4. Vowels are represented as follows:_The Jargon File, Version 2.9.10, 01 Jul 1992

back, that

far, mark

flaw, caught

bake, rain

less, men

easy, ski

eir

their, software

trip, hit

life, sky

father, palm

flow, sew

loot, through

more, door

out, how

boy, coin

but, some

put, foot

yet, young

yoo

few, chew

[y]oo

/oo/ with optional fronting as in `news' (/nooz/ or /nyooz/)

A /*/ is used for the `schwa' sound of unstressed or occluded vowels

(the one that is often written with an upside-down `e'). The schwa

vowel is omitted in syllables containing vocalic r, l, m or n; that is,

`kitten' and `color' would be rendered /kit'n/ and /kuhl'r/, not

/kit'*n/ and /kuhl'*r/.

Entries with a pronunciation of `//' are written-only usages. (No, UNIX

weenies, this does *not* mean `pronounce like previous pronunciation'!)

:Other Lexicon Conventions:

===========================

Entries are sorted in case-blind ASCII collation order (rather than the

letter-by-letter order ignoring interword spacing common in mainstream

dictionaries), except that all entries beginning with nonalphabetic

characters are sorted after Z. The case-blindness is a feature, not a

bug.

The beginning of each entry is marked by a colon (`:') at the

left margin. This convention helps out tools like hypertext browsers

that benefit from knowing where entry boundaries are, but aren't as

context-sensitive as humans.

In pure ASCII renderings of the Jargon File, you will see {} used to

bracket words which themselves have entries in the File. This isn't

done all the time for every such word, but it is done everywhere that a

reminder seems useful that the term has a jargon meaning and one might

wish to refer to its entry.

In this all-ASCII version, headwords for topic entries are distinguished

from those for ordinary entries by being followed by "::" rather than

":"; similarly, references are surrounded by "{{" and "}}" rather than

"{" and "}".

Defining instances of terms and phrases appear in `slanted type'. A

defining instance is one which occurs near to or as part of an

explanation of it.

Prefix * is used as linguists do; to mark examples of incorrect usage.

We follow the `logical' quoting convention described in the Writing

Style section above. In addition, we reserve double quotes for actual

excerpts of text or (sometimes invented) speech. Scare quotes (which

mark a word being used in a nonstandard way), and philosopher's quotes

(which turn an utterance into the string of letters or words that name

it) are both rendered with single quotes.

References such as `malloc(3)' and `patch(1)' are to UNIX facilities

(some of which, such as `patch(1)', are actually freeware distributed

over USENET). The UNIX manuals use `foo(n)' to refer to item foo in

section (n) of the manual, where n=1 is utilities, n=2 is system calls,

n=3 is C library routines, n=6 is games, and n=8 (where present) is

system administration utilities. Sections 4, 5, and 7 of the manuals

have changed roles frequently and in any case are not referred to in any

of the entries.

Various abbreviations used frequently in the lexicon are summarized here:

abbrev.

abbreviation

adj.

adjective

adv.

adverb

alt.

alternate

cav.

caveat

esp.

especially

excl.

exclamation

imp.

imperative

interj.

interjection

noun

obs.

obsolete

pl.

plural

poss.

possibly

pref.

prefix

prob.

probably

prov.

proverbial

quant.

quantifier

suff.

suffix

syn.

synonym (or synonymous with)

verb (may be transitive or intransitive)

var.

variant

vi.

intransitive verb

vt.

transitive verb

Where alternate spellings or pronunciations are given, alt.

separates two possibilities with nearly equal distribution, while

var. prefixes one that is markedly less common than the primary.

Where a term can be attributed to a particular subculture or is known

to have originated there, we have tried to so indicate. Here is a

list of abbreviations used in etymologies:

Berkeley

University of California at Berkeley

Cambridge

the university in England (*not* the city in Massachusetts where

MIT happens to be located!)

BBN

Bolt, Beranek & Newman

CMU

Carnegie-Mellon University

Commodore

Commodore Business Machines

DEC

The Digital Equipment Corporation

Fairchild

The Fairchild Instruments Palo Alto development group

Fidonet

See the {Fidonet} entry

IBM

International Business Machines

MIT

Massachusetts Institute of Technology; esp. the legendary MIT AI Lab

culture of roughly 1971 to 1983 and its feeder groups, including the

Tech Model Railroad Club

NRL

Naval Research Laboratories

NYU

New York University

OED

The Oxford English Dictionary

Purdue

Purdue University

SAIL

Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (at Stanford

University)

From Syst`eme International, the name for the standard

conventions of metric nomenclature used in the sciences

Stanford

Stanford University

Sun

Sun Microsystems

TMRC

Some MITisms go back as far as the Tech Model Railroad Club (TMRC) at

MIT c. 1960. Material marked TMRC is from `An Abridged Dictionary

of the TMRC Language', originally compiled by Pete Samson in 1959

UCLA

University of California at Los Angeles

the United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland)

USENET

See the {USENET} entry

WPI

Worcester Polytechnic Institute, site of a very active community of

PDP-10 hackers during the 1970s

XEROX PARC

XEROX's Palo Alto Research Center, site of much pioneering research in

user interface design and networking

Yale

Yale University

Some other etymology abbreviations such as {UNIX} and {PDP-10}

refer to technical cultures surrounding specific operating systems,

processors, or other environments. The fact that a term is labelled

with any one of these abbreviations does not necessarily mean its use

is confined to that culture. In particular, many terms labelled `MIT'

and `Stanford' are in quite general use. We have tried to give some

indication of the distribution of speakers in the usage notes;

however, a number of factors mentioned in the introduction conspire to

make these indications less definite than might be desirable.

A few new definitions attached to entries are marked [proposed].

These are usually generalizations suggested by editors or USENET

respondents in the process of commenting on previous definitions of

those entries. These are *not* represented as established

jargon.

:Format For New Entries:

========================

All contributions and suggestions about the Jargon File will be

considered donations to be placed in the public domain as part of this

File, and may be used in subsequent paper editions. Submissions may

be edited for accuracy, clarity and concision.

Try to conform to the format already being used --- head-words

separated from text by a colon (double colon for topic entries),

cross-references in curly brackets (doubled for topic entries),

pronunciations in slashes, etymologies in square brackets,

single-space after definition numbers and word classes, etc. Stick to

the standard ASCII character set (7-bit printable, no high-half

characters or [nt]roff/TeX/Scribe escapes), as one of the versions

generated from the master file is an info document that has to be

viewable on a character tty.

We are looking to expand the file's range of technical specialties covered.

There are doubtless rich veins of jargon yet untapped in the scientific

computing, graphics, and networking hacker communities; also in numerical

analysis, computer architectures and VLSI design, language design, and many

other related fields. Send us your jargon!

We are *not* interested in straight technical terms explained by

textbooks or technical dictionaries unless an entry illuminates

`underground' meanings or aspects not covered by official histories.

We are also not interested in `joke' entries --- there is a lot of

humor in the file but it must flow naturally out of the explanations

of what hackers do and how they think.

