as to become completely disorganized has become bogotified. If you tighten a nut too hard and strip the threads on the bolt, the bolt has become bogotified and you had better not use it any more. This coinage led to the notional `autobogotiphobia’ defined as `the fear of becoming bogotified’; but is not clear that the latter has ever been `live’ jargon rather than a self-conscious joke in jargon about jargon. See also [1730]bogosity, [1731]bogus. _________________________________________________________________
Node:bogue out, Next:[1732]bogus, Previous:[1733]bogotify, Up:[1734]= B =
bogue out /bohg owt/ vi.
To become bogus, suddenly and unexpectedly. “His talk was relatively sane until somebody asked him a trick question; then he bogued out and did nothing but [1735]flame afterwards.” See also [1736]bogosity, [1737]bogus.
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Node:bogus, Next:[1738]Bohr bug, Previous:[1739]bogue out, Up:[1740]= B =
bogus adj.
1. Non-functional. “Your patches are bogus.” 2. Useless. “OPCON is a bogus program.” 3. False. “Your arguments are bogus.” 4. Incorrect. “That algorithm is bogus.” 5. Unbelievable. “You claim to have solved the halting problem for Turing Machines? That’s totally bogus.” 6. Silly. “Stop writing those bogus sagas.”
Astrology is bogus. So is a bolt that is obviously about to break. So is someone who makes blatantly false claims to have solved a scientific problem. (This word seems to have some, but not all, of the connotations of [1741]random — mostly the negative ones.)
It is claimed that `bogus’ was originally used in the hackish sense at Princeton in the late 1960s. It was spread to CMU and Yale by Michael Shamos, a migratory Princeton alumnus. A glossary of bogus words was compiled at Yale when the word was first popularized there about 1975-76. These coinages spread into hackerdom from CMU and MIT. Most of them remained wordplay objects rather than actual vocabulary items or live metaphors. Examples: `amboguous’ (having multiple bogus interpretations); `bogotissimo’ (in a gloriously bogus manner); `bogotophile’ (one who is pathologically fascinated by the bogus); `paleobogology’ (the study of primeval bogosity).
Some bogowords, however, obtained sufficient live currency to be listed elsewhere in this lexicon; see [1742]bogometer, [1743]bogon, [1744]bogotify, and [1745]quantum bogodynamics and the related but unlisted [1746]Dr. Fred Mbogo.
By the early 1980s `bogus’ was also current in something like hacker usage sense in West Coast teen slang, and it had gone mainstream by 1985. A correspondent from Cambridge reports, by contrast, that these uses of `bogus’ grate on British nerves; in Britain the word means, rather specifically, `counterfeit’, as in “a bogus 10-pound note”. _________________________________________________________________
Node:Bohr bug, Next:[1747]boink, Previous:[1748]bogus, Up:[1749]= B =
Bohr bug /bohr buhg/ n.
[from quantum physics] A repeatable [1750]bug; one that manifests reliably under a possibly unknown but well-defined set of conditions. Antonym of [1751]heisenbug; see also [1752]mandelbug, [1753]schroedinbug.
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Node:boink, Next:[1754]bomb, Previous:[1755]Bohr bug, Up:[1756]= B =
boink /boynk/
[Usenet: variously ascribed to the TV series “Cheers” “Moonlighting”, and “Soap”] 1. v. To have sex with; compare [1757]bounce, sense 3. (This is mainstream slang.) In Commonwealth hackish the variant `bonk’ is more common. 2. n. After the original Peter Korn `Boinkon’ [1758]Usenet parties, used for almost any net social gathering, e.g., Miniboink, a small boink held by Nancy Gillett in 1988; Minniboink, a Boinkcon in Minnesota in 1989; Humpdayboinks, Wednesday get-togethers held in the San Francisco Bay Area. Compare [1759]@-party. 3. Var of `bonk’; see [1760]bonk/oif.
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Node:bomb, Next:[1761]bondage-and-discipline language, Previous:[1762]boink, Up:[1763]= B =
bomb
1. v. General synonym for [1764]crash (sense 1) except that it is not used as a noun; esp. used of software or OS failures. “Don’t run Empire with less than 32K stack, it’ll bomb.” 2. n.,v. Atari ST and Macintosh equivalents of a Unix `panic’ or Amiga [1765]guru meditation, in which icons of little black-powder bombs or mushroom clouds are displayed, indicating that the system has died. On the Mac, this may be accompanied by a decimal (or occasionally hexadecimal) number indicating what went wrong, similar to the Amiga [1766]guru meditation number. [1767]MS-DOS machines tend to get [1768]locked up in this situation.
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Node:bondage-and-discipline language, Next:[1769]bonk/oif, Previous:[1770]bomb, Up:[1771]= B =
bondage-and-discipline language n.
A language (such as [1772]Pascal, [1773]Ada, APL, or Prolog) that, though ostensibly general-purpose, is designed so as to enforce an author’s theory of `right programming’ even though said theory is demonstrably inadequate for systems hacking or even vanilla general-purpose programming. Often abbreviated `B&D’; thus, one may speak of things “having the B&D nature”. See [1774]Pascal; oppose [1775]languages of choice.
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Node:bonk/oif, Next:[1776]book titles, Previous:[1777]bondage-and-discipline language, Up:[1778]= B =
bonk/oif /bonk/, /oyf/ interj.
In the U.S. [1779]MUD community, it has become traditional to express pique or censure by `bonking’ the offending person. Convention holds that one should acknowledge a bonk by saying `oif!’ and there is a myth to the effect that failing to do so upsets the cosmic bonk/oif balance, causing much trouble in the universe. Some MUDs have implemented special commands for bonking and oifing. Note: in parts of the U.K. `bonk’ is a sexually loaded slang term; care is advised in transatlantic conversations (see [1780]boink). Commonwealth hackers report a similar convention involving the `fish/bang’ balance. See also [1781]talk mode.
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Node:book titles, Next:[1782]boot, Previous:[1783]bonk/oif, Up:[1784]= B =
book titles
There is a tradition in hackerdom of informally tagging important textbooks and standards documents with the dominant color of their covers or with some other conspicuous feature of the cover. Many of these are described in this lexicon under their own entries. See [1785]Aluminum Book, [1786]Blue Book, [1787]Camel Book, [1788]Cinderella Book, [1789]Devil Book, [1790]Dragon Book, [1791]Green Book, [1792]Orange Book, [1793]Purple Book, [1794]Red Book, [1795]Silver Book, [1796]White Book, [1797]Wizard Book, [1798]Yellow Book, and [1799]bible; see also [1800]rainbow series. Since about 1983 this tradition has gotten a boost from the popular O’Reilly and Associates line of technical books, which usually feature some kind of exotic animal on the cover. _________________________________________________________________
Node:boot, Next:[1801]Borg, Previous:[1802]book titles, Up:[1803]= B =
boot v.,n.
[techspeak; from `by one’s bootstraps’] To load and initialize the operating system on a machine. This usage is no longer jargon (having passed into techspeak) but has given rise to some derivatives that are still jargon.
The derivative `reboot’ implies that the machine hasn’t been down for long, or that the boot is a [1804]bounce (sense 4) intended to clear some state of [1805]wedgitude. This is sometimes used of human thought processes, as in the following exchange: “You’ve lost me.” “OK, reboot. Here’s the theory….”
This term is also found in the variants `cold boot’ (from power-off condition) and `warm boot’ (with the CPU and all devices already powered up, as after a hardware reset or software crash).
Another variant: `soft boot’, reinitialization of only part of a system, under control of other software still running: “If you’re running the [1806]mess-dos emulator, control-alt-insert will cause a soft-boot of the emulator, while leaving the rest of the system running.”
Opposed to this there is `hard boot’, which connotes hostility towards or frustration with the machine being booted: “I’ll have to hard-boot this losing Sun.” “I recommend booting it hard.” One often hard-boots by performing a [1807]power cycle.
Historical note: this term derives from `bootstrap loader’, a short program that was read in from cards or paper tape, or toggled in from the front panel switches. This program was always very short (great efforts were expended on making it short in order to minimize the labor and chance of error involved in toggling it in), but was just smart enough to read in a slightly more complex program (usually from a card or paper tape reader), to which it handed control; this program in turn was smart enough to read the application or operating system from a magnetic tape drive or disk drive. Thus, in successive steps, the computer `pulled itself up by its bootstraps’ to a useful operating state. Nowadays the bootstrap is usually found in ROM or EPROM, and reads the first stage in from a fixed location on the disk, called the `boot block’. When this program gains control, it is powerful enough to load the actual OS and hand control over to it. _________________________________________________________________
Node:Borg, Next:[1808]borken, Previous:[1809]boot, Up:[1810]= B =
Borg n.
In “Star Trek: The Next Generation” the Borg is a species of cyborg that ruthlessly seeks to incorporate all sentient life into itself; their slogan is “You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.” In hacker parlance, the Borg is usually [1811]Microsoft, which is thought to be trying just as ruthlessly to assimilate all computers and the entire Internet to itself (there is a widely circulated image of Bill Gates as a Borg). Being forced to use Windows or NT is often referred to as being “Borged”. Interestingly, the [1812]Halloween Documents reveal that this jargon is live within Microsoft itself. (Other companies, notably Intel and UUNet, have also occasionally been equated to the Borg.) See also [1813]Evil Empire, [1814]Internet Exploiter.
In IETF circles, where direct pressure from Microsoft is not a daily reality, the Borg is sometimes Cisco. This usage commemmorates their tendency to pay any price to hire talent away from their competitors. In fact, at the Spring 1997 IETF, a large number of ex-Cisco employees, all former members of Routing Geeks, showed up with t-shirts printed with “Recovering Borg”. _________________________________________________________________
Node:borken, Next:[1815]bot, Previous:[1816]Borg, Up:[1817]= B =
borken adj.
