Xref: utzoo alt.folklore.computers:8404 comp.unix.internals:1713 comp.misc:11047
Path: utzoo!utgpu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!wuarchive!uunet!cbmvax!snark!eric
From: eric@snark.thyrsus.com (Eric S. Raymond)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.unix.internals,comp.misc
Subject: The Jargon File v2.3.1 03 JAN 1991, part 3 of 11
Message-ID: <1Z0vSj#3fdLsL0DdqGMB9mKhv8yOPZO=eric@snark.thyrsus.com>
Date: 3 Jan 91 21:02:50 GMT
Lines: 1030

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X   imagery and references such as: "Bob" the divine
X   drilling-equipment salesman, the Benevolent Space Xists and the
X   Stark Fist of Removal.  Much Sub-Genius theory is concerned with
X   the acquisition of the mystical substance or quality of "slack".
X   See also .
X
X /klas'ik see/ [a play on `Coke Classic'] n.  The C
X   programming language as defined in the first edition of ,
X   with some small additions.  It is also known as "K & R C."
X   The name came into use during the standardisation process for C by
X   the ANSI X3J11 committee.  Also . This is sometimes
X   generalized to "X Classic" where X = Star Trek (referring to the
X   original TV series), or X = PC (referring to IBM's ISA-bus machines
X   as opposed to the PS/2 series); this generalization is especially
X   used of product series in which the newer versions are considered
X   serious losers relative to the older ones.
X
X adj. Used of hardware or software designs, implies "elegance
X   in the small", that is a design or implementation which may not
X   hold any surprises but does things in a way that is reasonably
X   intuitive and relatively easy to comprehend from the outside.  The
X   antonym is  or .
X
X [Sun, "Career Limiting Move"] 1. n. Endangering one's future
X   prospects of getting plum projects and raises, also possibly one's
X   job.  "He used a bubblesort!  What a CLM!"  2. adj. denoting
X   extreme severity of a bug, discovered by a customer and obviously
X   due to poor testing: "That's a CLM bug!"
X
X v. Mistakenly overwrite.  As in "I walked off the end of
X   the array and clobbered the stack."  Compare , ,
X   , and .
X
X n. Processor logic cycles, so called because each generally
X   corresponds to one clock pulse in the processor's timing.  The
X   relative execution times of instructions on a machine are usually
X   discussed in `clocks' rather than absolute fractions of a second.
X   Compare .
X
X n. 1. An exact duplicate, as in "our product is a clone of
X   their product."  Implies a legal re-implementation from
X   documentation or by reverse-engineering, as opposed to the
X   illegalities under sense #3.  Also connotes lower price.  2. A
X   shoddy, spurious copy, as in "their product is a clone of our
X   product."  3. A blatant ripoff, most likely violating copyright,
X   patent, or trade secret protections, as in "your product is a
X   clone of my product."  This usage implies legal action is pending.
X   4. A "PC clone"; a PC-BUS/ISA or EISA-compatible 80x86 based
X   microcomputer (this use is sometimes spelled "klone").  5. In the
X   construction : An OS designed to deliver a
X   UNIX-lookalike environment sans UNIX license fees, or with
X   additional "mission-critical" features such as support for
X   real-time programming.
X
X /klohz/ [from the verb "to close", thus the `z' sound] 1. n.
X   Abbreviation for "close (or right) parenthesis", used when
X   necessary to eliminate oral ambiguity.  See .  2. adj.  Of a
X   delimiting character, used at the right-hand end of a grouping.
X   Used in such terms as "close parenthesis", "close bracket",
X   etc. 3. vt. To release a file or communication channel after
X   access.
X
X /kluh'ster-gee`king/ [CMU] n. An activity defined by
X   spending more time at a computer cluster doing CS homework than
X   most people spend breathing.
X
X n. Synonomous with .  Hackers believe all COBOL
X   programmers are s or s, and no self-respecting
X   hacker will ever admit to having learned the language.  Its very
X   name is seldom uttered without ritual expressions of disgust or
X   horror.
X
X /koh'bol fing'grs/ n. Reported from Sweden, a
X   (hypothetical) disease one might get from programming in COBOL.
X   The language requires extremely voluminous code.  Programming too
X   much in COBOL causes the fingers to wear down (by endless typing),
X   until short stubs remain.  This malformity is called "COBOL
X   fingers".  "I refuse to type in all that source code again, it
X   will give me cobol fingers!"
X
X n. 1. A -wearing minion of the sort hired in
X   legion strength by banks and insurance companies to implement
X   payroll packages in RPG and other such unspeakable horrors.  This
X   is about as far from hackerdom as you can get and still touch a
X   computer.  Connotes pity.  See . 2. Used of or to a
X   hacker, a really serious slur on the person's creative ability;
X   connotes a design style characterized by primitive technique,
X   rule-boundedness, and utter lack of imagination.  Compare .
X
X [by analogy with "thought police"] n. A mythical team
X   of Gestapo-like storm troopers that might burst into one's office
X   and arrest one for violating style rules.  May be used either
X   seriously, to underline a claim that a particular style violation
X   is dangerous, or ironically, to suggest that the practice under
X   discussion is condemned mainly by anal-retentive weenies.  The
X   ironic usage is perhaps more common.
X
X n. A program component that traverses other programs for
X   a living.  Compilers have codewalkers in their front ends; so do
X   cross-reference generators and some database front-ends.  Other
X   utility programs which try to do too much with source code may turn
X   into codewalkers.  As in "This new vgrind feature would require a
X   codewalker to implement."
X
X /kohk'bot-l/ n. Any very unusual character, particularly
X   one that isn't on your keyboard so you can't type it.  MIT people
X   used to complain about the "control-meta-cokebottle" commands at
X   SAIL, and SAIL people complained right back about the
X   "altmode-altmode-cokebottle" commands at MIT.  Since the demise
X   of the  this is no longer a serious usage,
X   but may be invoked humorously to describe an (unspecified) weird or
X   non-intuitive keystroke command.
