The Jargon Lexicon
= B =
=====
back door: n. A hole in the security of a system
deliberately left in place by designers or maintainers. The
motivation for such holes is not always sinister; some operating
systems, for example, come out of the box with privileged accounts
intended for use by field service technicians or the vendor's
maintenance programmers. Syn. {trap door}; may also be called a
`wormhole'. See also {iron box}, {cracker}, {worm},
{logic bomb}.
Historically, back doors have often lurked in systems longer than
anyone expected or planned, and a few have become widely known.
Ken Thompson's 1983 Turing Award lecture to the ACM suggested the
possibility of a back door in early UNIX versions that may have
qualified as the most fiendishly clever security hack of all time
(Thompson's presentation managed to be unclear on whether it was
ever actually implemented or not). In this scheme, the C compiler
contained code that would recognize when the `login' command was
being recompiled and insert some code recognizing a password chosen
by Thompson, giving him entry to the system whether or not an
account had been created for him.
Normally such a back door could be removed by removing it from the
source code for the compiler and recompiling the compiler. But to
recompile the compiler, you have to *use* the compiler -- so
Thompson also arranged that the compiler would *recognize when
it was compiling a version of itself*, and insert into the
recompiled compiler the code to insert into the recompiled
`login' the code to allow Thompson entry -- and, of course, the
code to recognize itself and do the whole thing again the next time
around! And having done this once, he was then able to recompile
the compiler from the original sources; the hack perpetuated itself
invisibly, leaving the back door in place and active but with no
trace in the sources.
The talk that suggested this truly moby hack was published as
"Reflections on Trusting Trust", "Communications of the
ACM 27", 8 (August 1984), pp. 761--763.
backbone cabal: n. A group of large-site administrators who
pushed through the {Great Renaming} and reined in the chaos of
{Usenet} during most of the 1980s. The cabal {mailing list}
disbanded in late 1988 after a bitter internal catfight.
backbone site: n. A key Usenet and email site; one that
processes a large amount of third-party traffic, especially if it
is the home site of any of the regional coordinators for the Usenet
maps. Notable backbone sites as of early 1993 include uunet
and the mail machines at Rutgers University, UC Berkeley,
{DEC}'s Western Research Laboratories, Ohio State University,
and the University of Texas. Compare {rib site}, {leaf
site}.
backgammon:: See {bignum} (sense 3), {moby} (sense 4),
and {pseudoprime}.
background: n.,adj.,vt. To do a task `in background' is to
do it whenever {foreground} matters are not claiming your
undivided attention, and `to background' something means to
relegate it to a lower priority. "For now, we'll just print a
list of nodes and links; I'm working on the graph-printing problem
in background." Note that this implies ongoing activity but at a
reduced level or in spare time, in contrast to mainstream `back
burner' (which connotes benign neglect until some future resumption
of activity). Some people prefer to use the term for processing
that they have queued up for their unconscious minds (a tack that
one can often fruitfully take upon encountering an obstacle in
creative work). Compare {amp off}, {slopsucker}.
Technically, a task running in background is detached from the
terminal where it was started (and often running at a lower
priority); oppose {foreground}. Nowadays this term is primarily
associated with {{UNIX}}, but it appears to have been first used
in this sense on OS/360.
backspace and overstrike: interj. Whoa! Back up. Used to
suggest that someone just said or did something wrong. Common
among APL programmers.
backward combatability: /bak'w*rd k*m-bat'*-bil'*-tee/ n.
[CMU, Tektronix: from `backward compatibility'] A property of
hardware or software revisions in which previous protocols,
formats, layouts, etc. are irrevocably discarded in favor of `new
and improved' protocols, formats, and layouts, leaving the previous
ones not merely deprecated but actively defeated. (Too often, the
old and new versions cannot definitively be distinguished, such
that lingering instances of the previous ones yield crashes or
other infelicitous effects, as opposed to a simple "version
mismatch" message.) A backwards compatible change, on the other
hand, allows old versions to coexist without crashes or error
messages, but too many major changes incorporating elaborate
backwards compatibility processing can lead to extreme {software
bloat}. See also {flag day}.
BAD: /B-A-D/ adj. [IBM: acronym, `Broken As Designed']
Said of a program that is {bogus} because of bad design and
misfeatures rather than because of bugginess. See {working as
designed}.
Bad Thing: n. [from the 1930 Sellar & Yeatman parody "1066
And All That"] Something that can't possibly result in
improvement of the subject. This term is always capitalized, as in
"Replacing all of the 9600-baud modems with bicycle couriers would
be a Bad Thing". Oppose {Good Thing}. British correspondents
confirm that {Bad Thing} and {Good Thing} (and prob.
therefore {Right Thing} and {Wrong Thing}) come from the book
referenced in the etymology, which discusses rulers who were Good
Kings but Bad Things. This has apparently created a mainstream
idiom on the British side of the pond.
bag on the side: n. An extension to an established hack that
is supposed to add some functionality to the original. Usually
derogatory, implying that the original was being overextended and
should have been thrown away, and the new product is ugly,
inelegant, or bloated. Also v. phrase, `to hang a bag on the side
[of]'. "C++? That's just a bag on the side of C ...."
"They want me to hang a bag on the side of the accounting
system."
bagbiter: /bag'bi:t-*r/ n. 1. Something, such as a program
or a computer, that fails to work, or works in a remarkably clumsy
manner. "This text editor won't let me make a file with a line
longer than 80 characters! What a bagbiter!" 2. A person who has
caused you some trouble, inadvertently or otherwise, typically by
failing to program the computer properly. Synonyms: {loser},
{cretin}, {chomper}. 3. `bite the bag' vi. To fail in some
manner. "The computer keeps crashing every five minutes."
"Yes, the disk controller is really biting the bag." The
original loading of these terms was almost undoubtedly obscene,
possibly referring to the scrotum, but in their current usage they
have become almost completely sanitized.
ITS's {lexiphage} program is the first and to date only known
example of a program *intended* to be a bagbiter.
bagbiting: adj. Having the quality of a {bagbiter}.
"This bagbiting system won't let me compute the factorial of a
negative number." Compare {losing}, {cretinous},
{bletcherous}, `barfucious' (under {barfulous}) and
`chomping' (under {chomp}).
balloonian variable: n. [Commodore users; perh. a deliberate
phonetic mangling of `boolean variable'?] Any variable that
doesn't actually hold or control state, but must nevertheless be
declared, checked, or set. A typical balloonian variable started
out as a flag attached to some environment feature that either
became obsolete or was planned but never implemented.
Compatibility concerns (or politics attached to same) may require
that such a flag be treated as though it were live.
bamf: /bamf/ 1. [from X-Men comics; originally "bampf"]
interj. Notional sound made by a person or object teleporting in or
out of the hearer's vicinity. Often used in {virtual reality}
(esp. {MUD}) electronic {fora} when a character wishes to
make a dramatic entrance or exit. 2. The sound of magical
transformation, used in virtual reality {fora} like sense
1.
banana label: n. The labels often used on the sides of
{macrotape} reels, so called because they are shaped roughly
like blunt-ended bananas. This term, like macrotapes themselves,
is still current but visibly headed for obsolescence.
banana problem: n. [from the story of the little girl who
said "I know how to spell `banana', but I don't know when to
stop"]. Not knowing where or when to bring a production to a
close (compare {fencepost error}). One may say `there is a
banana problem' of an algorithm with poorly defined or incorrect
termination conditions, or in discussing the evolution of a design
that may be succumbing to featuritis (see also {creeping
elegance}, {creeping featuritis}). See item 176 under
{HAKMEM}, which describes a banana problem in a {Dissociated
Press} implementation. Also, see {one-banana problem} for a
superficially similar but unrelated usage.
bandwidth: n. 1. Used by hackers (in a generalization of its
technical meaning) as the volume of information per unit time that
a computer, person, or transmission medium can handle. "Those are
amazing graphics, but I missed some of the detail -- not enough
bandwidth, I guess." Compare {low-bandwidth}. 2. Attention
span. 3. On {Usenet}, a measure of network capacity that is
often wasted by people complaining about how items posted by others
are a waste of bandwidth.
bang: 1. n. Common spoken name for `!' (ASCII 0100001),
especially when used in pronouncing a {bang path} in spoken
hackish. In {elder days} this was considered a CMUish usage,
with MIT and Stanford hackers preferring {excl} or {shriek};
but the spread of UNIX has carried `bang' with it (esp. via the
term {bang path}) and it is now certainly the most common spoken
name for `!'. Note that it is used exclusively for
non-emphatic written `!'; one would not say "Congratulations
bang" (except possibly for humorous purposes), but if one wanted
to specify the exact characters `foo!' one would speak "Eff oh oh
bang". See {shriek}, {{ASCII}}. 2. interj. An exclamation
signifying roughly "I have achieved enlightenment!", or "The
dynamite has cleared out my brain!" Often used to acknowledge
that one has perpetrated a {thinko} immediately after one has
been called on it.
bang on: vt. To stress-test a piece of hardware or software:
"I banged on the new version of the simulator all day yesterday
and it didn't crash once. I guess it is ready for release." The
term {pound on} is synonymous.
bang path: n. An old-style UUCP electronic-mail address
specifying hops to get from some assumed-reachable location to the
addressee, so called because each {hop} is signified by a
{bang} sign. Thus, for example, the path
...!bigsite!foovax!barbox!me directs people to route their mail
to machine bigsite (presumably a well-known location accessible
to everybody) and from there through the machine foovax to the
account of user me on barbox.
In the bad old days of not so long ago, before autorouting mailers
became commonplace, people often published compound bang addresses
using the { } convention (see {glob}) to give paths from
*several* big machines, in the hopes that one's correspondent
might be able to get mail to one of them reliably (example:
...!{seismo, ut-sally, ihnp4}!rice!beta!gamma!me). Bang paths
of 8 to 10 hops were not uncommon in 1981. Late-night dial-up
UUCP links would cause week-long transmission times. Bang paths
were often selected by both transmission time and reliability, as
messages would often get lost. See {{Internet address}},
{network, the}, and {sitename}.
banner: n. 1. The title page added to printouts by most
print spoolers (see {spool}). Typically includes user or
account ID information in very large character-graphics capitals.
Also called a `burst page', because it indicates where to burst
(tear apart) fanfold paper to separate one user's printout from the
next. 2. A similar printout generated (typically on multiple pages
of fan-fold paper) from user-specified text, e.g., by a program
such as UNIX's `banner({1,6})'. 3. On interactive software,
a first screen containing a logo and/or author credits and/or a
copyright notice.
bar: /bar/ n. 1. The second {metasyntactic variable},
after {foo} and before {baz}. "Suppose we have two
functions: FOO and BAR. FOO calls BAR...." 2. Often
appended to {foo} to produce {foobar}.
bare metal: n. 1. New computer hardware, unadorned with such
snares and delusions as an {operating system}, an {HLL}, or
even assembler. Commonly used in the phrase `programming on the
bare metal', which refers to the arduous work of {bit bashing}
needed to create these basic tools for a new machine. Real
bare-metal programming involves things like building boot proms and
BIOS chips, implementing basic monitors used to test device
drivers, and writing the assemblers that will be used to write the
compiler back ends that will give the new machine a real
development environment. 2. `Programming on the bare metal' is
also used to describe a style of {hand-hacking} that relies on
bit-level peculiarities of a particular hardware design, esp.
tricks for speed and space optimization that rely on crocks such as
overlapping instructions (or, as in the famous case described in
{The Story of Mel, a Real Programmer} (in Appendix A),
interleaving of opcodes on a magnetic drum to minimize fetch delays
due to the device's rotational latency). This sort of thing has
become less common as the relative costs of programming time and
machine resources have changed, but is still found in heavily
constrained environments such as industrial embedded systems, and
in the code of hackers who just can't let go of that low-level
control. See {Real Programmer}.
In the world of personal computing, bare metal programming
(especially in sense 1 but sometimes also in sense 2) is often
considered a {Good Thing}, or at least a necessary evil
(because these machines have often been sufficiently slow and
poorly designed to make it necessary; see {ill-behaved}).
