spiffy /spi'fee/ adj.
1. Said of programs having a pretty, clever, or exceptionally
well-designed interface. "Have you seen the spiffy X version of empire
yet?" 2. Said sarcastically of a program that is perceived to
have little more than a flashy interface going for it. Which
meaning should be drawn depends delicately on tone of voice and
context. This word was common mainstream slang during the 1940s,
in a sense close to 1.
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spike v.
To defeat a selection mechanism by introducing a (sometimes
temporary) device that forces a specific result. The word is used
in several industries; telephone engineers refer to spiking a
relay by inserting a pin to hold the relay in either the closed
or open state, and railroaders refer to spiking a track switch so
that it cannot be moved. In programming environments it normally
refers to a temporary change, usually for testing purposes (as
opposed to a permanent change, which would be called hardwired).
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spin vi.
Equivalent to buzz. More common
among C and Unix programmers. See the discussion of `spinlock'
under busy-wait.
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spl /S-P-L/
[abbrev, from Set Priority Level] The way traditional Unix
kernels implement mutual exclusion by running code at high
interrupt levels. Used in jargon to describe the act of tuning in
or tuning out ordinary communication. Classically, spl levels run
from 1 to 7; "Fred's at spl 6 today" would mean that he is very
hard to interrupt. "Wait till I finish this; I'll spl down then."
See also interrupts
locked out.