Source Code 1992 March/Source_Code_CD-ROM_Walnut_Creek_March_1992.iso/usenet/altsrcs/2/2933

Internet Message Format | 1991-03-02 | 51KB

From: [e-mail] (Eric S. Raymond)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.sources,misc.misc
Subject: The Jargon File v, part 10 of 17
Message-ID: <1ZdTzG#7GyzPV8xpZpn2YyHRf4H3qSh=[e-mail]>
Date: 2 Mar 91 18:19:52 GMT

Submitted-by: [e-mail]
Archive-name: jargon/part10

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X   Common symptoms include: the perpetration of more than one 36-hour
X   {hacking run} in a given week, neglect of all other activities
X   including usual basics like food, sleep, and personal hygiene, and
X   a chronic case of advanced bleary-eye.  Can last from six months to
X   two years, with the apparent median being around eighteen months.
X   A few so afflicted never resume a more `normal' life, but the
X   ordeal seems to be necessary to produce really wizardly (as opposed
X   to merely competent) programmers.  See also {wannabee}.  A less
X   protracted and intense version of larval stage (typically lasting
X   about a month) may recur when learning a new {OS} or programming
X   language.
X
Xlase: /layz/ vt. To print a given document via a laser printer.
X   "OK, let's lase that sucker and see if all those graphics-macro
X   calls did the right things."
X
Xlaser chicken: n. Kung Pao Chicken, a standard Chinese dish
X   containing chicken, peanuts, and hot red peppers in a spicy
X   pepper-oil sauce.  Many hackers call it `laser chicken' for
X   two reasons; it can {zap} you just like a laser, and the
X   sauce has a red color reminiscent of some laser beams.
X
X   In a variation on this theme, it is reported that one group of
X   Australian hackers have redesignated the common dish `lemon
X   chicken' as `Chernobyl Chicken'.  The name is derived from the
X   color of the sauce, which is considered bright enough to glow in
X   the dark (mythically, like some of the inhabitants of Chernobyl).
X
Xlaundromat: n. Syn. {disk farm}; see {washing machine}.
X
XLDB: /l@'d@b/ [from the PDP-10 instruction set] vt. To extract
X   from the middle.  "LDB me a slice of cake, please" This usage has
X   been kept alive by Common LISP's function of the same name.  See
X   also {DPB}.
X
Xleaf site: n. A machine that merely originates and reads USENET
X   news or mail, and does not relay any third-party traffic.  Often
X   uttered in a critical tone; when the ratio of leaf sites to
X   backbone, rib, and other relay sites gets too high, the network
X   tends to develop bottlenecks.  Compare {backbone site}, {rib
X   site}.
X
Xleak: n. With qualifier, one of a class of resource-management bugs
X   that occur when resources are not freed properly after operations
X   on them are finished, leading to eventual exhaustion as new
X   allocation requests come in.  {memory leak} and {fd leak} have
X   their own entries; one might also refer, say, to a `window handle
X   leak' in a window system.
X
Xleaky heap: [Cambridge] n. Syn. {memory leak}.
X
Xlegal: adj. Loosely used to mean `in accordance with all the
X   relevant rules', esp. in connection with some set of constraints
X   defined by software.  Thus one very frequently hears constructions
X   like `legal syntax', `legal input', etc.  Hackers often model their
X   work as a sort of game played with the environment in which the
X   objective is to maneuver through the thicket of `natural laws' to
X   achieve a desired objective.  Their use of `legal' is flavored as
X   much by this game-playing sense as by the more conventional one
X   having to do with courts and lawyers.  Compare {language lawyer},
X   {legalese}.
X
Xlegalese: n. Dense, pedantic verbiage in a language description,
X   product specification, or interface standard; text that seems
X   designed to obfuscate and requires a {language lawyer} to
X   {parse} it.  While hackers are not afraid of high information
X   density and complexity in language (indeed, they rather enjoy
X   both), they share a deep and abiding loathing for legalese; they
X   associate it with deception, {suit}s, and situations in which
X   hackers generally get the short end of the stick.
X
XLERP: /lerp/ vi.,n. Quasi-acronym for Linear Interpolation, used as a
X   verb or noun for the operation.  E.g., Bresenham's algorithm lerps
X   incrementally between the two endpoints of the line.
X
Xlet the smoke out: v. To fry hardware (see {fried}).  See
X   {magic smoke} for the mythology behind this.
X
Xlexer: /lek'sr/ n. Common hacker shorthand for `lexical
X   analyzer', the input-tokenizing stage in the parser for a language
X   (the part that breaks it into word-like pieces).  "Some C lexers
X   get confused by the old-style compound ops like `=-'".
X
Xlife: n. 1. A cellular-automata game invented by John Horton Conway
X   and first introduced publicly by Martin Gardner (Scientific
X   American, October 1970).  Many hackers pass through a stage of
X   fascination with it, and hackers at various places contributed
X   heavily to the mathematical analysis of this game (most notably
X   Bill Gosper at MIT; see {Gosperism}).  When a hacker mentions
X   `life', he is much more likely to mean this game than the
X   magazine, the breakfast cereal, or the human state of existence.
X   2. The opposite of {USENET}.  As in {Get a life!}.
X
Xlight pipe: n. Fiber optic cable.  Oppose {copper}.
X
Xlike kicking dead whales down the beach: adj. A slow, difficult,
X   and disgusting process.  First popularized by a famous quote about
X   the difficulty of getting work done under one of IBM's mainframe
X   OSs.  "Well, you *could* write a C compiler in COBOL, but it
X   would be like kicking dead whales down the beach."  See also
X   {fear and loathing}
X
Xlike nailing jelly to a tree: adj. Used to describe a task thought
X   to be impossible, esp. one in which the difficulty arises from poor
X   specification or inherent slipperiness in the problem domain.
