= C =
=====
C: n. 1. The third letter of the English alphabet. 2. ASCII
1000011. 3. The name of a programming language designed by Dennis
Ritchie during the early 1970s and immediately used to reimplement
{{UNIX}}; so called because many features derived from an earlier
compiler named `B' in commemoration of *its* parent, BCPL.
(BCPL was in turn descended from an earlier Algol-derived language,
CPL.) Before Bjarne Stroustrup settled the question by designing
C++, there was a humorous debate over whether C's successor should
be named `D' or `P'. C became immensely popular outside Bell Labs
after about 1980 and is now the dominant language in systems and
microcomputer applications programming. See also {languages of
choice}, {indent style}.
C is often described, with a mixture of fondness and disdain
varying according to the speaker, as "a language that combines
all the elegance and power of assembly language with all the
readability and maintainability of assembly language".
C Programmer's Disease: n. The tendency of the undisciplined
C programmer to set arbitrary but supposedly generous static limits
on table sizes (defined, if you're lucky, by constants in header
files) rather than taking the trouble to do proper dynamic storage
allocation. If an application user later needs to put 68 elements
into a table of size 50, the afflicted programmer reasons that he
or she can easily reset the table size to 68 (or even as much as
70, to allow for future expansion) and recompile. This gives the
programmer the comfortable feeling of having made the effort to
satisfy the user's (unreasonable) demands, and often affords the
user multiple opportunities to explore the marvelous consequences
of {fandango on core}. In severe cases of the disease, the
programmer cannot comprehend why each fix of this kind seems only
to further disgruntle the user.
calculator: [Cambridge] n. Syn. for {bitty box}.
can: vt. To abort a job on a time-sharing system. Used
esp. when the person doing the deed is an operator, as in
"canned from the {{console}}". Frequently used in an imperative
sense, as in "Can that print job, the LPT just popped a
sprocket!" Synonymous with {gun}. It is said that the ASCII
character with mnemonic CAN (0011000) was used as a kill-job
character on some early OSes. Alternatively, this term may derive
from mainstream slang `canned' for being laid off or fired.
can't happen: The traditional program comment for code
executed under a condition that should never be true, for example a
file size computed as negative. Often, such a condition being true
indicates data corruption or a faulty algorithm; it is almost
always handled by emitting a fatal error message and terminating or
crashing, since there is little else that can be done. Some case
variant of "can't happen" is also often the text emitted if the
`impossible' error actually happens! Although "can't happen"
events are genuinely infrequent in production code, programmers
wise enough to check for them habitually are often surprised at how
frequently they are triggered during development and how many
headaches checking for them turns out to head off. See also
{firewall code} (sense 2).
candygrammar: n. A programming-language grammar that is
mostly {syntactic sugar}; the term is also a play on
`candygram'. {COBOL}, Apple's Hypertalk language, and a lot
of the so-called `4GL' database languages share this property.
The usual intent of such designs is that they be as English-like as
possible, on the theory that they will then be easier for unskilled
people to program. This intention comes to grief on the reality
that syntax isn't what makes programming hard; it's the mental
effort and organization required to specify an algorithm precisely
that costs. Thus the invariable result is that `candygrammar'
languages are just as difficult to program in as terser ones, and
far more painful for the experienced hacker.
[The overtones from the old Chevy Chase skit on Saturday Night Live
should not be overlooked. This was a "Jaws" parody.
Someone lurking outside an apartment door tries all kinds of bogus
ways to get the occupant to open up, while ominous music plays in
the background. The last attempt is a half-hearted "Candygram!"
