% VAX-11 Librarian V03-00@|(( W5k69ANGLEAOS^ARG AUTOMAGICALLY8BAGBITER BANG DBAR BARF BIGNUMS BIN <BINARY BLETCH fBLTJBOGOSITYBOGUSBOUNCEz BRAIN_DAMAGED>BREAKdBROKEN BROKETBUCKY(BUGBUMBUZZv CANONICAL CATATONIACDR.CHOMPOSE COKEBOTTLECOMCONNECTOR_CONSPXCONSCRASH CRETIN RCRLF CROCK"nCRUFTY#LCRUNCHfCLOSE COKEBOTTLECOMCONNECTOR_CONSPXCONSCRASH CRETIN RCRLF CROCK"nCRUFTY#LCRUNCH%CTY%fCUSPY&DAEMON(DAY_MODE)DEADLOCK*DEADLY_EMBRACE*DEMENTED+$DEMON-DIABLO-DIDDLE.DIKE.DDMP/ DOWN.z DO_PROTOCOL/DPB0:DRAGON1ENGLISH24EPSILON2EXCH30EXCL3EXE3FAULTY3lFEATURE5FEEP62FENCEPOST_ERROR7FINE7jFLAG~CHOMPDRAGON FUDGE_FACTORHIRSUTE\ MICROTAPEpPPN SOFTWARE_ROTTWEAKZEROHIANGf1ENGLISH24EPSILON2EXCH30EXCL3EXE3FAULTY3lFEATURE5FEEP62FENCEPOST_ERROR7FINE7jFLAG8FLAKEY80FLAME9 FLAP96FLAVOR:6 FLAVORFUL:FLUSH;:FOO<FRIED<FROB= FROBNICATE>FROBNITZ?FROG@FROTZ@FRYAFTPA0FUDGEBH FUDGE_FACTORCGABRIELD`GARBAGE_COLLECTDGARPLYDGASFJGCFNGEDANKENG GLASS_TTYHGLITCHI2GLORKIGOBBLErCGABRIELD`GARBAGE_COLLECTDGARPLYDGASFJGCFNGEDANKENG GLASS_TTYHGLITCHI2GLORKIGOBBLEJGORPJvGRINDKGRITCHKlGROKLLGRONKMvGROVELMZGRUNGYN`HACKQHACKERStHACKISHSHAIRSHAIRYTHAKMEMTHANDWAVEV` HARDWARILYV HELLO_WALLHELPVLHIRSUTEW HUMONGOUSW:HUNGUSXTIMPCOMXINFINITEX.IRPYJFCLYJIFFYZJOCKZrJRSTZ>J_RANDOM|(1 AOS< (aus (East coast) ay-ahs (West coast)) [based on a PDP-10A increment instruction] v. To increase the amount of something.: "Aos the campfire." Usage: considered silly. See SOS.ww t|(1 ANGLE? BRACKETS (primarily MIT) n. Either of the characters "<" and ">". See BROKET.ww|(1 ARGC n. Abbreviation for "argument" (to a function), used so often as to have become a new word.ww`|(1 AUTOMA GICALLY: adv. Automatically, but in a way which, for some reasonD (typically because it is too complicated, or too ugly, or perhapsF even too trivial), I don't feel like explaining to you. See MAGIC.C Example: Some programs which produce XGP output files spool them automagically.ww|( 1 BAGBITER1 1. n. Equipment or program that fails, usuallyD intermittently. 2. BAGBITING: adj. Failing hardware or software.D "This bagbiting system won't let me get out of spacewar." Usage:B verges on obscenity. Grammatically separable; one may speak ofF "biting the bag". Synonyms: LOSER, LOSING, CRETINOUS, BLETCHEROUS,! BARFUCIOUS, CHOMPER, CHOMPING.ww@|(1 BANGD n. Common alternate name for EXCL (q.v.), especially at CMU. See SHRIEK.ww|(1 BARE 1. The second metasyntactic variable, after FOO. "Suppose we haveF two functions FOO and BAR. FOO calls BAR..." 2. Often appended to FOO to produc e FOOBAR.ww"|(1 BARF@ [from the "layman" slang, meaning "vomit"] 1. interj. Term ofE disgust. See BLETCH. 2. v. Choke, as on input. May mean to giveC an error message. "The function `=' compares two fixnums or twoC flonums, and barfs on anything else." 3. BARFULOUS, BARFUCIOUS:C adj. Said of something which would make anyone barf, if only for aesthetic reasons.ww/|( 1 BIGNUMSA [from Macsyma] n. 1. In backgammon, large numbers o n the dice.C 2. Multiple-precision (sometimes infinitely extendable) integersF and, through analogy, any very large numbers. 3. EL CAMINO BIGNUM:D El Camino Real, a street through the San Francisco peninsula thatC originally extended (and still appears in places) all the way to@ Mexico City. It was termed "El Camino Double Precision" when? someone noted it was a very long street, and then "El CaminoF Bignum" when it was pointed out that it was hundreds of miles long.ww `|(1 BIN> [short for BINARY; used as a second file name on ITS] 1. n.A BINARY. 2. BIN FILE: A file containing the BIN for a program.A Usage: used at MIT, which runs on ITS. The equivalent term atF Stanford is DMP (pronounced "dump") FILE. Other names used includeA SAV ("save") FILE (DEC and Tenex), SHR ("share") and LOW FILES@ (DEC), and EXE ("ex'ee") FILE (DEC and Twenex). Also in thisA category are the input files to the various flavors of linking6 loaders (LOADER, LINK-10, STINK), called REL FILES.ww@J|(1 BINARY$ n. The object code for a program.ww|(1 BLETCH; [from German "brechen", to vomit (?)] 1. interj. Term ofC disgust. 2. BLETCHEROUS: adj. Disgusting in design or function.: "This keyboard is bletcherous!" Usage: slightly comic.wwW|(1 BLT? (blit, very rarely belt) [based on the PDP-10 block transferE instruction; confusing to users of the PDP-11] 1. v. To t ransfer aE large contiguous package of information from one place to another.B 2. THE BIG BLT: n. Shuffling operation on the PDP-10 under someC operating systems that consumes a significant amount of computerE time. 3. (usually pronounced B-L-T) n. Sandwich containing bacon, lettuce, and tomato.wwd|( 1 BOGOSITY= n. The degree to which something is BOGUS (q.v.). At CMU,D bogosity is measured with a bogometer; typical use: in a seminar,B when a speake r says something bogus, a listener might raise hisE hand and say, "My bogometer just triggered." The agreed-upon unit& of bogosity is the microLenat (uL).wwr|(1 BOGUSC (WPI, Yale, Stanford) adj. 1. Non-functional. "Your patches areF bogus." 2. Useless. "OPCON is a bogus program." 3. False. "YourC arguments are bogus." 4. Incorrect. "That algorithm is bogus."D 5. Silly. "Stop writing those bogus sagas." (This word seems to: have some, but not all, of the connotations of RANDOM.)F [Etymological note from Lehman/Reid at CMU: "Bogus" was originallyD used (in this sense) at Princeton, in the late 60's. It was usedB not particularly in the CS department, but all over campus. ItC came to Yale, where one of us (Lehman) was an undergraduate, andD (we assume) elsewhere through the efforts of Princeton alumni whoA brought the word with them from their alma mater. In the YaleE case, the alumnus is Michael Shamos, who was a graduate student atD Yale and is now a faculty member here. A glossary of bogus wordsB was compiled at Yale when the word was first popularized (e.g.,5 autobogophobia: the fear of becoming bogotified).]ww|(1 BOUNCE< (Stanford) v. To play volleyball. "Bounce, bounce! Stop: wasting time on the computer and get out to the court!"ww` |(1 BRAIN_DAMAGED7 [generalization of "Honeywell Brain Damage" (HBD), aF theoretical disease invented to exp lain certain utter cretinisms inC Multics] adj. Obviously wrong; cretinous; demented. There is anC implication that the person responsible must have suffered brainB damage, because he should have known better. Calling something? brain-damaged is really bad; it also implies it is unusable.ww@|(1 BREAKB v. 1. To cause to be broken (in any sense). "Your latest patchE to the system broke the TELNET server." 2. (of a program) To stopB temporarily, so that it may be examined for debugging purposes., The place where it stops is a BREAKPOINT.ww:|(1 BROKEN; adj. 1. Not working properly (of programs). 2. BehavingD strangely; especially (of people), exhibiting extreme depression.ww H|(1 BROKET= [by analogy with "bracket": a "broken bracket"] (primarilyC Stanford) n. Either of the characters "<" and ">". (At MIT, andA apparently in The Real World (q.v.) as well, these are usually called ANGLE BRACKETS.)ww`U|(1 BUCKYA BITS (primarily Stanford) n. The bits produced by the CTRL and6 META shift keys on a Stanford (or Knight) keyboard.F DOUBLE BUCKY: adj. Using both the CTRL and META keys. "The command' to burn all LEDs is double bucky F."wwb}(1 BUGC [from telephone terminology, "bugs in a telephone cable", blamed? for noisy lines] n. An unwanted and unintended property of a program. See FEATURE.ww@}(1 BUMD 1. v. To make highly efficient, either in time or space, often at8 the expense of clarity. "I managed to bum three moreB instructions." 2. n. A small change to an algorithm to make it) more efficient. Usage: somewhat rare.ww}(1 BUZZ? v. To run in a very tight loop, perhaps without guarantee of getting out.ww }( 1 CANONICAL; adj. The usual or standard state or manner of something.C A true story: One Bob Sjoberg, new at the MIT AI Lab, expressedE some annoyance at the use of jargon. Over his loud objections, weD made a point of using jargon as much as possible in his presence,E 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: "He just used `canonical' in the canonical way."ww}( 1 CATATONIA= (kat-uh-toe'-nee-uh) n. A condition of suspended animation8 in which the system is in a wedged (CATATONIC) state.ww}(1 CDR? (ku'der) [from LISP] v. With "down", to trace down a list of< elements. "Shall we cdr down the agenda?" Usage: silly.ww }(1 CHOMP@ v. To lose; to chew on something of which more was bitten off= than one can. Probably related to gnashing of teeth. SeeE BAGBITER. A hand gesture commonly accompanies this, consisting ofC the four fingers held together as if in a mitten or hand puppet,C and the fingers and thumb open and close rapidly to illustrate a@ biting action. The gesture alone means CHOMP CHOMP (see Verb Doubling).wwF}(1 CLOSE@ n. Abbreviation for "close (or right) parenthesis", used when4 necessary to eliminate oral ambiguity. See OPEN.ww }( 1 COKEBOTTLE< n. Any very unusual character. MIT people complain aboutB the " control-meta-cokebottle" commands at SAIL, and SAIL peopleC complain about the "altmode-altmode-cokebottle" commands at MIT.ww`#}(1 COME MODE (variant: COMM MODE) [from the ITS feature for linking two orF more terminals together so that text typed on any is echoed on all,B providing a means of conversation among hackers] n. The state aE terminal is in when linked to another in this way. Com mode has aB special set of jargon words, used to save typing, which a re not used orally: BCNU Be seeing you. BTW By the way...C BYE? Are you ready to unlink? (This is the standard way to? end a com mode conversation; the other person types@ BYE to confirm, or else continues the conversation.) CUL See you later.C FOO? A greeting, also meaning R U THERE? Often used in the> case of unexpected links, meaning also "Sorry if I9 butted in" (linker) or "What's up?" (linkee) .$ FYI For your information...