X
Xline eater, the: [USENET] n. 1. A bug in some now-obsolete
X   versions of the netnews software that used to eat up to BUFSIZ
X   bytes of the article text.  The bug was triggered by having the
X   text of the article start with a space or tab.  This bug was
X   quickly personified as a mythical creature called the `line
X   eater', and postings often included a dummy line of `line eater
X   food'.  Ironically, line eater food not preceded by whitespace
X   wasn't actually eaten, since the bug was avoided; but if there
X   *was* whitespace before it, then the line eater would eat the
X   food *and* the beginning of the text which it was supposed to
X   be protecting.  The practice of `sacrificing to the line eater'
X   continued for some time after the bug had been {nailed to the
X   wall}, and is still humorously referred to.  The bug itself is
X   still (in mid-1991) occasionally reported to be lurking in some
X   mail-to-netnews gateways.  2. See {NSA line eater}.
X
Xline starve: [MIT] 1. vi. To feed paper through a printer the
X   wrong way by one line (most printers can't do this).  On a display
X   terminal, to move the cursor up to the previous line of the screen.
X   Example: "To print `X squared', you just output `X', line starve,
X   `2', line feed."  (The line starve causes the `2' to appear on the
X   line above the X, and the line feed gets back to the original
X   line.)  2. n. A character (or character sequence) that causes a
X   terminal to perform this action.  Unlike `line feed', `line starve'
X   is *not* standard {{ASCII}} terminology.  Even among hackers
X   it is considered a bit silly.  3. [proposed] A sequence like \c
X   (used in System V echo, as well as nroff/troff) that suppresses a
X   {newline} or other character(s) that would normally implicitly be
X   emitted.
X
Xlink farm: [UNIX] n. A directory tree that contains many links to
X   files in another, master directory tree of files.  Link farms save
X   space when (for example) one is maintaining several nearly
X   identical copies of the same source tree, e.g. when the only
X   difference is architecture-dependent object files.  Example use:
X   "Let's freeze the source and then rebuild the FROBOZZ-3 and
X   FROBOZZ-4 link farms."  Link farms may also be used to get around
X   restrictions on the number of -I (include directory) arguments on
X   older C preprocessors.
X
Xlint: [from UNIX's `lint(1)', named perhaps for the bits of
X   fluff it picks from programs] 1. vt. To examine a program closely
X   for style, language usage, and portability problems, esp. if in C,
X   esp. if via use of automated analysis tools, most esp. if the
X   UNIX utility `lint(1)' is used.  This term used to be
X   restricted to use of `lint(1)' itself but (judging by
X   references on USENET) has become a shorthand for {desk check} at
X   some non-UNIX shops, even in languages other than C.  See also
X   {delint}.  2. n.  Excess verbiage in a document, as in "this
X   draft has too much lint".
X
Xlion food: [IBM] n. Middle management or HQ staff (by extension,
X   administrative drones in general).  From an old joke about two
X   lions who, escaping from the zoo, split up to increase their
X   chances but agreed to meet after two months.  When they finally
X   meet, one is skinny and the other overweight.  The thin one says
X   "How did you manage?  I ate a human just once and they turned out
X   a small army to chase me --- guns, nets, it was terrible.  Since
X   then I've been reduced to eating mice, insects, even grass."  The
X   fat one replies "Well, *I* hid near an IBM office and ate a
X   manager a day.  And nobody even noticed!"
X
XLISP: [from `LISt Processing language', but mythically from
X   `Lots of Irritating Superfluous Parentheses'] n. The name of
X   AI's mother tongue, a language based on the ideas of (a)
X   variable-length lists and trees as fundamental data types, and (b)
X   the interpretation of code as data and vice-versa.  Invented by
X   John McCarthy at MIT in the late 1950s, it is actually older
X   than any other {HLL} still in use except FORTRAN.  Accordingly,
X   it has undergone considerable adaptive radiation over the years;
X   modern variants are quite different in detail from the original
X   LISP 1.5.  The hands-down favorite of a plurality of hackers until
X   the early 1980s, LISP now shares the throne with {C}.  See
X   {languages of choice}.
X
X   All LISP functions and programs are expressions that return
X   values; this, together with the high memory utilization of LISPs,
X   gave rise to Alan Perlis's famous quip (itself a take on an Oscar
X   Wilde quote) that "LISP programmers know the value of everything
X   and the cost of nothing."
X
Xliterature, the: n.  Computer science journals and other
X   publications vaguely gestured at to answer a question that the
X   speaker believes is {trivial}.  Thus, one might answer an
X   annoying question "It's in the literature."  Oppose {Knuth},
X   which has no connotation of triviality.
X
Xlittle-endian: adj. Describes a computer architecture in which,
X   within a given 16- or 32-bit word, bytes at lower addresses have
X   lower significance (the word is stored `little-end-first').  The
X   PDP-11 and VAX families of computers and Intel microprocessors and
X   a lot of communications and networking hardware are little-endian.
X   See {big-endian}, {middle-endian}, {NUXI problem}.  The term
X   is sometimes used to describe the ordering of units other than
X   bytes; most frequently these are bits within a byte.
X
XLive Free Or Die!: imp. 1. The state motto of New Hampshire, which
X   used to be on its car license plates.  2. A slogan associated with
X   UNIX in the romantic days when UNIX aficionados saw themselves as a
X   tiny, beleaguered underground tilting against the windmills of
X   industry.  The "free" referred specifically to freedom from the
X   {fascist} design philosophies and crufty misfeatures common on
X   commercial operating systems.  Armando Stettner, one of the early
X   UNIX developers, used to give out fake license plates bearing this
X   motto under a large UNIX, all in New Hampshire colors of green and
X   white.  These are now valued collector's items.
X
Xlivelock: n. A situation in which some critical stage of a task is
X   unable to finish because its clients perpetually create more work
X   for it to do after they've been serviced but before it can clear.
X   Differs from {deadlock} in that the process is not blocked or
X   waiting for anything, but has a virtually infinite amount of work
X   to do and accomplishes nothing.
X
Xliveware: n. Synonym for {wetware}.  Less common.
X
Xlobotomy: n. 1. What a hacker subjected to formal management
X   training is said to have undergone.  At IBM and elsewhere this term
X   is used by both hackers and low-level management; the latter
X   doubtless intend it as a joke.  2. The act of removing the
X   processor from a microcomputer in order to replace or upgrade it.