It is OK to submit items of jargon you have originated if they have spread

to the point of being used by people who are not personally acquainted with

you. We prefer items to be attested by independent submission from two

different sites.

The Jargon File will be regularly maintained and re-posted from now on

and will include a version number. Read it, pass it around,

contribute --- this is *your* monument!

The Jargon Lexicon

******************

= A =

=====

:abbrev: /*-breev'/, /*-brev'/ n. Common abbreviation for

`abbreviation'.

:ABEND: [ABnormal END] /ah'bend/, /*-bend'/ n. Abnormal

termination (of software); {crash}; {lossage}. Derives from an

error message on the IBM 360; used jokingly by hackers but

seriously mainly by {code grinder}s. Usually capitalized, but may

appear as `abend'. Hackers will try to persuade you that ABEND is

called `abend' because it is what system operators do to the

machine late on Friday when they want to call it a day, and hence

is from the German `Abend' = `Evening'.

:accumulator: n. 1. Archaic term for a register. On-line use of it

as a synonym for `register' is a fairly reliable indication that

the user has been around for quite a while and/or that the

architecture under discussion is quite old. The term in full is

almost never used of microprocessor registers, for example, though

symbolic names for arithmetic registers beginning in `A' derive

from historical use of the term `accumulator' (and not, actually,

from `arithmetic'). Confusingly, though, an `A' register name

prefix may also stand for `address', as for example on the

Motorola 680x0 family. 2. A register being used for arithmetic or

logic (as opposed to addressing or a loop index), especially one

being used to accumulate a sum or count of many items. This use is

in context of a particular routine or stretch of code. "The

FOOBAZ routine uses A3 as an accumulator." 3. One's in-basket

(esp. among old-timers who might use sense 1). "You want this

reviewed? Sure, just put it in the accumulator." (See {stack}.)

:ACK: /ak/ interj. 1. [from the ASCII mnemonic for 0000110]

Acknowledge. Used to register one's presence (compare mainstream

*Yo!*). An appropriate response to {ping} or {ENQ}.

2. [from the comic strip "Bloom County"] An exclamation of

surprised disgust, esp. in "Ack pffft!" Semi-humorous.

Generally this sense is not spelled in caps (ACK) and is

distinguished by a following exclamation point. 3. Used to

politely interrupt someone to tell them you understand their point

(see {NAK}). Thus, for example, you might cut off an overly

long explanation with "Ack. Ack. Ack. I get it now".

There is also a usage "ACK?" (from sense 1) meaning "Are you

there?", often used in email when earlier mail has produced no

reply, or during a lull in {talk mode} to see if the person has

gone away (the standard humorous response is of course {NAK}

(sense 2), i.e., "I'm not here").

:ad-hockery: /ad-hok'*r-ee/ [Purdue] n. 1. Gratuitous assumptions

made inside certain programs, esp. expert systems, which lead to

the appearance of semi-intelligent behavior but are in fact

entirely arbitrary. For example, fuzzy-matching input tokens that

might be typing errors against a symbol table can make it look as

though a program knows how to spell. 2. Special-case code to cope

with some awkward input that would otherwise cause a program to

{choke}, presuming normal inputs are dealt with in some cleaner

and more regular way. Also called `ad-hackery', `ad-hocity'

(/ad-hos'*-tee/), `ad-crockery'. See also {ELIZA effect}.

:Ada:: n. A {{Pascal}}-descended language that has been made

mandatory for Department of Defense software projects by the

Pentagon. Hackers are nearly unanimous in observing that,

technically, it is precisely what one might expect given that kind

of endorsement by fiat; designed by committee, crockish, difficult

to use, and overall a disastrous, multi-billion-dollar boondoggle

(one common description is "The PL/I of the 1980s"). Hackers

find Ada's exception-handling and inter-process communication

features particularly hilarious. Ada Lovelace (the daughter of

Lord Byron who became the world's first programmer while

cooperating with Charles Babbage on the design of his mechanical

computing engines in the mid-1800s) would almost certainly blanch

at the use to which her name has latterly been put; the kindest

thing that has been said about it is that there is probably a good

small language screaming to get out from inside its vast,

{elephantine} bulk.

:adger: /aj'r/ [UCLA] vt. To make a bonehead move with consequences

that could have been foreseen with a slight amount of mental

effort. E.g., "He started removing files and promptly adgered the

whole project". Compare {dumbass attack}.

:admin: /ad-min'/ n. Short for `administrator'; very commonly

used in speech or on-line to refer to the systems person in charge

on a computer. Common constructions on this include `sysadmin'

and `site admin' (emphasizing the administrator's role as a site

contact for email and news) or `newsadmin' (focusing specifically

on news). Compare {postmaster}, {sysop}, {system

mangler}.

:ADVENT: /ad'vent/ n. The prototypical computer adventure game, first

implemented on the {PDP-10} by Will Crowther as an attempt at

computer-refereed fantasy gaming, and expanded into a

puzzle-oriented game by Don Woods. Now better known as Adventure,

but the {{TOPS-10}} operating system permitted only 6-letter

filenames. See also {vadding}.

This game defined the terse, dryly humorous style now expected in

text adventure games, and popularized several tag lines that have

become fixtures of hacker-speak: "A huge green fierce snake bars

the way!" "I see no X here" (for some noun X). "You are in a

maze of twisty little passages, all alike." "You are in a little

maze of twisty passages, all different." The `magic words'

{xyzzy} and {plugh} also derive from this game.

Crowther, by the way, participated in the exploration of the

Mammoth & Flint Ridge cave system; it actually *has* a

`Colossal Cave' and a `Bedquilt' as in the game, and the `Y2' that

also turns up is cavers' jargon for a map reference to a secondary

entrance.

:AFJ: n. Written-only abbreviation for "April Fool's Joke".

Elaborate April Fool's hoaxes are a hallowed tradition on USENET

and Internet; see {kremvax} for an example. In fact, April

Fool's Day is the *only* seasonal holiday marked by customary

observances on the hacker networks.

:AI-complete: /A-I k*m-pleet'/ [MIT, Stanford: by analogy with

`NP-complete' (see {NP-})] adj. Used to describe problems or

subproblems in AI, to indicate that the solution presupposes a

solution to the `strong AI problem' (that is, the synthesis of a

human-level intelligence). A problem that is AI-complete is, in

other words, just too hard.

Examples of AI-complete problems are `The Vision Problem'

(building a system that can see as well as a human) and `The

Natural Language Problem' (building a system that can understand

and speak a natural language as well as a human). These may appear

to be modular, but all attempts so far (1991) to solve them have

foundered on the amount of context information and `intelligence'

they seem to require. See also {gedanken}.

:AI koans: /A-I koh'anz/ pl.n. A series of pastiches of Zen

teaching riddles created by Danny Hillis at the MIT AI Lab around

various major figures of the Lab's culture (several are included

under "{A Selection of AI Koans}" in {appendix

A}). See also {ha ha only serious}, {mu}, and {{Humor,

Hacker}}.

