The Jargon Lexicon
= P =
=====
P-mail: n. Physical mail, as opposed to {email}. Synonymous
with {snail-mail}.
P.O.D.: /P-O-D/ Acronym for `Piece Of Data' (as opposed
to a code section). usage: pedantic and rare. See also {pod}.
padded cell: n. Where you put {luser}s so they can't hurt
anything. A program that limits a luser to a carefully restricted
subset of the capabilities of the host system (for example, the
`rsh(1)' utility on USG UNIX). Note that this is different
from an {iron box} because it is overt and not aimed at
enforcing security so much as protecting others (and the luser)
from the consequences of the luser's boundless naivete (see
{naive}). Also `padded cell environment'.
page in: v. [MIT] 1. To become aware of one's surroundings
again after having paged out (see {page out}). Usually confined
to the sarcastic comment: "Eric pages in, {film at 11}!"
2. Syn. `swap in'; see {swap}.
page out: vi. [MIT] 1. To become unaware of one's
surroundings temporarily, due to daydreaming or preoccupation.
"Can you repeat that? I paged out for a minute." See {page
in}. Compare {glitch}, {thinko}. 2. Syn. `swap out'; see
{swap}.
pain in the net: n. A {flamer}.
paper-net: n. Hackish way of referring to the postal
service, analogizing it to a very slow, low-reliability network.
Usenet {sig block}s sometimes include a "Paper-Net:" header
just before the sender's postal address; common variants of this
are "Papernet" and "P-Net". Note that the standard
{netiquette} guidelines discourage this practice as a waste of
bandwidth, since netters are quite unlikely to casually use postal
addresses. Compare {voice-net}, {snail-mail}, {P-mail}.
param: /p*-ram'/ n. Shorthand for `parameter'. See
also {parm}; compare {arg}, {var}.
PARC: n. See {XEROX PARC}.
parent message: n. What a {followup} follows up.
parity errors: pl.n. Little lapses of attention or (in more
severe cases) consciousness, usually brought on by having spent all
night and most of the next day hacking. "I need to go home and
crash; I'm starting to get a lot of parity errors." Derives from
a relatively common but nearly always correctable transient error
in RAM hardware. Parity errors can also afflict mass storage and
serial communication lines; this is more serious because not always
correctable.
Parkinson's Law of Data: prov. "Data expands to fill the
space available for storage"; buying more memory encourages the
use of more memory-intensive techniques. It has been observed over
the last 10 years that the memory usage of evolving systems tends
to double roughly once every 18 months. Fortunately, memory
density available for constant dollars also tends to double about
once every 12 months (see {Moore's Law}); unfortunately, the
laws of physics guarantee that the latter cannot continue
indefinitely.
parm: /parm/ n. Further-compressed form of {param}.
This term is an IBMism, and written use is almost unknown
outside IBM shops; spoken /parm/ is more widely distributed, but
the synonym {arg} is favored among hackers. Compare {arg},
{var}.
parse: [from linguistic terminology] vt. 1. To determine the
syntactic structure of a sentence or other utterance (close to the
standard English meaning). "That was the one I saw you." "I
can't parse that." 2. More generally, to understand or
comprehend. "It's very simple; you just kretch the glims and then
aos the zotz." "I can't parse that." 3. Of fish, to have to
remove the bones yourself. "I object to parsing fish", means "I
don't want to get a whole fish, but a sliced one is okay". A
`parsed fish' has been deboned. There is some controversy over
whether `unparsed' should mean `bony', or also mean
`deboned'.
Pascal:: n. An Algol-descended language designed by Niklaus
Wirth on the CDC 6600 around 1967--68 as an instructional tool for
elementary programming. This language, designed primarily to keep
students from shooting themselves in the foot and thus extremely
restrictive from a general-purpose-programming point of view, was
later promoted as a general-purpose tool and, in fact, became the
ancestor of a large family of languages including Modula-2 and
{{Ada}} (see also {bondage-and-discipline language}). The
hackish point of view on Pascal was probably best summed up by a
devastating (and, in its deadpan way, screamingly funny) 1981 paper
by Brian Kernighan (of {K&R} fame) entitled "Why Pascal is
Not My Favorite Programming Language", which was turned down by the
technical journals but circulated widely via photocopies. It was
eventually published in "Comparing and Assessing Programming
Languages", edited by Alan Feuer and Narain Gehani (Prentice-Hall,
1984). Part of his discussion is worth repeating here, because its
criticisms are still apposite to Pascal itself after ten years of
improvement and could also stand as an indictment of many other
bondage-and-discipline languages. At the end of a summary of the
case against Pascal, Kernighan wrote:
9. There is no escape
This last point is perhaps the most important. The language is
inadequate but circumscribed, because there is no way to escape
its limitations. There are no casts to disable the type-checking
when necessary. There is no way to replace the defective
run-time environment with a sensible one, unless one controls the
compiler that defines the "standard procedures". The language is
closed.
People who use Pascal for serious programming fall into a fatal
trap. Because the language is impotent, it must be extended.
But each group extends Pascal in its own direction, to make it
look like whatever language they really want. Extensions for
separate compilation, FORTRAN-like COMMON, string data types,
internal static variables, initialization, octal numbers, bit
operators, etc., all add to the utility of the language for one
group but destroy its portability to others.
I feel that it is a mistake to use Pascal for anything much
beyond its original target. In its pure form, Pascal is a toy
language, suitable for teaching but not for real programming.
Pascal has since been almost entirely displaced (by {C}) from the
niches it had acquired in serious applications and systems
programming, but retains some popularity as a hobbyist language in
the MS-DOS and Macintosh worlds.
pastie: /pay'stee/ n. An adhesive-backed label designed to
be attached to a key on a keyboard to indicate some non-standard
character which can be accessed through that key. Pasties are
likely to be used in APL environments, where almost every key is
associated with a special character. A pastie on the R key, for
example, might remind the user that it is used to generate the
rho character. The term properly refers to
nipple-concealing devices formerly worn by strippers in concession
to indecent-exposure laws; compare {tits on a keyboard}.
patch: 1. n. A temporary addition to a piece of code,
usually as a {quick-and-dirty} remedy to an existing bug or
misfeature. A patch may or may not work, and may or may not
eventually be incorporated permanently into the program.
