using that corner of the X machine room for swap space". X X<swapped> adj. From the older (per-task) method of using secondary X storage devices to implement support for multitasking. Something X which is <swapped in> is available for immediate use in main X memory, and otherwise is <swapped out>. Often used metaphorically X to refer to people's memories ("I read the Scheme Report every few X months to keep the information swapped in.") or to their own X availability ("I'll swap you in as soon as I finish looking at X this other problem."). Compare <page in>, <page out>. X X<swizzle> v. To convert external names or references within a data X structure into direct pointers when the data structure is brought X into main memory from external storage; also called "pointer X swizzling"; the converse operation is sometimes termed X <unswizzling>. X X<sync> /sink/ [UNIX] n.,v. 1. To force all pending I/O to the disk. X 2. More generally, to force a number of competing processes or X agents to a state that would be `safe' if the system were to crash; X thus, to checkpoint. See <flush>. X X<syntactic sugar> [coined by Peter Landin] n. Features added to a X language or formalism to make it `sweeter' for humans, that do not X affect the expressiveness of the formalism (compare <chrome>). Used X esp. when there is an obvious and trivial translation of the X `sugar' feature into other constructs already present in the X notation. Example: C's "a[i]" notation is syntactic sugar for X "*(a + i)". "Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semicolon." X --- Alan Perlis. X X<sys-frog> [the PLATO system] n. Playful hackish variant of X "sysprog" which is in turn short for "systems-programmer". X X<system> n. 1. The supervisor program or OS on a computer. 2. n. The X entire computer system, including input/output devices, the X supervisor program or OS, and possibly other software. 3. Any X large-scale program. 4. Any method or algorithm. 5. The way X things are usually done. Usage: a fairly ambiguous word. "You X can't beat the system." <System hacker>: one who hacks the system X (in sense 1 only; for sense 2 one mentions the particular program: X e.g., "lisp hacker") X X {= T =} X X<t> /tee/ 1. [from LISP terminology for "true"] Yes. Usage: used in X reply to a question, particularly one asked using the "-P" X convention). See NIL. In LISP, the name T means "true", among X other things. Some hackers use "T" and "NIL" instead of X "yes" and "no" almost reflexively. This sometimes causes X misunderstandings. When a waiter or flight attendant asks whether X a hacker wants coffee, he may well respond "T", meaning that he X wants coffee; but of course he will be brought a cup of tea X instead. As it happens, most hackers like tea at least as well as X coffee, particularly those who frequent Chinese restaurants, so X it's not that big a problem. 2. See <time t>. 3. In X transaction-processing circles, an abbreviation for the noun X "transaction". 4. [Purdue] Alternate spelling of <tee> X X<tail recursion> n. See <tail recursion>. X X<talk mode> n. The state a terminal is in when linked to another via a X bidirectional character pipe, to support on-line dialogue between X two or more users. Talk mode has a special set of jargon words, X used to save typing, which are not used orally: X X BCNU Be seeing you. X BTW By the way... X BYE? Are you ready to unlink? (This is the standard way to X end a talk mode conversation; the other person types BYE X to confirm, or else continues the conversation.) X CUL See you later. X ENQ? Are you busy? Expects ACK or NAK in return. X FOO? A greeting, also meaning R U THERE? Often used in the X case of unexpected links, meaning also "Sorry if I X butted in" (linker) or "What's up?" (linkee). X FYI For your information... X FYA For your amusement... X GA Go ahead (used when two people have tried to type\ X simultaneously; X this cedes the right to type to the other). X HELLOP A greeting, also meaning R U THERE? (An instance of the X "-P" convention.) X JAM Just a minute... Equivalent to SEC... X NIL No (see the main entry for NIL). X O Over to you (lower-case works too). X OO Over and out (lower-case works too). X / Another form of "Over to you" (from x/y as "x overy y") X OBTW Oh, by the way... X R U THERE? Are you there? X SEC Wait a second (sometimes written SEC...). X T Yes (see the main entry for T). X TNX Thanks. X TNX 1.0E6 Thanks a million (humorous). X WTF The universal interrogative particle. WTF knows what