There, the term usually refers to bypassing the BIOS or OS
interface and writing the application to directly access device
registers and machine addresses. "To get 19.2 kilobaud on the
serial port, you need to get down to the bare metal." People who
can do this sort of thing well are held in high regard.
barf: /barf/ [from mainstream slang meaning `vomit']
1. interj. Term of disgust. This is the closest hackish
equivalent of the Val\-speak "gag me with a spoon". (Like,
euwww!) See {bletch}. 2. vi. To say "Barf!" or emit some
similar expression of disgust. "I showed him my latest hack and
he barfed" means only that he complained about it, not that he
literally vomited. 3. vi. To fail to work because of unacceptable
input, perhaps with a suitable error message, perhaps not.
examples: "The division operation barfs if you try to divide by
0." (That is, the division operation checks for an attempt to
divide by zero, and if one is encountered it causes the operation
to fail in some unspecified, but generally obvious, manner.) "The
text editor barfs if you try to read in a new file before writing
out the old one." See {choke}, {gag}. In Commonwealth
Hackish, `barf' is generally replaced by `puke' or `vom'.
{barf} is sometimes also used as a {metasyntactic variable},
like {foo} or {bar}.
barfmail: n. Multiple {bounce message}s accumulating to
the level of serious annoyance, or worse. The sort of thing that
happens when an inter-network mail gateway goes down or wonky.
barfulation: /bar`fyoo-lay'sh*n/ interj. Variation of
{barf} used around the Stanford area. An exclamation,
expressing disgust. On seeing some particularly bad code one might
exclaim, "Barfulation! Who wrote this, Quux?"
barfulous: /bar'fyoo-l*s/ adj. (alt. `barfucious',
/bar-fyoo-sh*s/) Said of something that would make anyone
barf, if only for esthetic reasons.
barney: n. In Commonwealth hackish, `barney' is to
{fred} (sense #1) as {bar} is to {foo}. That is, people
who commonly use `fred' as their first metasyntactic variable
will often use `barney' second. The reference is, of course, to
Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble in the Flintstones cartoons.
baroque: adj. Feature-encrusted; complex; gaudy; verging on
excessive. Said of hardware or (esp.) software designs, this has
many of the connotations of {elephantine} or {monstrosity}
but is less extreme and not pejorative in itself. "Metafont even
has features to introduce random variations to its letterform
output. Now *that* is baroque!" See also {rococo}.
BASIC: n. [acronym: Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic
Instruction Code] A programming language, originally designed for
Dartmouth's experimental timesharing system in the early 1960s,
which has since become the leading cause of brain-damage in
proto-hackers. Edsger Dijkstra observed in "Selected Writings
on Computing: A Personal Perspective" that "It is practically
impossible to teach good programming style to students that have
had prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are
mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.". This is another
case (like {Pascal}) of the cascading lossage that happens when
a language deliberately designed as an educational toy gets taken
too seriously. A novice can write short BASIC programs (on the
order of 10--20 lines) very easily; writing anything longer is (a)
very painful, and (b) encourages bad habits that will make it
harder to use more powerful languages well. This wouldn't be so
bad if historical accidents hadn't made BASIC so common on low-end
micros. As it is, it ruins thousands of potential wizards a year.
[1995: Some languages called `BASIC' aren't quite this nasty any
more, having acquired Pascal- and C-like procedures and control
structures and shed their line numbers. -- ESR]
batch: adj. 1. Non-interactive. Hackers use this somewhat
more loosely than the traditional technical definitions justify; in
particular, switches on a normally interactive program that prepare
it to receive non-interactive command input are often referred to
as `batch mode' switches. A `batch file' is a series of
instructions written to be handed to an interactive program running
in batch mode. 2. Performance of dreary tasks all at one sitting.
"I finally sat down in batch mode and wrote out checks for all
those bills; I guess they'll turn the electricity back on next
week..." 3. `batching up': Accumulation of a number of small
tasks that can be lumped together for greater efficiency. "I'm
batching up those letters to send sometime" "I'm batching up
bottles to take to the recycling center."
bathtub curve: n. Common term for the curve (resembling an
end-to-end section of one of those claw-footed antique bathtubs)
that describes the expected failure rate of electronics with time:
initially high, dropping to near 0 for most of the system's
lifetime, then rising again as it `tires out'. See also
{burn-in period}, {infant mortality}.
baud: /bawd/ [simplified from its technical meaning]
n. Bits per second. Hence kilobaud or Kbaud, thousands of bits per
second. The technical meaning is `level transitions per
second'; this coincides with bps only for two-level modulation with
no framing or stop bits. Most hackers are aware of these nuances
but blithely ignore them.
Historical note: `baud' was originally a unit of telegraph
signalling speed, set at one pulse per second. It was proposed at
the International Telegraph Conference of 1927, and named after
J.M.E. Baudot (1845--1903), the French engineer who constructed
the first successful teleprinter.
baud barf: /bawd barf/ n. The garbage one gets on the
monitor when using a modem connection with some protocol setting
(esp. line speed) incorrect, or when someone picks up a voice
extension on the same line, or when really bad line noise disrupts
the connection. Baud barf is not completely {random}, by the
way; hackers with a lot of serial-line experience can usually tell
whether the device at the other end is expecting a higher or lower
speed than the terminal is set to. *Really* experienced ones
can identify particular speeds.
baz: /baz/ n. 1. The third {metasyntactic variable}
"Suppose we have three functions: FOO, BAR, and BAZ. FOO calls
BAR, which calls BAZ...." (See also {fum}) 2. interj. A
term of mild annoyance. In this usage the term is often drawn out
for 2 or 3 seconds, producing an effect not unlike the bleating of
a sheep; /baaaaaaz/. 3. Occasionally appended to {foo} to
produce `foobaz'.
Earlier versions of this lexicon derived `baz' as a Stanford
corruption of {bar}. However, Pete Samson (compiler of the
{TMRC} lexicon) reports it was already current when he joined TMRC
in 1958. He says "It came from "Pogo". Albert the Alligator,
when vexed or outraged, would shout `Bazz Fazz!' or `Rowrbazzle!'
The club layout was said to model the (mythical) New England
counties of Rowrfolk and Bassex (Rowrbazzle mingled with
(Norfolk/Suffolk/Middlesex/Essex)."
bboard: /bee'bord/ n. [contraction of `bulletin board']
1. Any electronic bulletin board; esp. used of {BBS} systems
running on personal micros, less frequently of a Usenet
{newsgroup} (in fact, use of this term for a newsgroup generally
marks one either as a {newbie} fresh in from the BBS world or as
a real old-timer predating Usenet). 2. At CMU and other colleges
with similar facilities, refers to campus-wide electronic bulletin
boards. 3. The term `physical bboard' is sometimes used to refer
to an old-fashioned, non-electronic cork-and-thumbtack memo board.
At CMU, it refers to a particular one outside the CS Lounge.
In either of senses 1 or 2, the term is usually prefixed by the
name of the intended board (`the Moonlight Casino bboard' or
`market bboard'); however, if the context is clear, the better-read
bboards may be referred to by name alone, as in (at CMU) "Don't
post for-sale ads on general".
BBS: /B-B-S/ n. [abbreviation, `Bulletin Board System'] An
electronic bulletin board system; that is, a message database where
people can log in and leave broadcast messages for others grouped
(typically) into {topic group}s. Thousands of local BBS systems
are in operation throughout the U.S., typically run by amateurs for
fun out of their homes on MS-DOS boxes with a single modem line
each. Fans of Usenet and Internet or the big commercial
timesharing bboards such as CompuServe and GEnie tend to consider
local BBSes the low-rent district of the hacker culture, but they
serve a valuable function by knitting together lots of hackers and
users in the personal-micro world who would otherwise be unable to
exchange code at all. See also {bboard}.
beam: vt. [from Star Trek Classic's "Beam me up, Scotty!"]
To transfer {softcopy} of a file electronically; most often
in combining forms such as `beam me a copy' or `beam that over
to his site'. Compare {blast}, {snarf}, {BLT}.
beanie key: n. [Mac users] See {command key}.
beep: n.,v. Syn. {feep}. This term seems to be preferred
among micro hobbyists.
beige toaster: n. A Macintosh. See {toaster}; compare
{Macintrash}, {maggotbox}.
bells and whistles: n. [by analogy with the toyboxes on theater
organs] Features added to a program or system to make it more
{flavorful} from a hacker's point of view, without necessarily
adding to its utility for its primary function. Distinguished from
{chrome}, which is intended to attract users. "Now that we've
got the basic program working, let's go back and add some bells and
whistles." No one seems to know what distinguishes a bell from a
whistle.
bells, whistles, and gongs: n. A standard elaborated form of
{bells and whistles}; typically said with a pronounced and
ironic accent on the `gongs'.
benchmark: [techspeak] n. An inaccurate measure of computer
performance. "In the computer industry, there are three kinds of
lies: lies, damn lies, and benchmarks." Well-known ones include
Whetstone, Dhrystone, Rhealstone (see {h}), the Gabriel LISP
benchmarks (see {gabriel}), the SPECmark suite, and LINPACK.
See also {machoflops}, {MIPS}, {smoke and mirrors}.
Berkeley Quality Software: adj. (often abbreviated `BQS')
Term used in a pejorative sense to refer to software that was
apparently created by rather spaced-out hackers late at night to
solve some unique problem. It usually has nonexistent, incomplete,
or incorrect documentation, has been tested on at least two
examples, and core dumps when anyone else attempts to use it. This
term was frequently applied to early versions of the `dbx(1)'
debugger. See also {Berzerkeley}.
Note to British and Commonwealth readers: that's /berk'lee/, not
/bark'lee/ as in British Received Pronunciation.
berklix: /berk'liks/ n.,adj. [contraction of `Berkeley
UNIX'] See {BSD}. Not used at Berkeley itself. May be more
common among {suit}s attempting to sound like cognoscenti than
among hackers, who usually just say `BSD'.
Berzerkeley: /b*r-zer'klee/ n. [from `berserk', via the
name of a now-deceased record label] Humorous distortion of
`Berkeley' used esp. to refer to the practices or products of the
{BSD} UNIX hackers. See {software bloat},
{Missed'em-five}, {Berkeley Quality Software}.
Mainstream use of this term in reference to the cultural and
political peculiarities of UC Berkeley as a whole has been reported
from as far back as the 1960s.
beta: /bay't*/, /be't*/ or (Commonwealth) /bee't*/ n.
1. Mostly working, but still under test; usu. used with `in': `in
beta'. In the {Real World}, systems (hardware or software)
software often go through two stages of release testing: Alpha
(in-house) and Beta (out-house?). Beta releases are generally made
to a small number of lucky (or unlucky), trusted customers.
2. Anything that is new and experimental. "His girlfriend is in
beta" means that he is still testing for compatibility and
reserving judgment. 3. Flaky; dubious; suspect (since beta
software is notoriously buggy).
Historical note: More formally, to beta-test is to test a
pre-release (potentially unreliable) version of a piece of software
by making it available to selected customers and users. This term
derives from early 1960s terminology for product cycle checkpoints,
first used at IBM but later standard throughout the industry.
`Alpha Test' was the unit, module, or component test phase; `Beta
Test' was initial system test. These themselves came from earlier
A- and B-tests for hardware. The A-test was a feasibility and
manufacturability evaluation done before any commitment to design
and development. The B-test was a demonstration that the
engineering model functioned as specified. The C-test
(corresponding to today's beta) was the B-test performed on early
samples of the production design.
BFI: /B-F-I/ n. See {brute force and ignorance}. Also
encountered in the variants `BFMI', `brute force and
*massive* ignorance' and `BFBI' `brute force and bloody
ignorance'.
bible: n. 1. One of a small number of fundamental source
books such as {Knuth} and {K&R}. 2. The most detailed and
authoritative reference for a particular language, operating
system, or other complex software system.
BiCapitalization: n. The act said to have been performed on
trademarks (such as {PostScript}, NeXT, {NeWS}, VisiCalc,
FrameMaker, TK!solver, EasyWriter) that have been raised above the
ruck of common coinage by nonstandard capitalization. Too many
{marketroid} types think this sort of thing is really cute, even
the 2,317th time they do it. Compare {studlycaps}.