Distinguished from a {diff} or {mod} by the fact that a patch
is generated by more primitive means than the rest of the program;
the classical examples are instructions modified by using the front
panel switches, and changes made directly to the binary executable
of a program originally written in an {HLL}. Compare
{one-line fix}. 2. vt. To insert a patch into a piece of code.
3. [in the UNIX world] n. A {diff} (sense 2). 4. A set of
modifications to binaries to be applied by a patching program. IBM
operating systems often receive updates to the operating system in
the form of absolute hexadecimal patches. If you have modified
your OS, you have to disassemble these back to the source. The
patches might later be corrected by other patches on top of them
(patches were said to "grow scar tissue"). The result was often
a convoluted {patch space} and headaches galore. 5. [UNIX] the
`patch(1)' program, written by Larry Wall, which automatically
applies a patch (sense 3) to a set of source code.
There is a classic story of a {tiger team} penetrating a secure
military computer that illustrates the danger inherent in binary
patches (or, indeed, any patches that you can't -- or don't ---
inspect and examine before installing). They couldn't find any
{trap door}s or any way to penetrate security of IBM's OS, so
they made a site visit to an IBM office (remember, these were
official military types who were purportedly on official business),
swiped some IBM stationery, and created a fake patch. The patch
was actually the trapdoor they needed. The patch was distributed
at about the right time for an IBM patch, had official stationery
and all accompanying documentation, and was dutifully installed.
The installation manager very shortly thereafter learned something
about proper procedures.
patch space: n. An unused block of bits left in a binary so
that it can later be modified by insertion of machine-language
instructions there (typically, the patch space is modified to
contain new code, and the superseded code is patched to contain a
jump or call to the patch space). The widening use of HLLs has
made this term rare; it is now primarily historical outside IBM
shops. See {patch} (sense 4), {zap} (sense 4), {hook}.
path: n. 1. A {bang path} or explicitly routed
{{Internet address}}; a node-by-node specification of a link
between two machines. 2. [UNIX] A filename, fully specified
relative to the root directory (as opposed to relative to the
current directory; the latter is sometimes called a `relative
path'). This is also called a `pathname'. 3. [UNIX and MS-DOS]
The `search path', an environment variable specifying the
directories in which the {shell} (COMMAND.COM, under MS-DOS)
should look for commands. Other, similar constructs abound under
UNIX (for example, the C preprocessor has a `search path' it
uses in looking for `#include' files).
pathological: adj. 1. [scientific computation] Used of a
data set that is grossly atypical of normal expected input, esp.
one that exposes a weakness or bug in whatever algorithm one is
using. An algorithm that can be broken by pathological inputs may
still be useful if such inputs are very unlikely to occur in
practice. 2. When used of test input, implies that it was
purposefully engineered as a worst case. The implication in both
senses is that the data is spectacularly ill-conditioned or that
someone had to explicitly set out to break the algorithm in order
to come up with such a crazy example. 3. Also said of an unlikely
collection of circumstances. "If the network is down and comes up
halfway through the execution of that command by root, the system
may just crash." "Yes, but that's a pathological case." Often
used to dismiss the case from discussion, with the implication that
the consequences are acceptable, since they will happen so
infrequently (if at all) that it doesn't seem worth going to the
extra trouble to handle that case (see sense 1).
payware: /pay'weir/ n. Commercial software. Oppose
{shareware} or {freeware}.
PBD: /P-B-D/ n. [abbrev. of `Programmer Brain Damage']
Applied to bug reports revealing places where the program was
obviously broken by an incompetent or short-sighted programmer.
Compare {UBD}; see also {brain-damaged}.
PC-ism: /P-C-izm/ n. A piece of code or coding technique
that takes advantage of the unprotected single-tasking environment
in IBM PCs and the like, e.g., by busy-waiting on a hardware
register, direct diddling of screen memory, or using hard timing
loops. Compare {ill-behaved}, {vaxism}, {unixism}. Also,
`PC-ware' n., a program full of PC-isms on a machine with a more
capable operating system. Pejorative.
PD: /P-D/ adj. Common abbreviation for `public domain',
applied to software distributed over {Usenet} and from Internet
archive sites. Much of this software is not in fact public domain
in the legal sense but travels under various copyrights granting
reproduction and use rights to anyone who can {snarf} a copy.
See {copyleft}.
PDL: /P-D-L/, /pid'l/, /p*d'l/ or /puhd'l/
1. n. `Program Design Language'. Any of a large class of formal
and profoundly useless pseudo-languages in which {management}
forces one to design programs. Too often, management expects PDL
descriptions to be maintained in parallel with the code, imposing
massive overhead to little or no benefit. See also {{flowchart}}.
2. v. To design using a program design language. "I've been
pdling so long my eyes won't focus beyond 2 feet." 3. n. `Page
Description Language'. Refers to any language which is used to
control a graphics device, usually a laserprinter. The most common
example is, of course, Adobe's {{PostScript}} language, but there
are many others, such as Xerox InterPress, etc.
pdl: /pid'l/ or /puhd'l/ n. [abbreviation for `Push Down
List'] 1. In ITS days, the preferred MITism for {stack}. See
{overflow pdl}. 2. Dave Lebling, one of the co-authors of
{Zork}; (his {network address} on the ITS machines was at one
time pdl@dms). 3. Rarely, any sense of {PDL}, as these are not
invariably capitalized.
PDP-10: n. [Programmed Data Processor model 10] The machine
that made timesharing real. It looms large in hacker folklore
because of its adoption in the mid-1970s by many university
computing facilities and research labs, including the MIT AI Lab,
Stanford, and CMU. Some aspects of the instruction set (most
notably the bit-field instructions) are still considered
unsurpassed. The 10 was eventually eclipsed by the VAX machines
(descendants of the PDP-11) when DEC recognized that the 10 and VAX
product lines were competing with each other and decided to
concentrate its software development effort on the more profitable
VAX. The machine was finally dropped from DEC's line in 1983,
following the failure of the Jupiter Project at DEC to build a
viable new model. (Some attempts by other companies to market
clones came to nothing; see {Foonly} and {Mars}.) This event
spelled the doom of {{ITS}} and the technical cultures that had
spawned the original Jargon File, but by mid-1991 it had become
something of a badge of honorable old-timerhood among hackers to
have cut one's teeth on a PDP-10. See {{TOPS-10}}, {{ITS}},
{AOS}, {BLT}, {DDT}, {DPB}, {EXCH}, {HAKMEM},
{JFCL}, {LDB}, {pop}, {push}.