X it means? X WTH What the hell? X <double CRLF> When the typing party has finished, he types two CRLFs X to signal that he is done; this leaves a blank line between X individual "speeches" in the conversation, making it easier to X re-read the preceding text. X <name>: When three or more terminals are linked, each speech is X preceded by the typist's login name and a colon (or a hyphen) to X indicate who is typing. The login name often is shortened to a X unique prefix (possibly a single letter) during a very long X conversation. X /\/\/\ A giggle or chuckle (rare). On a MUD, this almost certainly mean X `earthquake fault'. X X Most of the above "sub-jargon" is used at both Stanford and MIT. X Several of these are also common in EMAIL, esp. FYI, FYA, BTW, X BCNU, and CUL. A few other abbreviations have been reported from X commercial networks such as GEnie and Compuserve where on-line X `live' chat including more than two people is common and usually X involves a more `social' context, notably X X <g> grin X BBL be back later X BRB be right back X HHOJ ha ha only joking X HHOS <ha ha only serious> X LOL laughing out loud X ROTF rolling on the floor X ROTFL rolling on the floor laughing X AFK away from keyboard X b4 before X CU l8tr see you later X MORF Male or Female? X TTFN ta-ta for now X OIC Oh, I see X rehi hello again X X These are not used at universities or in the UNIX world; X conversely, most of the people who know these are unfamiliar with X FOO?, BCNU, HELLOP, NIL, and T. X X The <MUD> community uses a mixture of USENET/Internet emoticons, a X few of the more natural of the old-style talk mode abbrevs, and X some of the `social' list above; specifically, MUD respondents X report use of BBL, BRB, LOL, b4, BTW, WTF, and WTH. The use of X rehi is also common; in fact, mudders are fond of re- compounds and X will frequently `rehug' or `rebonk' (see <bonk/oif>) people. The X verbe `re' by itself is construed as `repeat my last action X toward'. In general, though, mudders express a preference for X typing things out in full rather than using abbreviations; this may X be due to the relative youth of the MUD cultures, which tend to X include many touch typists and assume high-speed links. The X following uses specific to MUDs are reported: X X UOK? Are you OK? X THX Thanks (mutant of TNX) X CU l8er See you later (mutant of CU l8tr) X X See also <hakspek>, <emoticon>, <bonk/oif>. X X<tanked> adj. Same as <down>, used primarily by UNIX hackers. See X also <hosed>. Popularized as a synonym for "drunk" by Steve X Dallas in the late lamented "Bloom County" comics. X X<tar and feather> [from UNIX `tar(1)'] v. To create a transportable X archive from a group of files by first sticking them together with X the tape archiver `tar(1)' and then compressing the result (see X <compress>). The latter is dubbed `feathering' by analogy to what X you do with an airplane propeller to decrease wind resistance; X smaller files, after all, slip through comm links more easily. X X<taste> n. [primarily MIT-DMS] 1. The quality in programs which tends X to be inversely proportional to the number of features, hacks, and X kluges programmed into it. Also, "tasty", "tasteful", X "tastefulness". "This feature comes in N tasty flavors." X Although "tasteful" and "flavorful" are essentially synonyms, X "taste" and <flavor> are not. Taste refers to sound judgement on X the part of the creator; a program or feature can *exhibit* X taste but cannot "have" taste. On the other hand, a feature can X have <flavor>. Also, <flavor> has the additional meaning of X "kind" or "variety" not shared by "taste". <flavor> is a X more popular word among hackers than "taste", though both are X used. 2. Also as <tayste>; two bits. Compare <crumb>, <dynner>, X <playte>, <nybble>. X X<TCB> /tee see bee/ [IBM] 1. Trouble Came Back. Intermittent or X difficult-to reproduce problem which has failed to respond to X neglect. Compare <heisenbug>. Not to be confused with: 2. Trusted X Computing Base, an "official" jargon term from the <Orange Book>. X X<TECO> /tee'koh/ obs. 1. v. Originally, to edit using the TECO editor X in one of its infinite variations (see below); sometimes still used X to mean "to edit" even when not using TECO! Usage: rare and now X primarily historical. 