(also `borked’) Common deliberate typo for `broken’. _________________________________________________________________
Node:bot, Next:[1818]bot spot, Previous:[1819]borken, Up:[1820]= B =
bot n
[common on IRC, MUD and among gamers; from `robot’] 1. An [1821]IRC or [1822]MUD user who is actually a program. On IRC, typically the robot provides some useful service. Examples are NickServ, which tries to prevent random users from adopting [1823]nicks already claimed by others, and MsgServ, which allows one to send asynchronous messages to be delivered when the recipient signs on. Also common are `annoybots’, such as KissServ, which perform no useful function except to send cute messages to other people. Service bots are less common on MUDs; but some others, such as the `Julia’ bot active in 1990-91, have been remarkably impressive Turing-test experiments, able to pass as human for as long as ten or fifteen minutes of conversation. 2. An AI-controlled player in a computer game (especially a first-person shooter such as Quake) which, unlike ordinary monsters, operates like a human-controlled player, with access to a player’s weapons and abilities. An example can be found at
[1824]http://www.telefragged.com/thefatal/. 3. Term used, though less commonly, for a web [1825]spider. The file for controlling spider behavior on your site is officially the “Robots Exclusion File” and its URL is “http://
Note that bots in all senses were `robots’ when the terms first appeared in the early 1990s, but the shortened form is now habitual. _________________________________________________________________
Node:bot spot, Next:[1826]bottom feeder, Previous:[1827]bot, Up:[1828]= B =
bot spot n.
[MUD] The user on a MUD with the longest connect time. Derives from the fact that [1829]bots on MUDS often stay constantly connected and appear at the bottom of the list.
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Node:bottom feeder, Next:[1830]bottom-up implementation, Previous:[1831]bot spot, Up:[1832]= B =
bottom feeder n.
1. An Internet user that leeches off ISPs – the sort you can never provide good enough services for, always complains about the price, no matter how low it may be, and will bolt off to another service the moment there is even the slimmest price difference. While most bottom feeders infest free or almost free services such as AOL, MSN, and Hotmail, too many flock to whomever happens to be the cheapest regional ISP at the time. Bottom feeders are often the classic problem user, known for unleashing spam, flamage, and other breaches of [1833]netiquette. 2. Syn. for [1834]slopsucker, derived from the fishermen’s and naturalists’ term for finny creatures who subsist on the primordial ooze. (This sense is older.) _________________________________________________________________
Node:bottom-up implementation, Next:[1835]bounce, Previous:[1836]bottom feeder, Up:[1837]= B =
bottom-up implementation n.
Hackish opposite of the techspeak term `top-down design’. It has been received wisdom in most programming cultures that it is best to design from higher levels of abstraction down to lower, specifying sequences of action in increasing detail until you get to actual code. Hackers often find (especially in exploratory designs that cannot be closely specified in advance) that it works best to build things in the opposite order, by writing and testing a clean set of primitive operations and then knitting them together. Naively applied, this leads to hacked-together bottom-up implementations; a more sophisticated response is `middle-out implementation’, in which scratch code within primitives at the mid-level of the system is gradually replaced with a more polished version of the lowest level at the same time the structure above the midlevel is being built. _________________________________________________________________
Node:bounce, Next:[1838]bounce message, Previous:[1839]bottom-up implementation, Up:[1840]= B =
bounce v.
1. [common; perhaps by analogy to a bouncing check] An electronic mail message that is undeliverable and returns an error notification to the sender is said to `bounce’. See also [1841]bounce message. 2. [Stanford] To play volleyball. The now-demolished [1842]D. C. Power Lab building used by the Stanford AI Lab in the 1970s had a volleyball court on the front lawn. From 5 P.M. to 7 P.M. was the scheduled maintenance time for the computer, so every afternoon at 5 would come over the intercom the cry: “Now hear this: bounce, bounce!”, followed by Brian McCune loudly bouncing a volleyball on the floor outside the offices of known volleyballers. 3. To engage in sexual intercourse; prob. from the expression `bouncing the mattress’, but influenced by Roo’s psychosexually loaded “Try bouncing me, Tigger!” from the “Winnie-the-Pooh” books. Compare [1843]boink. 4. To casually reboot a system in order to clear up a transient problem. Reported primarily among [1844]VMS and [1845]Unix users. 5. [VM/CMS programmers] Automatic warm-start of a machine after an error. “I logged on this morning and found it had bounced 7 times during the night” 6. [IBM] To [1846]power cycle a peripheral in order to reset it. _________________________________________________________________
Node:bounce message, Next:[1847]boustrophedon, Previous:[1848]bounce, Up:[1849]= B =
bounce message n.
[common] Notification message returned to sender by a site unable to relay [1850]email to the intended [1851]Internet address recipient or the next link in a [1852]bang path (see [1853]bounce, sense 1). Reasons might include a nonexistent or misspelled username or a [1854]down relay site. Bounce messages can themselves fail, with occasionally ugly results; see [1855]sorcerer’s apprentice mode and [1856]software laser. The terms `bounce mail’ and `barfmail’ are also common.
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Node:boustrophedon, Next:[1857]box, Previous:[1858]bounce message, Up:[1859]= B =
boustrophedon n.
[from a Greek word for turning like an ox while plowing] An ancient method of writing using alternate left-to-right and right-to-left lines. This term is actually philologists’ techspeak and typesetters’ jargon. Erudite hackers use it for an optimization performed by some computer typesetting software and moving-head printers. The adverbial form `boustrophedonically’ is also found (hackers purely love constructions like this).
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Node:box, Next:[1860]boxed comments, Previous:[1861]boustrophedon, Up:[1862]= B =
box n.
1. A computer; esp. in the construction `foo box’ where foo is some functional qualifier, like `graphics’, or the name of an OS (thus, `Unix box’, `MS-DOS box’, etc.) “We preprocess the data on Unix boxes before handing it up to the mainframe.” 2. [IBM] Without qualification but within an SNA-using site, this refers specifically to an IBM front-end processor or FEP /F-E-P/. An FEP is a small computer necessary to enable an IBM [1863]mainframe to communicate beyond the limits of the [1864]dinosaur pen. Typically used in expressions like the cry that goes up when an SNA network goes down: “Looks like the [1865]box has fallen over.” (See [1866]fall over.) See also [1867]IBM, [1868]fear and loathing, [1869]Blue Glue. _________________________________________________________________
Node:boxed comments, Next:[1870]boxen, Previous:[1871]box, Up:[1872]= B =
boxed comments n.
Comments (explanatory notes attached to program instructions) that occupy several lines by themselves; so called because in assembler and C code they are often surrounded by a box in a style something like this:
/************************************************* *
* This is a boxed comment in C style *
*************************************************/
Common variants of this style omit the asterisks in column 2 or add a matching row of asterisks closing the right side of the box. The sparest variant omits all but the comment delimiters themselves; the `box’ is implied. Oppose [1873]winged comments. _________________________________________________________________
Node:boxen, Next:[1874]boxology, Previous:[1875]boxed comments, Up:[1876]= B =
boxen /bok’sn/ pl.n.
[very common; by analogy with [1877]VAXen] Fanciful plural of [1878]box often encountered in the phrase `Unix boxen’, used to describe commodity [1879]Unix hardware. The connotation is that any two Unix boxen are interchangeable.
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Node:boxology, Next:[1880]bozotic, Previous:[1881]boxen, Up:[1882]= B =
boxology /bok-sol’*-jee/ n.
Syn. [1883]ASCII art. This term implies a more restricted domain, that of box-and-arrow drawings. “His report has a lot of boxology in it.” Compare [1884]macrology.
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Node:bozotic, Next:[1885]BQS, Previous:[1886]boxology, Up:[1887]= B =
bozotic /boh-zoh’tik/ or /boh-zo’tik/ adj.
[from the name of a TV clown even more losing than Ronald McDonald] Resembling or having the quality of a bozo; that is, clownish, ludicrously wrong, unintentionally humorous. Compare [1888]wonky, [1889]demented. Note that the noun `bozo’ occurs in slang, but the mainstream adjectival form would be `bozo-like’ or (in New England) `bozoish’.
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Node:BQS, Next:[1890]brain dump, Previous:[1891]bozotic, Up:[1892]= B =
BQS /B-Q-S/ adj.
Syn. [1893]Berkeley Quality Software. _________________________________________________________________
Node:brain dump, Next:[1894]brain fart, Previous:[1895]BQS, Up:[1896]= B =
brain dump n.
[common] The act of telling someone everything one knows about a particular topic or project. Typically used when someone is going to let a new party maintain a piece of code. Conceptually analogous to an operating system [1897]core dump in that it saves a lot of useful [1898]state before an exit. “You’ll have to give me a brain dump on FOOBAR before you start your new job at HackerCorp.” See [1899]core dump (sense 4). At Sun, this is also known as `TOI’ (transfer of information).
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Node:brain fart, Next:[1900]brain-damaged, Previous:[1901]brain dump, Up:[1902]= B =
brain fart n.
The actual result of a [1903]braino, as opposed to the mental glitch that is the braino itself. E.g., typing dir on a Unix box after a session with DOS.
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Node:brain-damaged, Next:[1904]brain-dead, Previous:[1905]brain fart, Up:[1906]= B =
brain-damaged adj.