X
X n. A semi-mythical language construct dual to the `go to';
X   COME FROM  would cause the referenced label to act as a sort
X   of trapdoor, so that if the program ever reached it control would
X   quietly fall through to the statement following the COME FROM.
X   COME FROM was first proposed in a Datamation article in 1973 that
X   parodied the then-raging `structured programming' wars (see
X   ). Mythically, some variants are the "assigned
X   come from", and the "computed come from" (parodying some nasty
X   control constructs in BASIC and FORTRAN).  Notionally,
X   multi-tasking can be implemented by having more than one COME FROM
X   statement coming from the same label.
X
X   COME FROM was actually implemented under a different name in
X   Univac's Fortran, c.1975.  The statement "AT 100" would perform a
X   "COME FROM 100".  It was intended strictly as a debugging aid,
X   with dire consequences promised to anyone so deranged as to use it
X   in production code.  It was supported under its own name for the
X   first time fifteen years later, in C-INTERCAL (see ,
X   ); knowledgeable observers are still reeling from
X   shock.
X
X vt. To surround a section of code with comment
X   delimiters in order to prevent it from being compiled.  This may be
X   done for a variety of reasons, most commonly when the code is
X   redundant or obsolete but you want to leave it in the source to
X   make the intent of the active code clearer.
X
X /kom mohd/ [from the ITS supporting on-line chat,
X   spelled with one or two Ms] Syn. for .
X
X n. Hacker slang as spoken outside the U.S.,
X   esp.  in the British Commonwealth.  It is reported that
X   Commonwealth speakers are more likely to pronounce "char",
X   "soc" etc. as spelled (/char/, /sok/) as opposed to American
X   /keir/ or /sohsh/.  Dots in names tend to be pronounced more often
X   (/sok dot wi'bble/ rather than /sohsh wib'ble/).  Preferred
X   metasyntactic variables include EEK, OOK, FRODO and BILBO; WIBBLE,
X   WOBBLE and in emergencies WUBBLE; BANANA, WOMBAT, FROG,  and
X   so on and on.
X
X   Alternatives to verb doubling include suffixes "-o-rama",
X   "frenzy" (as in feeding frenzy) and "city" (as in "barf
X   city!" "hack-o-rama!" "core dump frenzy!").  Finally, note
X   that the American usages `parens' `brackets' and `braces' for (),
X   [], and {} are uncommon; Commonwealth hackish prefers
X   "bracket", "square bracket" and "curly bracket".  Also, the
X   use of "pling" for  is common outside the U.S..
X
X   See also , , , ,
X   , , , , , , , , ,
X   , , , ,
X   , ,  and notes or definitions under , , , , , ,
X   , , , , , , and
X   .
X
X [UNIX] vt. When used without a qualifier, generally refers
X   to ing of a file using a particular C implementation of
X   Lempel-Ziv compression by James A. Woods et al. and widely
X   circulated via . Use of  itself in this sense is
X   rare among UNIX hackers.
X
X n.  One who eats [computer] bugs for a living.  One
X   who fulfills all of the dreariest negative stereotypes about
X   hackers: an asocial, malodorous, pasty-faced monomaniac with all
X   the personality of a cheese grater.  Cannot be used by outsiders
X   without implied insult to all hackers; compare black-on-black usage
X   of "nigger".  A computer geek may be either a fundamentally
X   clueless individual or a true-hacker in .  Also
X   called "turbo nerd", "turbo geek".  See also .
X
X /kom-pyoo-tron/ n. 1. A notional unit of computing power
X   combining instruction speed and storage capacity, dimensioned
X   roughly in instructions-per-sec times megabytes-of-main-store times
X   megabytes-of-mass-storage.  "That machine can't run GNU Emacs, it
X   doesn't have enough computrons!"  This usage is usually found in
X   metaphors that treat computing power as a fungible commodity good
X   like a crop yield or diesel horsepower.  See , , , . 2. A mythical subatomic particle
X   that bears the unit quantity of computation or information, in much
X   the same way that an electron bears one unit of electric charge
X   (see ).  An elaborate pseudo-scientific theory of computrons
X   has been worked out based on the physical fact that the molecules
X   in a solid object move more rapidly as it is heated.  It is argued
X   that an object melts because the molecules have lost their
X   information about where they are supposed to be (that is, they have
X   emitted computrons).  This explains why computers get so hot and
X   require air conditioning; they use up computrons.  Conversely, you
X   should be able to cool down an object by placing it in the path of
X   a computron beam.  It is believed that this may also explain why
X   machines that work at the factory fail in the computer room ---
X   because the computrons there have been all used up by your other
X   hardware.
X
X [probably came into prominence with the
X   appearance of the KL-10, none of whose connectors match anything
X   else] n. The tendency of manufacturers (or, by extension,
X   programmers or purveyors of anything) to come up with new products
X   which don't fit together with the old stuff, thereby making you buy
X   either all new stuff or expensive interface devices.
X
X /kons/ [from LISP] 1. v. To add a new element to a list, esp.
X   at the top.  2.  : vt. To synthesize from smaller pieces:
X   "to cons up an example".
X
X adj. Edsger Dijkstra's infamous March 1968 CACM
X   note, "Goto Statement Considered Harmful", fired the first salvo
X   in the "structured programming" wars.  Amusingly, ACM considered
X   the resulting acromony sufficiently harmful that they will (by
X   policy) no longer print an article which takes up that assertive a
X   position against a coding practice.  In the ensuing decades a large
X   number of both serious papers and parodies have borne titles of the
X   form "X considered Y".  The "structured programming" wars
X   eventually blew over with the realization that both sides were
X   wrong, but use of such titles has remained as a persistent minor
X   in-joke (the "considered silly" found at various places in this
X   jargon file is related).
X
X n.  See .
X
X adj. Ironic analogy with "context-free", used of a
X   message which adds nothing to the recipient's knowledge.  Though
X   this adjective is sometimes applied to , it more usually
X   connotes derision for communication styles which exalt form over
X   substance, or are centered on concerns irrelevant to the subject
X   ostensibly at hand.  Perhaps most used with reference to speeches
X   by company presidents and like animals.  "Content-free?