When the door is opened, a shark bursts in and chomps the poor
occupant. There is a moral here for those attracted to
candygrammars. Note that, in many circles, pretty much the same
ones who remember Monty Python sketches, all it takes is the word
"Candygram!", suitably timed, to get people rolling on the
floor. -- GLS]
canonical: adj. [historically, `according to religious law']
The usual or standard state or manner of something. This word has
a somewhat more technical meaning in mathematics. Two formulas
such as 9 + x and x + 9 are said to be equivalent
because they mean the same thing, but the second one is in
`canonical form' because it is written in the usual way, with the
highest power of x first. Usually there are fixed rules you
can use to decide whether something is in canonical form. The
jargon meaning, a relaxation of the technical meaning, acquired its
present loading in computer-science culture largely through its
prominence in Alonzo Church's work in computation theory and
mathematical logic (see {Knights of the Lambda Calculus}).
Compare {vanilla}.
This word has an interesting history. Non-technical academics do
not use the adjective `canonical' in any of the senses defined
above with any regularity; they do however use the nouns `canon'
and `canonicity' (not **canonicalness or **canonicality). The
`canon' of a given author is the complete body of authentic works
by that author (this usage is familiar to Sherlock Holmes fans as
well as to literary scholars). `*The* canon' is the body of
works in a given field (e.g., works of literature, or of art, or of
music) deemed worthwhile for students to study and for scholars to
investigate.
The word `canon' derives ultimately from the Greek
`kanon'
(akin to the English `cane') referring to a reed. Reeds were used
for measurement, and in Latin and later Greek the word `canon'
meant a rule or a standard. The establishment of a canon of
scriptures within Christianity was meant to define a standard or a
rule for the religion. The above non-techspeak academic usages
stem from this instance of a defined and accepted body of work.
Alongside this usage was the promulgation of `canons' (`rules')
for the government of the Catholic Church. The techspeak usages
("according to religious law") derive from this use of the Latin
`canon'.
Hackers invest this term with a playfulness that makes an ironic
contrast with its historical meaning. A true story: One Bob
Sjoberg, new at the MIT AI Lab, expressed some annoyance at the
incessant use of jargon. Over his loud objections, GLS and RMS
made a point of using as much of it as possible in his presence,
and eventually it began to sink in. Finally, in one conversation,
he used the word `canonical' in jargon-like fashion without
thinking. Steele: "Aha! We've finally got you talking jargon
too!" Stallman: "What did he say?" Steele: "Bob just used
`canonical' in the canonical way."
Of course, canonicality depends on context, but it is implicitly
defined as the way *hackers* normally expect things to be.
Thus, a hacker may claim with a straight face that `according to
religious law' is *not* the canonical meaning of
`canonical'.
card walloper: n. An EDP programmer who grinds out batch
programs that do stupid things like print people's paychecks.
Compare {code grinder}. See also {{punched card}},
{eighty-column mind}.
careware: /keir'weir/ n. A variety of {shareware} for
which either the author suggests that some payment be made to a
nominated charity or a levy directed to charity is included on top
of the distribution charge. Syn. {charityware}; compare
{crippleware}, sense 2.
cargo cult programming: n. A style of (incompetent)
programming dominated by ritual inclusion of code or program
structures that serve no real purpose. A cargo cult programmer
will usually explain the extra code as a way of working around some
bug encountered in the past, but usually neither the bug nor the
reason the code apparently avoided the bug was ever fully
understood (compare {shotgun debugging}, {voodoo
programming}).
The term `cargo cult' is a reference to aboriginal religions that
grew up in the South Pacific after World War II. The practices of
these cults center on building elaborate mockups of airplanes and
military style landing strips in the hope of bringing the return of
the god-like airplanes that brought such marvelous cargo during the
war. Hackish usage probably derives from Richard Feynman's
characterization of certain practices as "cargo cult science" in
his book "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman" (W. W. Norton
& Co, New York 1985, ISBN 0-393-01921-7).
cascade: n. 1. A huge volume of spurious error-message
output produced by a compiler with poor error recovery. Too
frequently, one trivial syntax error (such as a missing `)' or
`}') throws the parser out of synch so that much of the remaining
program text is interpreted as garbaged or ill-formed. 2. A chain
of Usenet followups, each adding some trivial variation or riposte
to the text of the previous one, all of which is reproduced in the
new message; an {include war} in which the object is to create a
sort of communal graffito.
case and paste: n. [from `cut and paste'] 1. The addition of a new
{feature} to an existing system by selecting the code from an
existing feature and pasting it in with minor changes. Common in
telephony circles because most operations in a telephone switch are
selected using `case' statements. Leads to {software bloat}.
