The Jargon File - Eric S. Raymond (best books for 8th graders .txt) 📗
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or more logged-in users to set up a real-time on-line conversation. It
combines the immediacy of talking with all the precision (and
verbosity) that written language entails. It is difficult to
communicate inflection, though conventions have arisen for some of
these (see the section on writing style in the Prependices for
details).
Talk mode has a special set of jargon words, used to save typing,
which are not used orally. Some of these are identical to (and
probably derived from) Morse-code jargon used by ham-radio amateurs
since the 1920s.
AFAIAC
as far as I am concernedAFAIK
as far as I knowBCNU
be seeing youBTW
by the wayBYE?
are you ready to unlink? (this is the standard way to end a talk-mode conversation; the other person types BYE to confirm, or else continues the conversation)CUL
see you laterENQ?
are you busy? (expects ACK or NAK in return)FOO?
are you there? (often used on unexpected links, meaning also "Sorry if I butted in ..." (linker) or "What's up?" (linkee))FWIW
for what it's worthFYI
for your informationFYA
for your amusementGA
go ahead (used when two people have tried to type simultaneously; this cedes the right to type to the other)GRMBL
grumble (expresses disquiet or disagreement)HELLOP
hello? (an instance of the `-P' convention)IIRC
if I recall correctlyJAM
just a minute (equivalent to SEC....)MIN
same as JAMNIL
no (see [13097]NIL)NP
no problemO
over to youOO
over and out/
another form of "over to you" (from x/y as "x over y") lambda (used in discussing LISPy things)OBTW
oh, by the wayOTOH
on the other handR U THERE?
are you there?SEC
wait a second (sometimes written SEC...)SYN
Are you busy? (expects ACK, SYN|ACK, or RST in return; this is modeled on the TCP/IP handshake sequence)T
yes (see the main entry for [13098]T)TNX
thanksTNX 1.0E6
thanks a million (humorous)TNXE6
another form of "thanks a million"WRT
with regard to, or with respect to.WTF
the universal interrogative particle; WTF knows what it means?WTH
what the hell? When the typing party has finished, he/she types two newlines to signal that he/she is done; this leaves a blank line between `speeches' in the conversation, making it easier to reread the preceding text.:
When three or more terminals are linked, it is conventional for each typist to [13099]prepend his/her login name or handle and a colon (or a hyphen) to each line to indicate who is typing (some conferencing facilities do this automatically). The login name is often shortened to a unique prefix (possibly a single letter) during a very long conversation.///
A giggle or chuckle. On a MUD, this usually means `earthquake fault'.Most of the above sub-jargon is used at both Stanford and MIT. Several
of these expressions are also common in [13100]email, esp. FYI, FYA,
BTW, BCNU, WTF, and CUL. A few other abbreviations have been reported
from commercial networks, such as GEnie and CompuServe, where on-line
`live' chat including more than two people is common and usually
involves a more `social' context, notably the following:
grin grinning, ducking, and runningBBL
be back laterBRB
be right backHHOJ
ha ha only jokingHHOK
ha ha only kiddingHHOS
[13101]ha ha only seriousIMHO
in my humble opinion (see [13102]IMHO)LOL
laughing out loudNHOH
Never Heard of Him/Her (often used in [13103]initgame)ROTF
rolling on the floorROTFL
rolling on the floor laughingAFK
away from keyboardb4
beforeCU l8tr
see you laterMORF
male or female?TTFN
ta-ta for nowTTYL
talk to you laterOIC
oh, I seerehi
hello againMost of these are not used at universities or in the Unix world,
though ROTF and TTFN have gained some currency there and IMHO is
common; conversely, most of the people who know these are unfamiliar
with FOO?, BCNU, HELLOP, [13104]NIL, and [13105]T.
The [13106]MUD community uses a mixture of Usenet/Internet emoticons,
a few of the more natural of the old-style talk-mode abbrevs, and some
of the `social' list above; specifically, MUD respondents report use
of BBL, BRB, LOL, b4, BTW, WTF, TTFN, and WTH. The use of `rehi' is
also common; in fact, mudders are fond of re- compounds and will
frequently rehug' orrebonk' (see [13107]bonk/oif) people. The word
re' by itself is taken asregreet'. In general, though, MUDders
express a preference for typing things out in full rather than using
abbreviations; this may be due to the relative youth of the MUD
cultures, which tend to include many touch typists and to assume
high-speed links. The following uses specific to MUDs are reported:
CU l8er
see you later (mutant of CU l8tr)FOAD
fuck off and die (use of this is generally OTT)OTT
over the top (excessive, uncalled for)ppl
abbrev for "people"THX
thanks (mutant of TNX; clearly this comes in batches of 1138 (the Lucasian K)).UOK?
are you OK?Some [13108]B1FFisms (notably the variant spelling d00d) appear to be
passing into wider use among some subgroups of MUDders.