> GA Go ahead (used when two people have tried to type; simultaneously; this cedes the right to type to the other).? HELLOP A greeting, also meaning R U THERE? (An instance$ of the "-P" convention.)- NIL No (see the main entry for NIL). OBTW Oh, by the way...# R U THERE? Are you there?6 SEC Wait a second (sometimes written SEC...)., T Yes (see the main ent ry for T). TNX Thanks.1 TNX 1.0E6 Thanks a million (humorous).A When the typing party has finished, he types? two CRLF's to signal that he is done; this leaves a; blank line between individual "speeches" in the9 conversation, making it easier to re-read the preceding text.B : When three or more terminals are linked, each speechB is preceded by the typist's login name and a colon (or @ a hyphen) to indicate who is typing. The login name= often is shortened to a unique prefix (possibly a; single letter) during a very long conversation.F At Stanford, where the link feature is implemented by "talk loops",F the term TALK MODE is used in place of COM MODE. Most of the above1 "sub-jargon" is used at both Stanford and MIT.ww.}(1 CONNECTOR_CONSPE As in CONNECTOR CONSPIRACY [probably came into prominence with theC  appearance of the KL-10, none of whose connectors match anything< else] n. The tendency of manufacturers (or, by extension,E programmers or purveyors of anything) to come up with new productsF which don't fit together with the old stuff, thereby making you buy7 either all new stuff or expensive interface devices.ww1}(1 CONSA [from LISP] 1. v. To add a new element to a list. 2. CONS UP:A v. To synthesize from smaller pieces: "to cons up an example".ww C6}(1 CRASHC 1. n. A sudden, usually drastic failure. Most often said of theC system (q.v., definition #1), sometimes of magnetic disk drives.F "Three lusers lost their files in last night's disk crash." A diskE crash which entails the read/write heads dropping onto the surfaceE of the disks and scraping off the oxide may also be referred to asA a "head crash". 2. v. To fail suddenly. "Has the system justA crashed?" Also used transitively to indicate the! cause of theA crash (usually a person or a program, or both). "Those idiotsC playing spacewar crashed the system." Sometimes said of people. See GRONK OUT.ww:}(1 CRETIN9 1. n. Congenital loser (q.v.). 2. CRETINOUS: adj. See: BLETCHEROUS and BAGBITING. Usage: somewhat ad hominem.ww=}(1 CRLFC (cur'lif, sometimes crul'lif) n. A carriage return (CR) followed$ by a line feed (LF). See TERPRI.wwC}(1 CROCKC ["probably from "layman" slang, which in turn may be derived fromB "crock of shit"] n. An awkward feature or programming techniqueC that ought to be made cleaner. Example: Using small integers toE represent error codes without the program interpreting them to theF user is a crock. Also, a technique that works acceptably but whichC is quite prone to failure if disturbed in the least, for exampleE depending on the machine opcodes having particular bit patterns soD that you can #use instructions as data words too; a tightly woven,, almost completely unmodifiable structure.ww4P}(1 CRUFTYA [from "cruddy"] adj. 1. Poorly built, possibly overly complex.F "This is standard old crufty DEC software". Hence CRUFT, n. shoddyD construction. 2. Unpleasant, especially to the touch, often withF encrusted junk. Like spilled coffee smeared with peanut butter andF catsup. Hence CRUFT, n. disgusting mess. 3. Generally unpleasant.C CRUFTY or CRUFT $IE n. A small crufty object (see FROB); often oneF which doesn't fit well into the scheme of things. "A LISP property> list is a good place to store crufties (or, random cruft)."? [Note: Does CRUFT have anything to do with the Cruft Lab atA Harvard? I don't know, though I was a Harvard student. - GLS]wwi\}(1 CRUNCH? v. 1. To process, usually in a time-consuming or complicated; way. Connotes an essentially trivial operation which is> nonetheless painful% to perform. The pain may be due to theF triviality being imbedded in a loop from 1 to 1000000000. "FORTRAND programs do mostly number crunching." 2. To reduce the size of a@ file by a complicated scheme that produces bit configurationsB completely unrelated to the original data, such as by a HuffmanB code. (The file ends up looking like a paper document would ifC somebody crunched the paper into a wad.) Since such compression? usually takes more computations than simpler me&thods such asC counting repeated characters (such as spaces) the term is doublyB appropriate. (This meaning is usually used in the constructionC "file crunch(ing)" to distinguish it from "number crunch(ing)".)wwh}(1 CTYA (city) n. The terminal physically associated with a computer's operating console.wwn}(1 CUSPY@ [from the DEC acronym CUSP, for Commonly Used System Program,C i.e., a utility program used by many people] (WPI) adj. ' 1. (of aF program) Well-written. 2. Functionally excellent. A program whichB performs well and interfaces well to users is cuspy. See RUDE.wwLs}(1 DAEMONB (day'mun, dee'mun) [archaic form of "demon", which has slightlyC different connotations (q.v.)] n. A program which is not invokedF explicitly, but which lays dormant waiting for some condition(s) toE occur. The idea is that the perpetrator of the condition need notA be aware that a daemon is lurking ((though often a program willA commit an action only because it knows that it will implicitlyF invoke a daemon). For example, writing a file on the lpt spooler'sD directory will invoke the spooling daemon, which prints the file.D The advantage is that programs which want (in this example) filesE printed need not compete for access to the lpt. They simply enterD their implicit requests and let the daemon decide what to do withF them. Daemons are usually spawned automatically by ) the system, andB may either live forever or be regenerated at intervals. Usage:F DAEMON and DEMON (q.v.) are often used interchangeably, but seem toE have distinct connotations. DAEMON was introduced to computing byB CTSS people (who pronounced it dee'mon) and used it to refer toB what is now called a DRAGON or PHANTOM (q.v.). The meaning andB pronunciation have drifted, and we think this glossary reflects current usage.wwz}( 1 DAY_MODE See PHASE (of * people).wwt|}( 1 DEADLOCK= n. A situation wherein two or more processes are unable toB proceed because each is waiting for another to do something. AC common example is a program communicating to a PTY or STY, whichE may find itself waiting for output from the PTY/STY before sendingB anything more to it, while the PTY/STY is similarly waiting forF more input from the controlling program before outputting anything.> (This particular flavor of deadlock is ca+lled "starvation".A Another common flavor is "constipation", where each process isF trying to send stuff to the other, but all buffers are full because4 nobody is reading anything.) See DEADLY EMBRACE.ww`}(1 DEADLY_EMBRACE7 n. Same as DEADLOCK (q.v.), though usually used onlyB when exactly two processes are involved. DEADLY EMBRACE is the> more popular term in Europe; DEADLOCK in the United States.ww}( 1 DEMENTED? adj. Yet another term , of disgust used to describe a program.F The connotation in this case is that the program works as designed,F but the design is bad. For example, a program that generates largeD numbers of meaningless error messages implying it is on the point of imminent collapse.ww=}(1 DEMON; (dee'mun) n. A portion of a program which is not invokedF explicitly, but which lays dormant waiting for some condition(s) toB occur. See DAEMON. The distinction is that demons a -re usuallyA processes within a program, while daemons are usually programsE running on an operating system. Demons are particularly common inD AI programs. For example, a knowledge manipulation program might@ implement inference rules as demons. Whenever a new piece ofC knowledge was added, various demons would activate (which demons< depends on the particular piece of data) and would create> additional pieces of knowledge by applying their respectiveD inference rules to .the original piece. These new pieces could inD turn activate more demons as the inferences filtered down throughC chains of logic. Meanwhile the main program could continue with! whatever its primary task was.ww`ё}(1 DIABLO< (dee-ah'blow) [from the Diablo printer] 1. n. Any letter-C quality printing device. 2. v. To produce letter-quality output from such a device.wwޔ}(1 DIDDLE< v. To work with in a not particularly serious manner. /"IB diddled with a copy of ADVENT so it didn't double-space all theB time." "Let's diddle this piece of code and see if the problem& goes away." See TWEAK and TWIDDLE.wwr}(1 DIKEA [from "diagonal cutters"] v. To remove a module or disable it. "When in doubt, dike it out."ww }(1 DMP (dump) See BIN.ww`}( 1 DO_PROTOCOL7 [from network protocol programming] v. To perform an@ interaction with somebody or somethin0g that follows a clearlyF defined procedure. For example, "Let's do protocol with the check"E at a restaurant means to ask the waitress for the check, calculateC the tip and everybody's share, generate change as necessary, and pay the bill.ww@}(1 DOWNC 1. adj. Not working. "The up escalator is down." 2. TAKE DOWN,B BRING DOWN: v. To deactivate, usually for repair work. See UP.ww}(1 DPBD (duh-pib') [from the PDP-10 instruction set 1] v. To plop something down in the middle.ww}(1 DRAGONB n. (MIT) A program similar to a "daemon" (q.v.), except that itF is not invoked at all, but is instead used by the system to performE various secondary tasks. A typical example would be an accountingD program, which keeps track of who is logged in, accumulates load-D average statistics, etc. At MIT, all free TV's display a list ofE people logged in, where they are, what they're running, etc. along> 2 with some random picture (such as a unicorn, Snoopy, or theE Enterprise) which is generated by the "NAME DRAGON". See PHANTOM.ww@Ϯ}( 1 ENGLISH8 n. The source code for a program, which may be in anyB language, as opposed to BINARY. Usage: slightly obsolete, usedB mostly by old-time hackers, though recognizable in context. AtF MIT, directory SYSENG is where the "English" for system programs isC kept, and SYSBIN, the binaries. SAIL has many such directories,3& but the canonical one is [CSP,SYS].wwܱ}( 1 EPSILON@ [from standard mathematical notation for a small quantity] 1.D n. A small quantity of anything. "The cost is epsilon." 2. adj.@ Very small, negligible; less than marginal. "We can get thisA feature for epsilon cost." 3. WITHIN EPSILON OF: Close enough6 to be indistinguishable for all practical purposes.ww}}(1 EXCH< (ex'chuh, ekstch) [from the PDP-10 instruction set] v. To+ excha4nge two things, each for the other.ww}(1 EXCL@ (eks'cul) n. Abbreviation for "exclamation point". See BANG, SHRIEK, WOW.ww}(1 EXE (ex'ee) See BIN.ww,}(1 FAULTY@ adj. Same denotation as "bagbiting", "bletcherous", "losing",, q.v., but the connotation is much milder.ww@9}( 1 FEATURE@ n. 1. A surprising property of a program. Occasionally docu-F mented. To call a property a feature sometimes 5 means the author ofD the program did not consider the particular case, and the programC makes an unexpected, although not strictly speaking an incorrectD response. See BUG. "That's not a bug, that's a feature!" A bugF can be changed to a feature by documenting it. 2. A well-known andE beloved property; a facility. Sometimes features are planned, butC are called crocks by others. An approximately correct spectrum:F (These terms are all used to describe programs or porti 6ons thereof,B except for the first two, which are included for completeness.)3 CRASH STOPPAGE BUG SCREW LOSS MISFEATURE8 CROCK KLUGE HACK WIN FEATURE PERFECTION) (The last is never actually attained.)ww`}(1 FEEPC 1. n. The soft bell of a display terminal (except for a VT-52!);F a beep. 2. v. To cause the display to make a feep sound. TTY's do? not have feeps. Alternate forms: BEEP, BLEEP, or just aboutA anything suitably onomato 7poeic. The term BREEDLE is sometimesB heard at SAIL, where the terminal bleepers are not particularlyF "soft" (they sound more like the musical equivalent of sticking outC one's tongue). The "feeper" on a VT-52 has been compared to the, sound of a '52 Chevy stripping its gears.ww@n}(1 FENCEPOST_ERROR6 n. The discrete equivalent of a boundary condition.F Often exhibited in programs by iterative loops. From the followingC problem: "If you build a fence 100 8feet long with posts ten feetC apart, how many posts do you need?" (Either 9 or 11 is a better answer than the obvious 10.)ww}(1 FINED (WPI) adj. Good, but not good enough to be CUSPY. [The word FINED is used elsewhere, of course, but without the implicit comparison) to the higher level implied by CUSPY.]ww}(1 FLAG? DAY [from a bit of Multics history involving a change in the> ASCII character set originally scheduled for June 14,9 1966]= n. A software change which is neither forward nor backward@ compatible, and which is costly to make and costly to revert.B "Can we install that without causing a flag day for all users?"ww}(1 FLAKEY3 adj. Subject to frequent lossages. See LOSSAGE.ww}(1 FLAME< v. To speak incessantly and/or rabidly on some relatively@ uninteresting subject or with a patently ridiculous attitude.0 FLAME ON: v. To continue to flame. See RAVE. :ww }(1 FLAP@ v. To unload a DECtape (so it goes flap, flap, flap...). OldA hackers at MIT tell of the days when the disk was device 0 andA microtapes were 1, 2,... and attempting to flap device 0 would@ instead start a motor banging inside a cabinet near the disk!ww5~(1 FLAVORB n. 1. Variety, type, kind. "DDT commands come in two flavors."@ 2. The attribute of causing something to be FLAVORFUL. "This= convention yields additional flavor; by allowing one to..." See VANILLA.ww@B~( 1 FLAVORFUL: adj. Aesthetically pleasing. See RANDOM and LOSING for+ antonyms. See also the entry for TASTE.ww~(1 FLUSH= v. 1. To delete something, usually superfluous. "All thatE nonsense has been flushed." Standard ITS terminology for abortingC an output operation. 2. To leave at the end of a day's work (asD opposed to leaving for a meal). "I'm going to flush now." "Time6 to fl <ush." 3. To exclude someone from an activity.ww` ~(1 FOOC 1. [from Yiddish "feh" or the Anglo-Saxon "fooey!"] interj. TermB of disgust. 2. [from FUBAR (Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition),E from WWII, often seen as FOOBAR] Name used for temporary programs,F or samples of three-letter names. Other similar words are BAR, BAZF (Stanford corruption of BAR), and rarely RAG. These have been used@ in Pogo as well. 3. Used very generally as a sample name forC abs =olutely anything. The old `Smokey Stover' comic strips oftenB included the word FOO, in particular on license plates of cars. MOBY FOO: See MOBY.ww@w~(1 FRIEDA adj. 1. Non-working due to hardware failure; burnt out. 2. OfF people, exhausted. Said particularly of those who continue to workF in such a state. Often used as an explanation or excuse. "Yeah, IF know that fix destroyed the file system, but I was fried when I put it in."ww~( >1 FROBB 1. n. (MIT) The official Tech Model Railroad Club definition isC "FROB = protruding arm or trunnion", and by metaphoric extensionF any somewhat small thing. See FROBNITZ. 2. v. Abbreviated form of FROBNICATE.ww~( 1 FROBNICATE6 v. To manipulate or adjust, to tweak. Derived fromC FROBNITZ (q.v.). Usually abbreviated to FROB. Thus one has theA saying "to frob a frob". See TWEAK and TWIDDLE. Usage: FROB,A TWIDDLE, and TWEAK sometimes conn ?ote points along a continuum.= FROB connotes aimless manipulation; TWIDDLE connotes grossB manipulation, often a coarse search for a proper setting; TWEAK< connotes fine-tuning. If someone is turning a knob on anC oscilloscope, then if he's carefully adjusting it he is probablyE tweaking it; if he is just turning it but looking at the screen heF is probably twiddling it; but if he's just doing it because turning# a knob is fun, he's frobbing it.ww@~( 1 FR @OBNITZ,9 pl. FROBNITZEM (frob'nitsm) n. An unspecified physicalB object, a widget. Also refers to electronic black boxes. ThisA rare form is usually abbreviated to FROTZ, or more commonly to- FROB. Also used are FROBNULE and FROBULE.ww~(1 FROGA (variant: PHROG) 1. interj. Term of disgust (we seem to have aF lot of them). 2. Used as a name for just about anything. See FOO.E 3. n. Of things, a crock. Of people, somewhere inbetween a turkeyE and aA toad. 4. Jake Brown (FRG@SAIL). 5. FROGGY: adj. Similar to@ BAGBITING (q.v.), but milder. "This froggy program is taking forever to run!"ww`M$~(1 FROTZ@ 1. n. See FROBNITZ. 2. MUMBLE FROTZ: An interjection of very mild disgust.wwZ'~(1 FRY> v. 1. To fail. Said especially of smoke-producing hardwareE failures. 2. More generally, to become non-working. Usage: never= said of software, only of hardware and humans. See FRIED.ww Bg*~(1 FTPA (spelled out, NOT pronounced "fittip") 1. n. The File TransferF Protocol for transmitting files between systems on the ARPAnet. 2.E v. To transfer a file using the File Transfer Program. "Lemme get3 this copy of Wuthering Heights FTP'd from SAIL."ww u-~(1 FUDGEC 1. v. To perform in an incomplete but marginally acceptable way,D particularly with respect to the writing of a program. "I didn'tD feel like going through that pain a Cnd suffering, so I fudged it." 2. n. The resulting code.ww 2~(1 FUDGE_FACTOR: n. A value or parameter that is varied in an ad hoc wayC to produce the desired result. The terms "tolerance" and "slop"C are also used, though these usually indicate a one-sided leeway,C such as a buffer which is made larger than necessary because oneC isn't sure exactly how large it needs to be, and it is better toF waste a little space than to lose completely for not having e Dnough.B A fudge factor, on the other hand, can often be tweaked in moreB than one direction. An example might be the coefficients of anD equation, where the coefficients are varied in an attempt to make% the equation fit certain criteria.ww#8~( 1 GABRIEL@ [for Dick Gabriel, SAIL volleyball fanatic] n. An unnecessaryF (in the opinion of the opponent) stalling tactic, e.g., tying one'sD shoelaces or hair repeatedly, asking the time, etc. Also used to> referE to the perpetrator of such tactics. Also, "pulling a Gabriel", "Gabriel mode".ww>>~(1 GARBAGE_COLLECT$ v., GARBAGE COLLECTION n. See GC.ww@KA~(1 GARPLY> n. (Stanford) Another meta-word popular among SAIL hackers.wwXD~(1 GASA [as in "gas chamber"] interj. 1. A term of disgust and hatred,@ implying that gas should be dispensed in generous quantities,D thereby exterminating the source of irritation. "Some loser justB rFeloaded the system for no reason! Gas!" 2. A term suggestingD that someone or something ought to be flushed out of mercy. "TheB system's wedging every few minutes. Gas!" 3. v. FLUSH (q.v.).> "You should gas that old crufty software." 4. GASEOUS adj.= Deserving of being gassed. Usage: primarily used by GeoffF Goodfellow at SRI, but spreading; became particularly popular afterF the Moscone/Milk murders in San Francisco, when it was learned thatD Dan White (who supported PropGosition 7) would get the gas chamber under 7 if convicted.wwsJ~(1 GCC [from LISP terminology] 1. v. To clean up and throw away uselessA things. "I think I'll GC the top of my desk today." 2. v. ToF recycle, reclaim, or put to another use. 3. n. An instantiation of the GC process.wwO~( 1 GEDANKEN= [from Einstein's term "gedanken-experimenten", such as theE standard proof that E=mc^2] adj. An AI project which is written upF in gran Hd detail without ever being implemented to any great extent.E Usually perpetrated by people who aren't very good hackers or findE programming distasteful or are just in a hurry. A gedanken thesisB is usually marked by an obvious lack of intuition about what is@ programmable and what is not and about what does and does notE constitute a clear specification of a program-related concept such as an algorithm.wwS~( 1 GLASS_TTY> n. A terminal which has a displ Iay screen but which, becauseB of hardware or software limitations, behaves like a teletype orD other printing terminal. An example is the ADM-3 (without cursorD control). A glass tty can't do neat display hacks, and you can't save the output either.ww@Y~(1 GLITCH9 [from the Yiddish "glitshen", to slide] 1. n. A suddenA interruption in electric service, sanity, or program function.A Sometimes recoverable. 