:AIDS: /aydz/ n. Short for A* Infected Disk Syndrome (`A*' is a

{glob} pattern that matches, but is not limited to, Apple),

this condition is quite often the result of practicing unsafe

{SEX}. See {virus}, {worm}, {Trojan horse},

{virgin}.

:AIDX: n. /aydkz/ n. Derogatory term for IBM's perverted version

of UNIX, AIX, especially for the AIX 3.? used in the IBM RS/6000

series. A victim of the dreaded "hybridism" disease, this

attempt to combine the two main currents of the UNIX stream

({BSD} and {USG UNIX}) became a {monstrosity} to haunt

system administrators' dreams. For example, if new accounts are

created while many users are logged on, the load average jumps

quickly over 20 due to silly implementation of the user databases.

For a quite similar disease, compare {HP-SUX}. Also, compare

{terminak}, {Macintrash} {Nominal Semidestructor},

{Open DeathTrap}, {ScumOS}, {sun-stools}.

:airplane rule: n. "Complexity increases the possibility of

failure; a twin-engine airplane has twice as many engine problems

as a single-engine airplane." By analogy, in both software and

electronics, the rule that simplicity increases robustness (see

also {KISS Principle}). It is correspondingly argued that the

right way to build reliable systems is to put all your eggs in one

basket, after making sure that you've built a really *good*

basket.

:aliasing bug: n. A class of subtle programming errors that can

arise in code that does dynamic allocation, esp. via

`malloc(3)' or equivalent. If more than one pointer addresses

(`aliases for') a given hunk of storage, it may happen that the

storage is freed or reallocated (and thus moved) through one alias

and then referenced through another, which may lead to subtle (and

possibly intermittent) lossage depending on the state and the

allocation history of the malloc {arena}. Avoidable by use of

allocation strategies that never alias allocated core. Also

avoidable by use of higher-level languages, such as {LISP},

which employ a garbage collector (see {GC}). Also called a

{stale pointer bug}. See also {precedence lossage},

{smash the stack}, {fandango on core}, {memory leak},

{memory smash}, {overrun screw}, {spam}.

Historical note: Though this term is nowadays associated with

C programming, it was already in use in a very similar sense in the

Algol-60 and FORTRAN communities in the 1960s.

:all-elbows: adj. Of a TSR (terminate-and-stay-resident) IBM PC

program, such as the N pop-up calendar and calculator utilities

that circulate on {BBS} systems: unsociable. Used to describe a

program that rudely steals the resources that it needs without

considering that other TSRs may also be resident. One particularly

common form of rudeness is lock-up due to programs fighting over

the keyboard interrupt. See {rude}, also {mess-dos}.

:alpha particles: n. See {bit rot}.

:alt: /awlt/ 1. n. The alt shift key on an IBM PC or {clone}.

2. n. The `clover' or `Command' key on a Macintosh; use of this

term usually reveals that the speaker hacked PCs before coming to

the Mac (see also {feature key}). Some Mac hackers,

confusingly, reserve `alt' for the Option key. 3. n.obs. [PDP-10;

often capitalized to ALT] Alternate name for the ASCII

ESC character (ASCII 0011011), after the keycap labeling on some

older terminals. Also `altmode' (/awlt'mohd/). This character

was almost never pronounced `escape' on an ITS system, in

{TECO}, or under TOPS-10 --- always alt, as in "Type alt alt to

end a TECO command" or "alt-U onto the system" (for "log onto

the [ITS] system"). This was probably because alt is more

convenient to say than `escape', especially when followed by

another alt or a character (or another alt *and* a character,

for that matter).

:alt bit: /awlt bit/ [from alternate] adj. See {meta bit}.

:altmode: n. Syn. {alt} sense 3.

:Aluminum Book: [MIT] n. `Common LISP: The Language', by

Guy L. Steele Jr. (Digital Press, first edition 1984, second

edition 1990). Note that due to a technical screwup some printings

of the second edition are actually of a color the author describes

succinctly as "yucky green". See also {{book titles}}.

:amoeba: n. Humorous term for the Commodore Amiga personal computer.

:amp off: [Purdue] vt. To run in {background}. From the UNIX shell `&'

operator.

:amper: n. Common abbreviation for the name of the ampersand (`&',

ASCII 0100110) character. See {{ASCII}} for other synonyms.

:angle brackets: n. Either of the characters `<' (ASCII

0111100) and `>' (ASCII 0111110) (ASCII less-than or

greater-than signs). The {Real World} angle brackets used by

typographers are actually taller than a less-than or greater-than

sign.

See {broket}, {{ASCII}}.

:angry fruit salad: n. A bad visual-interface design that uses too

many colors. This derives, of course, from the bizarre day-glo

colors found in canned fruit salad. Too often one sees similar

effects from interface designers using color window systems such as

{X}; there is a tendency to create displays that are flashy and

attention-getting but uncomfortable for long-term use.

:annoybot: /*-noy-bot/ [IRC] n. See {robot}.

:AOS: 1. /aws/ (East Coast), /ay-os/ (West Coast) [based on a

PDP-10 increment instruction] vt.,obs. To increase the amount of

something. "AOS the campfire." Usage: considered silly, and now

obsolete. Now largely supplanted by {bump}. See {SOS}. 2. A

{{Multics}}-derived OS supported at one time by Data General. This

was pronounced /A-O-S/ or /A-os/. A spoof of the standard

AOS system administrator's manual (`How to Load and Generate

your AOS System') was created, issued a part number, and circulated

as photocopy folklore. It was called `How to Goad and

Levitate your CHAOS System'. 3. Algebraic Operating System, in

reference to those calculators which use infix instead of postfix

(reverse Polish) notation.

Historical note: AOS in sense 1 was the name of a {PDP-10}

instruction that took any memory location in the computer and added

1 to it; AOS meant `Add One and do not Skip'. Why, you may ask,

does the `S' stand for `do not Skip' rather than for `Skip'? Ah,

here was a beloved piece of PDP-10 folklore. There were eight such

instructions: AOSE added 1 and then skipped the next instruction

if the result was Equal to zero; AOSG added 1 and then skipped if

the result was Greater than 0; AOSN added 1 and then skipped

if the result was Not 0; AOSA added 1 and then skipped Always;

and so on. Just plain AOS didn't say when to skip, so it never

skipped.

For similar reasons, AOJ meant `Add One and do not Jump'. Even

more bizarre, SKIP meant `do not SKIP'! If you wanted to skip the

next instruction, you had to say `SKIPA'. Likewise, JUMP meant

`do not JUMP'; the unconditional form was JUMPA. However, hackers

never did this. By some quirk of the 10's design, the {JRST}

(Jump and ReSTore flag with no flag specified) was actually faster

and so was invariably used. Such were the perverse mysteries of

assembler programming.

:app: /ap/ n. Short for `application program', as opposed to a

systems program. What systems vendors are forever chasing

developers to create for their environments so they can sell more

boxes. Hackers tend not to think of the things they themselves run

as apps; thus, in hacker parlance the term excludes compilers,

program editors, games, and messaging systems, though a user would

consider all those to be apps. Oppose {tool}, {operating

system}.

