clone n.
1. An exact duplicate: "Our product is a clone of their
product." Implies a legal reimplementation from documentation or
by reverse-engineering. Also connotes lower price. 2. A shoddy,
spurious copy: "Their product is a clone of our product." 3. A
blatant ripoff, most likely violating copyright, patent, or trade
secret protections: "Your product is a clone of my product." This
use implies legal action is pending. 4. `PC clone:' a PC-BUS/ISA
or EISA-compatible 80x86-based microcomputer (this use is
sometimes spelled `klone' or `PClone'). These invariably have
much more bang for the buck than the IBM archetypes they
resemble. 5. In the construction `Unix clone': An OS designed to
deliver a Unix-lookalike environment without Unix license fees,
or with additional `mission-critical' features such as support
for real-time programming. 6. v. To make an exact copy of
something. "Let me clone that" might mean "I want to borrow that
paper so I can make a photocopy" or "Let me get a copy of that
file before you mung it".
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clone-and-hack coding n.
[DEC] Syn. case and
paste.