1. [common; generalization of `Honeywell Brain Damage’ (HBD), a theoretical disease invented to explain certain utter cretinisms in Honeywell [1907]Multics] adj. Obviously wrong; [1908]cretinous; [1909]demented. There is an implication that the person responsible must have suffered brain damage, because he should have known better. Calling something brain-damaged is really bad; it also implies it is unusable, and that its failure to work is due to poor design rather than some accident. “Only six monocase characters per file name? Now that’s brain-damaged!” 2. [esp. in the Mac world] May refer to free demonstration software that has been deliberately crippled in some way so as not to compete with the product it is intended to sell. Syn. [1910]crippleware.
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Node:brain-dead, Next:[1911]braino, Previous:[1912]brain-damaged, Up:[1913]= B =
brain-dead adj.
[common] Brain-damaged in the extreme. It tends to imply terminal design failure rather than malfunction or simple stupidity. “This comm program doesn’t know how to send a break — how brain-dead!” _________________________________________________________________
Node:braino, Next:[1914]branch to Fishkill, Previous:[1915]brain-dead, Up:[1916]= B =
braino /bray’no/ n.
Syn. for [1917]thinko. See also [1918]brain fart. _________________________________________________________________
Node:branch to Fishkill, Next:[1919]bread crumbs, Previous:[1920]braino, Up:[1921]= B =
branch to Fishkill n.
[IBM: from the location of one of the corporation’s facilities] Any unexpected jump in a program that produces catastrophic or just plain weird results. See [1922]jump off into never-never land, [1923]hyperspace.
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Node:bread crumbs, Next:[1924]break, Previous:[1925]branch to Fishkill, Up:[1926]= B =
bread crumbs n.
1. Debugging statements inserted into a program that emit output or log indicators of the program’s [1927]state to a file so you can see where it dies or pin down the cause of surprising behavior. The term is probably a reference to the Hansel and Gretel story from the Brothers Grimm or the older French folktale of Thumbelina; in several variants of these, a character leaves a trail of bread crumbs so as not to get lost in the woods. 2. In user-interface design, any feature that allows some tracking of where you’ve been, like coloring visited links purple rather than blue in Netscape (also called `footrinting’). _________________________________________________________________
Node:break, Next:[1928]break-even point, Previous:[1929]bread crumbs, Up:[1930]= B =
break
1. vt. To cause to be [1931]broken (in any sense). “Your latest patch to the editor broke the paragraph commands.” 2. v. (of a program) To stop temporarily, so that it may debugged. The place where it stops is a `breakpoint’. 3. [techspeak] vi. To send an RS-232 break (two character widths of line high) over a serial comm line. 4. [Unix] vi. To strike whatever key currently causes the tty driver to send SIGINT to the current process. Normally, break (sense 3), delete or [1932]control-C does this. 5. `break break’ may be said to interrupt a conversation (this is an example of verb doubling). This usage comes from radio communications, which in turn probably came from landline telegraph/teleprinter usage, as badly abused in the Citizen’s Band craze a few years ago.
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Node:break-even point, Next:[1933]breath-of-life packet, Previous:[1934]break, Up:[1935]= B =
break-even point n.
In the process of implementing a new computer language, the point at which the language is sufficiently effective that one can implement the language in itself. That is, for a new language called, hypothetically, FOOGOL, one has reached break-even when one can write a demonstration compiler for FOOGOL in FOOGOL, discard the original implementation language, and thereafter use working versions of FOOGOL to develop newer ones. This is an important milestone; see [1936]MFTL.
Since this entry was first written, several correspondents have reported that there actually was a compiler for a tiny Algol-like language called Foogol floating around on various [1937]VAXen in the early and mid-1980s. A FOOGOL implementation is available at the Retrocomputing Museum [1938]http://www.ccil.org/retro. _________________________________________________________________
Node:breath-of-life packet, Next:[1939]breedle, Previous:[1940]break-even point, Up:[1941]= B =
breath-of-life packet n.
[XEROX PARC] An Ethernet packet that contains bootstrap (see [1942]boot) code, periodically sent out from a working computer to infuse the `breath of life’ into any computer on the network that has happened to crash. Machines depending on such packets have sufficient hardware or firmware code to wait for (or request) such a packet during the reboot process. See also [1943]dickless workstation.
The notional `kiss-of-death packet’, with a function complementary to that of a breath-of-life packet, is recommended for dealing with hosts that consume too many network resources. Though `kiss-of-death packet’ is usually used in jest, there is at least one documented instance of an Internet subnet with limited address-table slots in a gateway machine in which such packets were routinely used to compete for slots, rather like Christmas shoppers competing for scarce parking spaces.
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Node:breedle, Next:[1944]Breidbart Index, Previous:[1945]breath-of-life packet, Up:[1946]= B =
breedle n.
See [1947]feep.
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Node:Breidbart Index, Next:[1948]bring X to its knees, Previous:[1949]breedle, Up:[1950]= B =
Breidbart Index /bri:d’bart ind*ks/
A measurement of the severity of spam invented by long-time hacker Seth Breidbart, used for programming cancelbots. The Breidbart Index takes into account the fact that excessive multi-posting [1951]EMP is worse than excessive cross-posting [1952]ECP. The Breidbart Index is computed as follows: For each article in a spam, take the square-root of the number of newsgroups to which the article is posted. The Breidbart Index is the sum of the square roots of all of the posts in the spam. For example, one article posted to nine newsgroups and again to sixteen would have BI = sqrt(9) + sqrt(16) = 7. It is generally agreed that a spam is cancelable if the Breidbart Index exceeds 20.
The Breidbart Index accumulates over a 45-day window. Ten articles yesterday and ten articles today and ten articles tomorrow add up to a 30-article spam. Spam fighters will often reset the count if you can convince them that the spam was accidental and/or you have seen the error of your ways and won’t repeat it. Breidbart Index can accumulate over multiple authors. For example, the “Make Money Fast” pyramid scheme exceeded a BI of 20 a long time ago, and is now considered “cancel on sight”.
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Node:bring X to its knees, Next:[1953]brittle, Previous:[1954]Breidbart Index, Up:[1955]= B =
bring X to its knees v.
[common] To present a machine, operating system, piece of software, or algorithm with a load so extreme or [1956]pathological that it grinds to a halt. “To bring a MicroVAX to its knees, try twenty users running [1957]vi — or four running [1958]EMACS.” Compare [1959]hog. _________________________________________________________________
Node:brittle, Next:[1960]broadcast storm, Previous:[1961]bring X to its knees, Up:[1962]= B =
brittle adj.
Said of software that is functional but easily broken by changes in operating environment or configuration, or by any minor tweak to the software itself. Also, any system that responds inappropriately and disastrously to abnormal but expected external stimuli; e.g., a file system that is usually totally scrambled by a power failure is said to be brittle. This term is often used to describe the results of a research effort that were never intended to be robust, but it can be applied to commercial software, which (due to closed-source development) displays the quality far more often than it ought to. Oppose [1963]robust.
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Node:broadcast storm, Next:[1964]brochureware, Previous:[1965]brittle, Up:[1966]= B =
broadcast storm n.
[common] An incorrect packet broadcast on a network that causes most hosts to respond all at once, typically with wrong answers that start the process over again. See [1967]network meltdown; compare [1968]mail storm.
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Node:brochureware, Next:[1969]broken, Previous:[1970]broadcast storm, Up:[1971]= B =
brochureware n.
Planned but non-existent product like [1972]vaporware, but with the added implication that marketing is actively selling and promoting it (they’ve printed brochures). Brochureware is often deployed as a strategic weapon; the idea is to con customers into not committing to an existing product of the competition’s. It is a safe bet that when a brochureware product finally becomes real, it will be more expensive than and inferior to the alternatives that had been available for years.
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Node:broken, Next:[1973]broken arrow, Previous:[1974]brochureware, Up:[1975]= B =
broken adj.
1. Not working properly (of programs). 2. Behaving strangely; especially (when used of people) exhibiting extreme depression. _________________________________________________________________
Node:broken arrow, Next:[1976]BrokenWindows, Previous:[1977]broken, Up:[1978]= B =
broken arrow n.
[IBM] The error code displayed on line 25 of a 3270 terminal (or a PC emulating a 3270) for various kinds of protocol violations and “unexpected” error conditions (including connection to a [1979]down computer). On a PC, simulated with `->/_’, with the two center characters overstruck.
Note: to appreciate this term fully, it helps to know that `broken arrow’ is also military jargon for an accident involving nuclear weapons….
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Node:BrokenWindows, Next:[1980]broket, Previous:[1981]broken arrow, Up:[1982]= B =
BrokenWindows n.
Abusive hackerism for the [1983]crufty and [1984]elephantine [1985]X environment on Sun machines; properly called `OpenWindows’. _________________________________________________________________
Node:broket, Next:[1986]Brooks’s Law, Previous:[1987]BrokenWindows, Up:[1988]= B =
broket /broh’k*t/ or /broh’ket`/ n.
[rare; by analogy with `bracket’: a `broken bracket’] Either of the characters < and >, when used as paired enclosing delimiters. This word originated as a contraction of the phrase `broken bracket’, that is, a bracket that is bent in the middle. (At MIT, and apparently in the [1989]Real World as well, these are usually called [1990]angle brackets.)
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Node:Brooks’s Law, Next:[1991]brown-paper-bag bug, Previous:[1992]broket, Up:[1993]= B =
Brooks’s Law prov.
“Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later” — a result of the fact that the expected advantage from splitting development work among N programmers is O(N) (that is, proportional to N), but the complexity and communications cost associated with coordinating and then merging their work is O(N^2) (that is, proportional to the square of N). The quote is from Fred Brooks, a manager of IBM’s OS/360 project and author of “The Mythical Man-Month” (Addison-Wesley, 1975, ISBN 0-201-00650-2), an excellent early book on software engineering. The myth in question has been most tersely expressed as “Programmer time is fungible” and Brooks established conclusively that it is not. Hackers have never forgotten his advice (though it’s not the whole story; see [1994]bazaar); too often, [1995]management still does. See also [1996]creationism, [1997]second-system effect, [1998]optimism. _________________________________________________________________
Node:brown-paper-bag bug, Next:[1999]browser, Previous:[2000]Brooks’s Law, Up:[2001]= B =
brown-paper-bag bug n.
A bug in a public software release that is so embarrassing that the author notionally wears a brown paper bag over his head for a while so he won’t be recognized on the net. Entered popular usage after the early-1999 release of the first Linux 2.2, which had one. The phrase was used in Linus Torvalds’s apology posting. _________________________________________________________________
Node:browser, Next:[2002]BRS, Previous:[2003]brown-paper-bag bug, Up:[2004]= B =
browser n.
A program specifically designed to help users view and navigate hypertext, on-line documentation, or a database. While this general sense has been present in jargon for a long time, the proliferation of browsers for the World Wide Web after 1992 has made it much more popular and provided a central or default techspeak meaning of the word previously lacking in hacker usage. Nowadays, if someone mentions using a `browser’ without qualification, one may assume it is a Web browser.
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Node:BRS, Next:[2005]brute force, Previous:[2006]browser, Up:[2007]= B =
BRS /B-R-S/ n.
Syn. [2008]Big Red Switch. This abbreviation is fairly common on-line. _________________________________________________________________
Node:brute force, Next:[2009]brute force and ignorance, Previous:[2010]BRS, Up:[2011]= B =
brute force adj.
Describes a primitive programming style, one in which the programmer relies on the computer’s processing power instead of using his or her own intelligence to simplify the problem, often ignoring problems of scale and applying naive methods suited to small problems directly to large ones. The term can also be used in reference to programming style: brute-force programs are written in a heavyhanded, tedious way, full of repetition and devoid of any elegance or useful abstraction (see also [2012]brute force and ignorance).
The [2013]canonical example of a brute-force algorithm is associated with the `traveling salesman problem’ (TSP), a classical [2014]NP-hard problem: Suppose a person is in, say, Boston, and wishes to drive to N other cities. In what order should the cities be visited in order to minimize the distance travelled? The brute-force method is to simply generate all possible routes and compare the distances; while guaranteed to work and simple to implement, this algorithm is clearly very stupid in that it considers even obviously absurd routes (like going from Boston to Houston via San Francisco and New York, in that order). For very small N it works well, but it rapidly becomes absurdly inefficient when N increases (for N = 15, there are already 1,307,674,368,000 possible routes to consider, and for N = 1000 — well, see [2015]bignum). Sometimes, unfortunately, there is no better general solution than brute force. See also [2016]NP-.
A more simple-minded example of brute-force programming is finding the smallest number in a large list by first using an existing program to sort the list in ascending order, and then picking the first number off the front.
Whether brute-force programming should actually be considered stupid or not depends on the context; if the problem is not terribly big, the extra CPU time spent on a brute-force solution may cost less than the programmer time it would take to develop a more `intelligent’ algorithm. Additionally, a more intelligent algorithm may imply more long-term complexity cost and bug-chasing than are justified by the speed improvement.
Ken Thompson, co-inventor of Unix, is reported to have uttered the epigram “When in doubt, use brute force”. He probably intended this as a [2017]ha ha only serious, but the original Unix kernel’s preference for simple, robust, and portable algorithms over [2018]brittle `smart’ ones does seem to have been a significant factor in the success of that OS. Like so many other tradeoffs in software design, the choice between brute force and complex, finely-tuned cleverness is often a difficult one that requires both engineering savvy and delicate esthetic judgment.
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Node:brute force and ignorance, Next:[2019]BSD, Previous:[2020]brute force, Up:[2021]= B =
brute force and ignorance n.
A popular design technique at many software houses — [2022]brute force coding unrelieved by any knowledge of how problems have been previously solved in elegant ways. Dogmatic adherence to design methodologies tends to encourage this sort of thing. Characteristic of early [2023]larval stage programming; unfortunately, many never outgrow it. Often abbreviated BFI: “Gak, they used a [2024]bubble sort! That’s strictly from BFI.” Compare [2025]bogosity. _________________________________________________________________
Node:BSD, Next:[2026]BSOD, Previous:[2027]brute force and ignorance, Up:[2028]= B =
BSD /B-S-D/ n.
[abbreviation for `Berkeley Software Distribution’] a family of [2029]Unix versions for the [2030]DEC [2031]VAX and PDP-11 developed by Bill Joy and others at [2032]Berzerkeley starting around 1977, incorporating paged virtual memory, TCP/IP networking enhancements, and many other features. The BSD versions (4.1, 4.2, and 4.3) and the commercial versions derived from them (SunOS, ULTRIX, and Mt. Xinu) held the technical lead in the Unix world until AT&T’s successful standardization efforts after about 1986; descendants including Free/Open/NetBSD, BSD/OS and MacOS X are still widely popular. Note that BSD versions going back to 2.9 are often referred to by their version numbers alone, without the BSD prefix. See [2033]4.2, [2034]Unix, [2035]USG Unix.
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Node:BSOD, Next:[2036]BUAF, Previous:[2037]BSD, Up:[2038]= B =
BSOD /B-S-O-D/
Very commmon abbreviation for [2039]Blue Screen of Death. Both spoken and written.
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Node:BUAF, Next:[2040]BUAG, Previous:[2041]BSOD, Up:[2042]= B =
BUAF // n.
[abbreviation, from alt.fan.warlord] Big Ugly ASCII Font — a special form of [2043]ASCII art. Various programs exist for rendering text strings into block, bloob, and pseudo-script fonts in cells between four and six character cells on a side; this is smaller than the letters generated by older [2044]banner (sense 2) programs. These are sometimes used to render one’s name in a [2045]sig block, and are critically referred to as `BUAF’s. See [2046]warlording. _________________________________________________________________
Node:BUAG, Next:[2047]bubble sort, Previous:[2048]BUAF, Up:[2049]= B =
BUAG // n.
[abbreviation, from alt.fan.warlord] Big Ugly ASCII Graphic. Pejorative term for ugly [2050]ASCII art, especially as found in [2051]sig blocks. For some reason, mutations of the head of Bart Simpson are particularly common in the least imaginative [2052]sig blocks. See [2053]warlording.
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Node:bubble sort, Next:[2054]bucky bits, Previous:[2055]BUAG, Up:[2056]= B =
bubble sort n.
Techspeak for a particular sorting technique in which pairs of adjacent values in the list to be sorted are compared and interchanged if they are out of order; thus, list entries `bubble upward’ in the list until they bump into one with a lower sort value. Because it is not very good relative to other methods and is the one typically stumbled on by [2057]naive and untutored programmers, hackers consider it the [2058]canonical example of a naive algorithm. (However, it’s been shown by repeated experiment that below about 5000 records bubble-sort is OK anyway.) The canonical example of a really bad algorithm is [2059]bogo-sort. A bubble sort might be used out of ignorance, but any use of bogo-sort could issue only from brain damage or willful perversity.
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Node:bucky bits, Next:[2060]buffer chuck, Previous:[2061]bubble sort, Up:[2062]= B =
bucky bits /buh’kee bits/ n.
1. obs. The bits produced by the CONTROL and META shift keys on a SAIL keyboard (octal 200 and 400 respectively), resulting in a 9-bit keyboard character set. The MIT AI TV (Knight) keyboards extended this with TOP and separate left and right CONTROL and META keys, resulting in a 12-bit character set; later, LISP Machines added such keys as SUPER, HYPER, and GREEK (see [2063]space-cadet keyboard). 2. By extension, bits associated with `extra’ shift keys on any keyboard, e.g., the ALT on an IBM PC or command and option keys on a Macintosh.
It has long been rumored that `bucky bits’ were named for Buckminster Fuller during a period when he was consulting at Stanford. Actually, bucky bits were invented by Niklaus Wirth when he was at Stanford in 1964-65; he first suggested the idea of an EDIT key to set the 8th bit of an otherwise 7-bit ASCII character). It seems that, unknown to Wirth, certain Stanford hackers had privately nicknamed him `Bucky’ after a prominent portion of his dental anatomy, and this nickname transferred to the bit. Bucky-bit commands were used in a number of editors written at Stanford, including most notably TV-EDIT and NLS.
The term spread to MIT and CMU early and is now in general use. Ironically, Wirth himself remained unaware of its derivation for nearly 30 years, until GLS dug up this history in early 1993! See [2064]double bucky, [2065]quadruple bucky. _________________________________________________________________
Node:buffer chuck, Next:[2066]buffer overflow, Previous:[2067]bucky bits, Up:[2068]= B =
buffer chuck n.
Shorter and ruder syn. for [2069]buffer overflow. _________________________________________________________________
Node:buffer overflow, Next:[2070]bug, Previous:[2071]buffer chuck, Up:[2072]= B =
buffer overflow n.
What happens when you try to stuff more data into a buffer (holding area) than it can handle. This problem is commonly exploited by [2073]crackers to get arbitrary commands executed by a program running with root permissions. This may be due to a mismatch in the processing rates of the producing and consuming processes (see [2074]overrun and [2075]firehose syndrome), or because the buffer is simply too small to hold all the data that must accumulate before a piece of it can be processed. For example, in a text-processing tool that [2076]crunches a line at a time, a short line buffer can result in [2077]lossage as input from a long line overflows the buffer and trashes data beyond it. Good defensive programming would check for overflow on each character and stop accepting data when the buffer is full up. The term is used of and by humans in a metaphorical sense. “What time did I agree to meet you? My buffer must have overflowed.” Or “If I answer that phone my buffer is going to overflow.” See also [2078]spam, [2079]overrun screw.