PDP-20: n. The most famous computer that never was.
{PDP-10} computers running the {{TOPS-10}} operating system
were labeled `DECsystem-10' as a way of differentiating them from
the PDP-11. Later on, those systems running {TOPS-20} were labeled
`DECSYSTEM-20' (the block capitals being the result of a lawsuit
brought against DEC by Singer, which once made a computer called
`system-10'), but contrary to popular lore there was never a
`PDP-20'; the only difference between a 10 and a 20 was the
operating system and the color of the paint. Most (but not all)
machines sold to run TOPS-10 were painted `Basil Blue', whereas
most TOPS-20 machines were painted `Chinese Red' (often mistakenly
called orange).
peek: n.,vt. (and {poke}) The commands in most
microcomputer BASICs for directly accessing memory contents at an
absolute address; often extended to mean the corresponding
constructs in any {HLL} (peek reads memory, poke modifies it).
Much hacking on small, non-MMU micros consists of `peek'ing
around memory, more or less at random, to find the location where
the system keeps interesting stuff. Long (and variably accurate)
lists of such addresses for various computers circulate (see
{{interrupt list, the}}). The results of `poke's at these
addresses may be highly useful, mildly amusing, useless but neat,
or (most likely) total {lossage} (see {killer poke}).
Since a {real operating system} provides useful, higher-level
services for the tasks commonly performed with peeks and pokes on
micros, and real languages tend not to encourage low-level memory
groveling, a question like "How do I do a peek in C?" is
diagnostic of the {newbie}. (Of course, OS kernels often have to
do exactly this; a real C hacker would unhesitatingly, if
unportably, assign an absolute address to a pointer variable and
indirect through it.)
pencil and paper: n. An archaic information storage and
transmission device that works by depositing smears of graphite on
bleached wood pulp. More recent developments in paper-based
technology include improved `write-once' update devices which use
tiny rolling heads similar to mouse balls to deposit colored
pigment. All these devices require an operator skilled at
so-called `handwriting' technique. These technologies are
ubiquitous outside hackerdom, but nearly forgotten inside it. Most
hackers had terrible handwriting to begin with, and years of
keyboarding tend to have encouraged it to degrade further. Perhaps
for this reason, hackers deprecate pencil-and-paper technology and
often resist using it in any but the most trivial contexts.
peon: n. A person with no special ({root} or {wheel})
privileges on a computer system. "I can't create an account on
*foovax* for you; I'm only a peon there."
percent-S: /per-sent' es'/ n. [From the code in C's
`printf(3)' library function used to insert an arbitrary
string argument] An unspecified person or object. "I was just
talking to some percent-s in administration." Compare
{random}.
perf: /perf/ n. Syn. {chad} (sense 1). The term
`perfory' /per'f*-ree/ is also heard. The term {perf} may
also refer to the perforations themselves, rather than the chad
they produce when torn.
perfect programmer syndrome: n. Arrogance; the egotistical
conviction that one is above normal human error. Most frequently
found among programmers of some native ability but relatively
little experience (especially new graduates; their perceptions may
be distorted by a history of excellent performance at solving
{toy problem}s). "Of course my program is correct, there is no
need to test it." "Yes, I can see there may be a problem here,
but *I'll* never type `rm -r /' while in {root
mode}."
Perl: /perl/ n. [Practical Extraction and Report Language,
a.k.a Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister] An interpreted
language developed by Larry Wall , author
of `patch(1)' and `rn(1)') and distributed over Usenet.
Superficially resembles {awk}, but is much hairier, including
many facilities reminiscent of `sed(1)' and shell and a
comprehensive UNIX system-call interface. UNIX sysadmins, who are
almost always incorrigible hackers, increasingly consider it one of
the {languages of choice}. Perl has been described, in a parody
of a famous remark about `lex(1)', as the "Swiss-Army
chainsaw" of UNIX programming.
person of no account: n. [University of California at Santa
Cruz] Used when referring to a person with no {network address},
frequently to forestall confusion. Most often as part of an
introduction: "This is Bill, a person of no account, but he used
to be bill@random.com". Compare {return from the
dead}.
pessimal: /pes'im-l/ adj. [Latin-based antonym for
`optimal'] Maximally bad. "This is a pessimal situation."
Also `pessimize' vt. To make as bad as possible. These words are
the obvious Latin-based antonyms for `optimal' and `optimize',
but for some reason they do not appear in most English
dictionaries, although `pessimize' is listed in the OED.
pessimizing compiler: /pes'*-mi:z`ing k*m-pi:l'r/ n. A
compiler that produces object [antonym of `optimizing compiler']
code that is worse than the straightforward or obvious hand
translation. The implication is that the compiler is actually
trying to optimize the program, but through excessive cleverness is
doing the opposite. A few pessimizing compilers have been written
on purpose, however, as pranks or burlesques.
peta-: /pe't*/ pref [SI] See {{quantifiers}}.
PETSCII: /pet'skee/ n. [abbreviation of PET ASCII] The
variation (many would say perversion) of the {{ASCII}} character
set used by the Commodore Business Machines PET series of personal
computers and the later Commodore C64, C16, and C128 machines. The
PETSCII set used left-arrow and up-arrow (as in old-style ASCII)
instead of underscore and caret, placed the unshifted alphabet at
positions 65--90, put the shifted alphabet at positions 193--218,
and added graphics characters.
phage: n. A program that modifies other programs or
databases in unauthorized ways; esp. one that propagates a
{virus} or {Trojan horse}. See also {worm},
{mockingbird}. The analogy, of course, is with phage viruses in
biology.
phase: 1. n. The offset of one's waking-sleeping schedule
with respect to the standard 24-hour cycle; a useful concept among
people who often work at night and/or according to no fixed
schedule. It is not uncommon to change one's phase by as much as 6
hours per day on a regular basis. "What's your phase?" "I've
been getting in about 8 P.M. lately, but I'm going to {wrap
around} to the day schedule by Friday." A person who is roughly
12 hours out of phase is sometimes said to be in `night mode'.
