smoot /smoot/ n.
[MIT] A unit of length equal five feet seven inches. The
length of the Harvard Bridge in Boston is famously 364.4 smoots
plus or minus an ear (the ear stands for epsilon). This legend began with a fraternity
prank in 1958 during which the body length of Oliver Smoot (class
of '62) was actually used to measure out that distance. It is
commemorated by smoot marks that MIT students repaint every few
years; the tradition even survived the demolition and rebuilding
of the bridge in the late 1980s. The Boston police have been
known to use smoot markers to indicate accident locations on the
bridge.
Node:SMOP, Next:smurf, Previous:smoot, Up:= S
=
SMOP /S-M-O-P/ n.
[Simple (or Small) Matter of Programming] 1. A piece of code,
not yet written, whose anticipated length is significantly
greater than its complexity. Used to refer to a program that
could obviously be written, but is not worth the trouble. Also
used ironically to imply that a difficult problem can be easily
solved because a program can be written to do it; the irony is
that it is very clear that writing such a program will be a great
deal of work. "It's easy to enhance a FORTRAN compiler to compile
COBOL as well; it's just an SMOP." 2. Often used ironically by
the intended victim when a suggestion for a program is made which
seems easy to the suggester, but is obviously (to the victim) a
lot of work.