In some circles of EMACS users this is called `programming by
Meta-W', because Meta-W is the EMACS command for copying a block of
text to a kill buffer in preparation to pasting it in elsewhere.
The term is condescending, implying that the programmer is acting
mindlessly rather than thinking carefully about what is required to
integrate the code for two similar cases.
At DEC, this is sometimes called `clone-and-hack' coding.
casters-up mode: n. [IBM, prob. fr. slang belly up] Yet
another synonym for `broken' or `down'. Usually connotes a
major failure. A system (hardware or software) which is `down'
may be already being restarted before the failure is noticed,
whereas one which is `casters up' is usually a good excuse to
take the rest of the day off (as long as you're not responsible for
fixing it).
casting the runes: n. What a {guru} does when you ask him
or her to run a particular program and type at it because it never
works for anyone else; esp. used when nobody can ever see what
the guru is doing different from what J. Random Luser does.
Compare {incantation}, {runes}, {examining the entrails};
also see the AI koan about Tom Knight in "{AI Koans}"
(Appendix A).
A correspondent from England tells us that one of ICL's most
talented systems designers used to be called out occasionally to
service machines which the {field circus} had given up on. Since he
knew the design inside out, he could often find faults simply by
listening to a quick outline of the symptoms. He used to play on
this by going to some site where the field circus had just spent
the last two weeks solid trying to find a fault, and spreading a
diagram of the system out on a table top. He'd then shake some
chicken bones and cast them over the diagram, peer at the bones
intently for a minute, and then tell them that a certain module
needed replacing. The system would start working again
immediately.
cat: [from `catenate' via {{UNIX}} `cat(1)'] vt.
1. [techspeak] To spew an entire file to the screen or some other
output sink without pause. 2. By extension, to dump large amounts
of data at an unprepared target or with no intention of browsing it
carefully. usage: considered silly. Rare outside UNIX sites. See
also {dd}, {BLT}.
Among UNIX fans, `cat(1)' is considered an excellent example
of user-interface design, because it delivers the file contents
without such verbosity as spacing or headers between the files, and
because it does not require the files to consist of lines of text,
but works with any sort of data.
Among UNIX haters, `cat(1)' is considered the {canonical}
example of *bad* user-interface design, because of its
woefully unobvious name. It is far more often used to {blast} a
file to standard output than to concatenate two files. The name
`cat' for the former operation is just as unintuitive as, say,
LISP's {cdr}.
Of such oppositions are {holy wars} made....
catatonic: adj. Describes a condition of suspended animation
in which something is so {wedged} or {hung} that it makes no
response. If you are typing on a terminal and suddenly the
computer doesn't even echo the letters back to the screen as you
type, let alone do what you're asking it to do, then the computer
is suffering from catatonia (possibly because it has crashed).
"There I was in the middle of a winning game of {nethack} and
it went catatonic on me! Aaargh!" Compare {buzz}.
cd tilde: /C-D til-d*/ vi. To go home. From the UNIX
C-shell and Korn-shell command `cd ~', which takes one to
one's `$HOME' (`cd' with no arguments happens to do the
same thing). By extension, may be used with other arguments; thus,
over an electronic chat link, `cd ~coffee' would mean "I'm
going to the coffee machine."
cdr: /ku'dr/ or /kuh'dr/ vt. [from LISP] To skip past
the first item from a list of things (generalized from the LISP
operation on binary tree structures, which returns a list
consisting of all but the first element of its argument). In the
form `cdr down', to trace down a list of elements: "Shall we cdr
down the agenda?" usage: silly. See also {loop through}.
