Floppyshop 2/Floppyshop - 2.zip/Floppyshop - 2.iso/diskmags/0022-3.564/dmg-3413/news.txt/jargon.asc

Text File | 1989-04-05 | 14KB | 260 lines

                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                 ~  An Abecedary From The JARGON FILE  ~
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     The  Jargon File?   A dictionary of computer idiom,  usage and  slang
that's  been  growing on several American university  mainframes  for  the
last decade.   It's recently been published as a £15 <?> hardback, but the
text files that it consists of are P.D and are available on two D/S  discs
from  the  proverbial  'any good P.D library'....   have  you  ever  heard
anyone  say 'from any bad P.D library'?  The following entries are  a  few
'tasters' that we thought you might enjoy.


                             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

airplane rule: n. "Complexity increases the possibility of
   failure; a twin-engine airplane has twice as many engine problems
   as a single-engine airplane."  By analogy, in both software and
   electronics, the rule that simplicity increases robustness (see
   also {KISS Principle}).  It is correspondingly argued that the
   right way to build reliable systems is to design to put all your
   eggs in one basket, after making sure that you've built a
   *really good* basket.

bagbiter: /bag'biet-*r/ n.  1. Something, such as a program or a
   computer, that fails to work, or works in a remarkably clumsy
   manner.  Example: "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. adj. `bagbiting'
   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}).  4. `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.

   A program on the old MIT-AI PDP-10 called Lexiphage would first
   draw, on a selected victim's bitmapped terminal, the words "THE
   BAG" in gothic letters and then a pair of jaws biting pieces of it
   off.  This is the the first known example of a program
   *intended* to be a bagbiter.

Berkeley Quality Software: adj. (often abbreviated `BQS') Term used
   in a pejorative sense to refer to software which 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}.

blivet: [allegedly from a World War II military term meaning "ten
   pounds of manure in a five-pound bag"] n. 1. An intractable
   problem.  2. A crucial piece of hardware which 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 embaressing bug that pops up during a customer demo.

   This term has other meanings in other technical cultures; in
   particular, 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 which appears to depict a three-dimensional
   object until one realizes that the parts fit together in an
   impossible way.

bogo-sort: n. The archetypical perversely awful algorithm (as
   opposed to {bubble sort}, which is merely the generic *bad*
   algorithm).  Bogo-sort is equivalent to throwing a deck of cards in
   the air, picking them up, then testing whether they are in order.
   If not, repeat.  Used as a sort of canonical example of awfulness.
   Usage: when one is looking at a program and sees a dumb algorithm,
   one might say "Oh, I see, this program uses bogo-sort."  Compare
   {bogus}, {brute force}.

boot: [techspeak; from `by one's bootstraps'] v.,n. To load and
   initialize the operating system on a machine.  This usage is no
   longer jargon but has given rise to some derivatives which still
   are.

   The derivative `reboot' implies that the machine hasn't been
   down for long, even that the boot is a {bounce} intended to clear
   some state of {wedgitude}.  This is sometimes used of human
   thought processes, as in the following exchange: "You've lost
   me." "O.K., reboot.  Here's the theory...."

   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', re-initialization of only part of a
   system, under control of other software that's 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" or "I recommend booting it hard."

   Historical note: this term derives from `bootstrap loader', a short
   program which 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.

bug: n. An unwanted and unintended property of a program or hardware,
   esp. one which 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.)

   Some have said this term came from telephone company usage, in
   which "bugs in a telephone cable" were blamed for noisy lines,
   but this appears to be an incorrect folk etymology.  Admiral Grace
   Hopper (an early computing pioneer better known for inventing
   {COBOL}) liked to tell a story in which a technician solved a
   persistent {glitch} in the Harvard Mark II machine by pulling an
   actual physical bug 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;
   it now resides in the Smithsonian.  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, Volume 3, Number 3 (July
   1981), on pages 285--286.

   Interestingly, the text of the log entry (from September 9th,
   1945), which reads "1545 Relay #70 Panel F (moth) in relay.  First
   actual case of bug being found", seems to establish that the term
   was already in use at the time.  Indeed, the use of `bug' to mean
   an industrial defect was already established in Thomas Edison's
   time, and `bug' in the sense of an disruptive event goes back to
   Shakespeare!  In the First Edition of 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."

bug-compatible: n. Said of a design or revision the design of which
   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.

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.


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 his
   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 you 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, and utter lack of imagination.  Compare {card
   walloper}.


cokebottle: /kohk'bot-l/ n. Any very unusual character,
   particularly one that isn't on your keyboard so you can't type it.
   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, 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}.

core dump: n. [common {Iron Age} jargon, preserved by UNIX] 1. A
   copy of the contents of {core} produced when a process is aborted
   by certain kinds of internal error.  2. By extension, used for
   humans passing out, vomiting, or registering extreme shock.  "He
   dumped core.  All over the floor.  What a mess." "He heard about
   ... and dumped core."  3. Occasionally used for a human
   rambling on pointlessly at great length; esp. in apology: "Sorry I
   dumped core on you".  4. A recapitulation of knowledge (compare
   {bits}, sense 1).  Hence, spewing all one knows about a topic,
   esp. in a lecture or answer to an exam question.  "Short, concise
   answers are better than core dumps." (from the instructions to a
   qual exam at Columbia; compare {brain dump}).  See
   {core}.


crawling horror: n. Ancient crufty hardware or software that forces
   beyond the control of the hackers at a site refuse to let die.
   Like {dusty deck} or {gonkulator}, but connotes that the thing
   described is not just an irritation but an active menace to health
   and sanity.  "Mostly we code new stuff in C, but they pay us to
   maintain one big FORTRAN II application from nineteen-sixty-X
   that's a real crawling horror...."  Compare {WOMBAT}.


cyberspace: /sie'ber-spays/ n. 1. Notional `information-space'
   loaded with visual cues and navigable with brain-computer
   interfaces called `cyberspace decks'; a characteristic prop of
   {cyberpunk} SF.  At time of writing (mid-1991), serious efforts to
   construct {virtual reality} interfaces modelled explicitly on
   Gibsonian cyberspace are already under way, using more conventional
   devices such as glove sensors and binocular TV headsets.  Few
   hackers are prepared to outright deny the possibility of a
   cyberspace someday evolving out of the network (see {network,
   the}).  2. Occasionally, the metaphoric location of the mind of a
   person in {hack mode}.  Some hackers report experiencing strong
   eidetic imagery when in hack mode; interestingly, independent
   reports from multiple sources suggest that there are common
   features to the experience.  In particular, the dominant colors of
   this subjective `cyberspace' are often gray and silver, and the
   imagery often involves constellations of marching dots, elaborate
   shifting patterns of lines and angles, or moire patterns.



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