(The term `day mode' is also (but less frequently) used, meaning
you're working 9 to 5 (or, more likely, 10 to 6).) The act of
altering one's cycle is called `changing phase'; `phase
shifting' has also been recently reported from Caltech.
2. `change phase the hard way': To stay awake for a very long
time in order to get into a different phase. 3. `change phase
the easy way': To stay asleep, etc. However, some claim that
either staying awake longer or sleeping longer is easy, and that it
is *shortening* your day or night that is really hard (see
{wrap around}). The `jet lag' that afflicts travelers who
cross many time-zone boundaries may be attributed to two distinct
causes: the strain of travel per se, and the strain of changing
phase. Hackers who suddenly find that they must change phase
drastically in a short period of time, particularly the hard way,
experience something very like jet lag without traveling.
phase of the moon: n. Used humorously as a random parameter
on which something is said to depend. Sometimes implies
unreliability of whatever is dependent, or that reliability seems
to be dependent on conditions nobody has been able to determine.
"This feature depends on having the channel open in mumble mode,
having the foo switch set, and on the phase of the moon." See
also {heisenbug}.
True story: Once upon a time there was a bug that really did depend
on the phase of the moon. There was a little subroutine that had
traditionally been used in various programs at MIT to calculate an
approximation to the moon's true phase. GLS incorporated this
routine into a LISP program that, when it wrote out a file, would
print a timestamp line almost 80 characters long. Very
occasionally the first line of the message would be too long and
would overflow onto the next line, and when the file was later read
back in the program would {barf}. The length of the first line
depended on both the precise date and time and the length of the
phase specification when the timestamp was printed, and so the bug
literally depended on the phase of the moon!
The first paper edition of the Jargon File (Steele-1983) included
an example of one of the timestamp lines that exhibited this bug,
but the typesetter `corrected' it. This has since been
described as the phase-of-the-moon-bug bug.
phase-wrapping: n. [MIT] Syn. {wrap around}, sense 2.
phreaker: n. One who engages in {phreaking}.
phreaking: /freek'ing/ n. [from `phone phreak'] 1. The
art and science of {cracking} the phone network (so as, for example,
to make free long-distance calls). 2. By extension,
security-cracking in any other context (especially, but not
exclusively, on communications networks) (see {cracking}).
At one time phreaking was a semi-respectable activity among
hackers; there was a gentleman's agreement that phreaking as an
intellectual game and a form of exploration was OK, but serious
theft of services was taboo. There was significant crossover
between the hacker community and the hard-core phone phreaks who
ran semi-underground networks of their own through such media as
the legendary "TAP Newsletter". This ethos began to break
down in the mid-1980s as wider dissemination of the techniques put
them in the hands of less responsible phreaks. Around the same
time, changes in the phone network made old-style technical
ingenuity less effective as a way of hacking it, so phreaking came
to depend more on overtly criminal acts such as stealing phone-card
numbers. The crimes and punishments of gangs like the `414 group'
turned that game very ugly. A few old-time hackers still phreak
casually just to keep their hand in, but most these days have
hardly even heard of `blue boxes' or any of the other
paraphernalia of the great phreaks of yore.
pico-: pref. [SI: a quantifier
meaning * 10^-12]
Smaller than {nano-}; used in the same rather loose
connotative way as {nano-} and {micro-}. This usage is not yet
common in the way {nano-} and {micro-} are, but should be
instantly recognizable to any hacker. See also {{quantifiers}},
{micro-}.
pig, run like a: v. To run very slowly on given hardware,
said of software. Distinct from {hog}.
pilot error: n. [Sun: from aviation] A user's
misconfiguration or misuse of a piece of software, producing
apparently buglike results (compare {UBD}). "Joe Luser
reported a bug in sendmail that causes it to generate bogus
headers." "That's not a bug, that's pilot error. His
`sendmail.cf' is hosed."
ping: [from the submariners' term for a sonar pulse] 1. n.
Slang term for a small network message (ICMP ECHO) sent by a
computer to check for the presence and alertness of another. The
UNIX command `ping(8)' can be used to do this manually (note
that `ping(8)''s author denies the widespread folk etymology
that the name was ever intended as acronym `Packet INternet
Groper'). Occasionally used as a phone greeting. See {ACK},
also {ENQ}. 2. vt. To verify the presence of. 3. vt. To get
the attention of. 4. vt. To send a message to all members of a
{mailing list} requesting an {ACK} (in order to verify that
everybody's addresses are reachable). "We haven't heard much of
anything from Geoff, but he did respond with an ACK both times I
pinged jargon-friends." 5. n. A quantum packet of happiness.
People who are very happy tend to exude pings; furthermore, one can
intentionally create pings and aim them at a needy party (e.g., a
depressed person). This sense of ping may appear as an
exclamation; "Ping!" (I'm happy; I am emitting a quantum of
happiness; I have been struck by a quantum of happiness). The form
"pingfulness", which is used to describe people who exude pings,
also occurs. (In the standard abuse of language, "pingfulness"
can also be used as an exclamation, in which case it's a much
stronger exclamation than just "ping"!). Oppose {blargh}.
The funniest use of `ping' to date was described in January 1991 by
Steve Hayman on the Usenet group comp.sys.next. He was trying
to isolate a faulty cable segment on a TCP/IP Ethernet hooked up to
a NeXT machine, and got tired of having to run back to his console
after each cabling tweak to see if the ping packets were getting
through. So he used the sound-recording feature on the NeXT, then
wrote a script that repeatedly invoked `ping(8)', listened for
an echo, and played back the recording on each returned packet.
Result? A program that caused the machine to repeat, over and
over, "Ping ... ping ... ping ..." as long as the
network was up. He turned the volume to maximum, ferreted through
the building with one ear cocked, and found a faulty tee connector
in no time.
Pink-Shirt Book: "The Peter Norton Programmer's Guide
to the IBM PC". The original cover featured a picture of Peter
Norton with a silly smirk on his face, wearing a pink shirt.
Perhaps in recognition of this usage, the current edition has a
different picture of Norton wearing a pink shirt. See also
{{book titles}}.