:arc: [primarily MSDOS] vt. To create a compressed {archive} from a

group of files using SEA ARC, PKWare PKARC, or a compatible

program. Rapidly becoming obsolete as the ARC compression method

is falling into disuse, having been replaced by newer compression

techniques. See {tar and feather}, {zip}.

:arc wars: [primarily MSDOS] n. {holy wars} over which archiving

program one should use. The first arc war was sparked when System

Enhancement Associates (SEA) sued PKWare for copyright and

trademark infringement on its ARC program. PKWare's PKARC

outperformed ARC on both compression and speed while largely

retaining compatibility (it introduced a new compression type that

could be disabled for backward-compatibility). PKWare settled out

of court to avoid enormous legal costs (both SEA and PKWare are

small companies); as part of the settlement, the name of PKARC was

changed to PKPAK. The public backlash against SEA for bringing

suit helped to hasten the demise of ARC as a standard when PKWare

and others introduced new, incompatible archivers with better

compression algorithms.

:archive: n. 1. A collection of several files bundled into one file

by a program such as `ar(1)', `tar(1)', `cpio(1)',

or {arc} for shipment or archiving (sense 2). See also {tar

and feather}. 2. A collection of files or archives (sense 1) made

available from an `archive site' via {FTP} or an email server.

:arena: [UNIX] n. The area of memory attached to a process by

`brk(2)' and `sbrk(2)' and used by `malloc(3)' as

dynamic storage. So named from a semi-mythical `malloc:

corrupt arena' message supposedly emitted when some early versions

became terminally confused. See {overrun screw}, {aliasing

bug}, {memory leak}, {memory smash}, {smash the stack}.

:arg: /arg/ n. Abbreviation for `argument' (to a function),

used so often as to have become a new word (like `piano' from

`pianoforte'). "The sine function takes 1 arg, but the

arc-tangent function can take either 1 or 2 args." Compare

{param}, {parm}, {var}.

:armor-plated: n. Syn. for {bulletproof}.

:asbestos: adj. Used as a modifier to anything intended to protect

one from {flame}s. Important cases of this include {asbestos

longjohns} and {asbestos cork award}, but it is used more

generally.

:asbestos cork award: n. Once, long ago at MIT, there was a {flamer}

so consistently obnoxious that another hacker designed, had made,

and distributed posters announcing that said flamer had been

nominated for the `asbestos cork award'. Persons in any doubt as

to the intended application of the cork should consult the

etymology under {flame}. Since then, it is agreed that only a

select few have risen to the heights of bombast required to earn

this dubious dignity --- but there is no agreement on *which*

few.

:asbestos longjohns: n. Notional garments often donned by {USENET}

posters just before emitting a remark they expect will elicit

{flamage}. This is the most common of the {asbestos} coinages.

Also `asbestos underwear', `asbestos overcoat', etc.

:ASCII:: [American Standard Code for Information Interchange]

/as'kee/ n. The predominant character set encoding of present-day

computers. Uses 7 bits for each character, whereas most earlier

codes (including an early version of ASCII) used fewer. This

change allowed the inclusion of lowercase letters --- a major

{win} --- but it did not provide for accented letters or any

other letterforms not used in English (such as the German sharp-S

and the ae-ligature

which is a letter in, for example, Norwegian). It could be worse,

though. It could be much worse. See {{EBCDIC}} to understand how.

Computers are much pickier and less flexible about spelling than

humans; thus, hackers need to be very precise when talking about

characters, and have developed a considerable amount of verbal

shorthand for them. Every character has one or more names --- some

formal, some concise, some silly. Common jargon names for ASCII

characters are collected here. See also individual entries for

{bang}, {excl}, {open}, {ques}, {semi}, {shriek},

{splat}, {twiddle}, and {Yu-Shiang Whole Fish}.

This list derives from revision 2.3 of the USENET ASCII

pronunciation guide. Single characters are listed in ASCII order;

character pairs are sorted in by first member. For each character,

common names are given in rough order of popularity, followed by

names that are reported but rarely seen; official ANSI/CCITT names

are surrounded by brokets: <>. Square brackets mark the

particularly silly names introduced by {INTERCAL}. Ordinary

parentheticals provide some usage information.

Common: {bang}; pling; excl; shriek; <exclamation mark>.

Rare: factorial; exclam; smash; cuss; boing; yell; wow; hey;

wham; eureka; [spark-spot]; soldier.

Common: double quote; quote. Rare: literal mark;

double-glitch; <quotation marks>; <dieresis>; dirk;

[rabbit-ears]; double prime.

Common: <number sign>; pound; pound sign; hash; sharp;

{crunch}; hex; [mesh]; octothorpe. Rare: flash; crosshatch;

grid; pig-pen; tictactoe; scratchmark; thud; thump; {splat}.

Common: dollar; <dollar sign>. Rare: currency symbol; buck;

cash; string (from BASIC); escape (when used as the echo of

ASCII ESC); ding; cache; [big money].

Common: percent; <percent sign>; mod; grapes. Rare:

[double-oh-seven].

Common: <ampersand>; amper; and. Rare: address (from C);

reference (from C++); andpersand; bitand; background (from

`sh(1)'); pretzel; amp. [INTERCAL called this `ampersand';

what could be sillier?]

Common: single quote; quote; <apostrophe>. Rare: prime;

glitch; tick; irk; pop; [spark]; <closing single quotation

mark>; <acute accent>.

()

Common: left/right paren; left/right parenthesis; left/right;

paren/thesis; open/close paren; open/close; open/close

parenthesis; left/right banana. Rare: so/al-ready;

lparen/rparen; <opening/closing parenthesis>; open/close round

bracket, parenthisey/unparenthisey; [wax/wane]; left/right

ear.

Common: star; [{splat}]; <asterisk>. Rare: wildcard; gear;

dingle; mult; spider; aster; times; twinkle; glob (see

{glob}); {Nathan Hale}.

Common: <plus>; add. Rare: cross; [intersection].

Common: <comma>. Rare: <cedilla>; [tail].

Common: dash; <hyphen>; <minus>. Rare: [worm]; option; dak;

bithorpe.

Common: dot; point; <period>; <decimal point>. Rare: radix

point; full stop; [spot].

Common: slash; stroke; <slant>; forward slash. Rare:

diagonal; solidus; over; slak; virgule; [slat].

Common: <colon>. Rare: dots; [two-spot].

;

Common: <semicolon>; semi. Rare: weenie; [hybrid],

pit-thwong.

Common: <less/greater than>; left/right angle bracket;

bra/ket; left/right broket. Rare: from/{into, towards}; read

from/write to; suck/blow; comes-from/gozinta; in/out;

crunch/zap (all from UNIX); [angle/right angle].

Common: <equals>; gets; takes. Rare: quadrathorpe;

[half-mesh].

Common: query; <question mark>; {ques}. Rare: whatmark;

[what]; wildchar; huh; hook; buttonhook; hunchback.

Common: at sign; at; strudel. Rare: each; vortex; whorl;

[whirlpool]; cyclone; snail; ape; cat; rose; cabbage;

<commercial at>.

Rare: [book].