2. [originally an acronym for (paper) X "Tape Editor and COrrector"; later, "Text Editor and X Corrector"] n. A text editor developed at MIT, and modified by X just about everybody. If all the dialects are included, TECO might X have been the single most prolific editor in use before <EMACS> X to which it was directly ancestral. Noted for its powerful X programming-language-like features and its incredibly hairy syntax. X It is literally the case that every possible sequence of ASCII X characters is a valid, though probably uninteresting, TECO program; X one common hacker game used to be mentally working out what the X teco commands corresponding to human names did. As an example, X here is a TECO program that takes a list of names like this: X X Loser, J. Random X Quux, The Great X Dick, Moby X X sorts them alphabetically according to last name, and then puts the X last name last, removing the comma, to produce this: X X Moby Dick X J. Random Loser X The Great Quux X X The program is: X X [1 J ^P $ L $ $ X J <.-Z; .,(S,$ -D .)FX1 @F^B $K :L I $ G1 L>$$ X X (where ^B means "Control-B" (ASCII 0000010) and $ is actually an X <escape> (ASCII 0011011) character) X X In fact, this very program was used to produce the second, sorted X list from the first list! The first hack at it had a <bug>: gls X (the author) had accidentally omitted the "@" in front of X "F^B", which as anyone can see is clearly the wrong thing. It X worked fine the second time. There is no space to describe all the X features of TECO, but it may be of interest that "^P" means X "sort" and "J <.-Z; ... L>" is an idiomatic series of commands X for "do once for every line". X X In 1990, TECO is now pretty much one with the dust of history, X having been replaced in the affections of hackerdom by <EMACS>. It X can still be found lurking on VMS and a couple of crufty PDP-11 X operating systems, however. X X<tee> n.,v. [Purdue] A carbon copy of an electronic transmission, X "Oh, you're sending him the <bits> to that? Slap on a tee for X me." From the UNIX command `tee(1)'. Can also mean `save one for X me' as in "Tee a slice for me!". Also spelled `T'. X X<Telerat> /tel'@-rat/ n. Unflattering hackerism for "Teleray", a X line of extremely losing terminals. See also <terminak>, X <sun-stools>, <HP-SUX>. X X<TELNET> /telnet/ v. To communicate with another ARPAnet host using X the <TELNET> program. TOPS-10 people use the word IMPCOM since X that is the program name for them. Sometimes abbreviated to TN. X "I usually TN over to SAIL just to read the AP News." X X<ten finger interface> n. The interface between two networks which X cannot be directly connected for security reasons; refers to the X practice of placing two terminals side by side and having an X operator read from one and type into the other. X X<tense> adj. Of programs, very clever and efficient. A tense piece of X code often got that way because it was highly <bum>med, but X sometimes it was just based on a great idea. A comment in a clever X display routine by Mike Kazar, a student hacker at CMU: "This X routine is so tense it will bring tears to your eyes. Much thanks X to Craig Everhart and James Gosling for inspiring this <hack X attack>." A tense programmer is one who produces tense code. X X<tenured graduate student> n. One who has been in graduate school for X ten years (the usual maximum is five or six): a "ten-yeared" X student (get it?). Students don't really get tenure, of course, X the way professors do, but a tenth-year graduate student has X probably been around the university longer than any non-tenured X professor. X X<teraflop club> /ter'a-flop kluhb/ [FLOP = Floating Point Operation] X n. Mythical group of people who consume outrageous amounts of X computer time in order to produce a few simple pictures of glass X balls with intricate ray tracing techniques. Cal Tech professor X James Kajiya is said to have been the founding member. See also X <kilo>. X X<terminak> /ter'mi-nak/ [Caltech, ca. 1979] n. Any malfunctioning X computer terminal. A common failure mode of Lear-Siegler ADM3a X terminals caused the "L" key to produce the "K" code instead; X complaints about this tended to look like "Terminak #3 has a bad X keyboard. Pkease fix." See <sun-stools>, <Telerat>, <HP-SUX>. X X<terminal brain death> n. Extreme form of <terminal illness> (sense X #1). X X<terminal illness> n. 1. Syn. with <raster burn>. 