2. v. To commit a glitch. See GRITCH./ 3. v. ( JStanford) To scroll a display screen.ww I^~(1 GLORKA 1. interj. Term of mild surprise, usually tinged with outrage,C as when one attempts to save the results of two hours of editingE and finds that the system has just crashed. 2. Used as a name forF just about anything. See FOO. 3. v. Similar to GLITCH (q.v.), but? usually used reflexively. "My program just glorked itself."wwb~(1 GOBBLE8 v. To consume or to obtain. GOBBLE UP tends toK implyE "consume", while GOBBLE DOWN tends to imply "obtain". "The outputE spy gobbles characters out of a TTY output buffer." "I guess I'llA gobble down a copy of the documentation tomorrow." See SNARF.wwpg~(1 GORP? (CMU) [perhaps from a brand of dried hiker's food?] Another, metasyntactic variable, like FOO and BAR.wwl~(1 GRINDA v. 1. (primarily MIT) To format code, especially LISP code, byE indenting lines so that it looks pretLty. Hence, PRETTY PRINT, the9 generic term for such operations. 2. To run seeminglyE interminably, performing some tedious and inherently useless task. Similar to CRUNCH.wwo~(1 GRITCHA 1. n. A complaint (often caused by a GLITCH (q.v.)). 2. v. To> complain. Often verb-doubled: "Gritch gritch". 3. Glitch.ww@r~(1 GROKD [from the novel "Stranger in a Strange Land", by Robert Heinlein,E where it is a Martian word meaning roughly "to Mbe one with"] v. To) understand, usually in a global sense.ww,u~(1 GRONKC [popularized by the cartoon strip "B.C." by Johnny Hart, but theF word apparently predates that] v. 1. To clear the state of a wedgedD device and restart it. More severe than "to frob" (q.v.). 2. ToC break. "The teletype scanner was gronked, so we took the systemD down." 3. GRONKED: adj. Of people, the condition of feeling veryE tired or sick. 4. GRONK OUT: v. To cease functioniNng. Of people,D to go home and go to sleep. "I guess I'll gronk out now; see you all tomorrow."ww|~(1 GROVEL@ v. To work interminably and without apparent progress. OftenE used with "over". "The compiler grovelled over my code." Compare6 GRIND and CRUNCH. Emphatic form: GROVEL OBSCENELY.ww~(1 GRUNGY< adj. Incredibly dirty or grubby. Anything which has been? washed within the last year is not really grungy. Also usedA metap Ohorically; hence some programs (especially crocks) can be described as grungy.wwn~(1 HACKA n. 1. Originally a quick job that produces what is needed, but@ not well. 2. The result of that job. 3. NEAT HACK: A cleverB technique. Also, a brilliant practical joke, where neatness is@ correlated with cleverness, harmlessness, and surprise value.A Example: the Caltech Rose Bowl card display switch circa 1961.5 4. REAL HACK: A crock (occasionally affectionate) P.F v. 5. With "together", to throw something together so it will work.F 6. To bear emotionally or physically. "I can't hack this heat!" 7.B To work on something (typically a program). In specific sense:F "What are you doing?" "I'm hacking TECO." In general sense: "What: do you do around here?" "I hack TECO." (The former isF time-immediate, the latter time-extended.) More generally, "I hackB x" is roughly equivalent to "x is my bag". "I hack solid-stateF physics." 8. TQo pull a prank on. See definition 3 and HACKER (defE #6). 9. v.i. To waste time (as opposed to TOOL). "Watcha up to?"@ "Oh, just hacking." 10. HACK UP (ON): To hack, but generallyF implies that the result is meanings 1-2. 11. HACK VALUE: Term usedF as the reason or motivation for expending effort toward a seeminglyF useless goal, the point being that the accomplished goal is a hack.B For example, MacLISP has code to read and print roman numerals,- which was installed purely Rfor hack value.B HAPPY HACKING: A farewell. HOW'S HACKING?: A friendly greeting? among hackers. HACK HACK: A somewhat pointless but friendly/ comment, often used as a temporary farewell.ww~(1 HACKER@ [originally, someone who makes furniture with an axe] n. 1. AD person who enjoys learning the details of programming systems andB how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users whoC prefer to learn only the minimum necessary. 2. One who program Ss? enthusiastically, or who enjoys programming rather than justE theorizing about programming. 3. A person capable of appreciatingF hack value (q.v.). 4. A person who is good at programming quickly.A Not everything a hacker produces is a hack. 5. An expert at aE particular program, or one who frequently does work using it or onE it; example: "A SAIL hacker". (Definitions 1 to 5 are correlated,F and people who fit them congregate.) 6. A malicious or inquisitiveE meddlTer who tries to discover information by poking around. Hence' "password hacker", "network hacker".ww~( 1 HACKISH2 adj. Being or involving a hack. HACKISHNESS n.ww~(1 HAIRC n. The complications which make something hairy. "Decoding TECOB commands requires a certain amount of hair." Often seen in the; phrase INFINITE HAIR, which connotes extreme complexity.ww@~(1 HAIRY? adj. 1. Overly complicated. "DWIM is increUdibly hairy." 2.A Incomprehensible. "DWIM is incredibly hairy." 3. Of people,F high-powered, authoritative, rare, expert, and/or incomprehensible.E Hard to explain except in context: "He knows this hairy lawyer who( says there's nothing to worry about."ww R~(1 HAKMEM< n. MIT AI Memo 239 (February 1972). A collection of neat@ mathematical and programming hacks contributed by many people at MIT and elsewhere.ww@~( 1 HANDWAVE? 1. v.V To gloss over a complex point; to distract a listener;E to support a (possibly actually valid) point with blatantly faultyE logic. 2. n. The act of handwaving. "Boy, what a handwave!" TheD use of this word is often accompanied by gestures: both hands up,D palms forward, swinging the hands in a vertical plane pivoting atA the elbows and/or shoulders (depending on the magnitude of theF handwave); alternatively, holding the forearms still while rotating@ the hands at the wrisWt to make them flutter. In context, the* gestures alone can suffice as a remark.ww ~( 1 HARDWARILY8 adv. In a way pertaining to hardware. "The system isF hardwarily unreliable." The adjective "hardwary" is NOT used. See SOFTWARILY.ww~( 1 HELLO_WALL See WALL.ww@(~( 1 HIRSUTE8 Occasionally used humorously as a synonym for HAIRY.ww ~(1 HOOKC n. An extraneous piece of software or hardware includedX in orderA to simplify later additions or debug options. For instance, aC program might execute a location that is normally a JFCL, but byE changing the JFCL to a PUSHJ one can insert a debugging routine at that point.wwP~( 1 HUMONGOUS, HUMUNGOUS See HUNGUS.ww@]~(1 HUNGUS> (hung'-ghis) [perhaps related to current slang "humongous";E which one came first (if either) is unclear] adj. Large, unwieldy,F usually unmanageable. "TCP iYs a hungus piece of code." "This is a hungus set of modifications."ww ~(1 IMPCOM See TELNET.ww`~( 1 INFINITE? adj. Consisting of a large number of objects; extreme. Used@ very loosely as in: "This program produces infinite garbage."ww@~(1 IRPB (erp) [from the MIDAS pseudo-op which generates a block of codeC repeatedly, substituting in various places the car and/or cdr ofC the list(s) supplied at the IRP] v. To peZrform a series of tasksD repeatedly with a minor substitution each time through. "I guessE I'll IRP over these homework papers so I can give them some random grade for this semester."ww &~(1 JFCLC (djif'kl or djafik'l) [based on the PDP-10 instruction that actsD as a fast no-op] v. To cancel or annul something. "Why don't you jfcl that out?"ww~(1 JIFFY8 n. 1. Interval of CPU time, commonly 1/60 second or 1E millisecond. 2. Inde[terminate time from a few seconds to forever.F "I'll do it in a jiffy" means certainly not now and possibly never.wwM~(1 JOCKA n. Programmer who is characterized by large and somewhat bruteD force programs. The term is particularly well-suited for systems programmers.ww~( 1 J_RANDOM See RANDOM.ww~(1 JRST@ (jerst) [based on the PDP-10 jump instruction] v. To suddenlyB change subjects. Usage: rather rare. "Jack ]be nimble, Jack be+ quick; Jack jrst over the candle stick."ww~(1 JSYS: (jay'sis), pl. JSI (jay'sigh) [Jump to SYStem] See UUO.ww~(1 KLUGEA (kloodj) alt. KLUDGE [from the German "kluge", clever] n. 1. A= Rube Goldberg device in hardware or software. 2. A cleverD programming trick intended to solve a particular nasty case in anF efficient, if not clear, manner. Often used to repair bugs. OftenB verges on being a crock. 3. SomethingVHOOKW HUMONGOUSW:HUNGUSXTIMPCOMXINFINITEX.IRPYJFCLYJIFFYZJOCKZrJRST[LJSYSZ>J_RANDOM[KLUGE]@LDB]LIFE^x LINE_FEED^n LINE_STARVE^LOGICAL`LOSEaLOSERa~LOSSaLOSSAGEb6LPTbLUSERb MACROTAPEb"MAGICcpMARGINALdL MICROTAPEd MISFEATUREf*MOBYiMODEiMODULOjMOONjZMUMBLAGEkMUMBLEl6MUNCHl@MUNCHING_SQUAREmMUNG^g that works for the wrongF reason. 4. v. To insert a kluge into a program. "I've kluged thisF routine to get around that weird bug, but there's probably a betterB way." Also KLUGE UP. 5. KLUGE AROUND: To avoid by inserting aD kluge. 6. (WPI) A feature which is implemented in a RUDE manner.ww~(1 LDBE (lid'dib) [from the PDP-10 instruction set] v. To extract from the middle.ww@1~(1 LIFEB n. A cellular-automata game invented by John _Horton Conway, andD first introduced publicly by Martin Gardner (Scientific American, October 1970).ww ~( 1 LINE_FEED? (standard ASCII terminology) 1. v. To feed the paper throughF a terminal by one line (in order to print on the next line). 