B1FF: /bif/ [Usenet] (alt. `BIFF') n. The most famous
{pseudo}, and the prototypical {newbie}. Articles from BIFF
feature by all uppercase letters sprinkled liberally with bangs,
typos, `cute' misspellings (EVRY BUDY LUVS GOOD OLD BIFF CUZ
HE"S A K00L DOOD AN HE RITES REEL AWESUM THINGZ IN CAPITULL LETTRS
LIKE THIS!!!), use (and often misuse) of fragments of {talk mode}
abbreviations, a long {sig block} (sometimes even a {doubled
sig}), and unbounded naivete. BIFF posts articles using his
elder brother's VIC-20. BIFF's location is a mystery, as his
articles appear to come from a variety of sites. However,
{BITNET} seems to be the most frequent origin. The theory that
BIFF is a denizen of BITNET is supported by BIFF's (unfortunately
invalid) electronic mail address: BIFF@BIT.NET.
[1993: Now It Can Be Told! My spies inform me that BIFF was
originally created by Joe Talmadge , also the
author of the infamous and much-plagiarized "Flamer's Bible".
The BIFF filter he wrote was later passed to Richard Sexton, who
posted BIFFisms much more widely. Versions have since been posted
for the amusement of the net at large. -- ESR]
biff: /bif/ vt. To notify someone of incoming mail. From
the BSD utility `biff(1)', which was in turn named after a
friendly golden Labrador who used to chase frisbees in the halls at
UCB while 4.2BSD was in development. There was a legend that it
had a habit of barking whenever the mailman came, but the author of
`biff' says this is not true. No relation to {B1FF}.
Big Gray Wall: n. What faces a {VMS} user searching for
documentation. A full VMS kit comes on a pallet, the documentation
taking up around 15 feet of shelf space before the addition of
layered products such as compilers, databases, multivendor
networking, and programming tools. Recent (since VMS version 5)
DEC documentation comes with gray binders; under VMS version 4 the
binders were orange (`big orange wall'), and under version 3 they
were blue. See {VMS}. Often contracted to `Gray Wall'.
big iron: n. Large, expensive, ultra-fast computers. Used
generally of {number-crunching} supercomputers such as Crays,
but can include more conventional big commercial IBMish mainframes.
Term of approval; compare {heavy metal}, oppose {dinosaur}.
Big Red Switch: n. [IBM] The power switch on a computer,
esp. the `Emergency Pull' switch on an IBM {mainframe} or the
power switch on an IBM PC where it really is large and red. "This
!@%$% {bitty box} is hung again; time to hit the Big Red
Switch." Sources at IBM report that, in tune with the company's
passion for {TLA}s, this is often abbreviated as `BRS' (this
has also become established on FidoNet and in the PC {clone}
world). It is alleged that the emergency pull switch on an IBM
360/91 actually fired a non-conducting bolt into the main power
feed; the BRSes on more recent mainframes physically drop a block
into place so that they can't be pushed back in. People get fired
for pulling them, especially inappropriately (see also
{molly-guard}). Compare {power cycle}, {three-finger
salute}, {120 reset}; see also {scram switch}.
Big Room, the: n. The extremely large room with the blue
ceiling and intensely bright light (during the day) or black
ceiling with lots of tiny night-lights (during the night) found
outside all computer installations. "He can't come to the phone
right now, he's somewhere out in the Big Room."
big win: n. Serendipity. "Yes, those two physicists
discovered high-temperature superconductivity in a batch of ceramic
that had been prepared incorrectly according to their experimental
schedule. Small mistake; big win!" See {win big}.
big-endian: adj. [From Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" via
the famous paper "On Holy Wars and a Plea for Peace" by Danny
Cohen, USC/ISI IEN 137, dated April 1, 1980] 1. Describes a
computer architecture in which, within a given multi-byte numeric
representation, the most significant byte has the lowest address
(the word is stored `big-end-first'). Most processors,
including the IBM 370 family, the {PDP-10}, the Motorola
microprocessor families, and most of the various RISC designs
current in mid-1993, are big-endian. See {little-endian},
{middle-endian}, {NUXI problem}, {swab}. 2. An
{{Internet address}} the wrong way round. Most of the world
follows the Internet standard and writes email addresses starting
with the name of the computer and ending up with the name of the
country. In the U.K. the Joint Networking Team had decided to do
it the other way round before the Internet domain standard was
established; e.g., me@uk.ac.wigan.cs. Most gateway sites have
{ad-hockery} in their mailers to handle this, but can still be
confused. In particular, the address above could be in the U.K.
(domain uk) or the domain cs (formerly, Czechoslovakia).
bignum: /big'nuhm/ n. [orig. from MIT MacLISP]
1. [techspeak] A multiple-precision computer representation for
very large integers. 2. More generally, any very large number.
"Have you ever looked at the United States Budget? There's
bignums for you!" 3. [Stanford] In backgammon, large numbers on
the dice especially a roll of double fives or double sixes (compare
{moby}, sense 4). See also {El Camino Bignum}.
Sense 1 may require some explanation. Most computer languages
provide a kind of data called `integer', but such computer
integers are usually very limited in size; usually they must be
smaller than than 2^(31) (2,147,483,648) or (on a
{bitty box}) 2^(15) (32,768). If you want to work
with numbers larger than that, you have to use floating-point
numbers, which are usually accurate to only six or seven decimal
places. Computer languages that provide bignums can perform exact
calculations on very large numbers, such as 1000! (the factorial
of 1000, which is 1000 times 999 times 998 times ... times 2
times 1). For example, this value for 1000! was computed by the
MacLISP system using bignums:
40238726007709377354370243392300398571937486421071
46325437999104299385123986290205920442084869694048
00479988610197196058631666872994808558901323829669
94459099742450408707375991882362772718873251977950
59509952761208749754624970436014182780946464962910
56393887437886487337119181045825783647849977012476
63288983595573543251318532395846307555740911426241
74743493475534286465766116677973966688202912073791
43853719588249808126867838374559731746136085379534
52422158659320192809087829730843139284440328123155
86110369768013573042161687476096758713483120254785
89320767169132448426236131412508780208000261683151
02734182797770478463586817016436502415369139828126
48102130927612448963599287051149649754199093422215
66832572080821333186116811553615836546984046708975
60290095053761647584772842188967964624494516076535
34081989013854424879849599533191017233555566021394
50399736280750137837615307127761926849034352625200
01588853514733161170210396817592151090778801939317
81141945452572238655414610628921879602238389714760
88506276862967146674697562911234082439208160153780
88989396451826324367161676217916890977991190375403
12746222899880051954444142820121873617459926429565
81746628302955570299024324153181617210465832036786
90611726015878352075151628422554026517048330422614
39742869330616908979684825901254583271682264580665
26769958652682272807075781391858178889652208164348
34482599326604336766017699961283186078838615027946
59551311565520360939881806121385586003014356945272
24206344631797460594682573103790084024432438465657
24501440282188525247093519062092902313649327349756
55139587205596542287497740114133469627154228458623
77387538230483865688976461927383814900140767310446
64025989949022222176590433990188601856652648506179
97023561938970178600408118897299183110211712298459
01641921068884387121855646124960798722908519296819
37238864261483965738229112312502418664935314397013
74285319266498753372189406942814341185201580141233
44828015051399694290153483077644569099073152433278
28826986460278986432113908350621709500259738986355
42771967428222487575867657523442202075736305694988
25087968928162753848863396909959826280956121450994
87170124451646126037902930912088908694202851064018
21543994571568059418727489980942547421735824010636
77404595741785160829230135358081840096996372524230
56085590370062427124341690900415369010593398383577
79394109700277534720000000000000000000000000000000
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000.
bigot: n. A person who is religiously attached to a
particular computer, language, operating system, editor, or other
tool (see {religious issues}). Usually found with a specifier;
thus, `cray bigot', `ITS bigot', `APL bigot', `VMS bigot',
`Berkeley bigot'. Real bigots can be distinguished from mere
partisans or zealots by the fact that they refuse to learn
alternatives even when the march of time and/or technology is
threatening to obsolete the favored tool. It is truly said "You
can tell a bigot, but you can't tell him much." Compare
{weenie}.
bit: n. [from the mainstream meaning and `Binary digIT']
1. [techspeak] The unit of information; the amount of information
obtained by asking a yes-or-no question for which the two outcomes
are equally probable. 2. [techspeak] A computational quantity that
can take on one of two values, such as true and false or 0 and 1.
3. A mental flag: a reminder that something should be done
eventually. "I have a bit set for you." (I haven't seen you for
a while, and I'm supposed to tell or ask you something.) 4. More
generally, a (possibly incorrect) mental state of belief. "I have
a bit set that says that you were the last guy to hack on EMACS."
(Meaning "I think you were the last guy to hack on EMACS, and what
I am about to say is predicated on this, so please stop me if this
isn't true.")
"I just need one bit from you" is a polite way of indicating that
you intend only a short interruption for a question that can
presumably be answered yes or no.
A bit is said to be `set' if its value is true or 1, and
`reset' or `clear' if its value is false or 0. One speaks of
setting and clearing bits. To {toggle} or `invert' a bit is
to change it, either from 0 to 1 or from 1 to 0. See also
{flag}, {trit}, {mode bit}.
The term `bit' first appeared in print in the computer-science
sense in 1949, and seems to have been coined by early computer
scientist John Tukey. Tukey records that it evolved over a lunch
table as a handier alternative to `bigit' or `binit'.
bit bang: n. Transmission of data on a serial line, when
accomplished by rapidly tweaking a single output bit, in software,
at the appropriate times. The technique is a simple loop with
eight OUT and SHIFT instruction pairs for each byte. Input is more
interesting. And full duplex (doing input and output at the same
time) is one way to separate the real hackers from the
{wannabee}s.
Bit bang was used on certain early models of Prime computers,
presumably when UARTs were too expensive, and on archaic Z80 micros
with a Zilog PIO but no SIO. In an interesting instance of the
{cycle of reincarnation}, this technique is now (1991) coming
back into use on some RISC architectures because it consumes such
an infinitesimal part of the processor that it actually makes sense
not to have a UART.
bit bashing: n. (alt. `bit diddling' or {bit
twiddling}) Term used to describe any of several kinds of low-level
programming characterized by manipulation of {bit}, {flag},
{nybble}, and other smaller-than-character-sized pieces of data;
these include low-level device control, encryption algorithms,
checksum and error-correcting codes, hash functions, some flavors
of graphics programming (see {bitblt}), and assembler/compiler
code generation. May connote either tedium or a real technical
challenge (more usually the former). "The command decoding for
the new tape driver looks pretty solid but the bit-bashing for the
control registers still has bugs." See also {bit bang},
{mode bit}.
bit bucket: n. 1. The universal data sink (originally, the
mythical receptacle used to catch bits when they fall off the end
of a register during a shift instruction). Discarded, lost, or
destroyed data is said to have `gone to the bit bucket'. On
{{UNIX}}, often used for {/dev/null}. Sometimes amplified as
`the Great Bit Bucket in the Sky'. 2. The place where all lost
mail and news messages eventually go. The selection is performed
according to {Finagle's Law}; important mail is much more likely
to end up in the bit bucket than junk mail, which has an almost
100% probability of getting delivered. Routing to the bit bucket
is automatically performed by mail-transfer agents, news systems,
and the lower layers of the network. 3. The ideal location for all
unwanted mail responses: "Flames about this article to the bit
bucket." Such a request is guaranteed to overflow one's mailbox
with flames. 4. Excuse for all mail that has not been sent. "I
mailed you those figures last week; they must have landed in the
bit bucket." Compare {black hole}.
This term is used purely in jest. It is based on the fanciful
notion that bits are objects that are not destroyed but only
misplaced. This appears to have been a mutation of an earlier term
`bit box', about which the same legend was current; old-time
hackers also report that trainees used to be told that when the CPU
stored bits into memory it was actually pulling them `out of the
bit box'. See also {chad box}.
Another variant of this legend has it that, as a consequence of the
`parity preservation law', the number of 1 bits that go to the bit
bucket must equal the number of 0 bits. Any imbalance results in
bits filling up the bit bucket. A qualified computer technician
can empty a full bit bucket as part of scheduled maintenance.
bit decay: n. See {bit rot}. People with a physics
background tend to prefer this variant for the analogy with
particle decay. See also {computron}, {quantum
bogodynamics}.
bit rot: n. Also {bit decay}. Hypothetical disease the
existence of which has been deduced from the observation that
unused programs or features will often stop working after
sufficient time has passed, even if `nothing has changed'. The
theory explains that bits decay as if they were radioactive. As
time passes, the contents of a file or the code in a program will
become increasingly garbled.