2. The `burn-in' X condition your CRT tends to get if you don't have a screen saver. X X<terminal junkie> [Great Britain] n. An early <larval stage> hacker X who spends most of their time wandering the directory tree and X writing <noddy> programs just to get his/her fix of computer time. X Variants include "terminal jockey", "console junkie", or <console X jockey>. The term "console jockey" seems to imply more expertise X than the other three. X X<terpri> /ter'pree/ [from the LISP 1.5 (and later, MacLISP) function X to start a new line of output] v. To output a <CRLF>. Now X rare. It is a contraction of "TERminate PRInt line". X X<TeX> /tekh/ n. An extremely powerful <macro>-based text-formatter X written by Donald E. Knuth, very popular in the computer-science X community (it is good enough to have displaced UNIX `troff(1)', the X other favored formatter, even at many UNIX installations). TeX X fans insist on the correct (guttural) pronunciation spelling (all X caps, with the E depressed below the baseline) of the name (the X mixed-case "TeX" is considered an acceptable kluge on ASCII-only X devices). They like to proliferate names from the word `TeX' --- X such as TeXnichian (TeX user), TeXhacker (TeX programmer), X TeXmaster (competent TeX programmer), TeXhax, TeXnique. X X<thanks in advance> [USENET] Conventional net.politeness ending a X posted request for information or assistance. Sometimes written X "advTHANKSance". See <net.>, <netiquette>. X X<theology> n. 1. Ironically used to refer to <religious issues>. 2. X Technical fine points of an abstruse nature, esp. those where the X resolution is of theoretical interest but relatively <marginal> X with respect to actual use of a design or system. Used esp. around X software issues with a heavy AI or language design component. X Example: the deep- vs. shallow-binding debate in the design of X dynamically-scoped LISPs. X X<theory> n. Used in the general sense of idea, plan, story, or set of X rules. This is a generalization and abuse of the technical X meaning. "What's the theory on fixing this TECO loss?" "What's X the theory on dinner tonight?" ("Chinatown, I guess.") X "What's the current theory on letting lusers on during the day?" X "The theory behind this change is to fix the following well-known X screw..." X X<thinko> /thin'ko/ [by analogy with `typo'] n. A bubble in the stream X of consciousness; a momentary, correctable glitch in mental X processing, especially one involving recall of information learned X by rote. Syn. <braino>. Compare <mouso>. X X<This time, for sure>! Ritual affirmation frequently uttered during X protracted debugging sessions involving numerous small obstacles X (as, in for example, attempts to bring up a UUCP connection). For X the proper effect, this must be uttered in a fruity imitation of X Bullwinkle the Moose. Also heard: "Hey, Rocky! Watch me pull a X rabbit out of my hat!". The canonical response is, of course, X "But that trick *never* works!". See <HUMOR, HACKER>. X X<thrash> v. To move wildly or violently, without accomplishing X anything useful. Paging or swapping systems which are overloaded X waste most of their time moving data into and out of core (rather X than performing useful computation), and are therefore said to X thrash. Someone who keeps changing his mind is said to be X thrashing. X X<thread> /thred/ n. [USENET, GEnie] Common abbreviation of `topic X thread', a more or less continuous chain of postings on a single X topic. Also in 2. <upthread>: earlier in the discussion. "As Joe X pointed out upthread..." X X<three-finger salute> n. Syn. for <vulcan nerve pinch>. X X<thunk> [mythically, the sound made by data when pushed onto the X stack] n. 1. " ... a piece of coding which which provides an X address." --- P.Z Ingerman, who invented <thunk>s in 1961 as a way X of binding actual parameters to their formal definitions in X Algol-60 procedure calls. If a procedure is called with an X expression in the place of a formal parameter, the compiler X generates a <thunk> to compute the expression and leave the address X of the result in some standard location such as an index register. X 2. Later generalized into an expression, frozen together with its X environment for later evaluation if and when needed. The process X of unfreezing these <thunk>s is called `forcing'. 3. Stub routine, X in an overlay programming environment, which loads and jumps to the X correct overlay. 4. People and activities scheduled in a thunklike X manner. "It occurred to me the other day that I am rather X accurately modelled by a thunk --- I frequently need to be forced X to completion." --- paraphrased from a .plan file. X X<tick> n. 1. The width of one tick of the system clock on the X computer. Often 1 AC cycle time (1/60 second in the U.S. and X Canada, and 1/50 most other places) but more recently 1/100 sec has X become common. Syn <jiffy>. 