X   Some very cheap {clone} systems are sold in `lobotomized' form
X   --- everything but the brain.
X
Xlocked and loaded: [from military slang for an M-16 with magazine
X   inserted and prepared for firing] adj. Said of a removable disk
X   volume properly prepared for use --- that is, locked into the drive
X   and with the heads loaded.  Ironically, because their heads are
X   `loaded' whenever the power is up, this description is never used
X   of {{Winchester}} drives (which are named after a rifle).
X
Xlocked up: adj. Syn. for {hung}, {wedged}.
X
Xlogic bomb: n. Code surreptitiously inserted in an application or OS
X   which causes it to perform some destructive or
X   security-compromising activity whenever specified conditions are
X   met.  Compare {back door}.
X
Xlogical: [from the technical term `logical device', wherein a
X   physical device is referred to by an arbitrary `logical' name] adj.
X   Having the role of.  If a person (say, Les Earnest at SAIL) who has
X   long held a certain post left and was replaced, the replacement
X   would for a while be known as the `logical' Les Earnest (this
X   does not imply any judgement on the replacement).  Compare
X   {virtual}.
X
X   At Stanford, `logical' compass directions denote a coordinate
X   system in which `logical north' is toward San Francisco,
X   `logical west' is toward the ocean, etc., even though logical
X   north varies between physical (true) north near San Francisco and
X   physical west near San Jose.  (The best rule of thumb here is that,
X   by definition, El Camino Real always runs logical north-and-south.)
X   In giving directions, one might say, "To get to Rincon Tarasco
X   restaurant, get onto {El Camino Bignum} going logical north."  Using
X   the word `logical' helps to prevent the recipient from worrying
X   about that the fact that the sun is setting almost directly in
X   front of him.  The concept is reinforced by North American highways
X   which are almost, but not quite, consistently labelled with logical
X   rather than physical directions.  A similar situation exists at
X   MIT.  Route 128 (famous for the electronics industry that has
X   grown up along it) is a three-quarters circle surrounding Boston at
X   a radius of ten miles, terminating at the coastline at each end.
X   It would be most precise to describe the two directions along this
X   highway as being `clockwise' and `counterclockwise', but the road
X   signs all say `north' and `south', respectively.  A hacker might
X   describe these directions as `logical north' and `logical south',
X   to indicate that they are conventional directions not corresponding
X   to the usual denotation for those words.  (If you went logical
X   south along the entire length of route 128, you would start out
X   going northwest, curve around to the south, and finish headed due
X   east!)
X
Xloop through: vt. To process each element of a list of things.
X   "Hold on, I've got to loop through my paper mail."  Derives from
X   the computer-language notion of an iterative loop; compare `cdr
X   down' (under {cdr}) which is less common among C and UNIX
X   programmers.  ITS hackers used to say `IRP over' after an
X   obscure pseudo-op in the MIDAS PDP-10 assembler.
X
Xlord high fixer: [primarily British, prob. from Gilbert & Sullivan's
X   `lord high executioner'] n. The person in an organization who
X   knows the most about some aspect of a system.  See {wizard}.
X
Xlose: [MIT] vi. 1. To fail.  A program loses when it encounters
X   an exceptional condition or fails to work in the expected manner.
X   2.  To be exceptionally unesthetic or crocky.  3. Of people, to
X   be obnoxious or unusually stupid (as opposed to ignorant).  See
X   also {deserves to lose}.  4. n. Refers to something which is
X   {losing}, especially in the phrases "That's a lose!" or "What
X   a lose!".
X
Xlose lose: interj. A reply to or comment on an undesirable
X   situation.  "I accidentally deleted all my files!"  "Lose,
X   lose."
X
Xloser: n. An unexpectedly bad situation, program, programmer, or
X   person.  Someone who habitually loses (even winners can lose
X   occasionally).  Someone who knows not and knows not that he knows
X   not.  Emphatic forms are `real loser', `total loser', and
X   `complete loser' (but not `moby loser', which would be a
X   contradiction in terms).  See {luser}.
X
Xlosing: adj. Said of anything which is or causes a {lose} or
X   {lossage}.
X
Xloss: n. Something (not a person) which loses; a situation in which
X   something is losing.  Emphatic forms include `moby loss',
X   `total loss', `complete loss'.  Common interjections are
X   "What a loss!"  and "What a moby loss!" (`moby loss' is OK even
X   though `moby loser' is not used; applied to an abstract noun, moby
X   is simply a magnifier, whereas when applied to a person it implies
X   substance and has positive connotations)  Compare {lossage}.
X
Xlossage: /los'@j/ n. The result of a bug or malfunction.  This is
X   a mass or collective noun.  "What a loss!" and "What lossage!"
X   are nearly synonymous remarks.  The former is slightly more
X   particular to the speaker's present circumstances while the latter
X   implies a continuing lose of which the speaker is presently victim.
X   Thus (for example) a temporary hardware failure is a loss, but bugs
X   in an important tool (like a compiler) are serious lossage.
X
Xlost in the noise: adj. Syn. {lost in the underflow}.  This term
X   is from signal processing, where signals of very small amplitude
X   cannot be separated from low-intensity noise in the system.  Though
X   popular among hackers, it is not confined to hackerdom; physicists,
X   engineers, astronomers and statisticians all use it.
X
Xlost in the underflow: adj. Too small to be worth considering;
X   more specifically, small beyond the limits of accuracy or
X   measurement.  This is a reference to a condition called
X   `floating underflow' that can occur when a floating-point
X   arithmetic processor tries to handle quantities smaller than its
X   limit of magnitude.  It is also a pun on `undertow' (a kind of fast,
X   cold current that sometimes runs just outshore of a beach and can
X   be dangerous to swimmers).  "Well, sure, photon pressure from the
X   stadium lights alters the path of a thrown baseball, but that
X   effect gets lost in the underflow."  See also {overflow bit}.