Historical note: The instruction format of the IBM 7090 that hosted
the original LISP implementation featured two 15-bit fields called
the `address' and `decrement' parts. The term `cdr' was originally
`Contents of Decrement part of Register'. Similarly, `car' stood
for `Contents of Address part of Register'.
The cdr and car operations have since become bases for
formation of compound metaphors in non-LISP contexts. GLS recalls,
for example, a programming project in which strings were
represented as linked lists; the get-character and skip-character
operations were of course called CHAR and CHDR.
chad: /chad/ n. 1. The perforated edge strips on printer
paper, after they have been separated from the printed portion.
Also called {selvage} and {perf}. 2. obs. The confetti-like
paper bits punched out of cards or paper tape; this has also been
called `chaff', `computer confetti', and `keypunch
droppings'. This use may now be mainstream; it has been reported
seen (1993) in directions for a card-based voting machine in
California.
Historical note: One correspondent believes `chad' (sense 2)
derives from the Chadless keypunch (named for its inventor), which
cut little u-shaped tabs in the card to make a hole when the tab
folded back, rather than punching out a circle/rectangle; it was
clear that if the Chadless keypunch didn't make them, then the
stuff that other keypunches made had to be `chad'. There is an
legend that the word was originally acronymic, standing for
"Card Hole Aggregate Debris", but this has all the earmarks of
a bogus folk etymology.
chad box: n. A metal box about the size of a lunchbox (or in
some models a large wastebasket), for collecting the {chad}
(sense 2) that accumulated in {Iron Age} card punches. You had
to open the covers of the card punch periodically and empty the
chad box. The {bit bucket} was notionally the equivalent device
in the CPU enclosure, which was typically across the room in
another great gray-and-blue box.
chain: 1. vi. [orig. from BASIC's `CHAIN' statement]
To hand off execution to a child or successor without going
through the {OS} command interpreter that invoked it. The state
of the parent program is lost and there is no returning to it.
Though this facility used to be common on memory-limited micros and
is still widely supported for backward compatibility, the jargon
usage is semi-obsolescent; in particular, most UNIX programmers
will think of this as an {exec}. Oppose the more modern
`subshell'. 2. n. A series of linked data areas within an
operating system or application. `Chain rattling' is the process
of repeatedly running through the linked data areas searching for
one which is of interest to the executing program. The implication
is that there is a very large number of links on the chain.
channel: n. [IRC] The basic unit of discussion on {IRC}.
Once one joins a channel, everything one types is read by others on
that channel. Channels can either be named with numbers or with
strings that begin with a `#' sign and can have topic descriptions
(which are generally irrelevant to the actual subject of
discussion). Some notable channels are `#initgame',
`#hottub', and `#report'. At times of international
crisis, `#report' has hundreds of members, some of whom take
turns listening to various news services and typing in summaries of
the news, or in some cases, giving first-hand accounts of the
action (e.g., Scud missile attacks in Tel Aviv during the Gulf War
in 1991).
channel hopping: n. [IRC, GEnie] To rapidly switch channels
on {IRC}, or a GEnie chat board, just as a social butterfly
might hop from one group to another at a party. This term may
derive from the TV watcher's idiom, `channel surfing'.
channel op: /chan'l op/ n. [IRC] Someone who is endowed
with privileges on a particular {IRC} channel; commonly
abbreviated `chanop' or `CHOP'. These privileges include the
right to {kick} users, to change various status bits, and to
make others into CHOPs.
chanop: /chan'-op/ n. [IRC] See {channel op}.
char: /keir/ or /char/; rarely, /kar/ n. Shorthand for
`character'. Esp. used by C programmers, as `char' is C's
typename for character data.
charityware: /cha'rit-ee-weir`/ n. Syn. {careware}.
chase pointers: 1. vi. To go through multiple levels of
indirection, as in traversing a linked list or graph structure.