PIP: /pip/ vt.,obs. [Peripheral Interchange Program] To
copy; from the program PIP on CP/M, RSX-11, RSTS/E, TOPS-10, and
OS/8 (derived from a utility on the PDP-6) that was used for file
copying (and in OS/8 and RT-11 for just about every other file
operation you might want to do). It is said that when the program
was originated, during the development of the PDP-6 in 1963, it was
called ATLATL (`Anything, Lord, to Anything, Lord'; this played on
the Nahuatl word `atlatl' for a spear-thrower, with connotations
of utility and primitivity that were no doubt quite intentional).
See also {BLT}, {dd}, {cat}.
pistol: n. [IBM] A tool that makes it all too easy for you to
shoot yourself in the foot. "UNIX `rm *' makes such a nice
pistol!"
pixel sort: n. [Commodore users] Any compression routine
which irretrievably loses valuable data in the process of
{crunch}ing it. Disparagingly used for `lossy' methods such as
JPEG. The theory, of course, is that these methods are only used on
photographic images in which minor loss-of-data is not visible to
the human eye. The term `pixel sort' implies distrust of this
theory. Compare {bogo-sort}.
pizza box: n. [Sun] The largish thin box housing the electronics
in (especially Sun) desktop workstations, so named because of its
size and shape and the dimpled pattern that looks like air holes.
Two meg single-platter removable disk packs used to be called
pizzas, and the huge drive they were stuck into was referred to as
a pizza oven. It's an index of progress that in the old days just
the disk was pizza-sized, while now the entire computer is.
pizza, ANSI standard: /an'see stan'd*rd peet'z*/ [CMU]
Pepperoni and mushroom pizza. Coined allegedly because most pizzas
ordered by CMU hackers during some period leading up to mid-1990
were of that flavor. See also {rotary debugger}; compare
{tea, ISO standard cup of}.
plaid screen: n. [XEROX PARC] A `special effect' that
occurs when certain kinds of {memory smash}es overwrite the
control blocks or image memory of a bit-mapped display. The term
"salt and pepper" may refer to a different pattern of similar
origin. Though the term as coined at PARC refers to the result of
an error, some of the {X} demos induce plaid-screen effects
deliberately as a {display hack}.
plain-ASCII: /playn-as'kee/ Syn. {flat-ASCII}.
plan file: n. [UNIX] On systems that support {finger}, the
`.plan' file in a user's home directory is displayed when the user
is fingered. This feature was originally intended to be used to
keep potential fingerers apprised of one's location and near-future
plans, but has been turned almost universally to humorous and
self-expressive purposes (like a {sig block}). See also
{Hacking X for Y}.
A recent innovation in plan files has been the introduction of
"scrolling plan files" which are one-dimensional animations made
using only the printable ASCII character set, carriage return and
line feed, avoiding terminal specific escape sequences, since the
{finger} command will (for security reasons; see
{letterbomb}) not pass the escape character.
Scrolling .plan files have become art forms in miniature, and some
sites have started competitions to find who can create the longest
running, funniest, and most original animations. Various animation
characters include:
Centipede:
mmmmme
Lorry/Truck:
oo-oP
Andalusian Video Snail:
_@/
and a compiler (ASP) is available on Usenet for producing them.
See also {twirling baton}.
platinum-iridium: adj. Standard, against which all others of
the same category are measured. usage: silly. The notion is that
one of whatever it is has actually been cast in platinum-iridium
alloy and placed in the vault beside the Standard Kilogram at the
International Bureau of Weights and Measures near Paris. (From
1889 to 1960, the meter was defined to be the distance between two
scratches in a platinum-iridium bar kept in that same vault ---
this replaced an earlier definition as 10^(-7) times the
distance between the North Pole and the Equator along a meridian
through Paris; unfortunately, this had been based on an inexact
value of the circumference of the Earth. From 1960 to 1984 it was
defined to be 1650763.73 wavelengths of the orange-red line of
krypton-86 propagating in a vacuum. It is now defined as the
length of the path traveled by light in a vacuum in the time
interval of 1/299,792,458 of a second. The kilogram is now the
only unit of measure officially defined in terms of a unique
artifact.) "This garbage-collection algorithm has been tested
against the platinum-iridium cons cell in Paris." Compare
{golden}.
playpen: n. [IBM] A room where programmers work. Compare {salt
mines}.
playte: /playt/ 16 bits, by analogy with {nybble} and
{{byte}}. usage: rare and extremely silly. See also {dynner}
and {crumb}. General discussion of such terms is under
{nybble}.
plingnet: /pling'net/ n. Syn. {UUCPNET}. Also see
{{Commonwealth Hackish}}, which uses `pling' for {bang} (as
in {bang path}).
plokta: /plok't*/ v. [acronym: Press Lots Of Keys To
Abort] To press random keys in an attempt to get some response
from the system. One might plokta when the abort procedure for a
program is not known, or when trying to figure out if the system is
just sluggish or really hung. Plokta can also be used while trying
to figure out any unknown key sequence for a particular operation.
Someone going into `plokta mode' usually places both hands flat
on the keyboard and mashes them down, hoping for some useful
response.
A slightly more directed form of plokta can often be seen in mail
messages or Usenet articles from new users -- the text might end
with
^X^C
q
quit
:q
^C
end
x
exit
ZZ
^D
?
help
as the user vainly tries to find the right exit sequence, with the
incorrect tries piling up at the end of the message....
plonk: excl. [Usenet: possibly influenced by British slang
`plonk' for cheap booze, or `plonker' for someone behaving
stupidly (latter is lit. equivalent to Yiddish `schmuck')] The
sound a {newbie} makes as he falls to the bottom of a {kill
file}. While it originated in the {newsgroup}
talk.bizarre, this term (usually written "*plonk*") now
(1994) widespread on Usenet as a term of public ridicule.
plugh: /ploogh/ v. [from the {ADVENT} game] See
{xyzzy}.
plumbing: n. [UNIX] Term used for {shell} code, so called
because of the prevalence of `pipelines' that feed the output of
one program to the input of another. Under UNIX, user utilities
can often be implemented or at least prototyped by a suitable
collection of pipelines and temp-file grinding encapsulated in a
shell script; this is much less effort than writing C every time,
and the capability is considered one of UNIX's major winning
features. A few other OSs such as IBM's VM/CMS support similar
facilities. Esp. used in the construction `hairy plumbing'
(see {hairy}). "You can kluge together a basic spell-checker
out of `sort(1)', `comm(1)', and `tr(1)' with a
little plumbing." See also {tee}.