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Node:bug, Next:[2080]bug-compatible, Previous:[2081]buffer overflow, Up:[2082]= B =
bug n.
An unwanted and unintended property of a program or piece of hardware, esp. one that causes it to malfunction. Antonym of [2083]feature. Examples: “There’s a bug in the editor: it writes things out backwards.” “The system crashed because of a hardware bug.” “Fred is a winner, but he has a few bugs” (i.e., Fred is a good guy, but he has a few personality problems).
Historical note: Admiral Grace Hopper (an early computing pioneer better known for inventing [2084]COBOL) liked to tell a story in which a technician solved a [2085]glitch in the Harvard Mark II machine by pulling an actual insect out from between the contacts of one of its relays, and she subsequently promulgated [2086]bug in its hackish sense as a joke about the incident (though, as she was careful to admit, she was not there when it happened). For many years the logbook associated with the incident and the actual bug in question (a moth) sat in a display case at the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC). The entire story, with a picture of the logbook and the moth taped into it, is recorded in the “Annals of the History of Computing”, Vol. 3, No. 3 (July 1981), pp. 285-286.
The text of the log entry (from September 9, 1947), reads “1545 Relay #70 Panel F (moth) in relay. First actual case of bug being found”. This wording establishes that the term was already in use at the time in its current specific sense — and Hopper herself reports that the term `bug’ was regularly applied to problems in radar electronics during WWII.
Indeed, the use of `bug’ to mean an industrial defect was already established in Thomas Edison’s time, and a more specific and rather modern use can be found in an electrical handbook from 1896 (“Hawkin’s New Catechism of Electricity”, Theo. Audel & Co.) which says: “The term `bug’ is used to a limited extent to designate any fault or trouble in the connections or working of electric apparatus.” It further notes that the term is “said to have originated in quadruplex telegraphy and have been transferred to all electric apparatus.”
The latter observation may explain a common folk etymology of the term; that it came from telephone company usage, in which “bugs in a telephone cable” were blamed for noisy lines. Though this derivation seems to be mistaken, it may well be a distorted memory of a joke first current among telegraph operators more than a century ago!
Or perhaps not a joke. Historians of the field inform us that the term “bug” was regularly used in the early days of telegraphy to refer to a variety of semi-automatic telegraphy keyers that would send a string of dots if you held them down. In fact, the Vibroplex keyers (which were among the most common of this type) even had a graphic of a beetle on them (and still do)! While the ability to send repeated dots automatically was very useful for professional morse code operators, these were also significantly trickier to use than the older manual keyers, and it could take some practice to ensure one didn’t introduce extraneous dots into the code by holding the key down a fraction too long. In the hands of an inexperienced operator, a Vibroplex “bug” on the line could mean that a lot of garbled Morse would soon be coming your way.
Further, the term “bug” has long been used among radio technicians to describe a device that converts electromagnetic field variations into acoustic signals. It is used to trace radio interference and look for dangerous radio emissions. Radio community usage derives from the roach-like shape of the first versions used by 19th century physicists. The first versions consisted of a coil of wire (roach body), with the two wire ends sticking out and bent back to nearly touch forming a spark gap (roach antennae). The bug is to the radio technician what the stethoscope is to the stereotype medical doctor. This sense is almost certainly ancestral to modern use of “bug” for a covert monitoring device, but may also have contributed to the use of “bug” for the effects of radio interference itself.
Actually, use of `bug’ in the general sense of a disruptive event goes back to Shakespeare! (Henry VI, part III – Act V, Scene II: King Edward: “So, lie thou there. Die thou; and die our fear; For Warwick was a bug that fear’d us all.”) In the first edition of Samuel Johnson’s dictionary one meaning of `bug’ is “A frightful object; a walking spectre”; this is traced to `bugbear’, a Welsh term for a variety of mythological monster which (to complete the circle) has recently been reintroduced into the popular lexicon through fantasy role-playing games.
In any case, in jargon the word almost never refers to insects. Here is a plausible conversation that never actually happened:
“There is a bug in this ant farm!”
“What do you mean? I don’t see any ants in it.”
“That’s the bug.”
A careful discussion of the etymological issues can be found in a paper by Fred R. Shapiro, 1987, “Entomology of the Computer Bug: History and Folklore”, American Speech 62(4):376-378.
[There has been a widespread myth that the original bug was moved to the Smithsonian, and an earlier version of this entry so asserted. A correspondent who thought to check discovered that the bug was not there. While investigating this in late 1990, your editor discovered that the NSWC still had the bug, but had unsuccessfully tried to get the Smithsonian to accept it — and that the present curator of their History of American Technology Museum didn’t know this and agreed that it would make a worthwhile exhibit. It was moved to the Smithsonian in mid-1991, but due to space and money constraints was not actually exhibited years afterwards. Thus, the process of investigating the original-computer-bug bug fixed it in an entirely unexpected way, by making the myth true! –ESR]
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Node:bug-compatible, Next:[2087]bug-for-bug compatible, Previous:[2088]bug, Up:[2089]= B =
bug-compatible adj.
[common] Said of a design or revision that has been badly compromised by a requirement to be compatible with [2090]fossils or [2091]misfeatures in other programs or (esp.) previous releases of itself. “MS-DOS 2.0 used \ as a path separator to be bug-compatible with some cretin’s choice of / as an option character in 1.0.” _________________________________________________________________
Node:bug-for-bug compatible, Next:[2092]bug-of-the-month club, Previous:[2093]bug-compatible, Up:[2094]= B =
bug-for-bug compatible n.
Same as [2095]bug-compatible, with the additional implication that much tedious effort went into ensuring that each (known) bug was replicated.
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Node:bug-of-the-month club, Next:[2096]buglix, Previous:[2097]bug-for-bug compatible, Up:[2098]= B =
bug-of-the-month club n.
[from “book-of-the-month club”, a time-honored mail-order-marketing technique in the U.S.] A mythical club which users of `sendmail(8)’ (the UNIX mail daemon) belong to; this was coined on the Usenet newsgroup comp.security.unix at a time when sendmail security holes, which allowed outside [2099]crackers access to the system, were being uncovered at an alarming rate, forcing sysadmins to update very often. Also, more completely, `fatal security bug-of-the-month club’. See also [2100]kernel-of-the-week club.
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Node:buglix, Next:[2101]bulletproof, Previous:[2102]bug-of-the-month club, Up:[2103]= B =
buglix /buhg’liks/ n.
[uncommon] Pejorative term referring to [2104]DEC’s ULTRIX operating system in its earlier severely buggy versions. Still used to describe ULTRIX, but without nearly so much venom. Compare [2105]AIDX, [2106]HP-SUX, [2107]Nominal Semidestructor, [2108]Telerat, [2109]sun-stools.
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Node:bulletproof, Next:[2110]bullschildt, Previous:[2111]buglix, Up:[2112]= B =
bulletproof adj.
Used of an algorithm or implementation considered extremely [2113]robust; lossage-resistant; capable of correctly recovering from any imaginable exception condition — a rare and valued quality. Implies that the programmer has thought of all possible errors, and added [2114]code to protect against each one. Thus, in some cases, this can imply code that is too heavyweight, due to excessive paranoia on the part of the programmer. Syn. [2115]armor-plated. _________________________________________________________________
Node:bullschildt, Next:[2116]bum, Previous:[2117]bulletproof, Up:[2118]= B =
bullschildt /bul’shilt/ n.
[comp.lang.c on USENET] A confident, but incorrect, statement about a programming language. This immortalizes a very bad book about [2119]C, Herbert Schildt’s “C – The Complete Reference”. One reviewer commented “The naive errors in this book would be embarassing even in a programming assignment turned in by a computer science college sophomore.”
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Node:bum, Next:[2120]bump, Previous:[2121]bullschildt, Up:[2122]= B =
bum
1. vt. To make highly efficient, either in time or space, often at the expense of clarity. “I managed to bum three more instructions out of that code.” “I spent half the night bumming the interrupt code.” In 1996, this term and the practice it describes are semi-obsolete. In [2123]elder days, John McCarthy (inventor of [2124]LISP) used to compare some efficiency-obsessed hackers among his students to “ski bums”; thus, optimization became “program bumming”, and eventually just “bumming”. 2. To squeeze out excess; to remove something in order to improve whatever it was removed from (without changing function; this distinguishes the process from a [2125]featurectomy). 3. n. A small change to an algorithm, program, or hardware device to make it more efficient. “This hardware bum makes the jump instruction faster.” Usage: now uncommon, largely superseded by v. [2126]tune (and n. [2127]tweak, [2128]hack), though none of these exactly capture sense 2. All these uses are rare in Commonwealth hackish, because in the parent dialects of English the noun `bum’ is a rude synonym for `buttocks’ and the verb `bum’ for buggery. _________________________________________________________________
Node:bump, Next:[2129]burble, Previous:[2130]bum, Up:[2131]= B =
bump vt.
Synonym for increment. Has the same meaning as C’s ++ operator. Used esp. of counter variables, pointers, and index dummies in for, while, and do-while loops.
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Node:burble, Next:[2132]buried treasure, Previous:[2133]bump, Up:[2134]= B =
burble v.