Used esp. by programmers in C, where explicit pointers are a very
common data type. This is techspeak, but it remains jargon when
used of human networks. "I'm chasing pointers. Bob said you
could tell me who to talk to about...." See {dangling
pointer} and {snap}. 2. [Cambridge] `pointer chase' or
`pointer hunt': The process of going through a {core dump}
(sense 1), interactively or on a large piece of paper printed with
hex {runes}, following dynamic data-structures. Used only in a
debugging context.
chawmp: n. [University of Florida] 16 or 18 bits (half of a
machine word). This term was used by FORTH hackers during the late
1970s/early 1980s; it is said to have been archaic then, and may
now be obsolete. It was coined in revolt against the promiscuous
use of `word' for anything between 16 and 32 bits; `word' has
an additional special meaning for FORTH hacks that made the
overloading intolerable. For similar reasons, /gaw'bl/ (spelled
`gawble' or possibly `gawbul') was in use as a term for 32 or
48 bits (presumably a full machine word, but our sources are
unclear on this). These terms are more easily understood if one
thinks of them as `chomp' and `gobble' pronounced in a Florida or
other Southern U.S. dialect. For general discussion of similar terms, see
{nybble}.
check: n. A hardware-detected error condition, most commonly
used to refer to actual hardware failures rather than
software-induced traps. E.g., a `parity check' is the result of
a hardware-detected parity error. Recorded here because the word
often humorously extended to non-technical problems. For example,
the term `child check' has been used to refer to the problems
caused by a small child who is curious to know what happens when
s/he presses all the cute buttons on a computer's console (of
course, this particular problem could have been prevented with
{molly-guard}s).
chemist: n. [Cambridge] Someone who wastes computer time
on {number-crunching} when you'd far rather the machine were
doing something more productive, such as working out anagrams of
your name or printing Snoopy calendars or running {life}
patterns. May or may not refer to someone who actually studies
chemistry.
Chernobyl chicken: n. See {laser chicken}.
Chernobyl packet: /cher-noh'b*l pak'*t/ n. A network
packet that induces a {broadcast storm} and/or {network
meltdown}, in memory of the April 1986 nuclear accident at
Chernobyl in Ukraine. The typical scenario involves an IP Ethernet
datagram that passes through a gateway with both source and
destination Ether and IP address set as the respective broadcast
addresses for the subnetworks being gated between. Compare
{Christmas tree packet}.
chicken head: n. [Commodore] The Commodore Business
Machines logo, which strongly resembles a poultry part. Rendered
in ASCII as `C='. With the arguable exception of the Amiga (see
{amoeba}), Commodore's machines are notoriously crocky little
{bitty box}es (see also {PETSCII}). Thus, this usage may owe
something to Philip K. Dick's novel "Do Androids Dream of
Electric Sheep?" (the basis for the movie "Blade Runner"; the
novel is now sold under that title), in which a `chickenhead' is
a mutant with below-average intelligence.
chiclet keyboard: n. A keyboard with a small, flat
rectangular or lozenge-shaped rubber or plastic keys that look like
pieces of chewing gum. (Chiclets is the brand name of a variety of
chewing gum that does in fact resemble the keys of chiclet
keyboards.) Used esp. to describe the original IBM PCjr
keyboard. Vendors unanimously liked these because they were cheap,
and a lot of early portable and laptop products got launched using
them. Customers rejected the idea with almost equal unanimity, and
chiclets are not often seen on anything larger than a digital watch
any more.
chine nual: /sheen'yu-*l/ n.,obs. [MIT] The LISP Machine
Manual, so called because the title was wrapped around the cover so
only those letters showed on the front.
Chinese Army technique: n. Syn. {Mongolian Hordes
technique}.
choad: n. Synonym for `penis' used in alt.tasteless and
popularized by the denizens thereof. They say: "We think maybe
it's from Middle English but we're all too damned lazy to check the
OED." [I'm not. It isn't. -- ESR] This term is alleged to have
been inherited through 1960s underground comics, and to have been
recently sighted in the Beavis and Butthead cartoons.
choke: v. 1. To reject input, often ungracefully. "NULs
make System V's `lpr(1)' choke." "I tried building an
{EMACS} binary to use {X}, but `cpp(1)' choked on all
those `#define's." See {barf}, {gag}, {vi}.