PM: /P-M/ 1. v. (from `preventive maintenance') To
bring down a machine for inspection or test purposes. See
{provocative maintenance}; see also {scratch monkey}.
2. n. Abbrev. for `Presentation Manager', an {elephantine} OS/2
graphical user interface.
pnambic: /p*-nam'bik/ [Acronym from the scene in the film
version of "The Wizard of Oz" in which the true nature of the
wizard is first discovered: "Pay no attention to the man behind
the curtain."] 1. A stage of development of a process or function
that, owing to incomplete implementation or to the complexity of
the system, requires human interaction to simulate or replace some
or all of the actions, inputs, or outputs of the process or
function. 2. Of or pertaining to a process or function whose
apparent operations are wholly or partially falsified.
3. Requiring {prestidigitization}.
The ultimate pnambic product was "Dan Bricklin's Demo", a program
which supported flashy user-interface design prototyping. There is
a related maxim among hackers: "Any sufficiently advanced
technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo." See
{magic}, sense 1, for illumination of this point.
pod: n. [allegedly from abbreviation POD for `Prince Of
Darkness'] A Diablo 630 (or, latterly, any letter-quality impact
printer). From the DEC-10 PODTYPE program used to feed formatted
text to it. Not to be confused with {P.O.D.}.
point-and-drool interface: n. Parody of the techspeak term
`point-and-shoot interface', describing a windows, icons, and
mouse-based interface such as is found on the Macintosh. The
implication, of course, is that such an interface is only suitable
for idiots. See {for the rest of us}, {WIMP environment},
{Macintrash}, {drool-proof paper}. Also `point-and-grunt
interface'.
poke: n.,vt. See {peek}.
poll: v.,n. 1. [techspeak] The action of checking the status
of an input line, sensor, or memory location to see if a particular
external event has been registered. 2. To repeatedly call or check
with someone: "I keep polling him, but he's not answering his
phone; he must be swapped out." 3. To ask. "Lunch? I poll for
a takeout order daily."
polygon pusher: n. A chip designer who spends most of his or
her time at the physical layout level (which requires drawing
*lots* of multi-colored polygons). Also `rectangle
slinger'.
POM: /P-O-M/ n. Common abbreviation for {phase of the
moon}. usage: usually in the phrase `POM-dependent', which means
{flaky}.
pop: /pop/ [from the operation that removes the top of a
stack, and the fact that procedure return addresses are usually
saved on the stack] (also capitalized `POP') 1. vt. To remove
something from a {stack} or {pdl}. If a person says he/she
has popped something from his stack, that means he/she has finally
finished working on it and can now remove it from the list of
things hanging overhead. 2. When a discussion gets to a level of
detail so deep that the main point of the discussion is being lost,
someone will shout "Pop!", meaning "Get back up to a higher
level!" The shout is frequently accompanied by an upthrust arm
with a finger pointing to the ceiling.
POPJ: /pop'J/ n.,v. [from a {PDP-10}
return-from-subroutine instruction] To return from a digression.
By verb doubling, "Popj, popj" means roughly "Now let's see,
where were we?" See {RTI}.
poser: n. A {wannabee}; not hacker slang, but used among
crackers, phreaks and {warez d00dz}. Not as negative as
{lamer} por {leech}. Probably derives from a similar usage
among punk-rockers and metalheads, putting down those who "talk
the talk but don't walk the walk".
post: v. To send a message to a {mailing list} or
{newsgroup}. Distinguished in context from `mail'; one might
ask, for example: "Are you going to post the patch or mail it to
known users?"
postcardware: n. A kind of {shareware} that borders on
{freeware}, in that the author requests only that satisfied
users send a postcard of their home town or something. (This
practice, silly as it might seem, serves to remind users that they
are otherwise getting something for nothing, and may also be
psychologically related to real estate `sales' in which $1
changes hands just to keep the transaction from being a gift.)
posting: n. Noun corresp. to v. {post} (but note that
{post} can be nouned). Distinguished from a `letter' or
ordinary {email} message by the fact that it is broadcast rather
than point-to-point. It is not clear whether messages sent to a
small mailing list are postings or email; perhaps the best dividing
line is that if you don't know the names of all the potential
recipients, it is a posting.
postmaster: n. The email contact and maintenance person at a
site connected to the Internet or UUCPNET. Often, but not always,
the same as the {admin}. The Internet standard for electronic
mail ({RFC}-822) requires each machine to have a `postmaster'
address; usually it is aliased to this person.
PostScript:: n. A Page Description Language ({PDL}),
based on work originally done by John Gaffney at Evans and
Sutherland in 1976, evolving through `JaM' (`John and Martin',
Martin Newell) at {XEROX PARC}, and finally implemented in its
current form by John Warnock et al. after he and Chuck Geschke
founded Adobe Systems Incorporated in 1982. PostScript gets its
leverage by using a full programming language, rather than a series
of low-level escape sequences, to describe an image to be printed
on a laser printer or other output device (in this it parallels
{EMACS}, which exploited a similar insight about editing tasks).
It is also noteworthy for implementing on-the fly rasterization,
from Bezier curve descriptions, of high-quality fonts at low (e.g.
300 dpi) resolution (it was formerly believed that hand-tuned
bitmap fonts were required for this task). Hackers consider
PostScript to be among the most elegant hacks of all time, and the
combination of technical merits and widespread availability has
made PostScript the language of choice for graphical output.
pound on: vt. Syn. {bang on}.
power cycle: vt. (also, `cycle power' or just `cycle')
To power off a machine and then power it on immediately, with the
intention of clearing some kind of {hung} or {gronk}ed state.
Syn. {120 reset}; see also {Big Red Switch}. Compare
{Vulcan nerve pinch}, {bounce} (sense 4), and {boot}, and
see the "{AI Koans}" (in Appendix A) about Tom Knight
and the novice.
power hit: n. A spike or drop-out in the electricity
supplying your machine; a power {glitch}. These can cause
crashes and even permanent damage to your machine(s).