X
Xlots of MIPS but no I/O: adj. Used to describe a person who is
X   technically brilliant but can't seem to communicate with human
X   beings effectively.  Technically it describes a machine that has
X   lots of processing power but is bottlenecked on I/O.
X
Xlow-bandwidth: adj. Used to indicate a talk that although not
X   {content-free} was not terribly informative.  "That was a
X   low-bandwidth talk, but what can you expect for an audience of
X   {suit}s."  Compare {zero-content}, {bandwidth}, {math-out}.
X
XLPT: /lip'it/ [ITS] n. Line printer, of course.  Rare under UNIX,
X   commoner in hackers with MS-DOS or CP/M background.  The printer
X   device is called LPT: on those systems which, like ITS, were
X   strongly influenced by early DEC conventions.
X
Xlunatic fringe: [IBM] n. Customers who can be relied upon to accept
X   release 1 versions of software.
X
Xlurker: n. One of the `silent majority' in a electronic forum; one
X   who posts occasionally or not at all but is known to read the group
X   regularly.  This term is not pejorative and indeed is casually used
X   reflexively: "Oh, I'm just lurking."  Often used in `the
X   lurkers', the hypothetical audience for the group's
X   {flamage}-emitting regulars.
X
Xluser: /loo'zr/ n. A {user}; esp. one who is also a {loser}.
X   ({luser} and {loser} are pronounced identically.)  This word
X   was coined about 1975 at MIT.  Under ITS, when you first walked up
X   to a terminal at MIT and typed Control-Z to get the computer's
X   attention, it prints out some status information, including how
X   many people are already using the computer; it might print "14
X   users", for example.  Someone thought it would be a great joke to
X   patch the system to print "14 losers" instead.  There ensued a
X   great controversy, as some of the users didn't particularly want to
X   be called losers to their faces every time they used the computer.
X   For a while several hackers struggled covertly, each changing the
X   message behind the back of the others; any time you logged into the
X   computer it was even money whether it would say "users" or
X   "losers".  Finally, someone tried the compromise `lusers', and it
X   stuck.  Later one of the ITS machines supported `luser' as a
X   request-for-help command.  ITS died the death in mid-1990, except
X   as a museum piece; the usage lives on, however, and the term
X   `luser' is often seen in program comments.
X
X= M =
X=====
X
XM: /em/ or /meg/ [from {mega-}; techspeak] n. A megabyte (1,024
X   kilobytes, 1,048,576 = 2 ^ 20 bytes).  Also written MB, in conflict
X   with scientific usage in which M denotes multiplication by
X   1,000,000.  See also {kilo-}, {K}.
X
Xmacdink: /mak'dink/ [from the Apple Macintosh, which is said to
X   encourage such behavior] vt. To make many incremental and
X   unnecessary cosmetic changes to a program or file.  Frequently the
X   subject of the macdinking would be better off without them.  Ex:
X   "When I left at 11pm last night, he was still macdinking the
X   slides for his presentation."  See also {fritterware}.
X
Xmachoflops: /mach'oh-flops/ [pun on `megaflops', a coinage for
X   `millions of floating-point operations per second'] n. Refers to
X   artificially inflated performance figures often quoted by computer
X   manufacturers.  Real applications are lucky to get half the quoted
X   speed. See {Your mileage may vary}, {benchmark}.
X
XMacintrash: /mak'in-trash`/ n. The Apple Macintosh, as described by
X   a hacker who doesn't appreciate being kept away from the *real
X   computer* by the interface.  The term `maggotbox' has been
X   reported in regular use in the Research Triangle (Raleigh/Durham,
X   NC).  See also {WIMP environment}, {drool-proof paper},
X   {user-friendly}.
X
Xmacro: /mak'roh/ [techspeak] n. A name (possibly followed by a
X   formal {arg} list) that is equated to a text or symbolic
X   expression to which it is to be expanded (possibly with the
X   substitution of actual arguments) by a macro expander.  This
X   definition can be found in any technical dictionary; what those
X   won't tell you is how the hackish connotations of the term have
X   changed over time.
X
X   The term `macro' originated in early assemblers, which encouraged
X   use of macros as a structuring and information-hiding device.
X   During the early 1970s, macro assemblers became ubiquitous and
X   sometimes quite as powerful and expensive as HLLs, only to fall
X   from favor as improving compiler technology marginalized assembler
X   programming (see {languages of choice}).  Nowadays the term is
X   most often used in connection with the C preprocessor, LISP, or one
X   of several special-purpose languages built around a macro-expansion
X   facility (such as TeX or UNIX's [nt]roff suite).
X
X   Indeed, the meaning has drifted enough that the collective `macros'
X   is now sometimes used for code in any special-purpose application
X   control language (whether or not the language is actually
X   translated by text expansion) as well as other `expansions' such as
X   the `keyboard macros' supported in some text editors (and PC TSR
X   or Macintosh INIT/CDEV keyboard enhancers).
X
Xmacro-: pref. Large.  Opposite of {micro-}.  In the mainstream
X   and among other technical cultures (for example, medical people)
X   this competes with the prefix {mega-}, but hackers tend to
X   restrict the latter to quantification.
X
Xmacrology: /mak-ro'l@-jee/ n. 1. Set of usually complex or crufty
X   macros, e.g., as part of a large system written in {LISP},
X   {TECO}, or (less commonly) assembler.  2. The art and science
X   involved in comprehending a macrology in sense #1.  Sometimes
X   studying the macrology of a system is not unlike archeology,
X   ecology, or {theology}, hence the sound-alike construction.  See
X   also {boxology}.
X
Xmacrotape: /ma'kroh-tayp/ n. An industry standard reel of tape, as
X   opposed to a {microtape}.
X
Xmaggotbox: n. See {Macintrash}.  This is even more derogatory.
X
Xmagic: adj. 1. As yet unexplained, or too complicated to explain;
X   compare {automagically} and (Arthur C.) Clarke's Third Law: "Any
X   sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
X   "TTY echoing is controlled by a large number of magic bits."