2. [MIT] More generally, to fail at any endeavor, but with some
flair or bravado; the popular definition is "to snatch defeat from
the jaws of victory."
chomp: vi. To {lose}; specifically, to chew on something
of which more was bitten off than one can. Probably related to
gnashing of teeth. See {bagbiter}.
A hand gesture commonly accompanies this. To perform it, hold the
four fingers together and place the thumb against their tips. Now
open and close your hand rapidly to suggest a biting action (much
like what Pac-Man does in the classic video game, though this
pantomime seems to predate that). The gesture alone means `chomp
chomp' (see "{Verb Doubling}" in the "{Jargon
Construction}" section of the Prependices). The hand may be
pointed at the object of complaint, and for real emphasis you can
use both hands at once. Doing this to a person is equivalent to
saying "You chomper!" If you point the gesture at yourself, it
is a humble but humorous admission of some failure. You might do
this if someone told you that a program you had written had failed
in some surprising way and you felt dumb for not having anticipated
it.
chomper: n. Someone or something that is chomping; a loser.
See {loser}, {bagbiter}, {chomp}.
CHOP: /chop/ n. [IRC] See {channel op}.
Christmas tree: n. A kind of RS-232 line tester or breakout
box featuring rows of blinking red and green LEDs suggestive of
Christmas lights.
Christmas tree packet: n. A packet with every single option
set for whatever protocol is in use. See {kamikaze packet},
{Chernobyl packet}. (The term doubtless derives from a fanciful
image of each little option bit being represented by a
different-colored light bulb, all turned on.)
chrome: n. [from automotive slang via wargaming] Showy features
added to attract users but contributing little or nothing to
the power of a system. "The 3D icons in Motif are just chrome,
but they certainly are *pretty* chrome!" Distinguished from
{bells and whistles} by the fact that the latter are usually
added to gratify developers' own desires for featurefulness.
Often used as a term of contempt.
chug: vi. To run slowly; to {grind} or {grovel}.
"The disk is chugging like crazy."
Church of the SubGenius: n. A mutant offshoot of
{Discordianism} launched in 1981 as a spoof of fundamentalist
Christianity by the `Reverend' Ivan Stang, a brilliant satirist
with a gift for promotion. Popular among hackers as a rich source
of bizarre imagery and references such as "Bob" the divine
drilling-equipment salesman, the Benevolent Space Xists, and the
Stark Fist of Removal. Much SubGenius theory is concerned with the
acquisition of the mystical substance or quality of {slack}.
Cinderella Book: [CMU] n. "Introduction to Automata
Theory, Languages, and Computation", by John Hopcroft and Jeffrey
Ullman, (Addison-Wesley, 1979). So called because the cover
depicts a girl (putatively Cinderella) sitting in front of a Rube
Goldberg device and holding a rope coming out of it. On the back
cover, the device is in shambles after she has (inevitably) pulled
on the rope. See also {{book titles}}.
CI$: // n. Hackerism for `CIS', CompuServe Information
Service. The dollar sign refers to CompuServe's rather steep line
charges. Often used in {sig block}s just before a CompuServe
address. Syn. {Compu$erve}.
Classic C: /klas'ik C/ [a play on `Coke Classic'] n. The
C programming language as defined in the first edition of {K&R},
with some small additions. It is also known as `K&R C'. The name
came into use while C was being standardized by the ANSI X3J11
committee. Also `C Classic'.