There actually are physical processes that produce such effects
(alpha particles generated by trace radionuclides in ceramic chip
packages, for example, can change the contents of a computer memory
unpredictably, and various kinds of subtle media failures can
corrupt files in mass storage), but they are quite rare (and
computers are built with error-detecting circuitry to compensate
for them). The notion long favored among hackers that cosmic
rays are among the causes of such events turns out to be a myth;
see the {cosmic rays} entry for details.
The term {software rot} is almost synonymous. Software rot is
the effect, bit rot the notional cause.
bit twiddling: n. 1. (pejorative) An exercise in tuning (see
{tune}) in which incredible amounts of time and effort go to
produce little noticeable improvement, often with the result that
the code becomes incomprehensible. 2. Aimless small modification
to a program, esp. for some pointless goal. 3. Approx. syn. for
{bit bashing}; esp. used for the act of frobbing the device
control register of a peripheral in an attempt to get it back to a
known state.
bit-paired keyboard: n. obs. (alt. `bit-shift keyboard')
A non-standard keyboard layout that seems to have originated with
the Teletype ASR-33 and remained common for several years on early
computer equipment. The ASR-33 was a mechanical device (see
{EOU}), so the only way to generate the character codes from
keystrokes was by some physical linkage. The design of the ASR-33
assigned each character key a basic pattern that could be modified
by flipping bits if the SHIFT or the CTRL key was pressed. In
order to avoid making the thing more of a Rube Goldberg kluge than
it already was, the design had to group characters that shared the
same basic bit pattern on one key.
Looking at the ASCII chart, we find:
high low bits
bits 0000 0001 0010 0011 0100 0101 0110 0111 1000 1001
010 ! " # $ % & ' ( )
011 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
This is why the characters !"#$%&'() appear where they do on a
Teletype (thankfully, they didn't use shift-0 for space). This was
*not* the weirdest variant of the {QWERTY} layout widely
seen, by the way; that prize should probably go to one of several
(differing) arrangements on IBM's even clunkier 026 and 029 card
punches.
When electronic terminals became popular, in the early 1970s, there
was no agreement in the industry over how the keyboards should be
laid out. Some vendors opted to emulate the Teletype keyboard,
while others used the flexibility of electronic circuitry to make
their product look like an office typewriter. These alternatives
became known as `bit-paired' and `typewriter-paired' keyboards. To
a hacker, the bit-paired keyboard seemed far more logical -- and
because most hackers in those days had never learned to touch-type,
there was little pressure from the pioneering users to adapt
keyboards to the typewriter standard.
The doom of the bit-paired keyboard was the large-scale
introduction of the computer terminal into the normal office
environment, where out-and-out technophobes were expected to use
the equipment. The `typewriter-paired' standard became universal,
`bit-paired' hardware was quickly junked or relegated to dusty
corners, and both terms passed into disuse.
bitblt: /bit'blit/ n. [from {BLT}, q.v.] 1. Any of a
family of closely related algorithms for moving and copying
rectangles of bits between main and display memory on a bit-mapped
device, or between two areas of either main or display memory (the
requirement to do the {Right Thing} in the case of overlapping
source and destination rectangles is what makes BitBlt tricky).
2. Synonym for {blit} or {BLT}. Both uses are borderline
techspeak.
BITNET: /bit'net/ n. [acronym: Because It's Time NETwork]
Everybody's least favorite piece of the network (see {network,
the}). The BITNET hosts are a collection of IBM dinosaurs and
VAXen (the latter with lobotomized comm hardware) that communicate
using 80-character {{EBCDIC}} card images (see {eighty-column
mind}); thus, they tend to mangle the headers and text of
third-party traffic from the rest of the ASCII/{RFC}-822 world
with annoying regularity. BITNET was also notorious as the
apparent
home of {B1FF}.
bits: n.pl. 1. Information. examples: "I need some bits
about file formats." ("I need to know about file formats.")
Compare {core dump}, sense 4. 2. Machine-readable
representation of a document, specifically as contrasted with
paper: "I have only a photocopy of the Jargon File; does anyone
know where I can get the bits?". See {softcopy}, {source of
all good bits} See also {bit}.
bitty box: /bit'ee boks/ n. 1. A computer sufficiently
small, primitive, or incapable as to cause a hacker acute
claustrophobia at the thought of developing software on or for it.
Especially used of small, obsolescent, single-tasking-only personal
machines such as the Atari 800, Osborne, Sinclair, VIC-20, TRS-80,
or IBM PC. 2. [Pejorative] More generally, the opposite of
`real computer' (see {Get a real computer!}). See also
{mess-dos}, {toaster}, and {toy}.
bixie: /bik'see/ n. Variant {emoticon}s used on BIX
(the Byte Information eXchange). The {smiley} bixie is <@_@>,
apparently intending to represent two cartoon eyes and a mouth. A
few others have been reported.
black art: n. A collection of arcane, unpublished, and (by
implication) mostly ad-hoc techniques developed for a particular
application or systems area (compare {black magic}). VLSI
design and compiler code optimization were (in their beginnings)
considered classic examples of black art; as theory developed they
became {deep magic}, and once standard textbooks had been
written, became merely {heavy wizardry}. The huge proliferation
of formal and informal channels for spreading around new
computer-related technologies during the last twenty years has made
both the term `black art' and what it describes less common than
formerly. See also {voodoo programming}.
black hole: n. What a piece of email or netnews has fallen
into if it disappears mysteriously between its origin and
destination sites (that is, without returning a {bounce
message}). "I think there's a black hole at foovax!" conveys
suspicion that site foovax has been dropping a lot of stuff on
the floor lately (see {drop on the floor}). The implied
metaphor of email as interstellar travel is interesting in itself.
Compare {bit bucket}.
black magic: n. A technique that works, though nobody really
understands why. More obscure than {voodoo programming}, which
may be done by cookbook. Compare also {black art}, {deep
magic}, and {magic number} (sense 2).
blammo: v. [Oxford Brookes University and alumni, UK] To
forcibly remove someone from any interactive system, especially
talker systems. The operators, who may remain hidden may 'blammo' a
user who is misbehaving. Very similar to MIT {gun}; in fact,
the `blammo-gun' as a notional device used to `blammo' someone.
While in actual fact the only incarnation of the blammo-gun is the
command used to forcibly eject a user, operators speak of different
levels of blammo-gun fire; e.g., a blammo-gun to `stun' will
temporarily remove someone, but a blammo-gun set to `maim' will
stop someone coming back on for a while.
blargh: /blarg/ n. [MIT] The opposite of {ping}, sense
5; an exclamation indicating that one has absorbed or is emitting a
quantum of unhappiness. Less common than {ping}.
blast: 1. vt.,n. Synonym for {BLT}, used esp. for large
data sends over a network or comm line. Opposite of {snarf}.
usage: uncommon. The variant `blat' has been reported. 2. vt.
[HP/Apollo] Synonymous with {nuke} (sense 3). Sometimes the
message `Unable to kill all processes. Blast them (y/n)?'
would appear in the command window upon logout.
blat: n. 1. Syn. {blast}, sense 1. 2. See {thud}.
bletch: /blech/ interj. [from Yiddish/German `brechen', to
vomit, poss. via comic-strip exclamation `blech'] Term
of disgust. Often used in "Ugh, bletch". Compare {barf}.
bletcherous: /blech'*-r*s/ adj. Disgusting in design or
function; esthetically unappealing. This word is seldom used of
people. "This keyboard is bletcherous!" (Perhaps the keys don't
work very well, or are misplaced.) See {losing},
{cretinous}, {bagbiting}, {bogus}, and {random}. The
term {bletcherous} applies to the esthetics of the thing so
described; similarly for {cretinous}. By contrast, something
that is `losing' or `bagbiting' may be failing to meet
objective criteria. See also {bogus} and {random}, which
have richer and wider shades of meaning than any of the above.
blink: v.,n. To use a navigator or off-line message reader
to minimize time spent on-line to a commercial network service.
As of late 1994, this term was said to be in wide use in the U.K.,
but is rare or unknown in the US.
blinkenlights: /blink'*n-li:tz/ n. Front-panel diagnostic
lights on a computer, esp. a {dinosaur}. Derives from the
last word of the famous blackletter-Gothic sign in mangled
pseudo-German that once graced about half the computer rooms in the
English-speaking world. One version ran in its entirety as
follows:
ACHTUNG! ALLES LOOKENSPEEPERS! Das
computermachine ist nicht fuer gefingerpoken und mittengrabben.
Ist easy schnappen der springenwerk, blowenfusen und poppencorken
mit spitzensparken. Ist nicht fuer gewerken bei das dumpkopfen.
Das rubbernecken sichtseeren keepen das cotten-pickenen hans in
das pockets muss; relaxen und watchen das blinkenlichten.
This silliness dates back at least as far as 1959 at Stanford
University and had already gone international by the early 1960s,
when it was reported at London University's ATLAS computing site.
There are several variants of it in circulation, some of which
actually do end with the word `blinkenlights'.
In an amusing example of turnabout-is-fair-play, German hackers
have developed their own versions of the blinkenlights poster in
fractured English, one of which is reproduced here:
ATTENTION
This room is fullfilled mit special electronische equippment.
Fingergrabbing and pressing the cnoeppkes from the computers is
allowed for die experts only! So all the "lefthanders" stay away
and do not disturben the brainstorming von here working
intelligencies. Otherwise you will be out thrown and kicked
anderswhere! Also: please keep still and only watchen
astaunished the blinkenlights.
See also {geef}.
Old-time hackers sometimes get nostalgic for blinkenlights because
they were so much more fun to look at than a blank panel. Sadly,
very few computers still have them (the three LEDs on a PC keyboard
certainly don't count). The obvious reasons (cost of wiring, cost
of front-panel cutouts, almost nobody needs or wants to interpret
machine-register states on the fly anymore) are only part of the
story. Another part of it is that radio-frequency leakage from the
lamp wiring was beginning to be a problem as far back as transistor
machines. But the most fundamental fact is that there are very few
signals slow enough to blink an LED these days! With slow CPUs,
you could watch the bus register or instruction counter tick, but
at 33/66/150MHz it's all a blur.
blit: /blit/ vt. 1. To copy a large array of bits from one
part of a computer's memory to another part, particularly when the
memory is being used to determine what is shown on a display
screen. "The storage allocator picks through the table and copies
the good parts up into high memory, and then blits it all back down
again." See {bitblt}, {BLT}, {dd}, {cat}, {blast},
{snarf}. More generally, to perform some operation (such as
toggling) on a large array of bits while moving them. 2. Sometimes
all-capitalized as `BLIT': an early experimental bit-mapped
terminal designed by Rob Pike at Bell Labs, later commercialized as
the AT&T 5620. (The folk etymology from `Bell Labs Intelligent
Terminal' is incorrect. Its creators liked to claim that "Blit"
stood for the Bacon, Lettuce, and Interactive Tomato.)
blitter: /blit'r/ n. A special-purpose chip or hardware
system built to perform {blit} operations, esp. used for fast
implementation of bit-mapped graphics. The Commodore Amiga and a
few other micros have these, but in 1991 the trend is away from
them (however, see {cycle of reincarnation}). Syn. {raster
blaster}.
blivet: /bliv'*t/ n. [allegedly from a World War II
military term meaning "ten pounds of manure in a five-pound bag"]
1. An intractable problem. 2. A crucial piece of hardware that
can't be fixed or replaced if it breaks. 3. A tool that has been
hacked over by so many incompetent programmers that it has become
an unmaintainable tissue of hacks. 4. An out-of-control but
unkillable development effort. 5. An embarrassing bug that pops up
during a customer demo. 6. In the subjargon of computer security
specialists, a denial-of-service attack performed by hogging
limited resources that have no access controls (for example, shared
spool space on a multi-user system).