[from Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky”] Like [2135]flame, but connotes that the source is truly clueless and ineffectual (mere flamers can be competent). A term of deep contempt. “There’s some guy on the phone burbling about how he got a DISK FULL error and it’s all our comm software’s fault.” This is mainstream slang in some parts of England. _________________________________________________________________
Node:buried treasure, Next:[2136]burn-in period, Previous:[2137]burble, Up:[2138]= B =
buried treasure n.
A surprising piece of code found in some program. While usually not wrong, it tends to vary from [2139]crufty to [2140]bletcherous, and has lain undiscovered only because it was functionally correct, however horrible it is. Used sarcastically, because what is found is anything but treasure. Buried treasure almost always needs to be dug up and removed. “I just found that the scheduler sorts its queue using [2141]bubble sort! Buried treasure!”
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Node:burn-in period, Next:[2142]burst page, Previous:[2143]buried treasure, Up:[2144]= B =
burn-in period n.
1. A factory test designed to catch systems with [2145]marginal components before they get out the door; the theory is that burn-in will protect customers by outwaiting the steepest part of the [2146]bathtub curve (see [2147]infant mortality). 2. A period of indeterminate length in which a person using a computer is so intensely involved in his project that he forgets basic needs such as food, drink, sleep, etc. Warning: Excessive burn-in can lead to burn-out. See [2148]hack mode, [2149]larval stage.
Historical note: the origin of “burn-in” (sense 1) is apparently the practice of setting a new-model airplane’s brakes on fire, then extinguishing the fire, in order to make them hold better. This was done on the first version of the U.S. spy-plane, the U-2. _________________________________________________________________
Node:burst page, Next:[2150]busy-wait, Previous:[2151]burn-in period, Up:[2152]= B =
burst page n.
Syn. [2153]banner, sense 1.
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Node:busy-wait, Next:[2154]buzz, Previous:[2155]burst page, Up:[2156]= B =
busy-wait vi.
Used of human behavior, conveys that the subject is busy waiting for someone or something, intends to move instantly as soon as it shows up, and thus cannot do anything else at the moment. “Can’t talk now, I’m busy-waiting till Bill gets off the phone.”
Technically, `busy-wait’ means to wait on an event by [2157]spinning through a tight or timed-delay loop that polls for the event on each pass, as opposed to setting up an interrupt handler and continuing execution on another part of the task. In applications this is a wasteful technique, and best avoided on time-sharing systems where a busy-waiting program may [2158]hog the processor. However, it is often unavoidable in kernel programming. In the Linux world, kernel busy-waits are usually referred to as `spinlocks’. _________________________________________________________________
Node:buzz, Next:[2159]BWQ, Previous:[2160]busy-wait, Up:[2161]= B =
buzz vi.
1. Of a program, to run with no indication of progress and perhaps without guarantee of ever finishing; esp. said of programs thought to be executing tight loops of code. A program that is buzzing appears to be [2162]catatonic, but never gets out of catatonia, while a buzzing loop may eventually end of its own accord. “The program buzzes for about 10 seconds trying to sort all the names into order.” See [2163]spin; see also [2164]grovel. 2. [ETA Systems] To test a wire or printed circuit trace for continuity, esp. by applying an AC rather than DC signal. Some wire faults will pass DC tests but fail an AC buzz test. 3. To process an array or list in sequence, doing the same thing to each element. “This loop buzzes through the tz array looking for a terminator type.”
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Node:BWQ, Next:[2165]by hand, Previous:[2166]buzz, Up:[2167]= B =
BWQ /B-W-Q/ n.
[IBM: abbreviation, `Buzz Word Quotient’] The percentage of buzzwords in a speech or documents. Usually roughly proportional to [2168]bogosity. See [2169]TLA.
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Node:by hand, Next:[2170]byte, Previous:[2171]BWQ, Up:[2172]= B =
by hand adv.
[common] 1. Said of an operation (especially a repetitive, trivial, and/or tedious one) that ought to be performed automatically by the computer, but which a hacker instead has to step tediously through. “My mailer doesn’t have a command to include the text of the message I’m replying to, so I have to do it by hand.” This does not necessarily mean the speaker has to retype a copy of the message; it might refer to, say, dropping into a subshell from the mailer, making a copy of one’s mailbox file, reading that into an editor, locating the top and bottom of the message in question, deleting the rest of the file, inserting `>’ characters on each line, writing the file, leaving the editor, returning to the mailer, reading the file in, and later remembering to delete the file. Compare [2173]eyeball search. 2. By extension, writing code which does something in an explicit or low-level way for which a presupplied library routine ought to have been available. “This cretinous B-tree library doesn’t supply a decent iterator, so I’m having to walk the trees by hand.” _________________________________________________________________
Node:byte, Next:[2174]byte sex, Previous:[2175]by hand, Up:[2176]= B =
byte /bi:t/ n.
[techspeak] A unit of memory or data equal to the amount used to represent one character; on modern architectures this is usually 8 bits, but may be 9 on 36-bit machines. Some older architectures used `byte’ for quantities of 6 or 7 bits, and the PDP-10 supported `bytes’ that were actually bitfields of 1 to 36 bits! These usages are now obsolete, and even 9-bit bytes have become rare in the general trend toward power-of-2 word sizes.
Historical note: The term was coined by Werner Buchholz in 1956 during the early design phase for the IBM Stretch computer; originally it was described as 1 to 6 bits (typical I/O equipment of the period used 6-bit chunks of information). The move to an 8-bit byte happened in late 1956, and this size was later adopted and promulgated as a standard by the System/360. The word was coined by mutating the word `bite’ so it would not be accidentally misspelled as [2177]bit. See also [2178]nybble.
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Node:byte sex, Next:[2179]bytesexual, Previous:[2180]byte, Up:[2181]= B =
byte sex n.
[common] The byte sex of hardware is [2182]big-endian or [2183]little-endian; see those entries. _________________________________________________________________
Node:bytesexual, Next:[2184]Bzzzt! Wrong., Previous:[2185]byte sex, Up:[2186]= B =
bytesexual /bi:t`sek’shu-*l/ adj.
[rare] Said of hardware, denotes willingness to compute or pass data in either [2187]big-endian or [2188]little-endian format (depending, presumably, on a [2189]mode bit somewhere). See also [2190]NUXI problem.
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Node:Bzzzt! Wrong., Next:[2191]C, Previous:[2192]bytesexual, Up:[2193]= B =
Bzzzt! Wrong. /bzt rong/ excl.
[common; Usenet/Internet; punctuation varies] From a Robin Williams routine in the movie “Dead Poets Society” spoofing radio or TV quiz programs, such as Truth or Consequences, where an incorrect answer earns one a blast from the buzzer and condolences from the interlocutor. A way of expressing mock-rude disagreement, usually immediately following an included quote from another poster. The less abbreviated “*Bzzzzt*, wrong, but thank you for playing” is also common; capitalization and emphasis of the buzzer sound varies. _________________________________________________________________
Node:= C =, Next:[2194]= D =, Previous:[2195]= B =, Up:[2196]The Jargon Lexicon
= C =
* [2197]C:
* [2198]C Programmer’s Disease:
* [2199]C&C:
* [2200]C++:
* [2201]calculator:
* [2202]Camel Book:
* [2203]can:
* [2204]can’t happen:
* [2205]cancelbot:
* [2206]Cancelmoose[tm]:
* [2207]candygrammar:
* [2208]canonical:
* [2209]card walloper:
* [2210]careware:
* [2211]cargo cult programming:
* [2212]cascade:
* [2213]case and paste:
* [2214]casters-up mode:
* [2215]casting the runes:
* [2216]cat:
* [2217]catatonic:
* [2218]cathedral:
* [2219]cd tilde:
* [2220]CDA:
* [2221]cdr:
* [2222]chad:
* [2223]chad box:
* [2224]chain:
* [2225]channel:
* [2226]channel hopping:
* [2227]channel op:
* [2228]chanop:
* [2229]char:
* [2230]charityware:
* [2231]chase pointers:
* [2232]chawmp:
* [2233]check:
* [2234]cheerfully:
* [2235]chemist:
* [2236]Chernobyl chicken:
* [2237]Chernobyl packet:
* [2238]chicken head:
* [2239]chiclet keyboard:
* [2240]Chinese Army technique:
* [2241]choad:
* [2242]choke:
* [2243]chomp:
* [2244]chomper:
* [2245]CHOP:
* [2246]Christmas tree:
* [2247]Christmas tree packet:
* [2248]chrome:
* [2249]chug:
* [2250]Church of the SubGenius: * [2251]Cinderella Book:
* [2252]CI$:
* [2253]Classic C:
* [2254]clean:
* [2255]CLM:
* [2256]clobber:
* [2257]clock:
* [2258]clocks:
* [2259]clone:
* [2260]clone-and-hack coding:
* [2261]clover key:
* [2262]clue-by-four:
* [2263]clustergeeking:
* [2264]co-lo:
* [2265]code:
* [2266]coaster:
* [2267]COBOL:
* [2268]COBOL fingers:
* [2269]cobweb site:
* [2270]code grinder:
* [2271]code monkey:
* [2272]Code of the Geeks:
* [2273]code police:
* [2274]codes:
* [2275]codewalker:
* [2276]coefficient of X:
* [2277]cokebottle:
* [2278]cold boot:
* [2279]COME FROM:
* [2280]comm mode:
* [2281]command key:
* [2282]comment out:
* [2283]Commonwealth Hackish:
* [2284]compact:
* [2285]compiler jock:
* [2286]compo:
* [2287]compress:
* [2288]Compu$erve:
* [2289]computer confetti:
* [2290]computer geek:
* [2291]computron:
* [2292]con:
* [2293]condition out:
* [2294]condom:
* [2295]confuser:
* [2296]connector conspiracy:
* [2297]cons:
* [2298]considered harmful:
* [2299]console:
* [2300]console jockey:
* [2301]content-free:
* [2302]control-C:
* [2303]control-O:
* [2304]control-Q:
* [2305]control-S:
* [2306]Conway’s Law:
* [2307]cookbook:
* [2308]cooked mode:
* [2309]cookie:
* [2310]cookie bear:
* [2311]cookie file:
* [2312]cookie jar:
* [2313]cookie monster:
* [2314]copious free time:
* [2315]copper:
* [2316]copy protection:
* [2317]copybroke:
* [2318]copycenter:
* [2319]copyleft:
* [2320]copyparty:
* [2321]copywronged:
* [2322]core:
* [2323]core cancer:
* [2324]core dump:
* [2325]core leak:
* [2326]Core Wars:
* [2327]corge:
* [2328]cosmic rays:
* [2329]cough and die:
* [2330]courier:
* [2331]cow orker:
* [2332]cowboy:
* [2333]CP/M:
* [2334]CPU Wars:
* [2335]crack:
* [2336]crack root:
* [2337]cracker:
* [2338]cracking:
* [2339]crank:
* [2340]crapplet:
* [2341]CrApTeX:
* [2342]crash:
* [2343]crash and burn:
* [2344]crawling horror:
* [2345]cray:
* [2346]cray instability:
* [2347]crayola:
* [2348]crayola books:
* [2349]crayon:
* [2350]creationism:
* [2351]creep:
* [2352]creeping elegance:
* [2353]creeping featurism:
* [2354]creeping featuritis:
* [2355]cretin:
* [2356]cretinous:
* [2357]crippleware:
* [2358]critical mass:
* [2359]crlf:
* [2360]crock:
* [2361]cross-post:
* [2362]crossload:
* [2363]crudware:
* [2364]cruft:
* [2365]cruft together:
* [2366]cruftsmanship:
* [2367]crufty:
* [2368]crumb:
* [2369]crunch:
* [2370]cryppie:
* [2371]CTSS:
* [2372]cube:
* [2373]cubing:
* [2374]cup holder:
* [2375]cursor dipped in X:
* [2376]cuspy:
* [2377]cut a tape:
* [2378]cybercrud:
* [2379]cyberpunk:
* [2380]cyberspace:
* [2381]cycle:
* [2382]cycle crunch:
* [2383]cycle drought:
* [2384]cycle of reincarnation:
* [2385]cycle server:
* [2386]cypherpunk:
* [2387]C|N>K:
_________________________________________________________________
Node:C, Next:[2388]C Programmer’s Disease, Previous:[2389]Bzzzt! Wrong., Up:[2390]= C =
C n.
