wallpaper n.
1. A file containing a listing (e.g., assembly listing) or a
transcript, esp. a file containing a transcript of all or part of
a login session. (The idea was that the paper for such listings
was essentially good only for wallpaper, as evidenced at
Stanford, where it was used to cover windows.) Now rare, esp.
since other systems have developed other terms for it (e.g.,
PHOTO on TWENEX). However, the Unix world doesn't have an
equivalent term, so perhaps wallpaper will take hold there. The term
probably originated on ITS, where the commands to begin and end
transcript files were :WALBEG and
:WALEND, with default file WALL PAPER
(the space was a path delimiter). 2. The background pattern used
on graphical workstations (this is techspeak under the `Windows'
graphical user interface to MS-DOS). 3. `wallpaper file' n. The
file that contains the wallpaper information before it is
actually printed on paper. (Even if you don't intend ever to
produce a real paper copy of the file, it is still called a
wallpaper file.)