This term has other meanings in other technical cultures; among
experimental physicists and hardware engineers of various kinds it
seems to mean any random object of unknown purpose (similar to
hackish use of {frob}). It has also been used to describe an
amusing trick-the-eye drawing resembling a three-pronged fork that
appears to depict a three-dimensional object until one realizes
that the parts fit together in an impossible way.
BLOB: 1. n. [acronym: Binary Large OBject] Used by database
people to refer to any random large block of bits that needs to be
stored in a database, such as a picture or sound file. The
essential point about a BLOB is that it's an object that cannot be
interpreted within the database itself. 2. v. To {mailbomb}
someone by sending a BLOB him/her; esp. used as a mild threat.
"If that program crashes again, I'm going to BLOB the core dump to
you."
block: [from process scheduling terminology in OS theory]
1. vi. To delay or sit idle while waiting for something. "We're
blocking until everyone gets here." Compare {busy-wait}.
2. `block on' vt. To block, waiting for (something). "Lunch is
blocked on Phil's arrival."
block transfer computations: n. [from the television series
"Dr. Who"] Computations so fiendishly subtle and complex
that they could not be performed by machines. Used to refer to any
task that should be expressible as an algorithm in theory, but
isn't.
Bloggs Family, the: n. An imaginary family consisting of
Fred and Mary Bloggs and their children. Used as a standard
example in knowledge representation to show the difference between
extensional and intensional objects. For example, every occurrence
of "Fred Bloggs" is the same unique person, whereas occurrences
of "person" may refer to different people. Members of the Bloggs
family have been known to pop up in bizarre places such as the DEC
Telephone Directory. Compare {Mbogo, Dr. Fred}.
blow an EPROM: /bloh *n ee'prom/ v. (alt. `blast an
EPROM', `burn an EPROM') To program a read-only memory, e.g.
for use with an embedded system. This term arose because the
programming process for the Programmable Read-Only Memories (PROMs)
that preceded present-day Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memories
(EPROMs) involved intentionally blowing tiny electrical fuses on
the chip. The usage lives on (it's too vivid and expressive to
discard) even though the write process on EPROMs is nondestructive.
blow away: vt. To remove (files and directories) from
permanent storage, generally by accident. "He reformatted the
wrong partition and blew away last night's netnews." Oppose
{nuke}.
blow out: vi. [prob. from mining and tunneling jargon] Of
software, to fail spectacularly; almost as serious as {crash and
burn}. See {blow past}, {blow up}, {die horribly}.
blow past: vt. To {blow out} despite a safeguard. "The
server blew past the 5K reserve buffer."
blow up: vi. 1. [scientific computation] To become unstable.
Suggests that the computation is diverging so rapidly that it will
soon overflow or at least go {nonlinear}. 2. Syn. {blow
out}.
BLT: /B-L-T/, /bl*t/ or (rarely) /belt/ n.,vt. Synonym
for {blit}. This is the original form of {blit} and the
ancestor of {bitblt}. It referred to any large bit-field copy
or move operation (one resource-intensive memory-shuffling
operation done on pre-paged versions of ITS, WAITS, and TOPS-10 was
sardonically referred to as `The Big BLT'). The jargon usage has
outlasted the {PDP-10} BLock Transfer instruction from which
{BLT} derives; nowadays, the assembler mnemonic {BLT} almost
always means `Branch if Less Than zero'.
Blue Book: n. 1. Informal name for one of the three standard
references on the page-layout and graphics-control language
{{PostScript}} ("PostScript Language Tutorial and Cookbook",
Adobe Systems, Addison-Wesley 1985, QA76.73.P67P68, ISBN
0-201-10179-3); the other three official guides are known as the
{Green Book}, the {Red Book}, and the {White Book} (sense
2). 2. Informal name for one of the three standard references on
Smalltalk "Smalltalk-80: The Language and its
Implementation", David Robson, Addison-Wesley 1983, QA76.8.S635G64,
ISBN 0-201-11371-63 (this book also has green and red siblings).
3. Any of the 1988 standards issued by the CCITT's ninth plenary
assembly. These include, among other things, the X.400 email spec
and the Group 1 through 4 fax standards. See also {{book
titles}}.
blue box: n. 1. obs. Once upon a time, before all-digital switches
made it possible for the phone companies to move them out of the
audible range, one could actually hear the switching tones used to
route long-distance calls. Early {phreaker}s built devices
called `blue boxes' that could reproduce these tones, which could
be used to commandeer portions of the phone network. (This was not
as hard as it may sound; one early phreak acquired the sobriquet
`Captain Crunch' after he proved that he could generate switching
tones with a plastic whistle pulled out of a box of Captain Crunch
cereal!) 2. n. An {IBM} machine, especially a large (non-PC)
one.
Blue Glue: n. [IBM] IBM's SNA (Systems Network
Architecture), an incredibly {losing} and {bletcherous}
communications protocol widely favored at commercial shops that
don't know any better. The official IBM definition is "that which
binds blue boxes together." See {fear and loathing}. It may
not be irrelevant that {Blue Glue} is the trade name of a 3M
product that is commonly used to hold down the carpet squares to
the removable panel floors common in {dinosaur pen}s. A
correspondent at U. Minn. reports that the CS department there has
about 80 bottles of the stuff hanging about, so they often refer to
any messy work to be done as `using the blue glue'.
blue goo: n. Term for `police' {nanobot}s intended to
prevent {gray goo}, denature hazardous waste, destroy pollution,
put ozone back into the stratosphere, prevent halitosis, and
promote truth, justice, and the American way, etc. The term
`Blue Goo' can be found in Dr. Seuss's "Fox In Socks" to
refer to a substance much like bubblegum. `Would you like to
chew blue goo, sir?'. See {{nanotechnology}}.
blue wire: n. [IBM] Patch wires added to circuit boards at
the factory to correct design or fabrication problems. These may
be necessary if there hasn't been time to design and qualify
another board version. Compare {purple wire}, {red wire},
{yellow wire}.
blurgle: /bler'gl/ n. [UK] Spoken {metasyntactic
variable}, to indicate some text that is obvious from context, or
which is already known. If several words are to be replaced,
blurgle may well be doubled or trebled. "To look for something in
several files use `grep string blurgle blurgle'." In each case,
"blurgle blurgle" would be understood to be replaced by the file
you wished to search. Compare {mumble}, sense 7.
BNF: /B-N-F/ n. 1. [techspeak] Acronym for `Backus-Naur
Form', a metasyntactic notation used to specify the syntax of
programming languages, command sets, and the like. Widely used for
language descriptions but seldom documented anywhere, so that it
must usually be learned by osmosis from other hackers. Consider
this BNF for a U.S. postal address:
::=
::= | "."
::= []
|
::= []
::= ","
This translates into English as: "A postal-address consists of a
name-part, followed by a street-address part, followed by a
zip-code part. A personal-part consists of either a first name or
an initial followed by a dot. A name-part consists of either: a
personal-part followed by a last name followed by an optional
`jr-part' (Jr., Sr., or dynastic number) and end-of-line, or a
personal part followed by a name part (this rule illustrates the
use of recursion in BNFs, covering the case of people who use
multiple first and middle names and/or initials). A street address
consists of an optional apartment specifier, followed by a street
number, followed by a street name. A zip-part consists of a
town-name, followed by a comma, followed by a state code, followed
by a ZIP-code followed by an end-of-line." Note that many things
(such as the format of a personal-part, apartment specifier, or
ZIP-code) are left unspecified. These are presumed to be obvious
from context or detailed somewhere nearby. See also {parse}.
2. Any of a number number of variants and extensions of BNF proper,
possibly containing some or all of the {regexp} wildcards such
as `*' or `+'. In fact the example above isn't the pure
form invented for the Algol-60 report; it uses `[]', which was
introduced a few years later in IBM's PL/I definition but is now
universally recognized. 3. In {{science-fiction fandom}}, a
`Big-Name Fan' (someone famous or notorious). Years ago a fan
started handing out black-on-green BNF buttons at SF conventions;
this confused the hacker contingent terribly.
boa: [IBM] n. Any one of the fat cables that lurk under the
floor in a {dinosaur pen}. Possibly so called because they
display a ferocious life of their own when you try to lay them
straight and flat after they have been coiled for some time. It is
rumored within IBM that channel cables for the 370 are limited to
200 feet because beyond that length the boas get dangerous -- and
it is worth noting that one of the major cable makers uses the
trademark `Anaconda'.
board: n. 1. In-context synonym for {bboard}; sometimes
used even for Usenet newsgroups (but see usage note under
{bboard}, sense 1). 2. An electronic circuit board.
boat anchor: n. 1. Like {doorstop} but more severe;
implies that the offending hardware is irreversibly dead or
useless. "That was a working motherboard once. One lightning
strike later, instant boat anchor!" 2. A person who just takes up
space. 3. Obsolete but still working hardware, especially
when used of an old S100-bus hobbyist system; originally a term of
annoyance, but became more and more affectionate as the hardware
became more and more obsolete.
bodysurf code: n A program or segment of code written
quickly in the heat of inspiration without the benefit of formal
design or deep thought. Like its namesake sport, the result is
too often a wipeout that leaves the programmer eating sand.
BOF: /B-O-F/ or /bof/ n. Abbreviation for the phrase
"Birds Of a Feather" (flocking together), an informal discussion
group and/or bull session scheduled on a conference program. It is
not clear where or when this term originated, but it is now
associated with the USENIX conferences for UNIX techies and was
already established there by 1984. It was used earlier than that
at DECUS conferences and is reported to have been common at SHARE
meetings as far back as the early 1960s.
bogo-sort: /boh`goh-sort'/ n. (var. `stupid-sort') The
archetypical perversely awful algorithm (as opposed to {bubble
sort}, which is merely the generic *bad* algorithm).
Bogo-sort is equivalent to repeatedly throwing a deck of cards in
the air, picking them up at random, and then testing whether they
are in order. It serves as a sort of canonical example of
awfulness. Looking at a program and seeing a dumb algorithm, one
might say "Oh, I see, this program uses bogo-sort." Compare
{bogus}, {brute force}, {Lasherism}.
bogometer: /boh-gom'-*t-er/ n. A notional instrument for
measuring {bogosity}. Compare the `wankometer' described in
the {wank} entry; see also {bogus}.
bogon: /boh'gon/ n. [by analogy with
proton/electron/neutron, but doubtless reinforced after 1980 by the
similarity to Douglas Adams's `Vogons'; see the {Bibliography} in
Appendix C and note that Arthur Dent actually mispronounces
`Vogons'
as `Bogons' at one point] 1. The elementary particle of bogosity
(see
{quantum bogodynamics}). For instance, "the Ethernet is
emitting bogons again" means that it is broken or acting in an
erratic or bogus fashion. 2. A query packet sent from a TCP/IP
domain resolver to a root server, having the reply bit set instead
of the query bit. 3. Any bogus or incorrectly formed packet sent
on a network. 4. By synecdoche, used to refer to any bogus thing,
as in "I'd like to go to lunch with you but I've got to go to the
weekly staff bogon". 5. A person who is bogus or who says bogus
things. This was historically the original usage, but has been
overtaken by its derivative senses 1--4. See also {bogosity},
{bogus}; compare {psyton}, {fat electrons}, {magic
smoke}.
The bogon has become the type case for a whole bestiary of nonce
particle names, including the `clutron' or `cluon' (indivisible
particle of cluefulness, obviously the antiparticle of the bogon)
and the futon (elementary particle of {randomness}, or sometimes
of lameness). These are not so much live usages in themselves as
examples of a live meta-usage: that is, it has become a standard
joke or linguistic maneuver to "explain" otherwise mysterious
circumstances by inventing nonce particle names. And these imply
nonce particle theories, with all their dignity or lack thereof (we
might note parenthetically that this is a generalization from
"(bogus particle) theories" to "bogus (particle theories)"!).