2. n.D The "character" which causes the terminal to perform this action.ww`~( 1 LINE_STARVE (MIT) Inverse of LINE FEED.wwY~( 1 LOGICAL@ [from the technical term "logical devic`e", wherein a physicalF device is referred to by an arbitrary name] adj. Understood to haveB a meaning not necessarily corresponding to reality. E.g., if aF person who has long held a certain post (e.g., Les Earnest at SAIL)D left and was replaced, the replacement would for a while be knownD as the "logical Les Earnest". The word VIRTUAL is also used. AtC SAIL, "logical" compass directions denote a coordinate system inC which "logical north" is toward San Francisco, "logical w aest" isC toward the ocean, etc., even though logical north varies betweenA physical (true) north near SF and physical west near San Jose.ww~(1 LOSE< [from MIT jargon] v. 1. To fail. A program loses when it? encounters an exceptional condition. 2. To be exceptionallyF unaesthetic. 3. Of people, to be obnoxious or unusually stupid (asD opposed to ignorant). 4. DESERVE TO LOSE: v. Said of someone whoD willfully does the wrong thing; humorously, if one usbes a feature@ known to be marginal. What is meant is that one deserves theC consequences of one's losing actions. "Boy, anyone who tries to! use MULTICS deserves to lose!"1 LOSE LOSE - a reply or comment on a situation.ww(1 LOSER< n. An unexpectedly bad situation, program, programmer, or$ person. Especially "real loser".ww!(1 LOSS@ n. Something which loses. WHAT A (MOBY) LOSS!: interjection.ww / ( 1 LOSSAGE)c n. The result of a bug or malfunction.ww`< (1 LPT( (lip'-it) n. Line printer, of course.wwI(1 LUSER See USER.wwV( 1 MACROTAPE8 n. An industry standard reel of tape, as opposed to a MICROTAPE.ww d(1 MAGIC= adj. 1. As yet unexplained, or too complicated to explain.C (Arthur C. Clarke once said that magic was as-yet-not-understoodC science.) "TTY echoing is controlled by a large number d of magicF bits." "This routine magically computes the parity of an eight-bitF byte in three instructions." 2. (Stanford) A feature not generally? publicized which allows something otherwise impossible, or aD feature formerly in that category but now unveiled. Example: The? keyboard commands which override the screen-hiding features.ww~( 1 MARGINAL= adj. 1. Extremely small. "A marginal increase in core canF decrease GC time drastically." 2. Of extremeely small merit. "ThisF proposed new feature seems rather marginal to me." 3. Of extremely> small probability of winning. "The power supply was ratherC marginal anyway; no wonder it crapped out." 4. MARGINALLY: adv.E Slightly. "The ravs here are only marginally better than at Small Eating Place."ww ( 1 MICROTAPE: n. Occasionally used to mean a DECtape, as opposed to a MACROTAPE.ww#( 1 MISFEATURE9 n. A feature which eventuallyf screws someone, possiblyD because it is not adequate for a new situation which has evolved.A It is not the same as a bug because fixing it involves a gross@ philosophical change to the structure of the system involved.E Often a former feature becomes a misfeature because a tradeoff wasC made whose parameters subsequently changed (possibly only in the> judgment of the implementors). "Well, yeah, it's kind of aF misfeature that file names are limited to six characters, but we' gre stuck with it for now."ww@:)(1 MOBYB [seems to have been in use among model railroad fans years ago.@ Entered the world of AI with the Fabritek 256K moby memory ofD MIT-AI. Derived from Melville's "Moby Dick" (some say from "MobyE Pickle").] 1. adj. Large, immense, or complex. "A moby frob." 2.E n. The maximum address space of a machine, hence 3. n. 256K words,C the size of a PDP-10 moby. (The maximum address space means theB maximum normally addrhessable space, as opposed to the amount ofF physical memory a machine can have. Thus the MIT PDP-10s each haveC two mobies, usually referred to as the "low moby" (0-777777) andF "high moby" (1000000-1777777), or as "moby 0" and "moby 1". MIT-AID has four mobies of address space: moby 2 is the PDP-6 memory, andD moby 3 the PDP-11 interface.) In this sense "moby" is often usedD as a generic unit of either address space (18. bits' worth) or ofA memory (about a megabyte, or 9/8 me igabyte (if one accounts forF difference between 32.- and 36.-bit words), or 5/4 megacharacters).C 4. A title of address (never of third-person reference), usually= used to show admiration, respect, and/or friendliness to aF competent hacker. "So, moby Knight, how's the CONS machine doing?"B 5. adj. In backgammon, doubles on the dice, as in "moby sixes", "moby ones", etc.: MOBY FOO, MOBY WIN, MOBY LOSS: standard emphatic forms., FOBY MOO: a spoonerism due to Greenblatt.wjw3(1 MODED n. A general state, usually used with an adjective describing the@ state. "No time to hack; I'm in thesis mode." Usage: in its@ jargon sense, MODE is most often said of people, though it isF sometimes applied to programs and inanimate objects. "If you're onE a TTY, E will switch to non-display mode." In particular, see DAYA MODE, NIGHT MODE, and YOYO MODE; also COM MODE, TALK MODE, and GABRIEL MODE.ww|8(1 MODULO< prep. Ekxcept for. From mathematical terminology: one can? consider saying that 4=22 "except for the 9's" (4=22 mod 9).; "Well, LISP seems to work okay now, modulo that GC bug."ww`=(1 MOON< n. 1. A celestial object whose phase is very important to< hackers. See PHASE OF THE MOON. 2. Dave Moon (MOON@MC).ww@A( 1 MUMBLAGE: n. The topic of one's mumbling (see MUMBLE). "All thatE mumblage" is used like "all that stuff" when it is not quite clearD l what it is or how it works, or like "all that crap" when "mumble"< is being used as an implicit replacement for obscenities.ww 8F(1 MUMBLE: interj. 1. Said when the correct response is either tooB complicated to enunciate or the speaker has not thought it out.D Often prefaces a longer answer, or indicates a general reluctanceD to get into a big long discussion. "Well, mumble." 2. SometimesF used as an expression of disagreement. "I think we should buy it."+ m "Mumble!" Common variant: MUMBLE FROTZ.wwJ(1 MUNCHA (often confused with "mung", q.v.) v. To transform informationE in a serial fashion, often requiring large amounts of computation.A To trace down a data structure. Related to CRUNCH (q.v.), but connotes less pain.ww_O(1 MUNCHING_SQUAREG MUNCHING SQUARES n. A display hack dating back to the PDP-1, whichB employs a trivial computation (involving XOR'ing of x-y displayC coordin nates - see HAKMEM items 146-148) to produce an impressive? display of moving, growing, and shrinking squares. The hackE usually has a parameter (usually taken from toggle switches) which@ when well-chosen can produce amazing effects. Some of these,@ discovered recently on the LISP machine, have been christened8 MUNCHING TRIANGLES, MUNCHING W'S, and MUNCHING MAZES.ww`zU(1 MUNGD (variant: MUNGE) [recursive acronym for Mung Until No Good] v. 1.E To make chang oes to a file, often large-scale, usually irrevocable.= Occasionally accidental. See BLT. 2. To destroy, usuallyA accidentally, occasionally maliciously. The system only mungs things maliciously.ww[(1 NF adj. 1. Some large and indeterminate number of objects; "There were? N bugs in that crock!"; also used in its original sense of aA variable name. 2. An arbitrarily large (and perhaps infinite)A number. 3. A variable whose value is specified by the qcurrentC context. "We'd like to order N wonton soups and a family dinnerE for N-1." 4. NTH: adj. The ordinal counterpart of N. "Now for the@ Nth and last time..." In the specific context "Nth-year gradF student", N is generally assumed to be at least 4, and is usually 5 or more. See also 69.ww6c( 1 NIGHT_MODE See PHASE (of people).ww@Cf(1 NILE [from LISP terminology for "false"] No. Usage: used in reply to aF question, partiud MISFEATUREf*MOBYiMODEiMODULOjMOONjZMUMBLAGEkMUMBLEl6MUNCHl@MUNCHING_SQUAREmMUNGnNoH NIGHT_MODEoNILq@OBSCUREqOPENrPARSEsPATCHtPDLPeculiar_nounsuPESSIMALuh PESSIMIZING_vPHANTOMvPHASEx PHASE_OF_THE_xPLUGHy POMyPOPyPPN PSEUDOPRIME|.PTY|vPUNT}&PUSH}~QUES~ QUUX8RANDOM RANDOMNESSRAPERAVErcularly one asked using the "-P" convention. See T.ww]l( 1 OBSCUREA adj. Used in an exaggeration of its normal meaning, to imply aD total lack of comprehensibility. "The reason for that last crash@ is obscure." "FIND's command syntax is obscure." MODERATELYB OBSCURE implies that it could be figured out but probably isn't worth the trouble.ww&}(1 OPEN> n. Abbreviation for "open (or left) parenthesis", used whenF necessary to eliminat se oral ambiguity. To read aloud the LISP formD (DEFUN FOO (X) (PLUS X 1)) one might say: "Open def-fun foo, open; eks close, open, plus ekx one, close close." See CLOSE.wwDŽ(1 PARSEA [from linguistic terminology] v. 1. To determine the syntacticD structure of a sentence or other utterance (close to the standardF English meaning). Example: "That was the one I saw you." "I can't@ parse that." 2. More generally, to understand or comprehend.@ "It's very si tmple; you just kretch the glims and then aos theC zotz." "I can't parse that." 3. Of fish, to have to remove theB bones yourself (usually at a Chinese restaurant). "I object toF parsing fish" means "I don't want to get a whole fish, but a slicedB one is okay." A "parsed fish" has been deboned. There is someB controversy over whether "unparsed" should mean "bony", or also mean "deboned".ww(1 PATCH> 1. n. A temporary addition to a piece of code, usuall uy as aD quick-and-dirty remedy to an existing bug or misfeature. A patchE may or may not work, and may or may not eventually be incorporatedF permanently into the program. 2. v. To insert a patch into a piece of code.ww (1 PDLE (piddle or puddle) [acronym for Push Down List] n. 1. A LIFO queueD (stack); more loosely, any priority queue; even more loosely, anyB queue. A person's pdl is the set of things he has to do in theC future. One speaks of thve next project to be attacked as havingF risen to the top of the pdl. "I'm afraid I've got real work to do,B so this'll have to be pushed way down on my pdl." See PUSH and" POP. 2. Dave Lebling (PDL@DM).ww( 1 PESSIMAL: [Latin-based antonym for "optimal"] adj. Maximally bad." "This is a pessimal situation."ww (1 PESSIMIZING_D PESSIMIZING COMPILER n. A compiler that produces object code that< is worse than the straightforward or obviouws translation.ww?