hyperspace /hi:'per-spays/ n.
A memory location that is far away from where the
program counter should be pointing, especially a place that is
inaccessible because it is not even mapped in by the
virtual-memory system. "Another core dump -- looks like the
program jumped off to hyperspace somehow." (Compare jump off into
never-never land.) This usage is from the SF notion of a
spaceship jumping `into hyperspace', that is, taking a shortcut
through higher-dimensional space -- in other words, bypassing
this universe. The variant `east hyperspace' is recorded among
CMU and Bliss hackers.
Node:hysterical reasons,
Next:I
didn't change anything!, Previous:hyperspace, Up:= H =
hysterical reasons n.
(also `hysterical raisins') A variant on the stock phrase "for
historical reasons", indicating specifically that something must
be done in some stupid way for backwards compatibility, and
moreover that the feature it must be compatible with was the
result of a bad design in the first place. "All IBM PC video
adapters have to support MDA text mode for hysterical reasons."
Compare bug-for-bug
compatible.