[]

Common: left/right square bracket; <opening/closing bracket>;

bracket/unbracket; left/right bracket. Rare: square/unsquare;

[U turn/U turn back].

Common: backslash; escape (from C/UNIX); reverse slash; slosh;

backslant; backwhack. Rare: bash; <reverse slant>; reversed

virgule; [backslat].

Common: hat; control; uparrow; caret; <circumflex>. Rare:

chevron; [shark (or shark-fin)]; to the (`to the power of');

fang; pointer (in Pascal).

Common: <underline>; underscore; underbar; under. Rare:

score; backarrow; skid; [flatworm].

Common: backquote; left quote; left single quote; open quote;

<grave accent>; grave. Rare: backprime; [backspark];

unapostrophe; birk; blugle; back tick; back glitch; push;

<opening single quotation mark>; quasiquote.

{}

Common: open/close brace; left/right brace; left/right

squiggly; left/right squiggly bracket/brace; left/right curly

bracket/brace; <opening/closing brace>. Rare: brace/unbrace;

curly/uncurly; leftit/rytit; left/right squirrelly;

[embrace/bracelet].

Common: bar; or; or-bar; v-bar; pipe; vertical bar. Rare:

<vertical line>; gozinta; thru; pipesinta (last three from

UNIX); [spike].

Common: <tilde>; squiggle; {twiddle}; not. Rare: approx;

wiggle; swung dash; enyay; [sqiggle (sic)].

The pronunciation of `#' as `pound' is common in the U.S.

but a bad idea; {{Commonwealth Hackish}} has its own, rather more

apposite use of `pound sign' (confusingly, on British keyboards

the pound graphic

happens to replace `#'; thus Britishers sometimes

call `#' on a U.S.-ASCII keyboard `pound', compounding the

American error). The U.S. usage derives from an old-fashioned

commercial practice of using a `#' suffix to tag pound weights

on bills of lading. The character is usually pronounced `hash'

outside the U.S.

The `uparrow' name for circumflex and `leftarrow' name for

underline are historical relics from archaic ASCII (the 1963

version), which had these graphics in those character positions

rather than the modern punctuation characters.

The `swung dash' or `approximation' sign is not quite the same

as tilde in typeset material

but the ASCII tilde serves for both (compare {angle

brackets}).

Some other common usages cause odd overlaps. The `#',

`$', `>', and `&' characters, for example, are all

pronounced "hex" in different communities because various

assemblers use them as a prefix tag for hexadecimal constants (in

particular, `#' in many assembler-programming cultures,

`$' in the 6502 world, `>' at Texas Instruments, and

`&' on the BBC Micro, Sinclair, and some Z80 machines). See

also {splat}.

The inability of ASCII text to correctly represent any of the

world's other major languages makes the designers' choice of 7 bits

look more and more like a serious {misfeature} as the use of

international networks continues to increase (see {software

rot}). Hardware and software from the U.S. still tends to embody

the assumption that ASCII is the universal character set; this is a

a major irritant to people who want to use a character set suited

to their own languages. Perversely, though, efforts to solve this

problem by proliferating `national' character sets produce an

evolutionary pressure to use a *smaller* subset common to all

those in use.

:ASCII art: n. The fine art of drawing diagrams using the ASCII

character set (mainly `|', `-', `/', `\', and

`+'). Also known as `character graphics' or `ASCII

graphics'; see also {boxology}. Here is a serious example:

o----)||(--+--|<----+ +---------o + D O

L )||( | | | C U

A I )||( +-->|-+ | +-\/\/-+--o - T

C N )||( | | | | P

E )||( +-->|-+--)---+--)|--+-o U

)||( | | | GND T

o----)||(--+--|<----+----------+

A power supply consisting of a full

wave rectifier circuit feeding a

capacitor input filter circuit

Figure 1.

And here are some very silly examples:

|\/\/\/| ____/| ___ |\_/| ___

| | \ o.O| ACK! / \_ |` '| _/ \

| | =(_)= THPHTH! / \/ \/ \

| (o)(o) U / \

C _) (__) \/\/\/\ _____ /\/\/\/

| ,___| (oo) \/ \/

| / \/-------\ U (__)

/____\ || | \ /---V `v'- oo )

/ \ ||---W|| * * |--| || |`. |_/\

Figure 2.

There is an important subgenre of humorous ASCII art that takes

advantage of the names of the various characters to tell a

pun-based joke.

+--------------------------------------------------------+

| ^^^^^^^^^^^^ |

| ^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^ |

| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ |

| ^^^^^^^ B ^^^^^^^^^ |

| ^^^^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ |

+--------------------------------------------------------+

" A Bee in the Carrot Patch "

Figure 3.

Within humorous ASCII art, there is for some reason an entire

flourishing subgenre of pictures of silly cows. Four of these are

reproduced in Figure 2; here are three more:

(__) (__) (__)

(\/) ($$) (**)

/-------\/ /-------\/ /-------\/

/ | 666 || / |=====|| / | ||

* ||----|| * ||----|| * ||----||

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~

Satanic cow This cow is a Yuppie Cow in love

Figure 4.

:attoparsec: n. `atto-' is the standard SI prefix for

multiplication by 10^(-18). A parsec (parallax-second) is

3.26 light-years; an attoparsec is thus 3.26 * 10^(-18) light

years, or about 3.1 cm (thus, 1 attoparsec/{microfortnight}

equals about 1 inch/sec). This unit is reported to be in use

(though probably not very seriously) among hackers in the U.K. See

{micro-}.

:autobogotiphobia: /aw'to-boh-got`*-foh'bee-*/ n. See {bogotify}.

:automagically: /aw-toh-maj'i-klee/ or /aw-toh-maj'i-k*l-ee/ adv.

Automatically, but in a way that, for some reason (typically

because it is too complicated, or too ugly, or perhaps even too

trivial), the speaker doesn't feel like explaining to you. See

{magic}. "The C-INTERCAL compiler generates C, then automagically

invokes `cc(1)' to produce an executable."

:avatar: [CMU, Tektronix] n. Syn. {root}, {superuser}. There

are quite a few UNIX machines on which the name of the superuser

account is `avatar' rather than `root'. This quirk was

originated by a CMU hacker who disliked the term `superuser',

and was propagated through an ex-CMU hacker at Tektronix.

:awk: 1. n. [UNIX techspeak] An interpreted language for massaging

text data developed by Alfred Aho, Peter Weinberger, and Brian

Kernighan (the name is from their initials). It is characterized

by C-like syntax, a declaration-free approach to variable typing

and declarations, associative arrays, and field-oriented text

processing. See also {Perl}. 2. n. Editing term for an

expression awkward to manipulate through normal {regexp}

facilities (for example, one containing a {newline}). 3. vt. To

process data using `awk(1)'.

= B =

=====

:back door: n. A hole in the security of a system deliberately left

in place by designers or maintainers. The motivation for this is

not always sinister; some operating systems, for example, come out

of the box with privileged accounts intended for use by field

service technicians or the vendor's maintenance programmers.

Historically, back doors have often lurked in systems longer than

anyone expected or planned, and a few have become widely known.