( 1 PHANTOMA n. (Stanford) The SAIL equivalent of a DRAGON (q.v.). TypicalF phantoms include the accounting program, the news-wire monitor, and the lpt and xgp spoolers.ww@L(1 PHASE@ (of people) 1. n. The phase of one's waking-sleeping schedule@ with respect to the standard 24-hour cycle. This is a usefulE concept among people who often work at night according to no fixedD schedule. It is not uncommon to change onex's phase by as much asF six hours/day on a regular basis. "What's your phase?" "I've beenD getting in about 8 PM lately, but I'm going to work around to theD day schedule by Friday." A person who is roughly 12 hours out ofA phase is sometimes said to be in "night mode". (The term "dayF mode" is also used, but less frequently.) 2. CHANGE PHASE THE HARDA WAY: To stay awake for a very long time in order to get into aF different phase. 3. CHANGE PHASE THE EASY WAY: To stay aslyeep etc.wwf(1 PHASE_OF_THE_F PHASE OF THE MOON n. Used humorously as a random parameter on whichC something is said to depend. Sometimes implies unreliability ofF whatever is dependent, or that reliability seems to be dependent on? conditions nobody has been able to determine. "This featureD depends on having the channel open in mumble mode, having the foo- switch set, and on the phase of the moon."ww(1 PLUGH* [from the Adventurez game] v. See XYZZY.ww(1 POMB n. Phase of the moon (q.v.). Usage: usually used in the phrase- "POM dependent" which means flakey (q.v.).ww (1 POPE [based on the stack operation that removes the top of a stack, andC the fact that procedure return addresses are saved on the stack]@ dialect: POPJ (pop-jay), based on the PDP-10 procedure return0 instruction. v. To return from a digression.ww(1 PPNE (pip'in) [D{EC terminology, short for Project-Programmer Number] n.C 1. A combination `project' (directory name) and programmer name,E used to identify a specific directory belonging to that user. ForF instance, "FOO,BAR" would be the FOO directory for user BAR. SinceB the name is restricted to three letters, the programmer name isF usually the person's initials, though sometimes it is a nickname orD other special sequence. (Standard DEC setup is to have two octalB numbers instead of ch|aracters; hence the original acronym.) 2.E Often used loosely to refer to the programmer name alone. "I wantD to send you some mail; what's your ppn?" Usage: not used at MIT,E since ITS does not use ppn's. The equivalent terms would be UNAMED and SNAME, depending on context, but these are not used except in their technical senses.ww( 1 PROTOCOL See DO PROTOCOL.wwd( 1 PSEUDOPRIME: n. A backgammon prime (six consecutive occupied p}oints) with one point missing.wwq(1 PTYD (pity) n. Pseudo TTY, a simulated TTY used to run a job under the supervision of another job.D PTYJOB (pity-job) n. The job being run on the PTY. Also a common7 general-purpose program for creating and using PTYs.? This is DEC and SAIL terminology; the MIT equivalent is STY.ww(1 PUNT? [from the punch line of an old joke: "Drop back 15 yards andE punt"] v. To give up, typically without a~ny intention of retrying.ww(1 PUSHB [based on the stack operation that puts the current informationF on a stack, and the fact that procedure call addresses are saved onF the stack] dialect: PUSHJ (push-jay), based on the PDP-10 procedure@ call instruction. v. To enter upon a digression, to save the current discussion for later.ww-(1 QUES? (kwess) 1. n. The question mark character ("?"). 2. interj.$ What? Also QUES QUES? See WALL. ww`(1 QUUXA [invented by Steele. Mythically, from the Latin semi-deponent? verb QUUXO, QUUXARE, QUUXANDUM IRI; noun form variously QUUXF (plural QUUCES, Anglicized to QUUXES) and QUUXU (genitive plural isC QUUXUUM, four U's in seven letters).] 1. Originally, a meta-word> like FOO and FOOBAR. Invented by Steele for precisely thisF purpose. 2. interj. See FOO; however, denotes very little disgust,@ and is uttered mostly for the sake of the sound of it. 3 . n.D Refers to one of three people who went to Boston Latin School and eventually to MIT:( THE GREAT QUUX: Guy L. Steele Jr.* THE LESSER QUUX: David J. Littleboy' THE MEDIOCRE QUUX: Alan P. SwideD (This taxonomy is said to be similarly applied to three FrankstonD brothers at MIT.) QUUX, without qualification, usually refers toC The Great Quux, who is somewhat infamous for light verse and forA the "Crunchly" cartoons. 4. QUUXY: adj. Of or pertaining to a+ QUUX. 5. n. The Micro Quux (Sam Lewis).ww(1 RANDOM> adj. 1. Unpredictable (closest to mathematical definition);F weird. "The system's been behaving pretty randomly." 2. Assorted;C undistinguished. "Who was at the conference?" "Just a bunch ofC random business types." 3. Frivolous; unproductive; undirected? (pejorative). "He's just a random loser." 4. Incoherent orC inelegant; not well organized. "The program has a random set ofC misfeatures." "That's a random name for that function." "Well,F all the names were chosen pretty randomly." 5. Gratuitously wrong,E i.e., poorly done and for no good apparent reason. For example, aF program that handles file name defaulting in a particularly uselessA way, or a routine that could easily have been coded using onlyC three ac's, but randomly uses seven for assorted non-overlappingC purposes, so that no one else can invoke it without first savingE four extra ac's. 6. In no particular order, though deterministic.D "The I/O channels are in a pool, and when a file is opened one isF chosen randomly." n. 7. A random hacker; used particularly of highE school students who soak up computer time and generally get in the@ way. 8. (occasional MIT usage) One who lives at Random Hall.C J. RANDOM is often prefixed to a noun to make a "name" out of itE (by comparison to common names such as "J. Fred Muggs"). The mostB common uses are "J. Random Loser" a nd "J. Random Nurd" ("ShouldA J. Random Loser be allowed to gun down other people?"), but itC can be used just as an elaborate version of RANDOM in any sense.ww ( 1 RANDOMNESS9 n. An unexplainable misfeature; gratuitous inelegance.? Also, a hack or crock which depends on a complex combination= of coincidences (or rather, the combination upon which the= crock depends). "This hack can output characters 40-57 by? putting the character in the accumulator field of an XCT and? then extracting 6 bits -- the low two bits of the XCT opcode, are the right thing." "What randomness!"ww8(1 RAPE@ v. To (metaphorically) screw someone or something, violently.F Usage: often used in describing file-system damage. "So-and-so wasC running a program that did absolute disk I/O and ended up raping the master directory."ww(1 RAVEB (WPI) v. 1. To persist in discussing a specific subject. 2. To@ spe ak authoritatively on a subject about which one knows veryB little. 3. To complain to a person who is not in a position to@ correct the difficulty. 4. To purposely annoy another personB verbally. 5. To evangelize. See FLAME. Also used to describeB a less negative form of blather, such as friendly bullshitting.ww``( 1 REAL_USER? n. 1. A commercial user. One who is paying "real" money forF his computer usage. 2. A non-hacker. Someone using the system forC an explicit purpose (research project, course, etc.). See USER.wwz(1 THE_REAL_WORLD4 n. 1. In programming, those institutions at whichB programming may be used in the same sentence as FORTRAN, COBOL,E RPG, IBM, etc. 2. To programmers, the location of non-programmersE and activities not related to programming. 3. A universe in whichF the standard dress is shirt and tie and in which a person's workingC hours are defined as 9 to 5. 4. The location of the u{nPROTOCOL{ PSEUDOPRIME|.PTY|vPUNT}&PUSH P_Convention}~QUES~ QUUX8RANDOM RANDOMNESSRAPERAVET REAL_USER2RELRUDESACREDSAGAfSAVSEMISERVERSHIFT_LEFT_LOGSHIFT_RIGHT_LOGvSHRSHRIEKlSLOPSLURPzSNARF SOFTWARE_ROTSOS*SPAZZ0SPLATSTATE*STOPPAGESTYSUPDUPPTHE_REAL_WORLD`THE_RIGHT_THINGstatus quo.E 5. Anywhere outside a university. "Poor fellow, he's left MIT and@ gone into the real world." Used pejoratively by those not in@ residence there. In conversation, talking of someone who has@ entered the real world is not unlike talking about a deceased person.ww (1 REL See BIN.ww(1 THE_RIGHT_THING. n. That which is "obviously" the correct orB appropriate thing to use, do, say, etc. Use of this term oftenC i mplies that in fact reasonable people may disagree. "Never letE your conscience keep you from doing the right thing!" "What's the3 right thing for LISP to do when it reads '(.)'?"ww@)(1 RUDE? (WPI) adj. 1. (of a program) Badly written. 2. FunctionallyA poor, e.g. a program which is very difficult to use because of< gratuitously poor (random?) design decisions. See CUSPY.ww6(1 SACRED6 adj. Reserved for the exclusive use of something (aF metaphorical extension of the standard meaning). "Accumulator 7 isC sacred to the UUO handler." Often means that anyone may look atA the sacred object, but clobbering it will screw whatever it is sacred to.wwC(1 SAGA@ (WPI) n. A cuspy but bogus raving story dealing with N random broken people.wwQ(1 SAV (save) See BIN.ww@^(1 SEMIC 1. n. Abbreviation for "semicolon", when speaking. "Commands toA  GRIND are prefixed by semi-semi-star" means that the prefix is: ";;*", not 1/4 of a star. 2. Prefix with words such asB "immediately", as a qualifier. "When is the system coming up?" "Semi-immediately."wwk (1 SERVERB n. A kind of DAEMON which performs a service for the requester,A which often runs on a computer other than the one on which the server runs.ww`$(1 SHIFT_RIGHT_LOG See SHIFT_LEFT_LOG.ww&(1 SHIFT_LEFT_LOGH SHIFT LEFT (RIGHT) LOGICAL [from any of various machines' instructionC sets] 1. v. To move oneself to the left (right). To move out ofD the way. 2. imper. Get out of that (my) seat! Usage: often usedE without the "logical", or as "left shift" instead of "shift left".B Sometimes heard as LSH (lish), from the PDP-10 instruction set.ww '.