X   Uh...that's anything printed on glossy paper".
X
X n. The rule that the organization of the software and
X   the organization of the software team will be congruent; originally
X   stated as "If you have four groups working on a compiler, you'll
X   get a four-pass compiler."
X
X   This was originally promulgated by Melvin Conway, an early
X   proto-hacker who wrote an assembler for the Burroughs 220 called
X   SAVE.  "SAVE" didn't stand for anything, it was just that you
X   lost fewer decks and listings because they all had SAVE written on
X   top of them.
X
X n. A handle, transaction ID or other form of agreement
X   between cooperating programs.  "I give him a packet, he gives me
X   back a cookie."  See .
X
X [from `Sesame Street'] n. Any of a family of
X   early (1970s) hacks reported on ,  and elsewhere that
X   would lock up either the victim's terminal (on a time-sharing
X   machine) or the operator's console (on a batch mainframe),
X   repeatedly demanding "I WANT A COOKIE".  The required responses
X   ranged in complexity from "COOKIE" through "HAVE A COOKIE" and
X   upward.  See also .
X
X /kop'ee-left/ n. 1. The copyright notice ("General Public
X   License") carried by  and other Free Software
X   Foundation software, granting re-use and reproduction rights to all
X   comers (but see also ). 2. By extension, any
X   copyright notice intended to achieve similar aims.
X
X n. Main storage or DRAM.  Dates from the days of ferrite-core
X   memory; now archaic, but still used in the UNIX community and by
X   old-time hackers or those who would sound like same.  See .
X
X n. [UNIX] 1. A symptom of catastrophic program failure due
X   to internal error. 2. By extension, used for humans passing out,
X   vomiting, or registering extreme shock. "He dumped core.  All over
X   the floor.  What a mess." "He heard about ... and dumped core."
X   3. Occasionally used for a human rambling on pointlessly at great
X   length; esp. in apology: "Sorry I dumped core on you".  4.  A
X   recapitulation of knowledge (compare , sense 1). Hence,
X   spewing all one knows about a topic, esp. in a lecture or answer to
X   an exam question.  "Short, concise answers are better than core
X   dumps" [From the instructions to a qual exam at Columbia].  See
X   .
X
X n. Syn. with .
X
X n. A game between "assembler" programs in a simulated
X   machine, where the objective is to kill your opponent's program by
X   overwriting it.  This was popularized by A.K. Dewdney's column in
X   `Scientific American' magazine, but is said to have been first
X   devised by Victor Vyssotsky as a PDP-1 hack, during the early '60s
X   at Bell Labs.  It is rumored that the game is a civilized version
X   of an amusement called DARWIN common on pre-MMU multitasking
X   machines.  See .
X
X /korj/ [originally, the name of a cat] n. Yet another
X   meta-syntactic variable, invented by Mike Gallaher and propagated
X   by the Gosmacs documentation.  See .
X
X n. Notionally, the cause of .  However, this is
X   a semi-independent usage which may be invoked as a humorous way to
X    away any minor  that doesn't seem worth the
X   bother of investigating. "Hey, Eric --- I just got a burst of
X   garbage on my , where did that come from?" "Cosmic rays, I
X   guess". Compare , .  The British seem
X   to prefer the usage `cosmic showers'; `alpha particles' is also
X   heard, because stray alpha particles passing through a memory chip
X   can cause single bit errors (this becomes increasingly more likely
X   as memory sizes and densities increase).
X
X [Sun, from William Gibson's cyberpunk SF] n. Synonym for
X   .  It is reported that at Sun, this is often said with
X   reverence.
X
X (see-pee-em) [Control Program for Microcomputers] An early
X   microcomputer  written by hacker Gary Kildall for 8080 and Z-80
X   based machines, very popular in the late 1970s until virtually
X   wiped out by MS-DOS after the release of the IBM PC in 1981 (legend
X   has it that Kildall's company blew their chance to write the PC's
X   OS because Kildall decided to spend the day IBM's reps wanted to
X   meet with him enjoying the perfect flying weather in his private
X   plane).  Many of its features and conventions strongly resemble
X   those of early DEC operating systems such as OS-8, RSTS and RSX-11.
X   See , .
X
X n. A 1979 large-format comic by Chas Andres chronicling the
X   attempts of the brainwashed androids of "IPM" (Impossible to
X   Program Machines) to conquer and destroy the peaceful denizens of
X   HEC (Human Engineered Computers).  This rather transparent allegory
X   featured many references to  and the immortal line "Eat
X   flaming death, minicomputer mongrels!"  (uttered, of course, by an
X   IPM stormtrooper). It is alleged that the author subsequently
X   received a letter of appreciation on IBM company stationery from
X   the then-head of IBM's Thomas J. Watson research laboratories (then
X   as now one of the few islands of true hackerdom in the IBM
X   archipelago). The lower loop of the `B' in the IBM logo, it is
X   said, had been carefully whited out.  See .
X
X n. One who breaks security on a system.  Coined c.1985 by
X   hackers in defense against journalistic misuse of  (q.v.,
X   sense #7).  There had been an earlier attempt to establish "worm"
X   in this sense around 1981-1982 on USENET; this largely failed.
X
X [from automotive slang] vt. Verb used to describe the
X   performance of a machine, especially sustained performance. "This
X   box cranks about 6 MegaFLOPS, with a burst mode of twice that on
X   vectorized operations."
X
X 1. n. A sudden, usually drastic failure.  Most often said of
X   the system (q.v., sense #1), sometimes of magnetic disk drives.
X   "Three lusers lost their files in last night's disk crash."  A
X   disk crash which entails the read/write heads dropping onto the
X   surface of the disks and scraping off the oxide may also be
X   referred to as a "head crash", whereas the term "system crash"
X   usually, though not always, implies that the operating system or
X   other software was at fault.  2. vi. To fail suddenly.  "Has the
X   system just crashed?"  Also used transitively to indicate the
X   cause of the crash (usually a person or a program, or both).
X   "Those idiots playing  crashed the system."  3.