X   "This routine magically computes the parity of an eight-bit byte
X   in three instructions."  2. Characteristic of something that works
X   but no one really understands why.  3. [Stanford] A feature not
X   generally publicized that allows something otherwise impossible,
X   or a feature formerly in that category but now unveiled.  Example:
X   The keyboard commands which override the screen-hiding features.
X   Compare {wizardly}, {deep magic}, {heavy wizardry}.
X
X   For more about hackish `magic', see Appendix A.
X
Xmagic cookie: [UNIX] n. 1. Something passed between routines or
X   programs that enables the receiver to perform some operation; a
X   capability ticket or opaque identifier.  Especially used of small
X   data objects which contain data encoded in a strange or
X   intrinsically machine-dependent way.  E.g., on non-UNIX OSes with a
X   non-byte-stream model of files, the result of `ftell(3)' may
X   be a magic cookie rather than a byte offset; it can be passed to
X   `fseek(3)', but not operated on in any meaningful way.  The
X   phrase `it hands you a magic cookie' means it returns a result
X   whose contents are not defined but which can be passed back to the
X   same or some other program later.  2. An in-band code for
X   changing graphic rendition (e.g., inverse video or underlining) or
X   performing other control functions.  Some older terminals would
X   leave a blank on the screen corresponding to mode-change magic
X   cookies; this was also called a {glitch}.  See also {cookie}.
X
Xmagic number: [UNIX/C] n. 1. In source code, some non-obvious
X   constant whose value is significant to the operation of a program
X   and which is inserted inconspicuously in-line ({hardcoded}),
X   rather than expanded in by a symbol set by a commented
X   `#define'.  Magic numbers in this sense are bad style.  2. A
X   number that encodes critical information used in an algorithm in
X   some opaque way.  The classic examples of these are the numbers
X   used in hash or CRC functions, or the coefficients in a linear
X   congruential generator for pseudo-random numbers.  This sense
X   actually predates and was ancestral to the more common #1.  3.
X   Special data located at the beginning of a binary data file to
X   indicate its type to a utility.  Under UNIX the system and various
X   applications programs (especially the linker) distinguish between
X   types of executable file by looking for a magic number.  Only a
X   {wizard} knows the magic to create magic numbers.  How do you
X   choose a fresh magic number of your own?  Simple --- you pick one
X   at random.  See?  It's magic!
X
Xmagic smoke: n. A substance trapped inside IC packages that enables
X   them to function (also called `blue smoke'; compare
X   `phlogiston').  Its existence is demonstrated by what happens
X   when a chip burns up --- the magic smoke gets let out, so it
X   doesn't work any more.  See {smoke test}, {let the smoke out}.
X
X   USENETter Jay Maynard tells the following story: "Once, while
X   hacking on a dedicated Z80 system, I was testing code by blowing
X   EPROMs and plugging them in the system, then seeing what happened.
X   One time, I plugged one in backwards.  I only discovered that
X   *after* I realized that Intel didn't put power-on lights under
X   the quartz windows on the tops of their EPROMs --- the die was
X   glowing white-hot.  Amazingly, the EPROM worked fine after I erased
X   it, filled it full of zeros, then erased it again.  For all I know,
X   it's still in service.  Of course, this is because the magic smoke
X   didn't get let out."
X
Xmailing list: n. (often shortened to `list') 1. An {email}
X   address that is an alias (or {macro}, though that word is never
X   used in this connection) for many other email addresses.  Some
X   mailing lists are simple `reflectors', redirecting mail sent to
X   them to the list of recipients.  Others are filtered by humans or
X   programs of varying degrees of sophistication; lists filtered by
X   humans are said to be `moderated'.  2. The people who receive
X   your email when you send it to such an address.
X
X   Mailing lists are one of the primary forms of hacker interaction,
X   along with {USENET}.  They predate USENET, and originated with the
X   first UUCP and ARPANET connections.  They are often used for
X   private information-sharing on topics that would be too specialized
X   for or inappropriate to public USENET groups.  While some of these
X   maintain purely technical content (such as the Internet Engineering
X   Task Force mailing list), others (like the `sf-lovers' list
X   maintained for many years by Saul Jaffe) are recreational, and
X   others are purely social.  Perhaps the most infamous of the social
X   lists was the eccentric `bandykin' distribution; its latter-day
X   progeny, `lectroids' and `tanstaafl', still include a number of the
X   oddest and most interesting people in hackerdom.
X
X   Mailing lists are easy to create and (unlike USENET) don't tie up a
X   significant amount of machine resources.  Thus, they are often
X   created temporarily by working groups who can then collaborate on a
X   project without ever needing to meet face-to-face.  Much of the
X   material in this book was criticized and polished on just such a
X   mailing list (called `jargon-friends'), which included all the
X   co-authors of the `The Hacker's Dictionary' first edition.
X
Xmain loop: n. Software tools are often written to perform some
X   actions repeatedly on whatever input is handed to them, terminating
X   when there is no more input or they are explicitly told to go away.
X   In such programs, the loop that gets and processes input is called
X   the `main loop'.  See also {driver}.
X
Xmainframe: n. This term originally referred to the cabinet
X   containing the central processor unit or `main frame' of a
X   room-filling {Stone Age} batch machine.  After the emergence of
X   smaller `minicomputer' designs in the early Seventies, the
X   traditional {big iron} machines were described as `mainframe
X   computers' and eventually just as mainframes.  The term carries the
X   connotation of a machine designed for batch rather than interactive
X   use, though possibly with an interactive timesharing operating
X   system retrofitted onto it; it is especially used of machines built
X   by IBM, Unisys, and the other great {dinosaur}s surviving from
X   computing's {Stone Age}.
X
X   It is common wisdom among hackers that the mainframe architectural
X   tradition is essentially dead (outside of the tiny market for
X   {number-crunching} supercomputers (see {cray})), swamped by the
X   recent huge advances in IC technology and low-cost personal
X   computing.  As of 1991, corporate America hasn't quite figured this
X   out yet, though the wave of failures, takeovers, and mergers among
X   traditional mainframe makers are certainly straws in the wind.