One final note on talk mode style: neophytes, when in talk mode, often
seem to think they must produce letter-perfect prose because they are
typing rather than speaking. This is not the best approach. It can be
very frustrating to wait while your partner pauses to think of a word,
or repeatedly makes the same spelling error and backs up to fix it. It
is usually best just to leave typographical errors behind and plunge
forward, unless severe confusion may result; in that case it is often
fastest just to type "xxx" and start over from before the mistake.
See also [13109]hakspek, [13110]emoticon.
Node:talker system, Next:[13111]tall card, Previous:[13112]talk mode,
Up:[13113]= T =
talker system n.
British hackerism for software that enables real-time chat or
[13114]talk mode.
Node:tall card, Next:[13115]tanked, Previous:[13116]talker system,
Up:[13117]= T =
tall card n.
A PC/AT-size expansion card (these can be larger than IBM PC or XT
cards because the AT case is bigger). See also [13118]short card. When
IBM introduced the PS/2 model 30 (its last gasp at supporting the ISA)
they made the case lower and many industry-standard tall cards
wouldn't fit; this was felt to be a reincarnation of the
[13119]connector conspiracy, done with less style.
Node:tanked, Next:[13120]TANSTAAFL, Previous:[13121]tall card,
Up:[13122]= T =
tanked adj.
Same as [13123]down, used primarily by Unix hackers. See also
[13124]hosed. Popularized as a synonym for `drunk' by Steve Dallas in
the late lamented "Bloom County" comic strip.
Node:TANSTAAFL, Next:[13125]tape monkey, Previous:[13126]tanked,
Up:[13127]= T =
TANSTAAFL /tan'stah-fl/
[acronym, from Robert Heinlein's classic "The Moon is a Harsh
Mistress".] "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch", often invoked
when someone is balking at the prospect of using an unpleasantly
[13128]heavyweight technique, or at the poor quality of some piece of
software, or at the [13129]signal-to-noise ratio of unmoderated Usenet
newsgroups. "What? Don't tell me I have to implement a database back
end to get my address book program to work!" "Well, TANSTAAFL you
know." This phrase owes some of its popularity to the high
concentration of science-fiction fans and political libertarians in
hackerdom (see [13130]Appendix B for discussion).
Node:tape monkey, Next:[13131]tar and feather,
Previous:[13132]TANSTAAFL, Up:[13133]= T =
tape monkey n.
A junior system administrator, one who might plausibly be assigned to
do physical swapping of tapes and subsequent storage. When a backup
needs to be restored, one might holler "Tape monkey!" (Compare
[13134]one-banana problem) Also used to dismiss jobs not worthy of a
highly trained sysadmin's ineffable talents: "Cable up her PC? You
must be joking - I'm no tape monkey."
Node:tar and feather, Next:[13135]tarball, Previous:[13136]tape
monkey, Up:[13137]= T =
tar and feather vi.
[from Unix tar(1)] To create a transportable archive from a group of
files by first sticking them together with tar(1) (the Tape ARchiver)
and then compressing the result (see [13138]compress). The latter
action is dubbed `feathering' partly for euphony and (if only for
contrived effect) by analogy to what you do with an airplane propeller
to decrease wind resistance, or with an oar to reduce water
resistance; smaller files, after all, slip through comm links more
easily. Compare the more common [13139]tarball.
Node:tarball, Next:[13140]tardegy, Previous:[13141]tar and feather,
Up:[13142]= T =
tarball n.
[very common; prob. based on the "tar baby" in the Uncle Remus folk
tales] An archive, created with the Unix tar(1) utility, containing
myriad related files. "Here, I'll just ftp you a tarball of the whole
project." Tarballs have been the standard way to ship around
source-code distributions since the mid-1980s; in retrospect it seems
odd that this term did not enter common usage until the late 1990s.
Node:tardegy, Next:[13143]taste, Previous:[13144]tarball, Up:[13145]=
T =
tardegy
n. [deliberate mangling of `tragedy'] An incident in which someone who
clearly deserves to be selected out of the gene pool on grounds of
extreme stupidity meets with a messy end. Coined on the Darwin list,
which is dedicated to chronicling such incidents; but almost all
hackers would instantly recognize the intention of the term and laugh.
Node:taste, Next:[13146]tayste, Previous:[13147]tardegy, Up:[13148]= T
=
taste [primarily MIT] n.
The quality in a program that tends to be inversely proportional tothe number of features, hacks, and kluges programmed into it. Also
tasty',tasteful', `tastefulness'. "This feature comes in N tasty
flavors." Although tasty' andflavorful' are essentially synonyms,
`taste' and [13149]flavor are not. Taste refers to sound judgment on
the part of the creator; a program or feature can exhibit taste but
cannot have taste. On the other hand, a feature can have
[13150]flavor. Also, [13151]flavor has the additional meaning of
kind' orvariety' not shared by `taste'. The marked sense of
[13152]flavor is more popular than `taste', though both are widely
used. See also [13153]elegant. 2. