pr0n //
[Usenet, IRC] Pornography. Originally this referred only to
Internet porn but since then it has expanded to refer to just
about anything. The term comes from the warez kiddies tendency to replace
letters with numbers. At some point on IRC someone mistyped,
swapped the middle two letters, and the name stuck, then
propagated over into mainstream hacker usage. Compare filk, grilf, hing and newsfroup.
Node:precedence lossage,
Next:prepend, Previous:pr0n, Up:= P =
precedence lossage /pre's*-dens los'*j/ n.
[C programmers] Coding error in an expression due to
unexpected grouping of arithmetic or logical operators by the
compiler. Used esp. of certain common coding errors in C due to
the nonintuitively low precedence levels of &,
|, ^, <<, and
>> (for this reason, experienced C programmers
deliberately forget the language's baroque precedence hierarchy and parenthesize
defensively). Can always be avoided by suitable use of
parentheses. LISP fans enjoy pointing
out that this can't happen in their favorite language,
which eschews precedence entirely, requiring one to use explicit
parentheses everywhere. See aliasing
bug, memory leak,
memory smash, smash the stack, fandango on core, overrun screw.
Node:prepend, Next:prestidigitization, Previous:precedence lossage,
Up:= P =
prepend /pree`pend'/ vt.
[by analogy with `append'] To prefix. As with `append' (but
not `prefix' or `suffix' as a verb), the direct object is always
the thing being added and not the original word (or character
string, or whatever). "If you prepend a semicolon to the line,
the translation routine will pass it through unaltered."
Node:prestidigitization, Next:pretty pictures,
Previous:prepend, Up:= P =
prestidigitization /pres`t*-di`j*-ti:-zay'sh*n/ n.
1. The act of putting something into digital notation via
sleight of hand. 2. Data entry through legerdemain.
Node:pretty pictures, Next:prettyprint, Previous:prestidigitization,
Up:= P =
pretty pictures n.
[scientific computation] The next step up from numbers. Interesting graphical output from a
program that may not have any sensible relationship to the system
the program is intended to model. Good for showing to management.