1. The third letter of the English alphabet. 2. ASCII 1000011. 3. The name of a programming language designed by Dennis Ritchie during the early 1970s and immediately used to reimplement [2391]Unix; so called because many features derived from an earlier compiler named `B’ in commemoration of its parent, BCPL. (BCPL was in turn descended from an earlier Algol-derived language, CPL.) Before Bjarne Stroustrup settled the question by designing [2392]C++, there was a humorous debate over whether C’s successor should be named `D’ or `P’. C became immensely popular outside Bell Labs after about 1980 and is now the dominant language in systems and microcomputer applications programming. See also [2393]languages of choice, [2394]indent style.
C is often described, with a mixture of fondness and disdain varying according to the speaker, as “a language that combines all the elegance and power of assembly language with all the readability and maintainability of assembly language”. _________________________________________________________________
Node:C Programmer’s Disease, Next:[2395]C&C, Previous:[2396]C, Up:[2397]= C =
C Programmer’s Disease n.
The tendency of the undisciplined C programmer to set arbitrary but supposedly generous static limits on table sizes (defined, if you’re lucky, by constants in header files) rather than taking the trouble to do proper dynamic storage allocation. If an application user later needs to put 68 elements into a table of size 50, the afflicted programmer reasons that he or she can easily reset the table size to 68 (or even as much as 70, to allow for future expansion) and recompile. This gives the programmer the comfortable feeling of having made the effort to satisfy the user’s (unreasonable) demands, and often affords the user multiple opportunities to explore the marvelous consequences of [2398]fandango on core. In severe cases of the disease, the programmer cannot comprehend why each fix of this kind seems only to further disgruntle the user. _________________________________________________________________
Node:C&C, Next:[2399]C++, Previous:[2400]C Programmer’s Disease, Up:[2401]= C =
C&C //
[common, esp. on news.admin.net-abuse.email] Contraction of “Coffee & Cats”. This frequently occurs as a warning label on USENET posts that are likely to cause you to [2402]snarf coffee onto your keyboard and startle the cat off your lap.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:C++, Next:[2403]calculator, Previous:[2404]C&C, Up:[2405]= C =
C++ /C’-pluhs-pluhs/ n.
Designed by Bjarne Stroustrup of AT&T Bell Labs as a successor to [2406]C. Now one of the [2407]languages of choice, although many hackers still grumble that it is the successor to either Algol 68 or [2408]Ada (depending on generation), and a prime example of [2409]second-system effect. Almost anything that can be done in any language can be done in C++, but it requires a [2410]language lawyer to know what is and what is not legal– the design is almost too large to hold in even hackers’ heads. Much of the [2411]cruft results from C++’s attempt to be backward compatible with C. Stroustrup himself has said in his retrospective book “The Design and Evolution of C++” (p. 207), “Within C++, there is a much smaller and cleaner language struggling to get out.” [Many hackers would now add “Yes, and it’s called [2412]Java” –ESR]
_________________________________________________________________
Node:calculator, Next:[2413]Camel Book, Previous:[2414]C++, Up:[2415]= C =
calculator [Cambridge] n.
Syn. for [2416]bitty box.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Camel Book, Next:[2417]can, Previous:[2418]calculator, Up:[2419]= C =
Camel Book n.
Universally recognized nickname for the book “Programming Perl”, by Larry Wall and Randal L. Schwartz, O’Reilly and Associates 1991, ISBN 0-937175-64-1 (second edition 1996, ISBN 1-56592-149-6). The definitive reference on [2420]Perl.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:can, Next:[2421]can’t happen, Previous:[2422]Camel Book, Up:[2423]= C =
can vt.
To abort a job on a time-sharing system. Used esp. when the person doing the deed is an operator, as in “canned from the [2424]console”. Frequently used in an imperative sense, as in “Can that print job, the LPT just popped a sprocket!” Synonymous with [2425]gun. It is said that the ASCII character with mnemonic CAN (0011000) was used as a kill-job character on some early OSes. Alternatively, this term may derive from mainstream slang `canned’ for being laid off or fired. _________________________________________________________________
Node:can’t happen, Next:[2426]cancelbot, Previous:[2427]can, Up:[2428]= C =
can’t happen
The traditional program comment for code executed under a condition that should never be true, for example a file size computed as negative. Often, such a condition being true indicates data corruption or a faulty algorithm; it is almost always handled by emitting a fatal error message and terminating or crashing, since there is little else that can be done. Some case variant of “can’t happen” is also often the text emitted if the `impossible’ error actually happens! Although “can’t happen” events are genuinely infrequent in production code, programmers wise enough to check for them habitually are often surprised at how frequently they are triggered during development and how many headaches checking for them turns out to head off. See also [2429]firewall code (sense 2).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cancelbot, Next:[2430]Cancelmoose[tm], Previous:[2431]can’t happen, Up:[2432]= C =
cancelbot /kan’sel-bot/
[Usenet: compound, cancel + robot] 1. Mythically, a [2433]robocanceller 2. In reality, most cancelbots are manually operated by being fed lists of spam message IDs. _________________________________________________________________
Node:Cancelmoose[tm], Next:[2434]candygrammar, Previous:[2435]cancelbot, Up:[2436]= C =
Cancelmoose[tm] /kan’sel-moos/
[Usenet] The archetype and model of all good [2437]spam-fighters. Once upon a time, the ‘Moose would send out spam-cancels and then post notice anonymously to news.admin.policy, news.admin.misc, and alt.current-events.net-abuse. The ‘Moose stepped to the fore on its own initiative, at a time (mid-1994) when spam-cancels were irregular and disorganized, and behaved altogether admirably – fair, even-handed, and quick to respond to comments and criticism, all without self-aggrandizement or martyrdom. Cancelmoose[tm] quickly gained near-unanimous support from the readership of all three above-mentioned groups.
Nobody knows who Cancelmoose[tm] really is, and there aren’t even any good rumors. However, the ‘Moose now has an e-mail address ([2438]moose@cm.org) and a web site ([2439]http://www.cm.org.)
By early 1995, others had stepped into the spam-cancel business, and appeared to be comporting themselves well, after the ‘Moose’s manner. The ‘Moose has now gotten out of the business, and is more interested in ending spam (and cancels) entirely. _________________________________________________________________
Node:candygrammar, Next:[2440]canonical, Previous:[2441]Cancelmoose[tm], Up:[2442]= C =
candygrammar n.
A programming-language grammar that is mostly [2443]syntactic sugar; the term is also a play on `candygram’. [2444]COBOL, Apple’s Hypertalk language, and a lot of the so-called `4GL’ database languages share this property. The usual intent of such designs is that they be as English-like as possible, on the theory that they will then be easier for unskilled people to program. This intention comes to grief on the reality that syntax isn’t what makes programming hard; it’s the mental effort and organization required to specify an algorithm precisely that costs. Thus the invariable result is that `candygrammar’ languages are just as difficult to program in as terser ones, and far more painful for the experienced hacker.