X
Xmanagement: n. 1. Corporate power elites distinguished primarily by
X   their distance from actual productive work and their chronic
X   failure to manage (see also {suit}).  Spoken derisively, as in
X   "*Management* decided that...".  2. Mythically, a vast
X   bureaucracy responsible for all the world's minor irritations.
X   Hackers' satirical public notices are often signed `The Mgmt'.
X
Xmanged: /mahnjed/ [probably from the French `manger' or Italian
X   `mangere', to eat; perh.  influenced by English n. `mange',
X   `mangy']. adj. Refers to anything that is mangled or damaged,
X   usually beyond repair.  "The disk was manged after the electrical
X   storm."  Compare {mung}.
X
Xmangle: vt. Used similarly to {mung} or {scribble}, but more violent
X   in its connotations; something that is mangled has been
X   irreversibly and totally trashed.
X
Xmangler: [DEC] n. A manager.  Compare {mango}; see also
X   {management}.  Note that {system mangler} is somewhat different
X   in connotation.
X
Xmango: /mang'go/ [orig. in-house jargon at Symbolics] n. A manager.
X   Compare {mangler}.  See also {devo} and {doco}.
X
Xmarginal: adj. 1. Extremely small.  "A marginal increase in
X   {core} can decrease {GC} time drastically."  In everyday
X   terms, this means that it's a lot easier to clean off your desk if
X   you have a spare place to put some of the junk while you sort
X   through it.  2. Of extremely small merit.  "This proposed new
X   feature seems rather marginal to me."  3. Of extremely small
X   probability of {win}ning.  "The power supply was rather marginal
X   anyway; no wonder it fried."
X
XMarginal Hacks: n. Margaret Jacks Hall, a building into which the
X   Stanford AI Lab was moved near the beginning of the 1980s (from the
X   {D. C. Power Lab}).
X
Xmarginally: adv. Slightly.  "The ravs here are only marginally
X   better than at Small Eating Place."  See {epsilon}.
X
Xmarketroid: /mar'k@-troyd/ alt. `marketing slime',
X   `marketing droid', `marketeer' n. Member of a company's
X   marketing department, esp. one who promises users that the next
X   version of a product will have features that are not actually
X   scheduled for inclusion, extremely difficult to implement, and/or
X   are in violation of the laws of physics; and/or one who describes
X   existing features (and misfeatures) in ebullient, buzzword-laden
X   adspeak.  Derogatory.
X
Xmartian: n. A packet sent on a TCP/IP network with a source address
X   of the test loopback interface (127.0.0.1).  This means that it
X   will come back at you labelled with a source address that is
X   clearly not of this earth.  As in "The domain server is getting
X   lots of packets from Mars.  Does that gateway have a martian
X   filter?"
X
Xmassage: vt. Vague term used to describe `smooth' transformations of
X   a data set into a different form, esp. transformations that do
X   not lose information.  Connotes less pain than {munch} or {crunch}.
X   "He wrote a program that massages X bitmap files into GIF
X   format."  Compare {slurp}.
X
Xmath-out: [poss. from `white-out' (the blizzard variety)] n. A
X   paper or presentation so encrusted with mathematical or other
X   formal notation as to be incomprehensible.  This may be a device
X   for concealing the fact that it is actually {content-free}.  See
X   also {numbers}, {social science number}.
X
XMatrix: [FidoNet] n. 1. What the Opus BBS software and sysops call
X   {FidoNet}.  2. Fanciful term for a {cyberspace} expected to
X   emerge from current networking experiments (see {network, the}).
X   Some people refer to the totality of present networks this way.
X
XMbogo, Dr. Fred: [Stanford] n. The archetypal man you don't want to
X   see about a problem, esp. an incompetent professional; a shyster.
X   Usage: "Do you know a good eye doctor?"  "Sure, try Mbogo Eye
X   Care and Professional Dry Cleaning."  The name comes from synergy
X   between {bogus} and the original Dr. Mbogo, a witch doctor who
X   was Gomez Addams' physician on the old `Addams Family' TV
X   show.  See also {fred}.
X
Xmeatware: n. Synonym for {wetware}.  Less common.
X
Xmeg: /meg/ n. A megabyte; 1024K.  See {M} and {K}.
X
Xmega-: /me'g@/ pref. Multiplier, 10 ^ 6 or 2 ^ 20.  See {M},
X   {kilo-}.
X
Xmegapenny: /meg'@-pen'ee/ n. $10,000 (1 cent * 10 ^ 6).  Used
X   semi-humorously as a unit in comparing computer cost/performance
X   figures.
X
XMEGO: /me'goh/ or /mee'goh/ [My Eyes Glaze Over, often Mine Eyes
X   Glazeth (sic) Over, attributed to the futurologist Herman Kahn]
X   Also `MEGO factor'.  1. n. Handwaving intended to confuse the
X   listener and hopefully induce agreement because the listener does
X   not want to admit to not understanding what is going on.  MEGO is
X   usually directed at senior management by engineers and contains a
X   high proportion of {TLA}s.  2. excl. An appropriate response to
X   MEGO tactics.  3. Among non-hackers this term often refers not to
X   behavior which causes the eyes to glaze, but the eye-glazing
X   reaction itself, which may be triggered by the mere threat of
X   technical detail as effectively as by an actual excess of it.
X
Xmeltdown, network: n.  See {network meltdown}.
X
Xmeme: /meem/ [coined on analogy with `gene' by Richard Dawkins]
X   n. An idea considered as a {replicator}, esp. with the
X   connotation that memes parasitize people into propagating them much
X   as viruses do.  Used esp. in the phrase `meme complex'
X   denoting a group of mutually supporting memes which form an
X   organized belief system, such as a religion.  This dictionary is an
X   (epidemiological) vector of the `hacker subculture' meme
X   complex; each entry might be considered a meme.  However,
X   `meme' is often misused to mean `meme complex'.  Use of the
X   term connotes acceptance of the idea that in humans (and presumably
X   other tool-and language-using sophonts) cultural evolution by
X   selection of adaptive ideas has superseded biological evolution by
X   selection of hereditary traits.  Hackers find this idea congenial
X   for tolerably obvious reasons.