X   Sometimes said of people hitting the sack after a long ; see  (sense #4).
X
X vi.,n. A spectacular crash, in the mode of the
X   conclusion of the car chase scene from Steve McQueen's "Bullitt".
X   Sun-3 monitors losing the flyback transformer and lightning strikes
X   on VAX-11/780 backplanes are notable crash and burn generators.
X
X n. Ancient crufty hardware or software that forces
X   beyond the control of the hackers at a site refuse to let die.
X   Like  or , but connotes that the thing
X   described is not just an irritation but an active menace to health
X   and sanity.  "Mostly we code new stuff in C, but they pay us to
X   maintain one big Fortran II application from nineteen-sixty-X
X   that's a real crawling horror...".  Compare .
X
X /kray/ n. 1. One of the line of supercomputers designed by Cray
X   Research.  The term is actually the lowercased last name of Seymour
X   Cray, a noted computer architect and co-founder of the company.
X   Numerous vivid legends surround him, some true and some admittedly
X   invented by Cray Research brass to shape their corporate culture.
X   2.  Any supercomputer at all.
X
X n. A shortcoming of a program or algorithm which
X   only manifests itself when running a large problem on a powerful
X   machine.  Generally more subtle than bugs which can be detected in
X   smaller problems running on a workstation or mini.
X
X n. A super-mini or -micro computer that provides some
X   reasonable percentage of supercomputer performance for an
X   unreasonably low price.  Might also be a .
X
X n. Someone who works on Cray supercomputers.  More
X   specifically implies a programmer, probably of the CDC ilk,
X   probably male, and almost certainly wearing a tie (irrespective of
X   gender).  Unicos systems types who have a Unix background tend not
X   to be described as crayons.
X
X /kree'ping fee-ch@r-ie't@s/ n. 1. Describes a
X   systematic tendency to load more  onto systems at the
X   expense of whatever elegance they may have posessed when originally
X   designed.  See also .  "You know, the main
X   problem with  has always been creeping featuritis".  At
X   MIT, this tends to be called "creeping featur*ism*" (and
X   likewise, "feeping creaturism"). (After all, -ism means
X   "condition" whereas -itis usually means "inflammation of"...)
X   2. More generally, the tendency for anything complicated to become
X   even more complicated because people keep saying, "Gee, it would
X   be even better if it had this feature too."  (See .)  The
X   result is usually a patchwork because it grew one ad-hoc step at a
X   time, rather than being planned.  Planning is a lot of work, but
X   it's easy to add just one extra little feature to help someone...
X   and then another...  and another....  When creeping featurism gets
X   out of hand it's like a cancer.  Usually this term is used to
X   describe computer programs, but it could also be said of the
X   federal government, the IRS 1040 form, and new cars.
X
X /kre'tn/ or /kree'tn/ n. Congenital ; an obnoxious
X   person; someone who can't do anything right.  It has been observed
X   that American hackers tend to favor the British pronunciation
X   /kret'n/ over standard American /kreet'n/; it is thought this may
X   be due to the insidious phonetic influence of Monty Python's Flying
X   Circus.
X
X /kre't@n-us/ or /kree't@n-us/ adj. Wrong;
X   non-functional; very poorly designed (Also used pejoratively of
X   people).  Synonyms: , , ,
X   .
X
X n. 1.  which has some important functionality
X   deliberately removed, so as to entice potential users to pay for a
X   working version.  See also .  2. [Cambridge] 
X   which exhorts you to donate to some charity.
X
X /ker'l@f/, sometimes /kru'l@f/ n. A carriage return (CR)
X   followed by a line feed (LF).  More loosely, whatever it takes to
X   get you from the end of one line of text to the beginning of the
X   next line.  See , .  Under  influence this
X   usage has become less common (UNIX uses a bare line feed as its
X   `CRLF').
X
X [from the obvious mainstream scatologism] n. 1. An awkward
X   feature or programming technique that ought to be made cleaner.
X   Example: Using small integers to represent error codes without the
X   program interpreting them to the user (as in, for example, UNIX
X   `make(1)') is a crock.  2. Also, a technique that works acceptably
X   but which is quite prone to failure if disturbed in the least, for
X   example depending on the machine opcodes having particular bit
X   patterns so that you can use instructions as data words too; a
X   tightly woven, almost completely unmodifiable structure.  See
X   .  Also in the adjectives "crockish", "crocky" and the
X   noun "crockitude".
X
X [USENET] v.  To post a single article directed to several
X   newsgroups.  Distinguished from posting the article repeatedly,
X   once to each newsgroup, which causes people to see it multiple
X   times.  Cross-posting is frowned upon, as it tends to cause
X   followup articles to go to inappropriate newsgroups, as people
X   respond to only one part of the original posting (unless the
X   originator is careful to specify a newsgroup for followups.)
X
X n. Pejorative term for the hundreds of megabytes of
X   low-quality  circulated by user's groups and BBS systems
X   in the micro-hobbyist world. "Yet *another* set of disk
X   catalog utilities for ?  What crudware!"  The related usage
X   "fuckware" is reported for software so bad it mutilates your
X   disk, broadcasts to the Internet, or some similar fiasco.
X
X /kruhft/ 1. [back-formation from ] n. 1. An unpleasant
X   substance.  The dust that gathers under your bed is cruft.  2. n.
X   The results of shoddy construction.  3. v. [from hand cruft, pun on
X   hand craft] to write assembler code for something normally (and
X   better) done by a compiler (see ).  4. Excess;
X   superfluous junk.  Esp. used of redundant or superseded code.
X
X /kruhft too-ge'thr/ vt. (also ) To throw together something ugly but temporarily workable.
X   Like v.  , but more pejorative.  "There isn't any program
X   now to reverse all the lines of a file, but I can probably cruft
X   one together in about ten minutes."  See .
X
X n. [from ] The antithesis of craftsmanship.