Perhaps such particles are the modern-day equivalents of trolls and
wood-nymphs as standard starting-points around which to construct
explanatory myths. Of course, playing on an existing word (as in
the `futon') yields additional flavor. Compare {magic
smoke}.
bogon filter: /boh'gon fil'tr/ n. Any device, software or
hardware, that limits or suppresses the flow and/or emission of
bogons. "Engineering hacked a bogon filter between the Cray and
the VAXen, and now we're getting fewer dropped packets." See also
{bogosity}, {bogus}.
bogon flux: /boh'gon fluhks/ n. A measure of a supposed
field of {bogosity} emitted by a speaker, measured by a
{bogometer}; as a speaker starts to wander into increasing
bogosity a listener might say "Warning, warning, bogon flux is
rising". See {quantum bogodynamics}.
bogosity: /boh-go's*-tee/ n. 1. The degree to which
something is {bogus}. At CMU, bogosity is measured with a
{bogometer}; in a seminar, when a speaker says something bogus,
a listener might raise his hand and say "My bogometer just
triggered". More extremely, "You just pinned my bogometer"
means you just said or did something so outrageously bogus that it
is off the scale, pinning the bogometer needle at the highest
possible reading (one might also say "You just redlined my
bogometer"). The agreed-upon unit of bogosity is the
{microLenat}. 2. The potential field generated by a {bogon
flux}; see {quantum bogodynamics}. See also {bogon flux},
{bogon filter}, {bogus}.
bogotify: /boh-go't*-fi:/ vt. To make or become bogus. A
program that has been changed so many times as to become completely
disorganized has become bogotified. If you tighten a nut too hard
and strip the threads on the bolt, the bolt has become bogotified
and you had better not use it any more. This coinage led to the
notional `autobogotiphobia' defined as `the fear of becoming
bogotified'; but is not clear that the latter has ever been
`live' jargon rather than a self-conscious joke in jargon about
jargon. See also {bogosity}, {bogus}.
bogue out: /bohg owt/ vi. To become bogus, suddenly and
unexpectedly. "His talk was relatively sane until somebody asked
him a trick question; then he bogued out and did nothing but
{flame} afterwards." See also {bogosity}, {bogus}.
bogus: adj. 1. Non-functional. "Your patches are bogus."
2. Useless. "OPCON is a bogus program." 3. False. "Your
arguments are bogus." 4. Incorrect. "That algorithm is bogus."
5. Unbelievable. "You claim to have solved the halting problem
for Turing Machines? That's totally bogus." 6. Silly. "Stop
writing those bogus sagas."
Astrology is bogus. So is a bolt that is obviously about to break.
So is someone who makes blatantly false claims to have solved a
scientific problem. (This word seems to have some, but not all, of
the connotations of {random} -- mostly the negative ones.)
It is claimed that `bogus' was originally used in the hackish sense
at Princeton in the late 1960s. It was spread to CMU and Yale by
Michael Shamos, a migratory Princeton alumnus. A glossary of bogus
words was compiled at Yale when the word was first popularized (see
{autobogotiphobia} under {bogotify}). The word spread into
hackerdom from CMU and MIT. By the early 1980s it was also
current in something like the hackish sense in West Coast teen
slang, and it had gone mainstream by 1985. A correspondent from
Cambridge reports, by contrast, that these uses of `bogus' grate on
British nerves; in Britain the word means, rather specifically,
`counterfeit', as in "a bogus 10-pound note".
Bohr bug: /bohr buhg/ n. [from quantum physics] A repeatable
{bug}; one that manifests reliably under a possibly unknown but
well-defined set of conditions. Antonym of {heisenbug}; see also
{mandelbug}, {schroedinbug}.
boink: /boynk/ [Usenet: variously ascribed to the TV
series "Cheers" "Moonlighting", and "Soap"] 1. To
have sex with; compare {bounce}, sense 3. (This is mainstream
slang.) In Commonwealth hackish the variant `bonk' is more
common. 2. After the original Peter Korn `Boinkon' {Usenet}
parties, used for almost any net social gathering, e.g., Miniboink,
a small boink held by Nancy Gillett in 1988; Minniboink, a Boinkcon
in Minnesota in 1989; Humpdayboinks, Wednesday get-togethers held
in the San Francisco Bay Area. Compare {@-party}. 3. Var of
`bonk'; see {bonk/oif}.
bomb: 1. v. General synonym for {crash} (sense 1) except
that it is not used as a noun; esp. used of software or OS
failures. "Don't run Empire with less than 32K stack, it'll
bomb." 2. n.,v. Atari ST and Macintosh equivalents of a UNIX
`panic' or Amiga {guru} (sense 2), in which icons of little
black-powder bombs or mushroom clouds are displayed, indicating
that the system has died. On the Mac, this may be accompanied by a
decimal (or occasionally hexadecimal) number indicating what went
wrong, similar to the Amiga {guru meditation} number.
{{MS-DOS}} machines tend to get {locked up} in this situation.
bondage-and-discipline language: A language (such as
{{Pascal}}, {{Ada}}, APL, or Prolog) that, though ostensibly
general-purpose, is designed so as to enforce an author's theory of
`right programming' even though said theory is demonstrably
inadequate for systems hacking or even vanilla general-purpose
programming. Often abbreviated `B&D'; thus, one may speak of
things "having the B&D nature". See {{Pascal}}; oppose
{languages of choice}.
bonk/oif: /bonk/, /oyf/ interj. In the {MUD}
community, it has become traditional to express pique or censure by
`bonking' the offending person. Convention holds that one should
acknowledge a bonk by saying `oif!' and there is a myth to the
effect that failing to do so upsets the cosmic bonk/oif balance,
causing much trouble in the universe. Some MUDs have implemented
special commands for bonking and oifing. See also {talk mode}.
book titles:: There is a tradition in hackerdom of
informally tagging important textbooks and standards documents with
the dominant color of their covers or with some other conspicuous
feature of the cover. Many of these are described in this lexicon
under their own entries. See {Aluminum Book}, {Blue Book},
{Cinderella Book}, {Devil Book}, {Dragon Book}, {Green
Book}, {Orange Book}, {Pink-Shirt Book}, {Purple Book},
{Red Book}, {Silver Book}, {White Book}, {Wizard Book},
{Yellow Book}, and {bible}; see also {rainbow series}.
boot: v.,n. [techspeak; from `by one's bootstraps'] To
load and initialize the operating system on a machine. This usage
is no longer jargon (having passed into techspeak) but has given
rise to some derivatives that are still jargon.
The derivative `reboot' implies that the machine hasn't been down
for long, or that the boot is a {bounce} (sense 4) intended to
clear some state of {wedgitude}. This is sometimes used of
human thought processes, as in the following exchange: "You've
lost me." "OK, reboot. Here's the theory...."
This term is also found in the variants `cold boot' (from
power-off condition) and `warm boot' (with the CPU and all
devices already powered up, as after a hardware reset or software
crash).
Another variant: `soft boot', reinitialization of only part of a
system, under control of other software still running: "If
you're running the {mess-dos} emulator, control-alt-insert will
cause a soft-boot of the emulator, while leaving the rest of the
system running."
Opposed to this there is `hard boot', which connotes hostility
towards or frustration with the machine being booted: "I'll have
to hard-boot this losing Sun." "I recommend booting it
hard." One often hard-boots by performing a {power cycle}.
Historical note: this term derives from `bootstrap loader', a short
program that was read in from cards or paper tape, or toggled in
from the front panel switches. This program was always very short
(great efforts were expended on making it short in order to
minimize the labor and chance of error involved in toggling it in),
but was just smart enough to read in a slightly more complex
program (usually from a card or paper tape reader), to which it
handed control; this program in turn was smart enough to read the
application or operating system from a magnetic tape drive or disk
drive. Thus, in successive steps, the computer `pulled itself up
by its bootstraps' to a useful operating state. Nowadays the
bootstrap is usually found in ROM or EPROM, and reads the first
stage in from a fixed location on the disk, called the `boot
block'. When this program gains control, it is powerful enough to
load the actual OS and hand control over to it.
bottom feeder: n. Syn. for {slopsucker}, derived from the
fishermen's and naturalists' term for finny creatures who subsist
on the primordial ooze.
bottom-up implementation: n. Hackish opposite of the
techspeak term `top-down design'. It is now received wisdom in
most programming cultures that it is best to design from higher
levels of abstraction down to lower, specifying sequences of action
in increasing detail until you get to actual code. Hackers often
find (especially in exploratory designs that cannot be closely
specified in advance) that it works best to *build* things in
the opposite order, by writing and testing a clean set of primitive
operations and then knitting them together.
bounce: v. 1. [perhaps by analogy to a bouncing check] An
electronic mail message that is undeliverable and returns an error
notification to the sender is said to `bounce'. See also
{bounce message}. 2. [Stanford] To play volleyball. The
now-demolished {D. C. Power Lab} building used by the Stanford
AI Lab in the 1970s had a volleyball court on the front lawn. From
5 P.M. to 7 P.M. was the scheduled maintenance time for the
computer, so every afternoon at 5 would come over the intercom the
cry: "Now hear this: bounce, bounce!", followed by Brian McCune
loudly bouncing a volleyball on the floor outside the offices of
known volleyballers. 3. To engage in sexual intercourse; prob.
from the expression `bouncing the mattress', but influenced by
Roo's psychosexually loaded "Try bouncing me, Tigger!" from the
"Winnie-the-Pooh" books. Compare {boink}. 4. To casually
reboot a system in order to clear up a transient problem. Reported
primarily among {VMS} users. 5. [VM/CMS programmers]
*Automatic* warm-start of a machine after an error. "I
logged on this morning and found it had bounced 7 times during the
night" 6. [IBM] To {power cycle} a peripheral in order to reset
it.
bounce message: n. [UNIX] Notification message returned to sender
by a site unable to relay {email} to the intended {{Internet
address}} recipient or the next link in a {bang path} (see
{bounce}, sense 1). Reasons might include a nonexistent or
misspelled username or a {down} relay site. Bounce messages can
themselves fail, with occasionally ugly results; see {sorcerer's
apprentice mode} and {software laser}. The terms `bounce
mail' and `barfmail' are also common.
boustrophedon: n. [from a Greek word for turning like an ox
while plowing] An ancient method of writing using alternate
left-to-right and right-to-left lines. This term is actually
philologists' techspeak and typesetters' jargon. Erudite hackers
use it for an optimization performed by some computer typesetting
software and moving-head printers. The adverbial form
`boustrophedonically' is also found (hackers purely love
constructions like this).
box: n. 1. A computer; esp. in the construction `foo
box' where foo is some functional qualifier, like
`graphics', or the name of an OS (thus, `UNIX box', `MS-DOS
box', etc.) "We preprocess the data on UNIX boxes before handing
it up to the mainframe." 2. [IBM] Without qualification but
within an SNA-using site, this refers specifically to an IBM
front-end processor or FEP /F-E-P/. An FEP is a small computer
necessary to enable an IBM {mainframe} to communicate beyond the
limits of the {dinosaur pen}. Typically used in expressions
like the cry that goes up when an SNA network goes down: "Looks
like the {box} has fallen over." (See {fall over}.) See also
{IBM}, {fear and loathing}, {fepped out}, {Blue Glue}.
boxed comments: n. Comments (explanatory notes attached to
program instructions) that occupy several lines by themselves; so
called because in assembler and C code they are often surrounded by
a box in a style something like this:
/*************************************************
*
* This is a boxed comment in C style
*
*************************************************/
Common variants of this style omit the asterisks in column 2 or add
a matching row of asterisks closing the right side of the box. The
sparest variant omits all but the comment delimiters themselves;
the `box' is implied. Oppose {winged comments}.
boxen: /bok'sn/ pl.n. [by analogy with {VAXen}]
Fanciful plural of {box} often encountered in the phrase `UNIX
boxen', used to describe commodity {{UNIX}} hardware. The
connotation is that any two UNIX boxen are interchangeable.
boxology: /bok-sol'*-jee/ n. Syn. {ASCII art}. This
term implies a more restricted domain, that of box-and-arrow
drawings. "His report has a lot of boxology in it." Compare
{macrology}.
bozotic: /boh-zoh'tik/ or /boh-zo'tik/ adj. [from the name of
a TV clown even more losing than Ronald McDonald] Resembling
or having the quality of a bozo; that is, clownish, ludicrously
wrong, unintentionally humorous. Compare {wonky},
{demented}. Note that the noun `bozo' occurs in slang, but
the mainstream adjectival form would be `bozo-like' or (in New
England) `bozoish'.
BQS: /B-Q-S/ adj. Syn. {Berkeley Quality Software}.
brain dump: n. The act of telling someone everything one
knows about a particular topic or project. Typically used when
someone is going to let a new party maintain a piece of code.