PPN: /P-P-N/, /pip'n/ n. [from `Project-Programmer
Number'] A user-ID under {{TOPS-10}} and its various mutant
progeny at SAIL, BBN, CompuServe, and elsewhere. Old-time hackers
from the PDP-10 era sometimes use this to refer to user IDs on
other systems as well.
precedence lossage: /pre's*-dens los'*j/ n. [C
programmers] Coding error in an expression due to unexpected
grouping of arithmetic or logical operators by the compiler. Used
esp. of certain common coding errors in C due to the
nonintuitively low precedence levels of `&', `|',
`^', `<<', and `>>' (for this reason, experienced C
programmers deliberately forget the language's {baroque}
precedence hierarchy and parenthesize defensively). Can always be
avoided by suitable use of parentheses. {LISP} fans enjoy
pointing out that this can't happen in *their* favorite
language, which eschews precedence entirely, requiring one to use
explicit parentheses everywhere. See {aliasing bug}, {memory
leak}, {memory smash}, {smash the stack}, {fandango on
core}, {overrun screw}.
prepend: /pree`pend'/ vt. [by analogy with `append'] To
prefix. As with `append' (but not `prefix' or `suffix' as a
verb), the direct object is always the thing being added and not
the original word (or character string, or whatever). "If you
prepend a semicolon to the line, the translation routine will pass
it through unaltered."
prestidigitization: /pres`t*-di`j*-ti:-zay'sh*n/ n. 1. The
act of putting something into digital notation via sleight of hand.
2. Data entry through legerdemain.
pretty pictures: n. [scientific computation] The next step
up from {numbers}. Interesting graphical output from a program
that may not have any sensible relationship to the system the
program is intended to model. Good for showing to {management}.
prettyprint: /prit'ee-print/ v. (alt. `pretty-print')
1. To generate `pretty' human-readable output from a {hairy}
internal representation; esp. used for the process of
{grind}ing (sense 1) program code, and most esp. for LISP code.
2. To format in some particularly slick and nontrivial way.
pretzel key: n. [Mac users] See {feature key}.
priesthood: n.,obs. [TMRC] The select group of system
managers responsible for the operation and maintenance of a batch
operated computer system. On these computers, a user never had
direct access to a computer, but had to submit his/her data and
programs to a priest for execution. Results were returned days or
even weeks later. See {acolyte}.
prime time: n. [from TV programming] Normal high-usage hours
on a timesharing system; the day shift. Avoidance of prime time
was traditionally given as a major reason for {night mode}
hacking. The rise of the personal workstation has rendered this
term, along with timesharing itself, almost obsolete. The hackish
tendency to late-night {hacking run}s has changed not a bit.
printing discussion: n. [XEROX PARC] A protracted,
low-level, time-consuming, generally pointless discussion of
something only peripherally interesting to all.
priority interrupt: n. [from the hardware term] Describes
any stimulus compelling enough to yank one right out of {hack
mode}. Classically used to describe being dragged away by an
{SO} for immediate sex, but may also refer to more mundane
interruptions such as a fire alarm going off in the near vicinity.
Also called an {NMI} (non-maskable interrupt), especially in
PC-land.
profile: n. 1. A control file for a program, esp. a text
file automatically read from each user's home directory and
intended to be easily modified by the user in order to customize
the program's behavior. Used to avoid {hardcoded} choices (see
also {dot file}, {rc file}). 2. [techspeak] A report on the
amounts of time spent in each routine of a program, used to find
and {tune} away the {hot spot}s in it. This sense is often
verbed. Some profiling modes report units other than time (such as
call counts) and/or report at granularities other than per-routine,
but the idea is similar.
progasm: n. [University of Wisconsin] The euphoria
experienced upon the completion of a program or other
computer-related project.
proglet: /prog'let/ n. [UK] A short extempore program
written to meet an immediate, transient need. Often written in
BASIC, rarely more than a dozen lines long, and containing no
subroutines. The largest amount of code that can be written off
the top of one's head, that does not need any editing, and that
runs correctly the first time (this amount varies significantly
according to one's skill and the language one is using). Compare
{toy program}, {noddy}, {one-liner wars}.
program: n. 1. A magic spell cast over a computer allowing
it to turn one's input into error messages. 2. An exercise in
experimental epistemology. 3. A form of art, ostensibly intended
for the instruction of computers, which is nevertheless almost
inevitably a failure if other programmers can't understand it.
Programmer's Cheer: "Shift to the left! Shift to the
right! Pop up, push down! Byte! Byte! Byte!" A joke so old it
has hair on it.
programming: n. 1. The art of debugging a blank sheet of
paper (or, in these days of on-line editing, the art of debugging
an empty file). 2. A pastime similar to banging one's head against
a wall, but with fewer opportunities for reward. 3. The most fun
you can have with your clothes on (although clothes are not
mandatory).
programming fluid: n. 1. Coffee. 2. Cola. 3. Any
caffeinacious stimulant. Many hackers consider these essential for
those all-night hacking runs. See {wirewater}.
propeller head: n. Used by hackers, this is syn. with
{computer geek}. Non-hackers sometimes use it to describe all
techies. Prob. derives from SF fandom's tradition (originally
invented by old-time fan Ray Faraday Nelson) of propeller beanies
as fannish insignia (though nobody actually wears them except as a
joke).
propeller key: n. [Mac users] See {feature key}.
proprietary: adj. 1. In {marketroid}-speak, superior;
implies a product imbued with exclusive magic by the unmatched
brilliance of the company's own hardware or software designers.
2. In the language of hackers and users, inferior; implies a
product not conforming to open-systems standards, and thus one that
puts the customer at the mercy of a vendor able to gouge freely on
service and upgrade charges after the initial sale has locked the
customer in.
protocol: n. As used by hackers, this never refers to
niceties about the proper form for addressing letters to the Papal
Nuncio or the order in which one should use the forks in a
Russian-style place setting; hackers don't care about such things.