X
X /kruhf'tee/ [origin unknown; poss. from "crusty" or
X   "cruddy"] adj. 1.  Poorly built, possibly overly complex.  The
X    example is "This is standard old crufty DEC
X   software".  In fact, one theory of the origin of "crufty" holds
X   that was originally a mutation of "crusty" applied to DEC
X   software so old that the Ss were tall and skinny, looking more like
X   Fs.  Hence , n. shoddy construction.  2.  Unpleasant,
X   especially to the touch, often with encrusted junk.  Like spilled
X   coffee smeared with peanut butter and catsup.  3.  Generally
X   unpleasant.  4.  or  n.  A small crufty object
X   (see ); often one which doesn't fit well into the scheme of
X   things.  "A LISP property list is a good place to store crufties
X   (or, random cruft)."
X
X n. Two binary digits; a quad.  Larger than a , smaller
X   than a .  Syn.  (sense #2).
X
X 1. vi. To process, usually in a time-consuming or complicated
X   way.  Connotes an essentially trivial operation which is
X   nonetheless painful to perform.  The pain may be due to the
X   triviality being imbedded in a loop from 1 to 1000000000.
X   "FORTRAN programs do mostly number crunching."  2. vt. To reduce
X   the size of a file by a complicated scheme that produces bit
X   configurations completely unrelated to the original data, such as
X   by a Huffman code.  (The file ends up looking like a paper document
X   would if somebody crunched the paper into a wad.)  Since such
X   compression usually takes more computations than simpler methods
X   such as counting repeated characters (such as spaces) the term is
X   doubly appropriate.  (This meaning is usually used in the
X   construction "file crunch(ing)" to distinguish it from "number
X   crunch(ing)".)  See .  3. n. The character "#".
X   Usage: used at Xerox and CMU, among other places.  See .  4.
X   [Cambridge] To squeeze program source into a minimum-size
X   representation that will still compile.  The term came into being
X   specifically for a famous program on the BBC micro which crunched
X   Basic source in order to make it run more quickly (it was a
X   wholly-interpretive basic).
X
X /kruhn'chah kruhn'chah kruhn'chah/ interj.
X   An encouragement sometimes muttered to a machine bogged down in a
X   serious .  Also describes a notional sound made by
X   grovelling hardware.  See ,  (sense #3).
X
X /krip'ee/ n. A cryptographer.  One who hacks or implements
X   cryptographic software or hardware.
X
X /see-tee-ess-ess/ n. Compatible Time-Sharing System.  An early
X   (1963) experiment in the design of interactive time-sharing
X   operating systems.  Cited here because it was ancestral to
X   , , and .  The name  ("Incompatible
X   Time-sharing System") was a hack on CTSS.
X
X /sit'ee/ or /see tee wie/ n. [MIT] The terminal physically
X   associated with a computer's operating console.  The term is a
X   contraction of "Console TTY", that is, "Console TeleTYpe".
X   This  and -associated term has become less common
X   than formerly, as most UNIX hackers simply refer to the CTY as `the
X   console'.
X
X [parallel with "tubing"] vi. 1. Hacking on an IPSC (Intel
X   Personal SuperComputer) hypercube.  "Louella's gone cubing
X   *again*!!"  2. An indescribable form of self-torture (see
X   sense #1).
X
X /kuhs'pee/ [coined at WPI from the DEC acronym CUSP, for
X   Commonly Used System Program, i.e., a utility program used by many
X   people] adj. 1.  (of a program) Well-written.  2. Functionally
X   excellent.  A program which performs well and interfaces well to
X   users is cuspy.  See .  2. [NYU] An attractive woman,
X   especially one regarded as available.
X
X [coined by Ted Nelson] n. Obfuscatory tech-talk.  Verbiage
X   with a high  factor.  The computer equivalent of
X   bureaucratese.
X
X /sie'ber-puhnk/ [orig. by SF critic Gardner Dozois]
X   n.,adj.  A subgenre of SF launched in 1982 by William Gibson's
X   epoch-making novel `Neuromancer' (though its roots go back
X   through Vernor Vinge's `True Names' (See Appendix C) to John
X   Brunner's 1975 Hugo winner, `The Shockwave Rider').  Gibson's
X   near-total ignorance of computers and the present-day hacker
X   culture enabled him to speculate about the role of computers and
X   hackers in futures in ways hackers have since found both
X   irritatingly naive and tremendously stimulating.  Gibson's work was
X   widely imitated, in particular by the short-lived but innovative
X   `Max Headroom' TV series.  See , , .
X
X /sie'ber-spays/ n. Notional "information-space" loaded
X   with visual cues and navigable with brain-computer interfaces
X   called "cyberspace decks"; a characteristic prop of 
X   SF.  At time of writing (1990) serious efforts to construct
X    interfaces modelled explicitly on 
X   are already under way, using more conventional devices such as
X   glove sensors and binocular TV headsets.  Few hackers are prepared
X   to outright deny the possibility of a cyberspace someday evolving
X   out of the network (see ).
X
X n. The basic unit of computation.  What every hacker wants
X   more of.  One might think that single machine instructions would be
X   the measure of computation, and indeed computers are often compared
X   by how many instructions they can process per second, but some
X   instructions take longer than others.  Nearly all computers have an
X   internal clock, though, and you can describe an instruction as
X   taking so many "clock cycles".  Frequently the computer can
X   access its memory once on every clock cycle, and so one speaks also
X   of "memory cycles".  These are technical meanings of "cycle".
X   The slang meaning comes from the observation that there are only so
X   many cycles per second, and when you are sharing a computer, the
X   cycles get divided up among the users.  The more cycles the
X   computer spends working on your program rather than someone else's,
X   the faster your program will run.  That's why every hacker wants
X   more cycles: so he can spend less time waiting for the computer to
X   respond.
X
X n. The situation where the number of people trying to
X   use the computer simultaneously has reached the point where no one
X   can get enough cycles because they are spread too thin.  Usually
X   the only solution is to buy more computer.  Happily, this has
X   rapidly become easier in recent years, so much so that the very
X   term  now has a faintly archaic flavor (most hackers
X   now use workstations or personal computers as opposed to
X   traditional timesharing systems).