X
Xmeme plague: n. The spread of a successful but pernicious {meme},
X   esp. one which `parasitizes' the victims into giving their all to
X   propagate it.  Astrology, BASIC, and the other guy's religion are
X   often considered to be examples.  This usage is given point by the
X   historical fact that `joiner' ideologies like Naziism or various
X   forms of millennarian Christianity have exhibited plague-like cycles
X   of exponential growth followed by collapse to small reservoir
X   populations.
X
Xmemetics: /m@-met'iks/ [from {meme}] The study of memes.  As of
X   mid-1991, this is still an extremely informal and speculative
X   endeavor, though the first steps towards at least statistical rigor
X   have been made by H. Keith Henson and others.  Memetics is a
X   popular topic among hackers, who like to see themselves as the
X   architects of the new information ecologies in which memes live and
X   replicate.
X
Xmemory leak: n. An error in a program's dynamic-store allocation
X   logic that causes it to fail to reclaim discarded memory, leading
X   to attempted hogging of main store and eventual collapse due to
X   memory exhaustion.  Also (esp. at CMU) called {core leak}.  See
X   {aliasing bug}, {fandango on core}, {smash the stack},
X   {precedence lossage}, {overrun screw}, {leaky heap}.
X
Xmenuitis: /men`yoo-ie'tis/ n. Notional disease suffered by software
X   with an obsessively simple-minded menu interface and no escape.
X   Hackers find this intensely irritating and much prefer the
X   flexibility of command-line or language-style interfaces,
X   especially those customizable via macros or a special-purpose
X   language in which one can encode useful hacks.  See
X   {user-obsequious}, {drool-proof paper}, {WIMP environment},
X   {for the rest of us}.
X
Xmess-dos: /mes-dos/ [UNIX hackers] n. Derisory term for MS-DOS.
X   Often followed by the ritual expurgation "Just Say No!".  See
X   MS-DOS.  Most hackers (even many MS-DOS hackers) loathe MS-DOS for
X   its single-tasking nature, its limits on application size, its
X   nasty primitive interface, and its ties to IBMness (see {fear and
X   loathing}).  Also `mess-loss', `messy-dos', `mess-dog',
X   `mess-dross', and various combinations thereof.  In Ireland it
X   is even sometimes called `Domestos' after a brand of toilet
X   cleanser.
X
Xmeta: /me't@/ or /may't@/ or (Commonwealth) /mee't@/ [from
X   analytic philosophy] adj. One level of description up.  Thus, a
X   meta-syntactic variable is a variable in notation used to describe
X   syntax and meta-language is language used to describe language.
X   This is difficult to explain briefly, but much hacker humor turns
X   on deliberate confusion between meta-levels.  See {{Humor,
X   Hacker}}.
X
Xmeta bit: n. The top bit of an 8-bit character, on in character
X   values 128-255.  Also called {high bit}, {alt bit}, or
X   {hobbit}.  Some terminals and consoles (see {space-cadet
X   keyboard}) have a META shift key.  Others (including,
X   *mirabile dictu*, keyboards on IBM PC-class machines) have an
X   ALT key.  See also {bucky bits}.
X
XMFTL: /em-eff-tee-ell/ [acronym: My Favorite Toy Language] 1. adj.
X   Describes a talk on a programming language design which is heavy on
X   syntax, frequently BNF, sometimes even talks about semantics, e.g.,
X   type systems, but rarely, if ever, has any content (see
X   {content-free}).  More broadly applied to talks even when the
X   topic is not a programming language, but the subject matter is gone
X   into in unnecessary and meticulous detail at the sacrifice of any
X   conceptual content.  Usage: "Well, it was a typical MFTL talk".
X   2. n. Describes a language developed by an individual or group,
X   which they are passionate about, but which hardly anyone outside
X   the group cares about.  Applied to the language by those outside
X   the group.  "He cornered me about type resolution in his MFTL"
X
Xmickey: n. The resolution unit of mouse movement.  In {OS/2}
X   there is a system call `MouGetNumMickeys()'.  It has been
X   suggested that the `disney' will become a benchmark unit for
X   animation graphics performance.
X
Xmicro-: pref. 1. Very small; this is the root of its use as a
X   quantifier prefix calling for multiplication by `10 ^ -6'.
X   Neither of these uses is peculiar to hackers, but hackers tend to
X   fling them both around rather more freely than is countenanced in
X   standard English.  It is recorded, for example, that one CS
X   professor used to characterize the standard length of his lectures
X   as a microcentury --- that is, about 52.6 minutes (see also
X   {attoparsec}, {nanoacre}, and especially {microfortnight}).
X   2. Personal or human-scale --- that is, capable of being
X   maintained or comprehended or manipulated by one human being.  This
X   sense is generalized from `microcomputer', and esp. used in
X   contrast with `macro-' (the corresponding Greek prefix meaning
X   `large').  3. Local as opposed to global (or {macro-}).  Thus a
X   hacker might say, for example, that buying a smaller car to reduce
X   pollution only solves a microproblem; the macroproblem of getting
X   to work might be better solved by using mass transit, moving to
X   within walking distance, or (best of all) telecommuting.
X
Xmicrofortnight: n. About 1.2 sec. The VMS operating system has a
X   lot of tuning parameters that you can set with the SYSGEN utility,
X   and one of these is TIMEPROMPTWAIT, the time the system will wait
X   for an operator to set the correct date and time at boot if it
X   realizes that the current value is bogus.  This time is specified
X   in microfortnights!
X
X   Multiple uses of the millifortnight (about 20 minutes) and
X   {nanofortnight} have also been reported.
X
Xmicrofloppies: n. 3-1/2" floppies, as opposed to 5-1/4" {vanilla}
X   or mini-floppies and the now-obsolete 8" variety.  This term may be
X   headed for obsolescence as 5-1/4 inchers pass out of use, only to
X   be revived if anybody floats a sub-3-inch floppy standard.  See
X   {stiffy}, {minifloppies}.