Conceptually analogous to an operating system {core dump} in
that it saves a lot of useful {state} before an exit. "You'll
have to give me a brain dump on FOOBAR before you start your new
job at HackerCorp." See {core dump} (sense 4). At Sun, this
is also known as `TOI' (transfer of information).
brain fart: n. The actual result of a {braino}, as
opposed to the mental glitch that is the braino itself. E.g.,
typing `dir' on a UNIX box after a session with DOS.
brain-damaged: 1. [generalization of `Honeywell Brain
Damage' (HBD), a theoretical disease invented to explain certain
utter cretinisms in Honeywell {{Multics}}] adj. Obviously wrong;
{cretinous}; {demented}. There is an implication that the
person responsible must have suffered brain damage, because he
should have known better. Calling something brain-damaged is
really bad; it also implies it is unusable, and that its failure to
work is due to poor design rather than some accident. "Only six
monocase characters per file name? Now *that's*
brain-damaged!" 2. [esp. in the Mac world] May refer to free
demonstration software that has been deliberately crippled in some
way so as not to compete with the commercial product it is intended
to sell. Syn. {crippleware}.
brain-dead: adj. Brain-damaged in the extreme. It tends to
imply terminal design failure rather than malfunction or simple
stupidity. "This comm program doesn't know how to send a break
-- how brain-dead!"
braino: /bray'no/ n. Syn. for {thinko}. See also
{brain fart}.
branch to Fishkill: n. [IBM: from the location of one of the
corporation's facilities] Any unexpected jump in a program that
produces catastrophic or just plain weird results. See {jump
off into never-never land}, {hyperspace}.
bread crumbs: n. Debugging statements inserted into a
program that emit output or log indicators of the program's
{state} to a file so you can see where it dies or pin down the
cause of surprising behavior. The term is probably a reference to
the Hansel and Gretel story from the Brothers Grimm; in several
variants, a character leaves a trail of bread crumbs so as not to
get lost in the woods.
break: 1. vt. To cause to be {broken} (in any sense).
"Your latest patch to the editor broke the paragraph commands."
2. v. (of a program) To stop temporarily, so that it may debugged.
The place where it stops is a `breakpoint'. 3. [techspeak]
vi. To send an RS-232 break (two character widths of line high)
over a serial comm line. 4. [UNIX] vi. To strike whatever key
currently causes the tty driver to send SIGINT to the current
process. Normally, break (sense 3), delete or {control-C} does
this. 5. `break break' may be said to interrupt a conversation
(this is an example of verb doubling). This usage comes from radio
communications, which in turn probably came from landline
telegraph/teleprinter usage, as badly abused in the Citizen's Band
craze a few years ago.
break-even point: n. In the process of implementing a new
computer language, the point at which the language is sufficiently
effective that one can implement the language in itself. That is,
for a new language called, hypothetically, FOOGOL, one has reached
break-even when one can write a demonstration compiler for FOOGOL
in FOOGOL, discard the original implementation language, and
thereafter use working versions of FOOGOL to develop newer ones.
This is an important milestone; see {MFTL}.
Since this entry was first written, several correspondents have
reported that there actually was a compiler for a tiny Algol-like
language called Foogol floating around on various {VAXen} in the
early and mid-1980s.
breath-of-life packet: n. [XEROX PARC] An Ethernet packet
that contains bootstrap (see {boot}) code, periodically sent out
from a working computer to infuse the `breath of life' into any
computer on the network that has happened to crash. Machines
depending on such packets have sufficient hardware or firmware code
to wait for (or request) such a packet during the reboot process.
See also {dickless workstation}.
The notional `kiss-of-death packet', with a function
complementary to that of a breath-of-life packet, is recommended
for dealing with hosts that consume too many network resources.
Though `kiss-of-death packet' is usually used in jest, there is
at least one documented instance of an Internet subnet with limited
address-table slots in a gateway machine in which such packets were
routinely used to compete for slots, rather like Christmas shoppers
competing for scarce parking spaces.
breedle: n. See {feep}.
bring X to its knees: v. To present a machine, operating
system, piece of software, or algorithm with a load so extreme or
{pathological} that it grinds to a halt. "To bring a MicroVAX
to its knees, try twenty users running {vi} -- or four running
{EMACS}." Compare {hog}.
brittle: adj. Said of software that is functional but easily
broken by changes in operating environment or configuration, or by
any minor tweak to the software itself. Also, any system that
responds inappropriately and disastrously to abnormal but expected
external stimuli; e.g., a file system that is usually totally
scrambled by a power failure is said to be brittle. This term is
often used to describe the results of a research effort that were
never intended to be robust, but it can be applied to commercially
developed software, which displays the quality far more often than
it ought to. Oppose {robust}.
broadcast storm: n. An incorrect packet broadcast on a
network that causes most hosts to respond all at once, typically
with wrong answers that start the process over again. See
{network meltdown}; compare {mail storm}.
brochureware: n. Planned but non-existent product like
{vaporware}, but with the added implication that marketing is
actively selling and promoting it (they've printed brochures).
Brochureware is often deployed as a strategic weapon; the idea is
to con customers into not committing to an existing product of the
competition's. It is a safe bet that when a brochureware product
finally becomes real, it will be more expensive than and inferior
to the alternatives that had been available for years.
broken: adj. 1. Not working properly (of programs).
2. Behaving strangely; especially (when used of people) exhibiting
extreme depression.
broken arrow: n. [IBM] The error code displayed on line 25
of a 3270 terminal (or a PC emulating a 3270) for various kinds of
protocol violations and "unexpected" error conditions (including
connection to a {down} computer). On a PC, simulated with
`->/_', with the two center characters overstruck.
note: to appreciate this term fully, it helps to know that `broken
arrow' is also military jargon for an accident involving nuclear
weapons....
broket: /broh'k*t/ or /broh'ket`/ n. [by analogy with
`bracket': a `broken bracket'] Either of the characters
`<' and `>', when used as paired enclosing delimiters.
This word originated as a contraction of the phrase `broken
bracket', that is, a bracket that is bent in the middle. (At MIT,
and apparently in the {Real World} as well, these are usually
called {angle brackets}.)
Brooks's Law: prov. "Adding manpower to a late software
project makes it later" -- a result of the fact that the expected
advantage from splitting work among N programmers is
O(N) (that is, proportional to N), but the complexity
and communications cost associated with coordinating and then
merging their work is O(N^2) (that is, proportional to the
square of N). The quote is from Fred Brooks, a manager of
IBM's OS/360 project and author of "The Mythical Man-Month"
(Addison-Wesley, 1975, ISBN 0-201-00650-2), an excellent early book
on software engineering. The myth in question has been most
tersely expressed as "Programmer time is fungible" and Brooks
established conclusively that it is not. Hackers have never
forgotten his advice; too often, {management} still does. See
also {creationism}, {second-system effect}, {optimism}.
BRS: /B-R-S/ n. Syn. {Big Red Switch}. This
abbreviation is fairly common on-line.
brute force: adj. Describes a primitive programming style,
one in which the programmer relies on the computer's processing
power instead of using his or her own intelligence to simplify the
problem, often ignoring problems of scale and applying naive
methods suited to small problems directly to large ones. The term
can also be used in reference to programming style: brute-force
programs are written in a heavyhanded, tedious way, full of
repetition and devoid of any elegance or useful abstraction (see
also {brute force and ignorance}).
The {canonical} example of a brute-force algorithm is associated
with the `traveling salesman problem' (TSP), a classical
{NP-}hard problem: Suppose a person is in, say, Boston, and
wishes to drive to N other cities. In what order should the
cities be visited in order to minimize the distance travelled? The
brute-force method is to simply generate all possible routes and
compare the distances; while guaranteed to work and simple to
implement, this algorithm is clearly very stupid in that it
considers even obviously absurd routes (like going from Boston to
Houston via San Francisco and New York, in that order). For very
small N it works well, but it rapidly becomes absurdly
inefficient when N increases (for N = 15, there are
already 1,307,674,368,000 possible routes to consider, and for
N = 1000 -- well, see {bignum}). Sometimes,
unfortunately, there is no better general solution than brute
force. See also {NP-}.
A more simple-minded example of brute-force programming is finding
the smallest number in a large list by first using an existing
program to sort the list in ascending order, and then picking the
first number off the front.
Whether brute-force programming should actually be considered
stupid or not depends on the context; if the problem is not
terribly big, the extra CPU time spent on a brute-force solution
may cost less than the programmer time it would take to develop a
more `intelligent' algorithm. Additionally, a more intelligent
algorithm may imply more long-term complexity cost and bug-chasing
than are justified by the speed improvement.
Ken Thompson, co-inventor of UNIX, is reported to have uttered the
epigram "When in doubt, use brute force". He probably intended
this as a {ha ha only serious}, but the original UNIX kernel's
preference for simple, robust, and portable algorithms over
{brittle} `smart' ones does seem to have been a significant
factor in the success of that OS. Like so many other tradeoffs in
software design, the choice between brute force and complex,
finely-tuned cleverness is often a difficult one that requires both
engineering savvy and delicate esthetic judgment.
brute force and ignorance: n. A popular design technique at
many software houses -- {brute force} coding unrelieved by any
knowledge of how problems have been previously solved in elegant
ways. Dogmatic adherence to design methodologies tends to
encourage this sort of thing. Characteristic of early {larval
stage} programming; unfortunately, many never outgrow it. Often
abbreviated BFI: "Gak, they used a {bubble sort}! That's
strictly from BFI." Compare {bogosity}.
BSD: /B-S-D/ n. [abbreviation for `Berkeley Software
Distribution'] a family of {{UNIX}} versions for the {DEC}
{VAX} and PDP-11 developed by Bill Joy and others at
{Berzerkeley} starting around 1980, incorporating paged virtual
memory, TCP/IP networking enhancements, and many other features.
The BSD versions (4.1, 4.2, and 4.3) and the commercial versions
derived from them (SunOS, ULTRIX, and Mt. Xinu) held the technical
lead in the UNIX world until AT&T's successful standardization
efforts after about 1986, and are still widely popular. Note that
BSD versions going back to 2.9 are often referred to by their
version numbers, without the BSD prefix. See {4.2}, {{UNIX}},
{USG UNIX}.
BUAF: // n. [abbreviation, from alt.fan.warlord] Big
Ugly ASCII Font -- a special form of {ASCII art}. Various
programs exist for rendering text strings into block, bloob, and
pseudo-script fonts in cells between four and six character cells
on a side; this is smaller than the letters generated by older
{banner} (sense 2) programs. These are sometimes used to render
one's name in a {sig block}, and are critically referred to as
`BUAF's. See {warlording}.
BUAG: // n. [abbreviation, from alt.fan.warlord] Big
Ugly ASCII Graphic. Pejorative term for ugly {ASCII art},
especially as found in {sig block}s. For some reason, mutations
of the head of Bart Simpson are particularly common in the least
imaginative {sig block}s. See {warlording}.
bubble sort: n. Techspeak for a particular sorting technique
in which pairs of adjacent values in the list to be sorted are
compared and interchanged if they are out of order; thus, list
entries `bubble upward' in the list until they bump into one
with a lower sort value. Because it is not very good relative to
other methods and is the one typically stumbled on by {naive}
and untutored programmers, hackers consider it the {canonical}
example of a naive algorithm. The canonical example of a really
*bad* algorithm is {bogo-sort}. A bubble sort might be
used out of ignorance, but any use of bogo-sort could issue only
from brain damage or willful perversity.
bucky bits: /buh'kee bits/ n. 1. obs. The bits produced by
the CONTROL and META shift keys on a SAIL keyboard (octal 200 and
400 respectively), resulting in a 9-bit keyboard character set.
The MIT AI TV (Knight) keyboards extended this with TOP and
separate left and right CONTROL and META keys, resulting in a
12-bit character set; later, LISP Machines added such keys as
SUPER, HYPER, and GREEK (see {space-cadet keyboard}). 2. By
extension, bits associated with `extra' shift keys on any
keyboard, e.g., the ALT on an IBM PC or command and option keys on
a Macintosh.