An analogous construction is sometimes applied elsewhere: thus,
`X Classic', where X = Star Trek (referring to the original TV
series) or X = PC (referring to IBM's ISA-bus machines as opposed
to the PS/2 series). This construction is especially used of
product series in which the newer versions are considered serious
losers relative to the older ones.
clean: 1. adj. Used of hardware or software designs, implies
`elegance in the small', that is, a design or implementation that
may not hold any surprises but does things in a way that is
reasonably intuitive and relatively easy to comprehend from the
outside. The antonym is `grungy' or {crufty}. 2. v. To
remove unneeded or undesired files in a effort to reduce clutter:
"I'm cleaning up my account." "I cleaned up the garbage and now
have 100 Meg free on that partition."
CLM: /C-L-M/ [Sun: `Career Limiting Move'] 1. n. An action
endangering one's future prospects of getting plum projects and
raises, and possibly one's job: "His Halloween costume was a
parody of his manager. He won the prize for `best CLM'." 2. adj.
Denotes extreme severity of a bug, discovered by a customer and
obviously missed earlier because of poor testing: "That's a CLM
bug!"
clobber: vt. To overwrite, usually unintentionally: "I
walked off the end of the array and clobbered the stack." Compare
{mung}, {scribble}, {trash}, and {smash the stack}.
clocks: n. Processor logic cycles, so called because each
generally corresponds to one clock pulse in the processor's timing.
The relative execution times of instructions on a machine are
usually discussed in clocks rather than absolute fractions of a
second; one good reason for this is that clock speeds for various
models of the machine may increase as technology improves, and it
is usually the relative times one is interested in when discussing
the instruction set. Compare {cycle}.
clone: n. 1. An exact duplicate: "Our product is a clone of
their product." Implies a legal reimplementation from
documentation or by reverse-engineering. Also connotes lower
price. 2. A shoddy, spurious copy: "Their product is a clone of
our product." 3. A blatant ripoff, most likely violating
copyright, patent, or trade secret protections: "Your product is a
clone of my product." This use implies legal action is pending.
4. `PC clone:' a PC-BUS/ISA or EISA-compatible 80x86-based
microcomputer (this use is sometimes spelled `klone' or
`PClone'). These invariably have much more bang for the buck
than the IBM archetypes they resemble. 5. In the construction
`UNIX clone': An OS designed to deliver a UNIX-lookalike
environment without UNIX license fees, or with additional
`mission-critical' features such as support for real-time
programming. 6. v. To make an exact copy of something. "Let me
clone that" might mean "I want to borrow that paper so I can make
a photocopy" or "Let me get a copy of that file before you
{mung} it".
clone-and-hack coding: n. [DEC] Syn. {case and paste}.
clover key: n. [Mac users] See {feature key}.
clustergeeking: /kluh'st*r-gee`king/ n. [CMU] Spending
more time at a computer cluster doing CS homework than most people
spend breathing.
COBOL: /koh'bol/ n. [COmmon Business-Oriented Language]
(Synonymous with {evil}.) A weak, verbose, and flabby language
used by {card walloper}s to do boring mindless things on
{dinosaur} mainframes. Hackers believe that all COBOL
programmers are {suit}s or {code grinder}s, and no
self-respecting hacker will ever admit to having learned the
language. Its very name is seldom uttered without ritual
expressions of disgust or horror. One popular one is Edsger
Dijkstra's famous observation that "The use of COBOL cripples the
mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal
offense." (from "Selected Writings on Computing: A Personal
Perspective") See also {fear and loathing}, {software
rot}.
COBOL fingers: /koh'bol fing'grz/ n. Reported from Sweden,
a (hypothetical) disease one might get from coding in COBOL. The
language requires code verbose beyond all reason (see
{candygrammar}); thus it is alleged that programming too much in
COBOL causes one's fingers to wear down to stubs by the endless
typing. "I refuse to type in all that source code again; it would
give me COBOL fingers!"
code grinder: n. 1. A {suit}-wearing minion of the sort
hired in legion strength by banks and insurance companies to
implement payroll packages in RPG and other such unspeakable
horrors. In its native habitat, the code grinder often removes the
suit jacket to reveal an underplumage consisting of button-down
shirt (starch optional) and a tie. In times of dire stress, the
sleeves (if long) may be rolled up and the tie loosened about half
an inch. It seldom helps. The {code grinder}'s milieu is about
as far from hackerdom as one can get and still touch a computer;
the term connotes pity. See {Real World}, {suit}. 2. Used
of or to a hacker, a really serious slur on the person's creative
ability; connotes a design style characterized by primitive
technique, rule-boundedness, {brute force}, and utter lack of
imagination. Compare {card walloper}; contrast {hacker},
{Real Programmer}.