The infamous {RTM} worm of late 1988, for example, used a back door

in the {BSD} UNIX `sendmail(8)' utility.

Ken Thompson's 1983 Turing Award lecture to the ACM revealed the

existence of a back door in early UNIX versions that may have

qualified as the most fiendishly clever security hack of all time.

The C compiler contained code that would recognize when the

`login' command was being recompiled and insert some code

recognizing a password chosen by Thompson, giving him entry to the

system whether or not an account had been created for him.

Normally such a back door could be removed by removing it from the

source code for the compiler and recompiling the compiler. But to

recompile the compiler, you have to *use* the compiler --- so

Thompson also arranged that the compiler would *recognize when

it was compiling a version of itself*, and insert into the

recompiled compiler the code to insert into the recompiled `login'

the code to allow Thompson entry --- and, of course, the code to

recognize itself and do the whole thing again the next time around!

And having done this once, he was then able to recompile the

compiler from the original sources, leaving his back door in place

and active but with no trace in the sources.

The talk that revealed this truly moby hack was published as

"Reflections on Trusting Trust", `Communications of the

ACM 27', 8 (August 1984), pp. 761--763.

Syn. {trap door}; may also be called a `wormhole'. See also

{iron box}, {cracker}, {worm}, {logic bomb}.

:backbone cabal: n. A group of large-site administrators who pushed

through the {Great Renaming} and reined in the chaos of {USENET}

during most of the 1980s. The cabal {mailing list} disbanded in

late 1988 after a bitter internal catfight, but the net hardly

noticed.

:backbone site: n. A key USENET and email site; one that processes

a large amount of third-party traffic, especially if it is the home

site of any of the regional coordinators for the USENET maps.

Notable backbone sites as of early 1991 include uunet and the

mail machines at Rutgers University, UC Berkeley, DEC's Western

Research Laboratories, Ohio State University, and the University of

Texas. Compare {rib site}, {leaf site}.

:backgammon:: See {bignum}, {moby}, and {pseudoprime}.

:background: n.,adj.,vt. To do a task `in background' is to do

it whenever {foreground} matters are not claiming your undivided

attention, and `to background' something means to relegate it to

a lower priority. "For now, we'll just print a list of nodes and

links; I'm working on the graph-printing problem in background."

Note that this implies ongoing activity but at a reduced level or

in spare time, in contrast to mainstream `back burner' (which

connotes benign neglect until some future resumption of activity).

Some people prefer to use the term for processing that they have

queued up for their unconscious minds (a tack that one can often

fruitfully take upon encountering an obstacle in creative work).

Compare {amp off}, {slopsucker}.

Technically, a task running in background is detached from the

terminal where it was started (and often running at a lower

priority); oppose {foreground}. Nowadays this term is primarily

associated with {{UNIX}}, but it appears to have been first used

in this sense on OS/360.

:backspace and overstrike: interj. Whoa! Back up. Used to suggest

that someone just said or did something wrong. Common among

APL programmers.

:backward combatability: /bak'w*rd k*m-bat'*-bil'*-tee/ [from

`backward compatibility'] n. A property of hardware or software

revisions in which previous protocols, formats, and layouts are

discarded in favor of `new and improved' protocols, formats, and

layouts. Occurs usually when making the transition between major

releases. When the change is so drastic that the old formats are

not retained in the new version, it is said to be `backward

combatable'. See {flag day}.

:BAD: /B-A-D/ [IBM: acronym, `Broken As Designed'] adj. Said

of a program that is {bogus} because of bad design and misfeatures

rather than because of bugginess. See {working as designed}.

:Bad Thing: [from the 1930 Sellar & Yeatman parody `1066 And

All That'] n. Something that can't possibly result in improvement

of the subject. This term is always capitalized, as in "Replacing

all of the 9600-baud modems with bicycle couriers would be a Bad

Thing". Oppose {Good Thing}. British correspondents confirm

that {Bad Thing} and {Good Thing} (and prob. therefore {Right

Thing} and {Wrong Thing}) come from the book referenced in the

etymology, which discusses rulers who were Good Kings but Bad

Things. This has apparently created a mainstream idiom on the

British side of the pond.

:bag on the side: n. An extension to an established hack that is

supposed to add some functionality to the original. Usually

derogatory, implying that the original was being overextended and

should have been thrown away, and the new product is ugly,

inelegant, or bloated. Also v. phrase, `to hang a bag on the side

[of]'. "C++? That's just a bag on the side of C ...."

"They want me to hang a bag on the side of the accounting

system."

:bagbiter: /bag'bi:t-*r/ n. 1. Something, such as a program or a

computer, that fails to work, or works in a remarkably clumsy

manner. "This text editor won't let me make a file with a line

longer than 80 characters! What a bagbiter!" 2. A person who has

caused you some trouble, inadvertently or otherwise, typically by

failing to program the computer properly. Synonyms: {loser},

{cretin}, {chomper}. 3. adj. `bagbiting' Having the

quality of a bagbiter. "This bagbiting system won't let me

compute the factorial of a negative number." Compare {losing},

{cretinous}, {bletcherous}, `barfucious' (under

{barfulous}) and `chomping' (under {chomp}). 4. `bite

the bag' vi. To fail in some manner. "The computer keeps crashing

every 5 minutes." "Yes, the disk controller is really biting the

bag." The original loading of these terms was almost undoubtedly

obscene, possibly referring to the scrotum, but in their current

usage they have become almost completely sanitized.

A program called Lexiphage on the old MIT AI PDP-10 would draw on

a selected victim's bitmapped terminal the words "THE BAG" in

ornate letters, and then a pair of jaws biting pieces of it off.

This is the first and to date only known example of a program

*intended* to be a bagbiter.

:bamf: /bamf/ 1. [from old X-Men comics] interj. Notional sound

made by a person or object teleporting in or out of the hearer's

vicinity. Often used in {virtual reality} (esp. {MUD})

electronic {fora} when a character wishes to make a dramatic

entrance or exit. 2. The sound of magical transformation, used in

virtual reality {fora} like sense 1. 3. [from `Don

Washington's Survival Guide'] n. Acronym for `Bad-Ass Mother

Fucker', used to refer to one of the handful of nastiest monsters

on an LPMUD or other similar MUD.

:banana label: n. The labels often used on the sides of {macrotape}

reels, so called because they are shaped roughly like blunt-ended

bananas. This term, like macrotapes themselves, is still current

but visibly headed for obsolescence.

:banana problem: n. [from the story of the little girl who said "I

know how to spell `banana', but I don't know when to stop"]. Not

knowing where or when to bring a production to a close (compare

{fencepost error}). One may say `there is a banana problem' of an

algorithm with poorly defined or incorrect termination conditions,

or in discussing the evolution of a design that may be succumbing

to featuritis (see also {creeping elegance}, {creeping

featuritis}). See item 176 under {HAKMEM}, which describes a

banana problem in a {Dissociated Press} implementation. Also,

see {one-banana problem} for a superficially similar but

unrelated usage.