2. In simulations, the discrete unit X of time that passes "between" iterations of the simulation X mechanism. In AI applications, this amount of time is often left X unspecified, since the only constraint of interest is that caused X things happen after their causes. This sort of AI simulation is X often pejoratively referred to as "tick-tick-tick" simulation, X especially when the issue of simultaneity of events with long, X independent chains of causes is <handwave>d. X X<tick-list features> [Acorn Computers] n. Features in software or X hardware that customers insist on but never use (calculators in X desktop TSRs and that sort of thing). X X<time sink> n. A project which consumes unbounded amounts of time. X X<time t> /tiem tee/ n. 1. An unspecified but usually well-understood X time, often used in conjunction with a later time T+1. "We'll X meet on campus at time T or at Louie's at time T+1." means, in the X context of going out for dinner, "If we meet at Louie's directly, X we can meet there a little later than if we meet on campus and then X have to travel to Louie's." (Louie's is a Chinese restaurant in X Palo Alto that is a favorite with hackers. Had the number 30 been X used instead of "one", it would have implied that the travel time X from campus to Louie's is thirty minutes; whatever time T is (and X that hasn't been decided on yet), you can meet half an hour later X at Louie's than you could on campus and end up eating at the same X time. 2. "since (or at) time t equals minus infinity": A long time X ago; for as long as anyone can remember; at the time that some X particular frob was first designed. Sometimes the word "time" is X omitted if there is no danger of confusing "T" as a time with X "T" meaning "yes". X X<tip of the ice-cube> [IBM] n. The visible part of something small and X insignificant. Used as an ironic comment in situations where "tip X of the iceberg" might be appropriate if the subject were actually X nontrivial. X X<tired iron> [IBM] n. Hardware that is perfectly functional but enough X behind the state of the art to have been superseded by new X products, presumably with enough improvement in bang-per-buck that X the old stuff is starting to look a bit like a <dinosaur>. X X<tits on a keyboard> n. Small bumps on certain keycaps to keep X touch-typists registered. (Usually on the 5 of a numeric keypad, X and on F and J of a QWERTY keyboard.) X X<TLA> /tee el ay/ [Three-Letter-Acronym] n. 1. Self-describing acronym X for a species with which computing terminology is infested. 2. Any X confusing acronym at all. Examples include MCA, FTP, SNA, CPU, X MMU, SCCS, DMU, FPU, TLA, NNTP. People who like this looser usage X argue that not all TLAs have three letters, just as not all four X letter words have four letters. One also hears of "ETLA" X (Extended Three Letter Acronym, pronounced /ee tee el ay/ ) being X used to describe four-letter acronyms. X X<toast> 1. n. Any completely inoperable system, esp. one that has just X crashed; "I think BUACCA is toast." 2. v. To cause a system to X crash accidentally, especially in a manner that requires manual X rebooting. "Rick just toasted harp again." X X<toaster> n. 1. The archetypal really stupid application for an X embedded microprocessor controller esp. `toaster oven'; often used X in comments which imply that a scheme is inappropriate technology. X "<DWIM> for an assembler? That'd be as silly as running UNIX on X your toaster!" 2. A very very dumb computer. "You could run this X program on any dumb toaster." See <bitty box>, <toaster>, <toy>. X X<toggle> v. To change a BIT from whatever state it is in to the other X state; to change from 1 to 0 or from 0 to 1. This probably comes X from "toggle switches", such as standard light switches, though X the word "toggle" apparently originally referred to the mechanism X that keeps the switch in the position to which it is flipped, X rather than to the fact that the switch has two positions. There X are four things you can do to a bit: set it (force it to be 1), X clear (or zero) it, leave it alone, or toggle it. (Mathematically, X one would say that there are four distinct boolean-valued functions X of one boolean argument, but saying that is much less fun than X talking about toggling bits.) X X<tool> 1. n. A program primarily used to create other programs, such X as a compiler or editor or cross-referencing program. Oppose X <app>, <operating system>. 