bitty box

/bit'ee boks/ A computer sufficiently small, primitive, or incapable as to cause a hacker acute claustrophobia at the thought of developing software on or for it. The term is especially used of small, obsolescent, single-tasking-only personal computers such as the Atari 800, Osborne, Sinclair, VIC-20, TRS-80 or IBM PC but the term is a general pejorative opposite of "real computer" (see Get a real computer!).

See also mess-dos, toaster, toy.

(29 Nov 1994)