(1 SHR (share) See BIN.ww2(1 SHRIEK& See EXCL. (Occasional CMU usage.)ww @5(1 69F adj. Large quantity. Usage: Exclusive to MIT-AI. "Go away, I haveE 69 things to do to DDT before worrying about fixing the bug in the' phase of the moon output routine..."E [Note: Actually, any number less than 100 but large enough to haveF no obvious magic properties will be recognized as a "large number".E There is no denying that "69" is the local favorite. I don't knowE whether its origins are related to the obscene interpretation, butB I do know that 69 decimal = 105 octal, and 69 hexadecimal = 105, decimal, which is a nice property. - GLS]ww;(1 SLOPD n. 1. A one-sided fudge factor (q.v.). Often introduced to avoidE the possibility of a fencepost error (q.v.). 2. (used by compilerE freaks) The ratio of code generated by a compiler to hand-compiledF code, minus 1; i.e., the space (or maybe time) you lose because you didn't do it yourself.wwv@(1 SLURPA v. To read a large data f ile entirely into core before workingF on it. "This program slurps in a 1K-by-1K matrix and does an FFT."ww E(1 SNARF? v. To grab, esp. a large document or file for the purpose ofE using it either with or without the author's permission. See BLT.F Variant: SNARF (IT) DOWN. (At MIT on ITS, DDT has a command called9 :SNARF which grabs a job from another (inferior) DDT.)wwH(1 SOFTWARE_ROT: n. Hypothetical disease the existence of which has beenE deduced from the observation that unused programs or features willF stop working after sufficient time has passed, even if "nothing has( changed". Also known as "bit decay".wwL( 1 SOFTWARILY8 adv. In a way pertaining to software. "The system isF softwarily unreliable." The adjective "softwary" is NOT used. See HARDWARILY.ww R(1 SOSE 1. (ess-oh-ess) n. A losing editor, SON OF STOPGAP. 2. (sahss) v.3 Inverse of AOS, from the PDP-10 instruction set.wwZW(1 SPAZZ= 1. v. To behave spastically or erratically; more often, toF commit a single gross error. "Boy, is he spazzing!" 2. n. One who@ spazzes. "Boy, what a spazz!" 3. n. The result of spazzing. "Boy, what a spazz!"ww[(1 SPLAT@ n. 1. Name used in many places (DEC, IBM, and others) for theE ASCII star ("*") character. 2. (MIT) Name used by some people forD the ASCII pound-sign ("#") character. 3. (Stanford) Name used byF some people for the Stanford/ITS extended ASCII circle-x character.C (This character is also called "circle-x", "blobby", and "frob",@ among other names.) 4. (Stanford) Name for the semi-mythicalB extended ASCII circle-plus character. 5. Canonical name for anD output routine that outputs whatever the the local interpretationC of splat is. Usage: nobody really agrees what character "splat" is, but the term is common.ww`(1 SU PDUP? v. To communicate with another ARPAnet host using the SUPDUPC program, which is a SUPer-DUPer TELNET talking a special display; protocol used mostly in talking to ITS sites. Sometimes abbreviated to SD.wwe(1 STATE@ n. Condition, situation. "What's the state of NEWIO?" "It'sF winning away." "What's your state?" "I'm about to gronk out." AsD a special case, "What's the state of the world?" (or, more silly,A "State-of-world-P?") means "What's new?" or "What's going on?"wwi( 1 STOPPAGE: n. Extreme lossage (see LOSSAGE) resulting in something0 (usually vital) becoming completely unusable.ww`=n(1 STYE (pronounced "sty", not spelled out) n. A pseudo-teletype, which isF a two-way pipeline with a job on one end and a fake keyboard-tty onF the other. Also, a standard program which provides a pipeline fromB its controlling tty to a pseudo-teletype (and thence to another' tty, thereby providing a "sub-tty").? This is MIT terminology; the SAIL and DEC equivalent is PTY.wwu(1 SUPERPROGRAMMER6 n. See "wizard", "hacker". Usage: rare. (Becoming, more common among IBM and Yourdon types.)ww{( 1 SWAPPED> adj. From the use of secondary storage devices to implementE virtual memory in computer systems. Something which is SWAPPED INB is available for immediate use in main memory, and otherwise is? SWAPPED OUT. Often uz SOFTWARILYSOS^ Soundalike_*SPAZZ0SPLATSTATE*STOPPAGESTYSUPDUPjSUPERPROGRAMMERSWAPPEDSYSTEMTN TALK_MODETASTETECOTELNET6TERPRITHEORYPTHE_REAL_WORLD`THE_RIGHT_THINGZTHRASH4TICKTIME_T0TOOLTRAPTTYTWEAKTWIDDLEPUPUSERUUOVVANILLAVAXENVIRGINVIRTUAL VISIONARY\WALDO sed metaphorically to refer to people's< memories ("I read TECO ORDER every few months to keep theE information swapped in.") or to their own availability ("I'll swap? you in as soon as I finish looking at this other problem.").ww@(1 SYSTEM8 n. 1. The supervisor program on the computer. 2. Any@ large-scale program. 3. Any method or algorithm. 4. The wayB things are usually done. Usage: a fairly ambiguous word. "You can't beat the system."F SYSTEM HACKER: one who hacks the system (in sense 1 only; for sense< 2 one mentions the particular program: e.g., LISP HACKER)ww(1 TF [from LISP terminology for "true"] 1. Yes. Usage: used in reply toF a question, particularly one asked using the "-P" convention). See NIL. 2. See TIME T.ww ( 1 TALK_MODE See COM MODE.ww.(1 TASTEC n. (primarily MIT-DMS) The quality in programs which tends to beF inversely proportio nal to the number of features, hacks, and klugesC programmed into it. Also, TASTY, TASTEFUL, TASTEFULNESS. "ThisF feature comes in N tasty flavors." Although TASTEFUL and FLAVORFUL6 are essentially synonyms, TASTE and FLAVOR are not.ww@;(1 TECOA (tee'koe) [acronym for Text Editor and COrrector] 1. n. A textE editor developed at MIT, and modified by just about everybody. IfD all the dialects are included, TECO might well be the single mostE prolific editor in use. Noted for its powerful pseudo-programmingE features and its incredibly hairy syntax. 2. v. To edit using theC TECO editor in one of its infinite forms; sometimes used to meanB "to edit" even when not using TECO! Usage: rare at SAIL, where5 most people wouldn't touch TECO with a TENEX pole.D [Historical note: DEC grabbed an ancient version of MIT TECO manyF years ago when it was still a TTY-oriented editor. By now, TECO at@ MIT is highly display-oriented and is a ctually a language forB writing editors, rather than an editor. Meanwhile, the outsideE world's various versions of TECO remain almost the same as the MITB version of ten years ago. DEC recently tried to discourage its< use, but an underground movement of sorts kept it alive.]C [Since this note was written I found out that DEC tried to forceB their hackers by administrative decision to use a hacked up andA generally lobotomized version of SOS instead of TECO, and they revolted. - MRC]ww`ܒ(1 TELNET? v. To communicate with another ARPAnet host using the TELNETA program. TOPS-10 people use the word IMPCOM since that is theF program name for them. Sometimes abbreviated to TN. "I usually TN* over to SAIL just to read the AP News."ww镀(1 TERPRIA (tur'pree) [from the LISP 1.5 (and later, MacLISP) function to: start a new line of output] v. To output a CRLF (q.v.).ww(1 THEORY? n. Used in the general sense of idea, plan, story, or set ofE rules. "What's the theory on fixing this TECO loss?" "What's theC theory on dinner tonight?" ("Chinatown, I guess.") "What's theD current theory on letting losers on during the day?" "The theoryB behind this change is to fix the following well-known screw..."ww(1 THRASH> v. To move wildly or violently. Swapping systems which areC overloaded spend much of their time moving pages into and out of* core, and are therefore said to thrash.ww(1 TICK< n. 1. Interval of time; basic clock time on the computer.F Typically 1/60 second. See JIFFY. 2. In simulations, the discreteB unit of time that passes "between" iterations of the simulationD mechanism. In AI applications, this amount of time is often leftD unspecified, since the only constraint of interest is that causedC things happen after their causes. This sort of AI simulation isA often pejorativel y referred to as "tick-tick-tick" simulation,A especially when the issue of simultaneity of events with long,- independent chains of causes is handwaved.ww(1 TIME_T? n. 1. An unspecified but usually well-understood time, oftenD used in conjunction with a later time T+1. "We'll meet on campusA at time T or at Louie's at time T+1." 