2. [UNIX] An application program with a X simple, "transparent" (typically text-stream) interface designed X specifically to be used in programmed combination with other tools X (see <filter>). 3. [MIT] v.i. To work; to study. See <hack>. X X<TOPS-10> /tops-ten/ n. DEC's proprietary OS for the fabled <PDP-10> X machines, long a favorite of hackers but now effectively extinct. X A fountain of hacker folklore; see Appendix A. See also <ITS>, X <TOPS-20>, <TWENEX>, <VMS>, <operating system>. TOPS-10 was X sometimes called BOTS-10 ("from bottoms-ten") as a comment on the X inappropriateness of describing it as the top of anything. X X<TOPS-20> /tops-twen'tee/ n. See <TWENEX>. X X<tourist> [from MIT's ITS system] n. A guest on the system, especially X one who generally logs in over a network from a remote location for X games and other trivial purposes. One step below <luser>. X X<touristic> adj. Having the quality of a <tourist>. Often used as a X pejorative, as in "losing touristic scum". X X<toy> n. A computer system; always used with qualifiers. 1. <nice X toy>: One which supports the speaker's hacking style adequately. X 2. <just a toy>: A machine that yields insufficient <computron>s X for the speaker's preferred uses. This is not condemnatory as is X <bitty box>; toys can at least be fun. See also <Get a real X computer!>, <bitty box>. X X<toy problem> [AI] n. A deliberately simplified or even oversimplified X case of a challenging problem used to investigate, prototype, or X test algorithms for the real problem. Sometimes used pejoratively. X See also <gedanken>. X X<trap> 1. n. A program interrupt, usually used specifically to refer X to an interrupt caused by some illegal action taking place in the X user program. In most cases the system monitor performs some X action related to the nature of the illegality, then returns X control to the program. 2. v. To cause a trap. "These X instructions trap to the monitor." Also used transitively to X indicate the cause of the trap. "The monitor traps all X input/output instructions." This term is associated with X assembler programming (INTERRUPT is more common among HLL X programmers) and appears to be fading into history as the role of X assembler continues to shrink. X X<trap door> alt. <trapdoor> n. Syn. with <back door>. X X<trash> v. To destroy the contents of (said of a data structure). The X most common of the family of near-synonyms including <mung>, X <mangle> and <scribble>. X X<tree killer> [Sun] n. 1. A printer. 2. A person who wastes paper. X This should be interpreted in a broad sense; `wasting paper' X includes the production of <spiffy> but <content-free> documents. X Thus, most <suits> are tree-killers. X X<trivial> adj. 1. In explanation, too simple to bother detailing. 2. X Not worth the speaker's time. 3. Complex, but solvable by methods X so well-known that anyone not utterly <cretinous> would have X thought of them already. Hackers' notions of triviality may be X quite at variance with those of non-hackers. See <nontrivial>, X <uninteresting>. X X<troglodyte> [Commodore] n. 1. A hacker who never leaves his cubicle. X The term `Gnoll' (from D&D) is also reported. 2. [proposed] A X curmudgeon attached to an obsolescent computing environment. X X<troglodyte mode> [Rice University] n. Programming with the lights X turned off, sunglasses on, and the (character) terminal inverted X (black on white) because you've been up for so many days straight X that your eyes hurt. Loud music blaring from a stereo stacked in X the corner is optional but recommended. See <larval stage>, X <mode>. X X<trojan horse> [coined by MIT-hacker-turned-spook Dan Edwards] n. A X program designed to break security or damage a system that is X disguised as something else benign, such as a directory lister or X archiver. See <virus>, <worm>. X X<true-hacker> [analogy with "trufan" from SF fandom] n. One who X exemplifies the primary values of hacker culture, esp. competence X and helpfulness to other hackers. A high complement. "He spent X six hours helping me bring up UUCP and netnews on my FOOBAR 4000 X last week --- unequivocally the act of a true-hacker." Compare X <demigod>, oppose <munchkin>. X X<tty> /tee-tee-wie/ [UNIX], /ti'tee/ [ITS, but some UNIX people say it X this way as well] n. 1. Terminal of the teletype variety, X characterized by a noisy mechanical printer, a very limited X character set, and poor print quality. Usage: antiquated (like the X TTYs themselves). 