X
X n. A scarcity of cycles.  It may be due to a , but could also occur because part of the computer is
X   temporarily not working, leaving fewer cycles to go around.
X   Example: "The  is , so we're running with only
X   half the usual amount of memory.  There will be a cycle drought
X   until it's fixed."
X
X n. A powerful machine which exists primarily for
X   running large batch jobs.  Interactive tasks such as editing should
X   be done on other machines on the network, such as workstations.
X
X                                {= D =}
X
X /day'mun/ or /dee'mun/ [Disk And Execution MONitor] n. A
X   program which is not invoked explicitly, but which lies dormant
X   waiting for some condition(s) to occur.  The idea is that the
X   perpetrator of the condition need not be aware that a daemon is
X   lurking (though often a program will commit an action only because
X   it knows that it will implicitly invoke a daemon).  For example,
X   under  writing a file on the LPT spooler's directory would
X   invoke the spooling daemon, which prints the file.  The advantage
X   is that programs which want (in this example) files printed need
X   not compete for access to the LPT.  They simply enter their
X   implicit requests and let the daemon decide what to do with them.
X   Daemons are usually spawned automatically by the system, and may
X   either live forever or be regenerated at intervals.  Usage:
X    and  are often used interchangeably, but seem to
X   have distinct connotations.  The term  was introduced to
X   computing by  people (who pronounced it dee'mon) and used it to
X   refer to what ITS called a .  The meaning and pronunciation
X   have drifted, and we think this glossary reflects current usage.
X   See also .
X
X n.  A magazine that many hackers assume all  read.
X   Used to question an unbelieved quote, as in "Did you read that in
X   DATAMATION?".
X
X n. See  (of people).
X
X
 /dee-dee/ [from IBM  via] vt. Equivalent to  or .
X   A specialized UNIX copy command for block-oriented devices.  Often
X   used in heavy-handed system abuse, as in "Let's dd the root
X   partition onto a tape, then use the boot prom to load it back on to
X   a new disk".  The UNIX `dd(1)' was originally written with a weird,
X   distinctly non-UNIXy keyword option syntax reminiscent of IBM
X   System/360 JCL (which had a similar DD command); though the command
X   filled a need, the design choice looks to have been somebody's
X   joke.  The slang usage is now very rare outside UNIX sites and now
X   nearly obsolescent even there, as `dd(1)' has been  for a
X   long time (though it has no replacement).  Replaced by  or
X   simple English `copy'.
X
X /dee'dee'tee'/ n. 1. Generic term for a program that helps you
X   to debug other programs by showing individual machine instructions
X   in a readable symbolic form and letting the user change them.  In
X   this sense the term DDT is now slightly archaic, having been widely
X   displaced by `debugger' 2. [ITS] Under MIT's fabled  operating
X   system, its DDT was also used as the SHELL or top level command
X   language used to execute other programs. 3. Any one of several
X   specific DDTs (sense 1) supported on early DEC hardware.  The DEC
X   PDP-10 Reference Handbook (1969) contained a footnote on the first
X   page of the documentation for DDT which illuminates the origin of
X   the term:
X
X     Historical footnote: DDT was developed at MIT for the PDP-1
X     computer in 1961.  At that time DDT stood for "DEC Debugging
X     Tape".  Since then, the idea of an on-line debugging program
X     has propagated throughout the computer industry.  DDT programs
X     are now available for all DEC computers.  Since media other
X     than tape are now frequently used, the more descriptive name
X     "Dynamic Debugging technique" has been adopted, retaining
X     the DDT acronym.  Confusion between DDT-10 and another well
X     known pesticide, dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane
X     (C14-H9-Cl5) should be minimal since each attacks a different,
X     and apparently mutually exclusive, class of bugs.
X
X   Sadly, this quotation was removed from later editions of the
X   handbook as the s took over and DEC became much more
X   "businesslike".
X
X n. Code which was once `live' but can never be accessed
X   due to changes in other parts of the program.  Syn. .
X
X n. 1. A situation wherein two or more processes are unable
X   to proceed because each is waiting for another to do something.  A
X   common example is a program communicating to a server, which may
X   find itself waiting for output from the server before sending
X   anything more to it, while the server is similarly waiting for more
X   input from the controlling program before outputting anything.  (It
X   is reported that this particular flavor of deadlock is sometimes
X   called a "starvation" deadlock, though that term is more properly
X   used for situations where a program can never run simply because it
X   never gets high enough priority.  Another common flavor is
X   "constipation", where each process is trying to send stuff to the
X   other, but all buffers are full because nobody is reading
X   anything.)  See .  2. Also used of deadlock-like
X   interactions between humans, as when two people meet in a narrow
X   corridor, and each tries to be polite by moving aside to let the
X   other pass, but they end up swaying from side to side without
X   making any progress because they always both move the same way at
X   the same time.
X
X n. Same as , though usually used only when
X   exactly two processes are involved.  This term more popular term in
X   Europe;  in the United States.  Also "deadly embrace"
X   is often restricted to the case where exactly two processes are
X   involved, while  can involve any number.
X
X [from the movie `Star Wars'] The AT&T corporate logo,
X   which appears on computers sold by AT&T and bears an uncanny
X   resemblance to the "Death Star" in the movie.  This usage is
X   particularly common among partisans of  UNIX, who tend to
X   regard the AT&T versions as inferior and AT&T as a bad guy.
X
X n. A 1983  posting by Alan Hastings and Steve Tarr,
X   spoofing the `Star Wars' movies in hackish terms.  Some years
X   later, ESR (disappointed by Hastings/Tarr's failure to exploit a
X   great premise more thoroughly) posted a three-times-longer complete
X   rewrite called `UNIX WARS'; the two are often confused.
X
X /dek'l/ n. Two s; 10 bits.  Reported among developers
X   for Mattel's GI 1600 (the Intellivision games processor), a chip
X   with 16-bit-wide RAM but 10-bit-wide ROM.
X
X [from the traditional Czechoslovak method of
X   assassinating prime ministers, via SF fandom] n. 1. Proper karmic
X   retribution for an incorrigible punster. "Oh, ghod, that was
X   *awful*!" "Quick! Defenestrate him!"  See also .