2. SINCE (OR AT) TIME TD EQUALS MINUS INFINITY: A long time ago; for as long as anyone canF remember; at the time that some particular frob was first designed.wwS(1 TOOL. v.i. To work; to study. See HACK (def #9).ww粀(1 TRAPC 1. n. A program interrupt, usually used specifically to refer toF an interrupt caused by some illegal action taking place in the userB program. In most cases the system monitor performs some actionC related to the nature of the illegality, then returns control toF the program. See UUO. 2. v. To cause a trap. "These instructionsF t rap to the monitor." Also used transitively to indicate the causeC of the trap. "The monitor traps all input/output instructions."ww`{(1 TTYB (titty) n. Terminal of the teletype variety, characterized by aC noisy mechanical printer, a very limited character set, and poorA print quality. Usage: antiquated (like the TTY's themselves).A Sometimes used to refer to any terminal at all; sometimes used9 to refer to the particular terminal controlling a job.w w@(1 TWEAK@ v. To change slightly, usually in reference to a value. AlsoD used synonymously with TWIDDLE. See FROBNICATE and FUDGE FACTOR.ww(1 TWENEX< n. The TOPS-20 operating system by DEC. So named becauseF TOPS-10 was a typically crufty DEC operating system for the PDP-10.D BBN developed their own system, called TENEX (TEN EXecutive), andE in creating TOPS-20 for the DEC-20 DEC copied TENEX and adapted it? for the 20. Usage: DEC p eople cringe when they hear TOPS-20@ referred to as "Twenex", but the term seems to be catching onE nevertheless. Release 3 of TOPS-20 is sufficiently different from@ release 1 that some (not all) hackers have stopped calling it? TWENEX, though the written abbreviation "20x" is still used.ww7ŀ( 1 TWIDDLE9 n. 1. tilde (ASCII 176, "~"). Also called "squiggle",E "sqiggle" (sic--pronounced "skig'gul"), and "twaddle", but twiddle@ is by far the most common t erm. 2. A small and insignificantD change to a program. Usually fixes one bug and generates severalB new ones. 3. v. To change something in a small way. Bits, forC example, are often twiddled. Twiddling a switch or knob implies? much less sense of purpose than toggling or tweaking it; see FROBNICATE.ww ̀(1 UPD adj. 1. Working, in order. "The down escalator is up." 2. BRINGE UP: v. To create a working version and start it. "They brought up a dow n system."ww ـ(1 USERC n. A programmer who will believe anything you tell him. One whoB asks questions. Identified at MIT with "loser" by the spelling "luser". See REAL USER.; [Note by GLS: I don't agree with RF's definition at all.F Basically, there are two classes of people who work with a program:F there are implementors (hackers) and users (losers). The users are@ looked down on by hackers to a mild degree because they don'tD understand the full ramifications of the system in all its glory.C (A few users who do are known as real winners.) It is true thatD users ask questions (of necessity). Very often they are annoying or downright stupid.]ww B(1 UUOB (you-you-oh) [short for "Un-Used Operation"] n. A DEC-10 systemB monitor call. The term "Un-Used Operation" comes from the factD that, on DEC-10 systems, monitor calls are implemented as invalidD or illegal machine instructions, which cause traps to the monitorD (see TRAP). The SAIL manual describing the available UUO's has aF cover picture showing an unidentified underwater object. See YOYO.F [Note: DEC sales people have since decided that "Un-Used Operation"E sounds bad, so UUO now stands for "Unimplemented User Operation".]D Tenex and Twenex systems use the JSYS machine instruction (q.v.),B which is halfway between a legal machine instruction and a UUO,C since KA-10 Tenices implement it as a hardware instruction whichE can be used as an ordinary subroutine call (sort of a "pure JSR").wwi( 1 VANILLA= adj. Ordinary flavor, standard. See FLAVOR. When used of@ food, very often does not mean that the food is flavored withF vanilla extract! For example, "vanilla-flavored wonton soup" means@ ordinary wonton soup, as opposed to hot and sour wonton soup.ww(1 VAXENA [from "oxen", perhaps influenced by "vixen"] n. pl. The plural of VAX (a DEC machine).ww(1 VIRGIN> adj. Unused, in reference to an instantiation of a program.@ "Let's bring up a virgin system and see if it crashes again."D Also, by extension, unused buffers and the like within a program.ww%( 1 VIRTUAL? adj. 1. Common alternative to LOGICAL (q.v.), but never usedF with compass directions. 2. Performing the functions of. Virtual* memory acts like real memory but isn't.ww`( 1 VISIONARY9 n. One who hacks vision (in an AI context, such as the processing of visual images).ww@M(1 WALDO@ [probably taken from the story "Waldo", by Heinlein, which isB where the term was first used to mean a mechanical adjunct to a@ human limb] Used at Harvard, particularly by Tom Cheatham and? students, instead of FOOBAR as a meta-syntactic variable and6 general nonsense word. See FOO, BAR, FOOBAR, QUUX.wwg (1 WALL@ [shortened form of HELLO WALL, ap parently from the phrase "upF against a blank wall"] (WPI) interj. 1. An indication of confusion,D usually spoken with a quizzical tone. "Wall??" 2. A request for further explication.ww@( 1 WALLPAPER= n. A file containing a listing (e.g., assembly listing) orF transcript, esp. a file containing a transcript of all or part of aE login session. (The idea was that the LPT paper for such listingsF was essentially good only for wallpaper, as evidenced at SAhTWENEX>TWIDDLEPUPUSERUUOVVANILLAVAXEN Verb_doublingVIRGINVIRTUAL VISIONARY\WALDOWALL WALLPAPER^WEDGEDWHAT$WINWINNAGEJWINNER WINNITUDEWIZARDWORMHOLEWOWXGPXYZZYYOYO( YU_SHIANGXZERO IL whereE it was used as such to cover windows.) Usage: not often used now,D esp. since other systems have developed other terms for it (e.g.,D PHOTO on TWENEX). The term possibly originated on ITS, where theC commands to begin and end transcript files are still :WALBEG and- :WALEND, with default file DSK:WALL PAPER.ww(1 WEDGED< [from "head wedged up ass"] adj. To be in a locked state,D incapable of proceeding without help. (See GRONK.) Often refers@ to humans suffering misconceptions. "The swapper is wedged."B This term is sometimes used as a synonym for DEADLOCKED (q.v.).ww`#(1 WHATA n. The question mark character ("?"). See QUES. Usage: rare,- used particularly in conjunction with WOW.ww0(1 WIN< [from MIT jargon] 1. v. To succeed. A program wins if no< unexpected conditions arise. 2. BIG WIN: n. Serendipity.= Emphatic forms: MOBY WIN, SUPER WIN, HYPER-WIN (often usedD interjectively as a reply). For some reason SUITABLE WIN is alsoF common at MIT, usually in reference to a satisfactory solution to a problem. See LOSE.ww ( 1 WINNAGE8 n. The situation when a lossage is corrected, or when> something is winning. Quite rare. Usage: also quite rare.ww#(1 WINNER? 1. n. An unexpectedly good situation, program, programmer orB person. 2. REAL WINNER: Often sarcastic, but also used as high praise.ww &( 1 WINNITUDE= n. The quality of winning (as opposed to WINNAGE, which is< the result of winning). "That's really great! Boy, what winnitude!"wwr+(1 WIZARD> n. 1. A person who knows how a complex piece of software or> hardware works; someone who can find and fix his bugs in anF emergency. Rarely used at MIT, where HACKER is the preferred term.B 2. A person who is permitted to do things forbidden to ordinaryA people, e.g., a "net wizard " on a TENEX may run programs whichB speak low-level host-imp protocol; an ADVENT wizard at SAIL may! play Adventure during the day.ww4( 1 WORMHOLE= n. A location in a monitor which contains the address of aF routine, with the specific intent of making it easy to substitute aB different routine. The following quote comes from "Polymorphic Systems", vol. 2, p. 54:E "Any type of I/O device can be substituted for the standard deviceD by loading a simple driver routine for that device and installing4 its address in one of the monitor's `wormholes.'* ----------@ *The term `wormhole' has been used to describe a hypotheticalC astronomical situation where a black hole connects to the `otherB side' of the universe. When this happens, information can passE through the wormhole, in only one direction, much as `assumptions'& pass down the monitor's wormholes."ww.9(1 WOW See EXCL.ww`=( 1 XGPA 1. n. Xerox Graphics Printer. 2. v. To print something on the/ XGP. "You shouldn't XGP such a large file."ww@(1 XYZZY, [from the Adventure game] adj. See PLUGH.wwcE(1 YOYOB n. DEC service engineers' slang for UUO (q.v.). Usage: rare at@ Stanford and MIT, has been found at random DEC installations.wwpH(1 YOYOB MODE n. State in which the system is said to be when it rapidly< alternates several times betw een being up and being down.ww~K( 1 YU_SHIANGH YU-SHIANG WHOLE FISH n. The character gamma (extended SAIL ASCII 11),@ which with a loop in its tail looks like a fish. Usage: used@ primarily by people on the MIT LISP Machine. Tends to elicit9 incredulity from people who hear about it second-hand.wwP(1 ZEROD v. 1. To set to zero. Usually said of small pieces of data, suchE as bits or words. 2. To erase; to discard all data from. Said ofC disks and directories, where "zeroing" need not involve actually3 writing zeroes throughout the area being zeroed.ww(1 HELPE This file of computer (usually AI) jargon was gotten form someplace.= Compiled by Guy L. Steele Jr., Raphael Finkel, Donald= Woods, and Mark Crispin, with assistance from the MIT= and Stanford AI communities and Worcester Polytechnic= Institute. Some contributions were submitted via the) ARPAnet from miscellaneous sites.ww(1 Verb_doubling9 a standard construction is to double a verb and use it@ as a comment on what the implied subject does. Often used toA terminate a conversation. Typical examples involve WIN, LOSE, HACK, FLAME, BARF, CHOMP:5 "The disk heads just crashed." "Lose, lose."C "Mostly he just talked about his --- crock. Flame, flame.". "Boy, what a bagbiter! Chomp, chomp!"ww'( 1 Soundalike_A Soundalike slang similar to Cockney rhyming slang. Often made4 up on the spur of the moment. Standard examples:#  Boston Globe => Boston Glob4 Herald American => Horrid (Harried) American( New York Times => New York Slime Dime Time => Slime Time= government property - do not duplicate (seen on keys): => government duplicity - do not propagateB Often the substitution will be made in such a way as to slip in a standard jargon word:0 Dr. Dobb's Journal => Dr. Frob's Journalww[f(1 P_ConventionE The -P convention: turning a word into a question by appending theE syllable "P"; from the LISP convention of appending the letter "P"C to denote a predicate (a Boolean-values function). The questionF should expect a yes/no answer, though it needn't. (See T and NIL.)@ At dinnertime: "Foodp?" "Yeah, I'm pretty hungry." or "T!"@ "State-of-the-world-P?" (Straight) "I'm about to go home."F (Humorous) "Yes, the world has a state."ww(1 Peculiar_nouns8 MIT AI hackers love to take various words and add theF wrong endings to them to make nouns and verbs, often by extending a0 standard rule to nonuniform cases. Examples:" porous => porosity& generous => generosity* Ergo: mysterious => mysteriosity# ferrous => ferocity@ Other examples: winnitude, disgustitude, hackification.wwSb( NAGY HELP Verb_doubling Soundalike_ P_ConventionPeculiar_nouns