[The overtones from the old Chevy Chase skit on Saturday Night Live should not be overlooked. This was a “Jaws” parody. Someone lurking outside an apartment door tries all kinds of bogus ways to get the occupant to open up, while ominous music plays in the background. The last attempt is a half-hearted “Candygram!” When the door is opened, a shark bursts in and chomps the poor occupant. [There is a similar gag in “Blazing Saddles” –ESR] There is a moral here for those attracted to candygrammars. Note that, in many circles, pretty much the same ones who remember Monty Python sketches, all it takes is the word “Candygram!”, suitably timed, to get people rolling on the floor. — GLS]
_________________________________________________________________
Node:canonical, Next:[2445]card walloper, Previous:[2446]candygrammar, Up:[2447]= C =
canonical adj.
[very common; historically, `according to religious law’] The usual or standard state or manner of something. This word has a somewhat more technical meaning in mathematics. Two formulas such as 9 + x and x + 9 are said to be equivalent because they mean the same thing, but the second one is in `canonical form’ because it is written in the usual way, with the highest power of x first. Usually there are fixed rules you can use to decide whether something is in canonical form. The jargon meaning, a relaxation of the technical meaning, acquired its present loading in computer-science culture largely through its prominence in Alonzo Church’s work in computation theory and mathematical logic (see [2448]Knights of the Lambda Calculus). Compare [2449]vanilla.
Non-technical academics do not use the adjective `canonical’ in any of the senses defined above with any regularity; they do however use the nouns `canon’ and `canonicity’ (not **canonicalness or **canonicality). The `canon’ of a given author is the complete body of authentic works by that author (this usage is familiar to Sherlock Holmes fans as well as to literary scholars). `The canon’ is the body of works in a given field (e.g., works of literature, or of art, or of music) deemed worthwhile for students to study and for scholars to investigate.
The word `canon’ has an interesting history. It derives ultimately from the Greek `kanon’ (akin to the English `cane’) referring to a reed. Reeds were used for measurement, and in Latin and later Greek the word `canon’ meant a rule or a standard. The establishment of a canon of scriptures within Christianity was meant to define a standard or a rule for the religion. The above non-techspeak academic usages stem from this instance of a defined and accepted body of work. Alongside this usage was the promulgation of `canons’ (`rules’) for the government of the Catholic Church. The techspeak usages (“according to religious law”) derive from this use of the Latin `canon’.
Hackers invest this term with a playfulness that makes an ironic contrast with its historical meaning. A true story: One Bob Sjoberg, new at the MIT AI Lab, expressed some annoyance at the incessant use of jargon. Over his loud objections, GLS and RMS made a point of using as much of it as possible in his presence, and eventually it began to sink in. Finally, in one conversation, he used the word `canonical’ in jargon-like fashion without thinking. Steele: “Aha! We’ve finally got you talking jargon too!” Stallman: “What did he say?” Steele: “Bob just used `canonical’ in the canonical way.”
Of course, canonicality depends on context, but it is implicitly defined as the way hackers normally expect things to be. Thus, a hacker may claim with a straight face that `according to religious law’ is not the canonical meaning of `canonical’. _________________________________________________________________
Node:card walloper, Next:[2450]careware, Previous:[2451]canonical, Up:[2452]= C =
card walloper n.
An EDP programmer who grinds out batch programs that do stupid things like print people’s paychecks. Compare [2453]code grinder. See also [2454]punched card, [2455]eighty-column mind. _________________________________________________________________
Node:careware, Next:[2456]cargo cult programming, Previous:[2457]card walloper, Up:[2458]= C =
careware /keir’weir/ n.
A variety of [2459]shareware for which either the author suggests that some payment be made to a nominated charity or a levy directed to charity is included on top of the distribution charge. Syn. [2460]charityware; compare [2461]crippleware, sense 2. _________________________________________________________________
Node:cargo cult programming, Next:[2462]cascade, Previous:[2463]careware, Up:[2464]= C =
cargo cult programming n.
A style of (incompetent) programming dominated by ritual inclusion of code or program structures that serve no real purpose. A cargo cult programmer will usually explain the extra code as a way of working around some bug encountered in the past, but usually neither the bug nor the reason the code apparently avoided the bug was ever fully understood (compare [2465]shotgun debugging, [2466]voodoo programming).
The term `cargo cult’ is a reference to aboriginal religions that grew up in the South Pacific after World War II. The practices of these cults center on building elaborate mockups of airplanes and military style landing strips in the hope of bringing the return of the god-like airplanes that brought such marvelous cargo during the war. Hackish usage probably derives from Richard Feynman’s characterization of certain practices as “cargo cult science” in his book “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” (W. W. Norton & Co, New York 1985, ISBN 0-393-01921-7).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cascade, Next:[2467]case and paste, Previous:[2468]cargo cult programming, Up:[2469]= C =
cascade n.
1. A huge volume of spurious error-message output produced by a compiler with poor error recovery. Too frequently, one trivial syntax error (such as a missing `)’ or `}’) throws the parser out of synch so that much of the remaining program text is interpreted as garbaged or ill-formed. 2. A chain of Usenet followups, each adding some trivial variation or riposte to the text of the previous one, all of which is reproduced in the new message; an [2470]include war in which the object is to create a sort of communal graffito. _________________________________________________________________
Node:case and paste, Next:[2471]casters-up mode, Previous:[2472]cascade, Up:[2473]= C =
case and paste n.
[from `cut and paste’] 1. The addition of a new [2474]feature to an existing system by selecting the code from an existing feature and pasting it in with minor changes. Common in telephony circles because most operations in a telephone switch are selected using case statements. Leads to [2475]software bloat.
In some circles of EMACS users this is called `programming by Meta-W’, because Meta-W is the EMACS command for copying a block of text to a kill buffer in preparation to pasting it in elsewhere. The term is condescending, implying that the programmer is acting mindlessly rather than thinking carefully about what is required to integrate the code for two similar cases.
At [2476]DEC (now Compaq), this is sometimes called `clone-and-hack’ coding.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:casters-up mode, Next:[2477]casting the runes, Previous:[2478]case and paste, Up:[2479]= C =
casters-up mode n.
[IBM, prob. fr. slang belly up] Yet another synonym for `broken’ or `down’. Usually connotes a major failure. A system (hardware or software) which is `down’ may be already being restarted before the failure is noticed, whereas one which is `casters up’ is usually a good excuse to take the rest of the day off (as long as you’re not responsible for fixing it).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:casting the runes, Next:[2480]cat, Previous:[2481]casters-up mode, Up:[2482]= C =
casting the runes n.
What a [2483]guru does when you ask him or her to run a particular program and type at it because it never works for anyone else; esp. used when nobody can ever see what the guru is doing different from what J. Random Luser does. Compare [2484]incantation, [2485]runes, [2486]examining the entrails; also see the AI koan about Tom Knight in “[2487]Some AI Koans” (Appendix A).
A correspondent from England tells us that one of ICL’s most talented systems designers used to be called out occasionally to service machines which the [2488]field circus had given up on. Since he knew the design inside out, he could often find faults simply by listening to a quick outline of the symptoms. He used to play on this by going to some site where the field circus had just spent the last two weeks solid trying to find a fault, and spreading a diagram of the system out on a table top. He’d then shake some chicken bones and cast them over the diagram, peer at the bones intently for a minute, and then tell them that a certain module needed replacing. The system would start working again immediately upon the replacement. _________________________________________________________________
Node:cat, Next:[2489]catatonic, Previous:[2490]casting the runes, Up:[2491]= C =
cat [from `catenate’ via [2492]Unix cat(1)] vt.
1. [techspeak] To spew an entire file to the screen or some other output sink without pause (syn. [2493]blast). 2. By extension, to dump large amounts of data at an unprepared target or with no intention of browsing it carefully. Usage: considered silly. Rare outside Unix sites. See also [2494]dd, [2495]BLT.
Among Unix fans, cat(1) is considered an excellent example of user-interface design, because it delivers the file contents without such verbosity as spacing or headers between the files, and because it does not require the files to consist of lines of text, but works with any sort of data.
Among Unix haters, cat(1) is considered the [2496]canonical example of bad user-interface design, because of its woefully unobvious name. It is far more often used to [2497]blast a file to standard output than to concatenate two files. The name cat for the former operation is just as unintuitive as, say, LISP’s [2498]cdr.
Of such oppositions are [2499]holy wars made…. _________________________________________________________________
Node:catatonic, Next:[2500]cathedral, Previous:[2501]cat, Up:[2502]= C =
catatonic adj.
Describes a condition of suspended animation in which something is so [2503]wedged or [2504]hung that it makes no response. If you are typing on a terminal and suddenly the computer doesn’t even echo the letters back to the screen as you type, let alone do what you’re asking it to do, then the computer is suffering from catatonia (possibly because it has crashed). “There I was in the middle of a winning game of [2505]nethack and it went catatonic on me! Aaargh!” Compare [2506]buzz.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cathedral, Next:[2507]cd tilde, Previous:[2508]catatonic, Up:[2509]= C =
cathedral n.,adj.
[see [2510]bazaar for derivation] The `classical’ mode of software engineering long thought to be necessarily implied by [2511]Brooks’s Law. Features small teams, tight project control, and long release intervals. This term came into use after analysis of the Linux experience suggested there might be something wrong (or at least incomplete) in the classical assumptions. _________________________________________________________________
Node:cd tilde, Next:[2512]CDA, Previous:[2513]cathedral, Up:[2514]= C =