X   2. [proposed] The requirement to support a command-line interface.
X   As: "It has to run on a VT100." "Curses! I've been
X   defenestrated".
X
X adj. Currently in the role of, usually in an
X   off-the-organization-chart sense.  "Pete is currently defined as
X   bug prioritizer".
X
X vt. To clear a  condition.
X
X vt. To modify code to remove problems detected when linting.
X   See .
X
X [Sun] n. State of being  in order to finish
X   code in time for a demo, usually due RSN.
X
X n. An awesomely arcane technique central to a program or
X   system, esp. one not generally published and available to hackers
X   at large (compare ). one which could only have been
X   uttered by a true .  Compiler optimization techniques and
X   many aspects of  design used to be ; many
X   techniques in cryptography, signal processing, graphics and AI
X   still are.  Compare .  Esp. found in comments of
X   the form "Deep magic begins here...".  Compare .
X
X adj. 1. Describes the "location" of any program which
X   has gone .  Esp. used of programs which just sit
X   there silently grinding long after either failure or some output is
X   expected.  Compare , .  2. The metaphorical
X   "location" of a human so dazed and/or confused or caught up in
X   some esoteric form of  that he/she no longer responds
X   coherently to normal communication.  Compare .
X
X n. 1. A change, especially a small or incremental change.
X   Example: "I just doubled the speed of my program!"  "What was
X   the delta on program size?"  "About thirty percent."  (He
X   doubled the speed of his program, but increased its size by only
X   thirty percent.) 2. [UNIX] A , especially a  stored
X   under the set of version-control tools called SCCS (Source Code
X   Control System).  3. n. A small quantity, but not as small as
X   .  The slang usage of  and  stems from the
X   traditional use of these letters in mathematics for very small
X   numerical quantities, particularly in so-called "epsilon-delta"
X   proofs in the differential calculus.   is often used once
X    has been mentioned to mean a quantity that is slightly
X   bigger than  but still very small.  For example, "The
X   cost isn't epsilon, but it's delta" means that the cost isn't
X   totally negligible, but it is nevertheless very small.  Compare
X   , : that is, close to and even
X   closer to.
X
X adj. Yet another term of disgust used to describe a
X   program.  The connotation in this case is that the program works as
X   designed, but the design is bad.  For example, a program that
X   generates large numbers of meaningless error messages implying it
X   is on the point of imminent collapse.
X
X n. Hacker with years of experience, a national reputation,
X   and a major role in the development of at least one design, tool or
X   game used by or known to more than 50% of the hacker community.  To
X   qualify as a genuine demigod, the person must recognizably identify
X   with the hacker community and have helped shape it.  Major demigods
X   include Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie (co-inventors of  and
X   C) and Richard M. Stallman (inventor of ).  In their hearts
X   of hearts most hackers dream of someday becoming demigods
X   themselves, and more than one major software project has been
X   driven to completion by the author's veiled hopes of apotheosis.
X   See also , .
X
X n. 1. [MIT] A portion of a program which is not invoked
X   explicitly, but which lies dormant waiting for some condition(s) to
X   occur.  See .  The distinction is that demons are usually
X   processes within a program, while daemons are usually programs
X   running on an operating system.  Demons are particularly common in
X   AI programs.  For example, a knowledge manipulation program might
X   implement inference rules as demons.  Whenever a new piece of
X   knowledge was added, various demons would activate (which demons
X   depends on the particular piece of data) and would create
X   additional pieces of knowledge by applying their respective
X   inference rules to the original piece.  These new pieces could in
X   turn activate more demons as the inferences filtered down through
X   chains of logic.  Meanwhile the main program could continue with
X   whatever its primary task was. 2. [outside MIT] Often used
X   equivalently to , especially in the  world where the
X   latter spelling and pronunciation is considered mildly archaic.
X
X n. Said of a program or feature that is considered
X   obsolescent and in the process of being phased out, usually in
X   favor of a specified replacement.  Deprecated features can,
X   unfortunately, linger on for many years.
X
X /dee rez/ [from the movie TRON] 1. vi. To disappear
X   or dissolve; the image that goes with it is of an object breaking
X   up into raster lines and static and then dissolving.  Occasionally
X   used of a person who seems to have suddenly "fuzzed out" mentally
X   rather than physically.  Usage: extremely silly, also rare.  This
X   verb was actually invented as *fictional* hacker slang, and
X   adopted in a spirit of irony by real hackers years after the fact.
X   2. vt.  On a Macintosh, the data is compiled separately from the
X   program, in small segments of the program file known as
X   "resources". The standard resource compiler is Rez.  The standard
X   resource decompiler is DeRez.  Usage: very common.
X
X /dee'vo/ [orig. in-house slang at Symbolics] n.  A person in a
X   development group.  See also  and .
X
X n. Extremely pejorative hackerism for
X   "diskless workstation", a class of botches including the Sun 3/50
X   and other machines designed exclusively to network with an
X   expensive central disk server.  These combine all the disadvantages
X   of time-sharing with all the disadvantages of distributed personal
X   computers.
X
X 1. vt. To work with in a not particularly serious manner.
X   "I diddled a copy of  so it didn't double-space all the
X   time."  "Let's diddle this piece of code and see if the problem
X   goes away."  See  and . 2. n. The action or result
X   of diddling.  See also , , .
X
X n. 1. Differences, especially difference in source code or
X   documents.  Includes additions. "Send me your diffs for the jargon
X   file!" 2. (often in the singular ) the output from the
X   `diff(1)' utility, esp. when used as specification input to the
X   `patch(1)' utility (which can actually perform the mods).  This is a
X   common method of distributing patches and source updates in the
X   UNIX/C world.
X
X /dij'it/ n. An employee of Digital Equipment Corporation.  See
X   also , , , , .