It has long been rumored that `bucky bits' were named for
Buckminster Fuller during a period when he was consulting at
Stanford. Actually, bucky bits were invented by Niklaus Wirth when
*he* was at Stanford in 1964--65; he first suggested the idea
of an EDIT key to set the 8th bit of an otherwise 7-bit ASCII
character). It seems that, unknown to Wirth, certain Stanford
hackers had privately nicknamed him `Bucky' after a prominent
portion of his dental anatomy, and this nickname transferred to the
bit. Bucky-bit commands were used in a number of editors written
at Stanford, including most notably TV-EDIT and NLS.
The term spread to MIT and CMU early and is now in general use.
Ironically, Wirth himself remained unaware of its derivation for
nearly 30 years, until GLS dug up this history in early 1993! See
{double bucky}, {quadruple bucky}.
buffer overflow: n. What happens when you try to stuff more
data into a buffer (holding area) than it can handle. This may be
due to a mismatch in the processing rates of the producing and
consuming processes (see {overrun} and {firehose syndrome}),
or because the buffer is simply too small to hold all the data that
must accumulate before a piece of it can be processed. For
example, in a text-processing tool that {crunch}es a line at a
time, a short line buffer can result in {lossage} as input from
a long line overflows the buffer and trashes data beyond it. Good
defensive programming would check for overflow on each character
and stop accepting data when the buffer is full up. The term is
used of and by humans in a metaphorical sense. "What time did I
agree to meet you? My buffer must have overflowed." Or "If I
answer that phone my buffer is going to overflow." See also
{spam}, {overrun screw}.
bug: n. An unwanted and unintended property of a program or
piece of hardware, esp. one that causes it to malfunction.
Antonym of {feature}. examples: "There's a bug in the editor:
it writes things out backwards." "The system crashed because of
a hardware bug." "Fred is a winner, but he has a few bugs"
(i.e., Fred is a good guy, but he has a few personality problems).
Historical note: Admiral Grace Hopper (an early computing pioneer
better known for inventing {COBOL}) liked to tell a story in
which a technician solved a {glitch} in the Harvard Mark II
machine by pulling an actual insect out from between the contacts
of one of its relays, and she subsequently promulgated {bug} in
its hackish sense as a joke about the incident (though, as she was
careful to admit, she was not there when it happened). For many
years the logbook associated with the incident and the actual bug
in question (a moth) sat in a display case at the Naval Surface
Warfare Center (NSWC). The entire story, with a picture of the
logbook and the moth taped into it, is recorded in the "Annals
of the History of Computing", Vol. 3, No. 3 (July 1981),
pp. 285--286.
The text of the log entry (from September 9, 1947), reads "1545
Relay #70 Panel F (moth) in relay. First actual case of bug being
found". This wording establishes that the term was already
in use at the time in its current specific sense -- and Hopper
herself reports that the term `bug' was regularly applied to
problems in radar electronics during WWII.
Indeed, the use of `bug' to mean an industrial defect was already
established in Thomas Edison's time, and a more specific and rather
modern use can be found in an electrical handbook from 1896
("Hawkin's New Catechism of Electricity", Theo. Audel & Co.)
which says: "The term `bug' is used to a limited extent to
designate any fault or trouble in the connections or working of
electric apparatus." It further notes that the term is "said to
have originated in quadruplex telegraphy and have been transferred
to all electric apparatus."
The latter observation may explain a common folk etymology of the
term; that it came from telephone company usage, in which "bugs in
a telephone cable" were blamed for noisy lines. Though this
derivation seems to be mistaken, it may well be a distorted memory
of a joke first current among *telegraph* operators more than
a century ago!
Actually, use of `bug' in the general sense of a disruptive event
goes back to Shakespeare! In the first edition of Samuel Johnson's
dictionary one meaning of `bug' is "A frightful object; a
walking spectre"; this is traced to `bugbear', a Welsh term for
a variety of mythological monster which (to complete the circle)
has recently been reintroduced into the popular lexicon through
fantasy role-playing games.
In any case, in jargon the word almost never refers to insects.
Here is a plausible conversation that never actually happened:
"There is a bug in this ant farm!"
"What do you mean? I don't see any ants in it."
"That's the bug."
A careful discussion of the etymological issues can be found in a
paper by Fred R. Shapiro, 1987, "Entomology of the Computer Bug:
History and Folklore", American Speech 62(4):376-378.
[There has been a widespread myth that the original bug was moved
to the Smithsonian, and an earlier version of this entry so
asserted. A correspondent who thought to check discovered that the
bug was not there. While investigating this in late 1990, your
editor discovered that the NSWC still had the bug, but had
unsuccessfully tried to get the Smithsonian to accept it -- and
that the present curator of their History of American Technology
Museum didn't know this and agreed that it would make a worthwhile
exhibit. It was moved to the Smithsonian in mid-1991, but due to
space and money constraints has not yet been exhibited. Thus, the
process of investigating the original-computer-bug bug fixed it in
an entirely unexpected way, by making the myth true! -- ESR]
bug-compatible: adj. Said of a design or revision that has
been badly compromised by a requirement to be compatible with
{fossil}s or {misfeature}s in other programs or (esp.)
previous releases of itself. "MS-DOS 2.0 used \ as a path
separator to be bug-compatible with some cretin's choice of / as an
option character in 1.0."
bug-for-bug compatible: n. Same as {bug-compatible}, with
the additional implication that much tedious effort went into
ensuring that each (known) bug was replicated.
bug-of-the-month club: n. A mythical club which users of
{sendmail} belong to; this was coined on the Usenet newsgroup
comp.security.unix at a time when sendmail security holes, which
allowed outside {cracker}s access to the system, were uncovered
at an alarming rate, forcing sysadmins to update very often. Also,
more completely, `fatal security bug-of-the-month club'.
buglix: /buhg'liks/ n. Pejorative term referring to
{DEC}'s ULTRIX operating system in its earlier *severely*
buggy versions. Still used to describe ULTRIX, but without nearly
so much venom. Compare {AIDX}, {HP-SUX}, {Nominal
Semidestructor}, {Telerat}, {sun-stools}.
bulletproof: adj. Used of an algorithm or implementation
considered extremely {robust}; lossage-resistant; capable of
correctly recovering from any imaginable exception condition -- a
rare and valued quality. Syn. {armor-plated}.
bum: 1. vt. To make highly efficient, either in time or
space, often at the expense of clarity. "I managed to bum three
more instructions out of that code." "I spent half the night
bumming the interrupt code." In {elder days}, John McCarthy
(inventor of {LISP}) used to compare some efficiency-obsessed
hackers among his students to "ski bums"; thus, optimization
became "program bumming", and eventually just "bumming". 2. To
squeeze out excess; to remove something in order to improve
whatever it was removed from (without changing function; this
distinguishes the process from a {featurectomy}). 3. n. A small
change to an algorithm, program, or hardware device to make it more
efficient. "This hardware bum makes the jump instruction
faster." usage: now uncommon, largely superseded by v. {tune}
(and n. {tweak}, {hack}), though none of these exactly
capture sense 2. All these uses are rare in Commonwealth hackish,
because in the parent dialects of English `bum' is a rude synonym
for `buttocks'.
bump: vt. Synonym for increment. Has the same meaning as
C's ++ operator. Used esp. of counter variables, pointers, and
index dummies in `for', `while', and `do-while'
loops.
burble: v. [from Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky"] Like
{flame}, but connotes that the source is truly clueless and
ineffectual (mere flamers can be competent). A term of deep
contempt. "There's some guy on the phone burbling about how he
got a DISK FULL error and it's all our comm software's fault."
This is mainstream slang in some parts of England.
buried treasure: n. A surprising piece of code found in some
program. While usually not wrong, it tends to vary from
{crufty} to {bletcherous}, and has lain undiscovered only
because it was functionally correct, however horrible it is. Used
sarcastically, because what is found is anything *but*
treasure. Buried treasure almost always needs to be dug up and
removed. "I just found that the scheduler sorts its queue using
{bubble sort}! Buried treasure!"
burn-in period: n. 1. A factory test designed to catch
systems with {marginal} components before they get out the door;
the theory is that burn-in will protect customers by outwaiting the
steepest part of the {bathtub curve} (see {infant
mortality}). 2. A period of indeterminate length in which a person
using a computer is so intensely involved in his project that he
forgets basic needs such as food, drink, sleep, etc. Warning:
Excessive burn-in can lead to burn-out. See {hack mode},
{larval stage}.
burst page: n. Syn. {banner}, sense 1.
busy-wait: vi. Used of human behavior, conveys that the
subject is busy waiting for someone or something, intends to move
instantly as soon as it shows up, and thus cannot do anything else
at the moment. "Can't talk now, I'm busy-waiting till Bill gets
off the phone."
Technically, `busy-wait' means to wait on an event by
{spin}ning through a tight or timed-delay loop that polls for
the event on each pass, as opposed to setting up an interrupt
handler and continuing execution on another part of the task. This
is a wasteful technique, best avoided on time-sharing systems where
a busy-waiting program may {hog} the processor.
buzz: vi. 1. Of a program, to run with no indication of
progress and perhaps without guarantee of ever finishing; esp.
said of programs thought to be executing tight loops of code. A
program that is buzzing appears to be {catatonic}, but never
gets out of catatonia, while a buzzing loop may eventually end of
its own accord. "The program buzzes for about 10 seconds trying
to sort all the names into order." See {spin}; see also
{grovel}. 2. [ETA Systems] To test a wire or printed circuit
trace for continuity by applying an AC rather than DC signal. Some
wire faults will pass DC tests but fail a buzz test. 3. To process
an array or list in sequence, doing the same thing to each element.
"This loop buzzes through the tz array looking for a terminator
type."
BWQ: /B-W-Q/ n. [IBM: abbreviation, `Buzz Word Quotient']
The percentage of buzzwords in a speech or documents. Usually
roughly proportional to {bogosity}. See {TLA}.
by hand: adv. 1. Said of an operation (especially a
repetitive, trivial, and/or tedious one) that ought to be performed
automatically by the computer, but which a hacker instead has to
step tediously through. "My mailer doesn't have a command to
include the text of the message I'm replying to, so I have to do it
by hand." This does not necessarily mean the speaker has to
retype a copy of the message; it might refer to, say, dropping into
a subshell from the mailer, making a copy of one's mailbox file,
reading that into an editor, locating the top and bottom of the
message in question, deleting the rest of the file, inserting `>'
characters on each line, writing the file, leaving the editor,
returning to the mailer, reading the file in, and later remembering
to delete the file. Compare {eyeball search}. 2. By extension,
writing code which does something in an explicit or low-level way
for which a presupplied library routine ought to have been
available. "This cretinous B-tree library doesn't supply a decent
iterator, so I'm having to walk the trees by hand."
byte: /bi:t/ n. [techspeak] A unit of memory or data equal to
the amount used to represent one character; on modern architectures
this is usually 8 bits, but may be 9 on 36-bit machines. Some
older architectures used `byte' for quantities of 6 or 7 bits, and
the PDP-10 supported `bytes' that were actually bitfields of
1 to 36 bits! These usages are now obsolete, and even 9-bit bytes
have become rare in the general trend toward power-of-2 word sizes.
Historical note: The term was coined by Werner Buchholz in 1956
during the early design phase for the IBM Stretch computer;
originally it was described as 1 to 6 bits (typical I/O equipment
of the period used 6-bit chunks of information). The move to an
8-bit byte happened in late 1956, and this size was later adopted
and promulgated as a standard by the System/360. The word was
coined by mutating the word `bite' so it would not be
accidentally misspelled as {bit}. See also {nybble}.
bytesexual: /bi:t`sek'shu-*l/ adj. Said of hardware,
denotes willingness to compute or pass data in either
{big-endian} or {little-endian} format (depending,
presumably, on a {mode bit} somewhere). See also {NUXI
problem}.
bzzzt, wrong: /bzt rong/ [Usenet/Internet] From a Robin
Williams routine in the movie "Dead Poets Society" spoofing
radio or TV quiz programs, such as *Truth or Consequences*,
where an incorrect answer earns one a blast from the buzzer and
condolences from the interlocutor. A way of expressing mock-rude
disagreement, usually immediately following an included quote from
another poster. The less abbreviated "*Bzzzzt*, wrong, but thank
you for playing" is also common; capitalization and emphasis of
the buzzer sound varies.