It is used instead to describe any set of rules that allow
different machines or pieces of software to coordinate with each
other without ambiguity. So, for example, it does include niceties
about the proper form for addressing packets on a network or the
order in which one should use the forks in the Dining Philosophers
Problem. It implies that there is some common message format and
an accepted set of primitives or commands that all parties involved
understand, and that transactions among them follow predictable
logical sequences. See also {handshaking}, {do protocol}.
provocative maintenance: [common ironic mutation of
`preventive maintenance'] Actions performed upon a machine at
regularly scheduled intervals to ensure that the system remains in
a usable state. So called because it is all too often performed by
a {field servoid} who doesn't know what he is doing; such
`maintenance' often *induces* problems, or otherwise
results in the machine's remaining in an *un*usable state for
an indeterminate amount of time. See also {scratch monkey}.
prowler: n. [UNIX] A {daemon} that is run periodically (typically
once a week) to seek out and erase {core} files, truncate
administrative logfiles, nuke `lost+found' directories, and
otherwise clean up the {cruft} that tends to pile up in the
corners of a file system. See also {GFR}, {reaper},
{skulker}.
pseudo: /soo'doh/ n. [Usenet: truncation of `pseudonym']
1. An electronic-mail or {Usenet} persona adopted by a human for
amusement value or as a means of avoiding negative repercussions of
one's net.behavior; a `nom de Usenet', often associated with
forged postings designed to conceal message origins. Perhaps the
best-known and funniest hoax of this type is {B1FF}. See also
{tentacle}. 2. Notionally, a {flamage}-generating AI program
simulating a Usenet user. Many flamers have been accused of
actually being such entities, despite the fact that no AI program
of the required sophistication yet exists. However, in 1989 there
was a famous series of forged postings that used a
phrase-frequency-based travesty generator to simulate the styles of
several well-known flamers; it was based on large samples of their
back postings (compare {Dissociated Press}). A significant
number of people were fooled by the forgeries, and the debate over
their authenticity was settled only when the perpetrator came
forward to publicly admit the hoax.
pseudoprime: n. A backgammon prime (six consecutive occupied
points) with one point missing. This term is an esoteric pun
derived from a mathematical method that, rather than determining
precisely whether a number is prime (has no divisors), uses a
statistical technique to decide whether the number is `probably'
prime. A number that passes this test was, before about 1985,
called a `pseudoprime' (the terminology used by number theorists
has since changed slightly; pre-1985 pseudoprimes are now
`probable primes' and `pseudoprime' has a more restricted meaning
in modular arithmetic). The hacker backgammon usage stemmed from
the idea that a pseudoprime is almost as good as a prime: it does
the job of a prime until proven otherwise, and that probably won't
happen.
pseudosuit: n. /soo'doh-s[y]oot`/ A {suit} wannabee; a
hacker who has decided that he wants to be in management or
administration and begins wearing ties, sport coats, and (shudder!)
suits voluntarily. It's his funeral. See also {lobotomy}.
psychedelicware: /si:`k*-del'-ik-weir/ n. [UK] Syn.
{display hack}. See also {smoking clover}.
psyton: /si:'ton/ n. [TMRC] The elementary particle carrying the
sinister force. The probability of a process losing is
proportional to the number of psytons falling on it. Psytons are
generated by observers, which is why demos are more likely to fail
when lots of people are watching. [This term appears to have been
largely superseded by {bogon}; see also {quantum bogodynamics}.
-- ESR]
pubic directory: n. [NYU] (also `pube directory' /pyoob'
d*-rek't*-ree/) The `pub' (public) directory on a machine that
allows {FTP} access. So called because it is the default
location for {SEX} (sense 1). "I'll have the source in the
pube directory by Friday."
puff: vt. To decompress data that has been crunched by
Huffman coding. At least one widely distributed Huffman decoder
program was actually *named* `PUFF', but these days it is
usually packaged with the encoder. Oppose {huff}.
punched card:: n.obs. [techspeak] (alt. `punch card') The
signature medium of computing's {Stone Age}, now obsolescent
outside of some IBM shops. The punched card actually predated
computers considerably, originating in 1801 as a control device for
mechanical looms. The version patented by Hollerith and used with
mechanical tabulating machines in the 1890 U.S. Census was a piece
of cardboard about 90 mm by 215 mm. There is a widespread myth
that it was designed to fit in the currency trays used for that
era's larger dollar bills, but recent investigations have falsified
this.
IBM (which originated as a tabulating-machine manufacturer) married
the punched card to computers, encoding binary information as
patterns of small rectangular holes; one character per column,
80 columns per card. Other coding schemes, sizes of card, and
hole shapes were tried at various times.
The 80-column width of most character terminals is a legacy of the
IBM punched card; so is the size of the quick-reference cards
distributed with many varieties of computers even today. See
{chad}, {chad box}, {eighty-column mind}, {green card},
{dusty deck}, {lace card}, {card walloper}.
punt: v. [from the punch line of an old joke referring to
American football: "Drop back 15 yards and punt!"] 1. To give up,
typically without any intention of retrying. "Let's punt the
movie tonight." "I was going to hack all night to get this
feature in, but I decided to punt" may mean that you've decided
not to stay up all night, and may also mean you're not ever even
going to put in the feature. 2. More specifically, to give up on
figuring out what the {Right Thing} is and resort to an
inefficient hack. 3. A design decision to defer solving a problem,
typically because one cannot define what is desirable sufficiently
well to frame an algorithmic solution. "No way to know what the
right form to dump the graph in is -- we'll punt that for now."
4. To hand a tricky implementation problem off to some other
section of the design. "It's too hard to get the compiler to do
that; let's punt to the runtime system."
Purple Book: n. 1. The "System V Interface Definition".
The covers of the first editions were an amazingly nauseating shade
of off-lavender. 2. Syn. {Wizard Book}. Donald Lewine's
"POSIX Programmer's Guide" (O'Reilly, 1991, ISBN
0-937175-73-0). See also {{book titles}}.
purple wire: n. [IBM] Wire installed by Field Engineers to work
around problems discovered during testing or debugging. These are
called `purple wires' even when (as is frequently the case) their
actual physical color is yellow.... Compare {blue wire},
{yellow wire}, and {red wire}.
push: [from the operation that puts the current information
on a stack, and the fact that procedure return addresses are saved
on a stack] (Also PUSH /push/ or PUSHJ /push'J/, the latter
based on the PDP-10 procedure call instruction.) 1. To put
something onto a {stack} or {pdl}. If one says that
something has been pushed onto one's stack, it means that the
Damoclean list of things hanging over ones's head has grown longer
and heavier yet. This may also imply that one will deal with it
*before* other pending items; otherwise one might say that the
thing was `added to my queue'. 2. vi. To enter upon a
digression, to save the current discussion for later. Antonym of
{pop}; see also {stack}, {pdl}.