X
X vt. To remove or disable a portion of something, as a wire from
X   a computer or a subroutine from a program.  A standard slogan runs:
X   "When in doubt, dike it out."  (The implication is that it is
X   usually more effective to attack software problems by reducing
X   complexity rather than increasing it).  The word "dikes" is
X   widely used among mechanics and engineers to mean "diagonal
X   cutters", a heavy-duty metal-cutting device; to "dike something
X   out" means to use such cutters to remove something.  Among hackers
X   this term has been metaphorically extended to non-physical objects
X   such as sections of code.
X
X /ding/ n.,vi. 1. Synonym for .  Usage: rare among
X   hackers, but commoner in the . 2.  : What
X   happens when someone in authority gives you a minor bitching about
X   something, esp. something you consider trivial.  "I was dinged for
X   having a messy desk".
X
X adj. Said of a machine which has the  nature; a
X   machine too small to be worth bothering with, sometimes the current
X   system you're forced to work on.  First heard from an MIT hacker
X   (BADOB) working on a CP/M system with 64K in reference to any 6502
X   system, then from people writing 32 bit software about 16 bit
X   machines.  "GNUmacs will never work on that dink machine."
X   Probably derived from mainstream "dinky", which isn't
X   sufficiently perjorative
X
X n. Any hardware requiring raised flooring and special
X   power.  Used especially of old minis and mainframes when contrasted
X   with newer microprocessor-based machines.  In a famous quote from
X   the '88 UNIX EXPO, Bill Joy compared the mainframe in the massive
X   IBM display with a grazing dinosaur, "with a truck outside pumping
X   its bodily fluids through it".  IBM was not amused.  Compare .
X
X n. A traditional mainframe computer room complete with
X   raised flooring, special power, its own ultra-heavy-duty air
X   conditioning, and a side order of Halon fire extinguishers.  See
X   .
X
X /dis-kor'di-uhn-ism/ n. The veneration of , aka
X   Discordia; widely popular among hackers.  Popularized by Robert
X   Anton Wilson's _Illuminatus!_ trilogy as a sort of self-subverting
X   dada-Zen for Westerners --- it should on no account be taken
X   seriously but is far more serious than most jokes.  Usually
X   connected with an elaborate conspiracy theory/joke involving
X   millenia-long warfare between the anarcho-surrealist partisans of
X   Eris and a malevolent, authoritarian secret society called the
X   Illuminati.  See Appendix B, , and .
X
X n. A program with the same approximate purpose as a
X   kaleidoscope: to make pretty pictures.  Famous display hacks
X   include , , the BSD UNIX `rain(6)'
X   program, `worms(6)' on miscellaneous UNIXes, and the  kaleid
X   program.  Display hacks can also be implemented without programming
X   by creating text files containing numerous escape sequences for
X   interpretation by a video terminal; one notable example displayed,
X   on any VT100, a Christmas tree with twinkling lights and a toy
X   train circling its base.
X
X /do'ko/ [orig. in-house slang at Symbolics] n.  A documentation
X   writer.  See also  and .
X
X [from network protocol programming] vt.  To perform an
X   interaction with somebody or something that follows a clearly
X   defined procedure.  For example, "Let's do protocol with the
X   check" at a restaurant means to ask the waitress for the check,
X   calculate the tip and everybody's share, generate change as
X   necessary, and pay the bill.
X
X adj. Syn. with .  Preferred outside the U.S.
X
X [From a quip in the "urgency" field of a very optional
X   software change request, about 1982.  It was something like,
X   "Urgency: Wash your dog first."] n. A project of minimal
X   priority, undertaken as an escape from more serious work.  Also, to
X   engage in such a project.  Many games and much  gets
X   written this way.
X
X [from an old doctor's office joke about a
X   patient with a trivial complaint] interj. Stock response to a user
X   complaint.  "When I type control-S, the whole system comes to a
X   halt for thirty seconds."  "Don't do that, then."  Compare
X   .
X
X /don-gl/ n. 1. A security device for commercial microcomputer
X   programs consisting of a serialized EPROM and some drivers in an
X   RS-232 connector shell.  Programs that use a dongle query the port
X   at startup and programmed intervals thereafter, and terminate if it
X   does not respond with the dongle's programmed validation code.
X   Thus, users could make as many copies of the program as they want
X   but must pay for each dongle.  The idea was clever but initially a
X   failure, as users disliked tying up a serial port this way.  Most
X   dongles on the market today (1990) will pass data through the port,
X   and monitor for "magic codes" (and combinations of status lines)
X   with minimal if any interference with devices further down the line
X   (this innovation was necessary to allow daisy-chained dongles for
X   multiple pieces of software).  The devices are still not widely
X   used, as the industry has trended away from copy-protection schemes
X   in general. 2. By extension, any physical electronic key or
X   transferrable ID required for a program to function.  See
X   .
X
X /don'gl disk/ n. See ; a "dongle-disk" is a
X   floppy disk with some coding which allows an application to
X   identify it uniquely.  It can therefore be used as a .
X   Also called a "key disk".
X
X n. Collective noun for any set of memory bits.  This is
X   really archaic and may no longer be live slang; it dates from the
X   days of ferrite-core memories in which each bit was represented by
X   a doughnut-shaped magnetic flip-flop.  Compare .
X
X n. Used to describe equipment that is non-functional and
X   halfway expected to remain so, especially obsolescent equipment
X   kept around for political reasons or ostensibly as a backup.
X   "When we get another Wyse-50 in here that ADM3 will turn into a
X   doorstop."  Compare .
X
X [UNIX] n. A file that is not visible to normal
X   directory-browsing tools (on UNIX, files named beginning with a dot
X   are normally invisible to the directory lister).
X
X adj. Using both the CTRL and META keys.  "The command
X   to burn all LEDs is double bucky F."  See also ,
X   , , .  The
X   following lyrics were written on May 27, 1978, in celebration of
X   the Stanford keyboard.  A typical MIT comment was that the Stanford
X    (control and meta shifting keys) were nice, but there
SHAR_EOF
chmod 0644 jsplit.ac || echo "restore of jsplit.ac fails"
if [ $TOUCH = can ]
then
    touch -am 0103154591 jsplit.ac
fi
exit 0