Code of the Geeks: n. see {geek code}.
code police: n. [by analogy with George Orwell's `thought
police'] A mythical team of Gestapo-like storm troopers that might
burst into one's office and arrest one for violating programming
style rules. May be used either seriously, to underline a claim
that a particular style violation is dangerous, or ironically, to
suggest that the practice under discussion is condemned mainly by
anal-retentive {weenie}s. "Dike out that goto or the code
police will get you!" The ironic usage is perhaps more common.
codes: n. [scientific computing] Programs. This usage is common
in people who hack supercomputers and heavy-duty
{number-crunching}, rare to unknown elsewhere (if you say
"codes" to hackers outside scientific computing, their
first association is likely to be "and cyphers").
codewalker: n. A program component that traverses other
programs for a living. Compilers have codewalkers in their front
ends; so do cross-reference generators and some database front
ends. Other utility programs that try to do too much with source
code may turn into codewalkers. As in "This new `vgrind'
feature would require a codewalker to implement."
coefficient of X: n. Hackish speech makes heavy use of
pseudo-mathematical metaphors. Four particularly important
ones involve the terms `coefficient', `factor', `index', and
`quotient'. They are often loosely applied to things you cannot
really be quantitative about, but there are subtle distinctions
among them that convey information about the way the speaker
mentally models whatever he or she is describing.
`Foo factor' and `foo quotient' tend to describe something for
which the issue is one of presence or absence. The canonical
example is {fudge factor}. It's not important how much you're
fudging; the term simply acknowledges that some fudging is needed.
You might talk of liking a movie for its silliness factor.
Quotient tends to imply that the property is a ratio of two
opposing factors: "I would have won except for my luck quotient."
This could also be "I would have won except for the luck factor",
but using *quotient* emphasizes that it was bad luck
overpowering good luck (or someone else's good luck overpowering
your own).
`Foo index' and `coefficient of foo' both tend to imply
that foo is, if not strictly measurable, at least something that
can be larger or smaller. Thus, you might refer to a paper or
person as having a `high bogosity index', whereas you would be less
likely to speak of a `high bogosity factor'. `Foo index' suggests
that foo is a condensation of many quantities, as in the mundane
cost-of-living index; `coefficient of foo' suggests that foo is a
fundamental quantity, as in a coefficient of friction. The choice
between these terms is often one of personal preference; e.g., some
people might feel that bogosity is a fundamental attribute and thus
say `coefficient of bogosity', whereas others might feel it is a
combination of factors and thus say `bogosity index'.
cokebottle: /kohk'bot-l/ n. Any very unusual character,
particularly one you can't type because it it isn't on your
keyboard. MIT people used to complain about the
`control-meta-cokebottle' commands at SAIL, and SAIL people
complained right back about the `{altmode}-altmode-cokebottle'
commands at MIT. After the demise of the {space-cadet
keyboard}, `cokebottle' faded away as serious usage, but was
often invoked humorously to describe an (unspecified) weird or
non-intuitive keystroke command. It may be due for a second
inning, however. The OSF/Motif window manager, `mwm(1)', has
a reserved keystroke for switching to the default set of
keybindings and behavior. This keystroke is (believe it or not)
`control-meta-bang' (see {bang}). Since the exclamation point
looks a lot like an upside down Coke bottle, Motif hackers have
begun referring to this keystroke as `cokebottle'. See also
{quadruple bucky}.
cold boot: n. See {boot}.
COME FROM: n. A semi-mythical language construct dual to the
`go to'; `COME FROM'