2. [especially UNIX] Any terminal at all; X sometimes used to refer to the particular terminal controlling a X given job. X X<tube> n. A CRT terminal. Never used in the mainstream sense of TV; X real hackers don't watch TV, except for Loony Toons and Rocky & X Bullwinkle and the occasional cheesy old swashbuckle movie. X X<tunafish> n. In hackish lore, refers to the mutated punchline of an X age-old joke to be found at the bottom of the man pages of X `tunefs(8)' in the original <BSD> 4.2 distribution. The joke X was removed in later releases once commercial sites started X developing 4.2. Tunefs relates to the `tuning' of file-system X parameters for optimum performance, and at the bottom of a few X pages of <black art> writings was a BUGS section consisting of the X line "You can tune a filing system, but you can't tunafish." X X<tune> [from automotive or musical usage] v. To optimize a program or X system for a particular environment, esp. by adjusting numerical X parameters designed as <hook>s for tuning, e.g. by changing #define X lines in C. One may `tune for time' (fastest execution) `tune for X space' (least memory utilization) or `tune for configuration' (most X efficient use of hardware). See <bum>, <hot spot>, <hand-hacking>. X X<tweak> v. 1. To change slightly, usually in reference to a value. X Also used synonymously with <twiddle>. If a program is almost X correct, rather than figuring out the precise problem, you might X just keep tweaking it until it works. See <frobnicate> and <fudge X factor>. 2. To <tune> or <bum> a program. This is preferred usage X in England. X X<TWENEX> /twe-neks/ n. The TOPS-20 operating system by DEC. TOPS-10 X was a typically crufty DEC operating system for the PDP-10, so X TOPS-20 was the obvious name choice for the DEC-20 OS. Bolt, X Beranek and Newman (BBN) had developed their own system, called X <TENEX> (TEN EXecutive), and in creating TOPS-20 DEC copied TENEX X and adapted it for the 20. The term TWENEX was therefore a X contraction of "twenty TENEX". DEC people cringed when they X heard TOPS-20 referred to as "TWENEX", but the term caught on X nevertheless. The written abbreviation "20x" was also used. X TWENEX was successful and very popular; in fact, there was a period X in the 1980s when it commanded almost as fervent a culture of X partisans as UNIX or ITS --- but DEC's decision to scrap all the X internal rivals to the VAX architecture and the relatively stodgy X VMS OS killed the DEC-20 and put a sad end to TWENEX's brief day in X the sun. X X<twiddle> n. 1. tilde (ASCII 176, "~"). Also called "squiggle", X "sqiggle" (sic---pronounced "skig'gul"), and "twaddle", but X twiddle is by far the most common term. 2. A small and X insignificant change to a program. Usually fixes one bug and X generates several new ones. 3. v. To change something in a small X way. Bits, for example, are often twiddled. Twiddling a switch or X knob implies much less sense of purpose than toggling or tweaking X it; see <frobnicate>. To speak of twiddling a bit connotes X aimlessness, and at best doesn't specify what you're doing to the X bit; by contrast, toggling a bit has a more specific meaning (see X <toggle>). X X<twink> /twink/ [UCSC] n. Equivalent to <read-only user>. X X<two-to-the-n> q. Used like N, but referring to bigger numbers. "I X have two to the N things to do before I can go out for lunch" X means you probably won't show up. X X<two-pi> q. The number of years it takes to finish one's thesis. X Occurs in stories in the form: "He started on his thesis; two pi X years later...". X X<twonkie> n. The software equivalent of a Twinkie; a useless X "feature" added to look sexy and placate a <marketroid>. X X {= U =} X X<UBD> [abbreviation for "User Brain Damage"] An abbreviation used to X close out trouble reports obviously due to utter cluelessness on X the user's part. Compare <PBD>; see also <brain-damaged>. X X<undefined external reference> excl. [UNIX] Message from UNIX's X linker. Used to indicate loose ends in an argument or discussion. X X<under the hood> prep. [hot-rodder talk] 1. Used to introduce the X underlying implementation of a product (hardware, software, or X idea). Implies that the implementation is not intuitively obvious X from the appearance, but the speaker is about enable the listener X to <zen> it. "Let's now look under the hood to see how ..." 2. SHAR_EOF chmod 0644 jsplit.ai || echo "restore of jsplit.ai fails" if [ $TOUCH = can ] then touch -am 0103154591 jsplit.ai fi exit 0