:bandwidth: n. 1. Used by hackers in a generalization of its

technical meaning as the volume of information per unit time that a

computer, person, or transmission medium can handle. "Those are

amazing graphics, but I missed some of the detail --- not enough

bandwidth, I guess." Compare {low-bandwidth}. 2. Attention

span. 3. On {USENET}, a measure of network capacity that is

often wasted by people complaining about how items posted by others

are a waste of bandwidth.

:bang: 1. n. Common spoken name for `!' (ASCII 0100001),

especially when used in pronouncing a {bang path} in spoken

hackish. In {elder days} this was considered a CMUish usage,

with MIT and Stanford hackers preferring {excl} or {shriek};

but the spread of UNIX has carried `bang' with it (esp. via the

term {bang path}) and it is now certainly the most common spoken

name for `!'. Note that it is used exclusively for

non-emphatic written `!'; one would not say "Congratulations

bang" (except possibly for humorous purposes), but if one wanted

to specify the exact characters `foo!' one would speak "Eff oh oh

bang". See {shriek}, {{ASCII}}. 2. interj. An exclamation

signifying roughly "I have achieved enlightenment!", or "The

dynamite has cleared out my brain!" Often used to acknowledge

that one has perpetrated a {thinko} immediately after one has

been called on it.

:bang on: vt. To stress-test a piece of hardware or software: "I

banged on the new version of the simulator all day yesterday and it

didn't crash once. I guess it is ready for release." The term

{pound on} is synonymous.

:bang path: n. An old-style UUCP electronic-mail address specifying

hops to get from some assumed-reachable location to the addressee,

so called because each {hop} is signified by a {bang} sign.

Thus, for example, the path ...!bigsite!foovax!barbox!me

directs people to route their mail to machine bigsite (presumably

a well-known location accessible to everybody) and from there

through the machine foovax to the account of user me on

barbox.

In the bad old days of not so long ago, before autorouting mailers

became commonplace, people often published compound bang addresses

using the { } convention (see {glob}) to give paths from

*several* big machines, in the hopes that one's correspondent

might be able to get mail to one of them reliably (example:

...!{seismo, ut-sally, ihnp4}!rice!beta!gamma!me). Bang paths

of 8 to 10 hops were not uncommon in 1981. Late-night dial-up

UUCP links would cause week-long transmission times. Bang paths

were often selected by both transmission time and reliability, as

messages would often get lost. See {{Internet address}},

{network, the}, and {sitename}.

:banner: n. 1. The title page added to printouts by most print

spoolers (see {spool}). Typically includes user or account ID

information in very large character-graphics capitals. Also called

a `burst page', because it indicates where to burst (tear apart)

fanfold paper to separate one user's printout from the next. 2. A

similar printout generated (typically on multiple pages of fan-fold

paper) from user-specified text, e.g., by a program such as UNIX's

`banner({1,6})'. 3. On interactive software, a first screen

containing a logo and/or author credits and/or a copyright notice.

:bar: /bar/ n. 1. The second {metasyntactic variable}, after {foo}

and before {baz}. "Suppose we have two functions: FOO and BAR.

FOO calls BAR...." 2. Often appended to {foo} to produce

{foobar}.

:bare metal: n. 1. New computer hardware, unadorned with such

snares and delusions as an {operating system}, an {HLL}, or

even assembler. Commonly used in the phrase `programming on the

bare metal', which refers to the arduous work of {bit bashing}

needed to create these basic tools for a new machine. Real

bare-metal programming involves things like building boot proms and

BIOS chips, implementing basic monitors used to test device

drivers, and writing the assemblers that will be used to write the

compiler back ends that will give the new machine a real

development environment. 2. `Programming on the bare metal' is

also used to describe a style of {hand-hacking} that relies on

bit-level peculiarities of a particular hardware design, esp.

tricks for speed and space optimization that rely on crocks such as

overlapping instructions (or, as in the famous case described in

{The Story of Mel, a Real Programmer} (in {appendix A}),

interleaving of opcodes on a magnetic drum to minimize fetch delays

due to the device's rotational latency). This sort of thing has

become less common as the relative costs of programming time and

machine resources have changed, but is still found in heavily

constrained environments such as industrial embedded systems. See

{real programmer}.

In the world of personal computing, bare metal programming

(especially in sense 1 but sometimes also in sense 2) is often

considered a {Good Thing}, or at least a necessary evil

(because these machines have often been sufficiently slow and

poorly designed to make it necessary; see {ill-behaved}).

There, the term usually refers to bypassing the BIOS or OS

interface and writing the application to directly access device

registers and machine addresses. "To get 19.2 kilobaud on the

serial port, you need to get down to the bare metal." People who

can do this sort of thing are held in high regard.

:barf: /barf/ [from mainstream slang meaning `vomit']

1. interj. Term of disgust. This is the closest hackish

equivalent of the Val\-speak "gag me with a spoon". (Like, euwww!)

See {bletch}. 2. vi. To say "Barf!" or emit some similar

expression of disgust. "I showed him my latest hack and he

barfed" means only that he complained about it, not that he

literally vomited. 3. vi. To fail to work because of unacceptable

input. May mean to give an error message. Examples: "The

division operation barfs if you try to divide by 0." (That is,

the division operation checks for an attempt to divide by zero, and

if one is encountered it causes the operation to fail in some

unspecified, but generally obvious, manner.) "The text editor

barfs if you try to read in a new file before writing out the old

one." See {choke}, {gag}. In Commonwealth hackish,

`barf' is generally replaced by `puke' or `vom'. {barf}

is sometimes also used as a {metasyntactic variable}, like {foo} or

{bar}.

:barfmail: n. Multiple {bounce message}s accumulating to the

level of serious annoyance, or worse. The sort of thing that

happens when an inter-network mail gateway goes down or

wonky.

:barfulation: /bar`fyoo-lay'sh*n/ interj. Variation of {barf}

used around the Stanford area. An exclamation, expressing disgust.

On seeing some particularly bad code one might exclaim,

"Barfulation! Who wrote this, Quux?"

:barfulous: /bar'fyoo-l*s/ adj. (alt. `barfucious',

/bar-fyoo-sh*s/) Said of something that would make anyone barf,

if only for esthetic reasons.

:barney: n. In Commonwealth hackish, `barney' is to {fred}

(sense #1) as {bar} is to {foo}. That is, people who

commonly use `fred' as their first metasyntactic variable will

often use `barney' second. The reference is, of course, to Fred

Flintstone and Barney Rubble in the Flintstones cartoons.

:baroque: adj. Feature-encrusted; complex; gaudy; verging on

excessive. Said of hardware or (esp.) software designs, this has

many of the connotations of {elephantine} or {monstrosity} but is

less extreme and not pejorative in itself. "Metafont even has

features to introduce random variations to its letterform output.

Now *that* is baroque!" See also {rococo}.

:BartleMUD: /bar'tl-muhd/ n. Any of the MUDs derived from the

original MUD game by Richard Bartle and Roy Trubshaw (see

{MUD}). BartleMUDs are noted for their (usually slightly

offbeat) humor, dry but friendly syntax, and lack of adjectives in

object descriptions, so a player is likely to come across

`brand172', for instance (see {brand brand brand}). Bartle has

taken a bad rap in some MUDding circles for supposedly originating

this term, but (like the story that MUD is a trademark) this

appears to be a myth; he uses `MUD1'.

