dvk (06/29/82)
Since there was some bantering here about new words, niceties,
and other things we do to language, I decided it would be alright to submit
a "reprint" of an article of mine (IEEE Computer, Nov 81) defining a new
word. It is a useful word in that most of us compu-jocks encounter
examples of it all the time, and until now, I don't know that any word
existed to describe the condition.
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Occasionally, a specific technology (or lack thereof)
advances to a stage of development where fresh definitions of old
words, or completely new words have to be invented to describe
conditions or components of the fast rising field. Sometimes the
new words are a result of pronouncing acronyms (such as "scuba"
or "LOX"), while others arise as perversions of other words,
implying meaning from the root (i.e. "spazzed"). Still others are
adaptations of pre-existing terms, with the definitions changed
to fit the application (such as "hack"), while other (usually
less universally used) terms are nonsense words, or abbreviated
forms of common (sometimes derogatory) expressions (such as
"gronk", or to "flame").
The computer science industry has absconded, adapted, or
invented such terms as "kludge", "glitch", "number crunching",
"hack(er)", "spool" (v.), "swap", "shuffle", "network" (v.), and
"jiffy". I have coined what I believe to be a new adjective
("pnambic"), which describes a common condition of computer
systems. The formal definition of the word is given below:
PNAMBIC (NAM-bic) adj. 1. A stage of development of a
process or function which, due to incomplete
implementation, or to the complexity in principle or
execution of the system, requires human interaction to
simulate or replace some or all of the actions, inputs, or
outputs of the process or function. 2. Of or pertaining to
a process or function whose apparent operations are wholly
or partially falsified. 3. Requiring prestidigitization.
[Acronym from "The Wizard of Oz", by Frank Baum, as the
true nature of the wizard is first discovered: "Pay No
Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain".]
PRESTIDIGITIZATION (pres'-ti-dij'-it-eh-ZA-shun) v. 1. To put
into digital notation via sleight of hand. 2. Data entry
through legerdemain.
An example of a pnambic system may be found in an early
demonstration of a speech recognition system given in the mid-
1970's: In it, the user spoke a simple phrase into a microphone,
and the program was supposed to recognize and understand the
phrase. What really happened, though, was that the program
read a set of canned, pre-manipulated data and recognized and
understood that instead. This was a demonstration of a pnambic
system.
Students in computer classes are often guilty of
submitting the results of pnambic programs, where at critical
(and non-functional) stages in the program run, the hardcopy
terminal is intentionally turned offline, and the correct
responses are typed in by hand, rather than have the program
(fail to) print the correct responses.
Another example might be the demonstration of a pnambic
building control program. The person demonstrating the system
might say: "...and as the person enters the room, he triggers the
sensor", (flips switch), "so that when the ambient light level
drops below a certain level", (turns dial), "the room lights
automatically come on" (points to an indicator). "Oh, no, wait,
that was the sprinkler system. Um, let me try that again..."
Daniel Klein
Mellon Institute of Research
...mcnc!idis!mi-cec!dvk