display hack n.
A program with the same approximate purpose as a kaleidoscope:
to make pretty pictures. Famous display hacks include munching squares, smoking clover, the BSD Unix
rain(6) program, worms(6) on
miscellaneous Unixes, and the X
kaleid(1) program. Display hacks can also be
implemented by creating text files containing numerous escape
sequences for interpretation by a video terminal; one notable
example displayed, on any VT100, a Christmas tree with twinkling
lights and a toy train circling its base. The hack value of a display hack is
proportional to the esthetic value of the images times the
cleverness of the algorithm divided by the size of the code. Syn.
psychedelicware.