:BASIC: n. A programming language, originally designed for

Dartmouth's experimental timesharing system in the early 1960s,

which has since become the leading cause of brain-damage in

proto-hackers. This is another case (like {Pascal}) of the bad

things that happen when a language deliberately designed as an

educational toy gets taken too seriously. A novice can write short

BASIC programs (on the order of 10--20 lines) very easily; writing

anything longer is (a) very painful, and (b) encourages bad habits

that will bite him/her later if he/she tries to hack in a real

language. This wouldn't be so bad if historical accidents hadn't

made BASIC so common on low-end micros. As it is, it ruins

thousands of potential wizards a year.

:batch: adj. 1. Non-interactive. Hackers use this somewhat more

loosely than the traditional technical definitions justify; in

particular, switches on a normally interactive program that prepare

it to receive non-interactive command input are often referred to

as `batch mode' switches. A `batch file' is a series of

instructions written to be handed to an interactive program running

in batch mode. 2. Performance of dreary tasks all at one sitting.

"I finally sat down in batch mode and wrote out checks for all

those bills; I guess they'll turn the electricity back on next

week..." 3. Accumulation of a number of small tasks that can be

lumped together for greater efficiency. "I'm batching up those

letters to send sometime" "I'm batching up bottles to take to the

recycling center."

:bathtub curve: n. Common term for the curve (resembling an

end-to-end section of one of those claw-footed antique bathtubs)

that describes the expected failure rate of electronics with time:

initially high, dropping to near 0 for most of the system's

lifetime, then rising again as it `tires out'. See also {burn-in

period}, {infant mortality}.

:baud: /bawd/ [simplified from its technical meaning] n. Bits per

second. Hence kilobaud or Kbaud, thousands of bits per second.

The technical meaning is `level transitions per second'; this

coincides with bps only for two-level modulation with no framing or

stop bits. Most hackers are aware of these nuances but blithely

ignore them.

Histotical note: this was originally a unit of telegraph signalling

speed, set at one pulse per second. It was proposed at the

International Telegraph Conference of 1927, and named after J.M.E.

Baudot (1845-1903), the French engineer who constructed the first

successful teleprinter.

:baud barf: /bawd barf/ n. The garbage one gets on the monitor

when using a modem connection with some protocol setting (esp.

line speed) incorrect, or when someone picks up a voice extension

on the same line, or when really bad line noise disrupts the

connection. Baud barf is not completely {random}, by the way;

hackers with a lot of serial-line experience can usually tell

whether the device at the other end is expecting a higher or lower

speed than the terminal is set to. *Really* experienced ones

can identify particular speeds.

:baz: /baz/ n. 1. The third {metasyntactic variable} "Suppose we

have three functions: FOO, BAR, and BAZ. FOO calls BAR, which

calls BAZ...." (See also {fum}) 2. interj. A term of mild

annoyance. In this usage the term is often drawn out for 2 or 3

seconds, producing an effect not unlike the bleating of a sheep;

/baaaaaaz/. 3. Occasionally appended to {foo} to produce

`foobaz'.

Earlier versions of this lexicon derived `baz' as a Stanford

corruption of {bar}. However, Pete Samson (compiler of the

{TMRC} lexicon) reports it was already current when he joined TMRC

in 1958. He says "It came from `Pogo'. Albert the Alligator,

when vexed or outraged, would shout `Bazz Fazz!' or `Rowrbazzle!'

The club layout was said to model the (mythical) New England

counties of Rowrfolk and Bassex (Rowrbazzle mingled with

(Norfolk/Suffolk/Middlesex/Essex)."

:bboard: /bee'bord/ [contraction of `bulletin board'] n.

1. Any electronic bulletin board; esp. used of {BBS} systems

running on personal micros, less frequently of a USENET

{newsgroup} (in fact, use of the term for a newsgroup generally

marks one either as a {newbie} fresh in from the BBS world or as

a real old-timer predating USENET). 2. At CMU and other colleges

with similar facilities, refers to campus-wide electronic bulletin

boards. 3. The term `physical bboard' is sometimes used to

refer to a old-fashioned, non-electronic cork memo board. At CMU,

it refers to a particular one outside the CS Lounge.

In either of senses 1 or 2, the term is usually prefixed by the

name of the intended board (`the Moonlight Casino bboard' or

`market bboard'); however, if the context is clear, the better-read

bboards may be referred to by name alone, as in (at CMU) "Don't

post for-sale ads on general".

:BBS: /B-B-S/ [abbreviation, `Bulletin Board System'] n. An electronic

bulletin board system; that is, a message database where people can

into {topic group}s. Thousands of local BBS systems are in

operation throughout the U.S., typically run by amateurs for fun

out of their homes on MS-DOS boxes with a single modem line each.

Fans of USENET and Internet or the big commercial timesharing

bboards such as CompuServe and GEnie tend to consider local BBSes

the low-rent district of the hacker culture, but they serve a

valuable function by knitting together lots of hackers and users in

the personal-micro world who would otherwise be unable to exchange

code at all.

:beam: [from Star Trek Classic's "Beam me up, Scotty!"] vt. To

transfer {softcopy} of a file electronically; most often in

combining forms such as `beam me a copy' or `beam that over to

his site'. Compare {blast}, {snarf}, {BLT}.

:beanie key: [Mac users] n. See {command key}.

:beep: n.,v. Syn. {feep}. This term seems to be preferred among micro

hobbyists.

:beige toaster: n. A Macintosh. See {toaster}; compare

{Macintrash}, {maggotbox}.

:bells and whistles: [by analogy with the toyboxes on theater

organs] n. Features added to a program or system to make it more

{flavorful} from a hacker's point of view, without necessarily

adding to its utility for its primary function. Distinguished from

{chrome}, which is intended to attract users. "Now that we've

got the basic program working, let's go back and add some bells and

whistles." No one seems to know what distinguishes a bell from a

whistle.

:bells, whistles, and gongs: n. A standard elaborated form of

{bells and whistles}; typically said with a pronounced and ironic

accent on the `gongs'.

:benchmark: [techspeak] n. An inaccurate measure of computer

performance. "In the computer industry, there are three kinds of

lies: lies, damn lies, and benchmarks." Well-known ones include

Whetstone, Dhrystone, Rhealstone (see {h}), the Gabriel LISP

benchmarks (see {gabriel}), the SPECmark suite, and LINPACK. See

also {machoflops}, {MIPS}, {smoke and mirrors}.

:Berkeley Quality Software: adj. (often abbreviated `BQS') Term used

in a pejorative sense to refer to software that was apparently

created by rather spaced-out hackers late at night to solve some

unique problem. It usually has nonexistent, incomplete, or

incorrect documentation, has been tested on at least two examples,

and core dumps when anyone else attempts to use it. This term was

frequently applied to early versions of the `dbx(1)' debugger.