X
XmicroLenat: n. See {bogosity}.
X
XmicroReid: n.  See {bogosity}.
X
Xmicrotape: n. Occasionally used to mean a DECtape, as opposed to a
X   {macrotape}.  A DECtape is a small reel of magnetic tape about
X   four inches in diameter and an inch across.  Unlike normal drivers
X   for standard magnetic tapes, microtape drivers allow random access
X   to the data.  In their heyday they were used in pretty much the
X   same ways one would now use a floppy disk: as a small, portable way
X   to save and transport files and programs.  Apparently the term
X   `microtape' was actually the official term used within DEC for
X   these tapes until someone coined the word `DECtape', which, of
X   course, sounded sexier to the {marketroid} types.
X
Xmiddle-endian: adj. Not {big-endian} or {little-endian}.  Used
X   of byte orders like 3-4-1-2 or 2-1-4-3 occasionally found in the
X   packed-decimal formats of minicomputer manufacturers who shall
X   remain nameless.  See {NUXI problem}.
X
XmilliLampson: /mil'i-lamp`sn/ n. A unit of talking speed
X   abbreviated mL.  Most people run about 200 milliLampsons.  Butler
X   Lampson (a CS theorist and systems implementor highly regarded
X   among hackers; among other things, he wrote LaTeX, the most widely
X   used macro package for TeX) goes at 1000.  A few people speak
X   faster.  This unit is sometimes used to compare the (sometimes
X   widely disparate) rates at which people can generate ideas and
X   actually emit them in speech.  For example, noted computer
X   architect J. Gordon Bell (designer of the PDP-11) is said (with
X   some awe) to think at about 1200 mL but only talk at about 300; he
X   is frequently reduced to fragments of sentences as his mouth tries
X   to keep up with his speeding brain.
X
Xminifloppies: n. 5-1/4" {vanilla} floppy disks, as opposed to
X   3-1/2" or {microfloppies} and the now-obsolescent 8-inch variety.
X   At one time, this term was a trademark of Shugart Associates for
X   their SA-400 minifloppy drive.  Nobody paid any attention.  See
X   {stiffy}.
X
XMIPS: /mips/ [acronym] n. 1. A measure of computing speed;
X   formally, `Million Instructions Per Second' (that's `10 ^
X   6' per second, not `2 ^ 20'!); often rendered by hackers as
X   `Meaningless Indication of Processor Speed' or in other
X   unflattering ways.  This joke expresses a nearly universal attitude
X   about the value of most {benchmark} claims, said attitude being
X   one of the great cultural divides between hackers and
X   {marketroid}s.  The singular is sometimes `1 MIP' even though
X   this is clearly etymologically wrong.  See also {KIPS} and
X   {GIPS}.  2. The corporate name of a particular RISC-chip
X   company; among other things, they designed the processor chips used
X   in DEC's 3100 workstation series.
X
Xmisbug: /mis-buhg/ [MIT] n. An unintended property of a program
X   that turns out to be useful; something that should have been a
X   {bug} but turns out to be a {feature}.  Usage: rare.  Compare
X   {green lightning}.
X
Xmisfeature: /mis-fee'chr/ or /mis'fee`chr/ n. A feature that
X   eventually causes lossage, possibly because it is not adequate for
X   a new situation which has evolved.  It is not the same as a bug
X   because fixing it involves a substantial philosophical change to
X   the structure of the system involved.  A misfeature is different
X   from a simple unforeseen side effect; the term implies that the
X   misfeature was actually carefully planned to be that way, but
X   future consequences or circumstances just weren't predicted
X   accurately.  This is different from just not having thought ahead
X   about it at all.  Often a former feature becomes a misfeature
X   because a tradeoff was made whose parameters subsequently changed
X   (possibly only in the judgment of the implementors).  "Well, yeah,
X   it's kind of a misfeature that file names are limited to six
X   characters, but the original implementors wanted to save directory
X   space and we're stuck with it for now."
X
XMissed'em-five: n. Pejorative hackerism for AT&T System V UNIX,
X   generally used by {BSD} partisans in a bigoted mood (the term
X   `SysVile' is also encountered).  See {software bloat},
X   {Berzerkeley}.
X
Xmiswart: /mis-wort/ [from {wart} by analogy with {misbug}] n.
X   A {feature} that superficially appears to be a {wart} but has been
X   determined to be the {Right Thing}.  For example, in some versions
X   of the {EMACS} text editor, the `transpose characters' command
X   exchanges the two characters on either side of the cursor on the
X   screen, *except* when the cursor is at the end of a line, in
X   which case the two characters before the cursor are exchanged.
X   While this behavior is perhaps surprising, and certainly
X   inconsistent, it has been found through extensive experimentation
X   to be what most users want.  This feature is a miswart.
X
Xmoby: /moh'bee/ [MIT; seems to have been in use among model
X   railroad fans years ago.  Derived from Melville's `Moby Dick' (some
X   say from `Moby Pickle').] 1. adj. Large, immense, complex,
X   impressive.  "A Saturn V rocket is a truly moby frob."  "Some
X   MIT undergrads pulled off a moby hack at the Harvard-Yale game."
X   (see Appendix A).  2. n. obs. The maximum address space of a
X   machine (see below).  For a 680[1234]0 or VAX or most modern 32-bit
X   architectures, it is 4,294,967,296 8-bit bytes (4 gigabytes).  3.
X   A title of address (never of third-person reference), usually used
X   to show admiration, respect, and/or friendliness to a competent
X   hacker.  "Greetings, moby Dave.  How's that address-book thing for
X   the Mac going?"  4. adj. In backgammon, doubles on the dice, as
X   in `moby sixes', `moby ones', etc.  Compare this with
X   {bignum} (sense #2): double sixes are both bignums and moby
X   sixes, but moby ones are not bignums (the use of `moby' to
SHAR_EOF
true || echo 'restore of jargon.ascii failed'
fi
echo 'End of part 10, continue with part 11'
echo 11 > _shar_seq_.tmp
exit 0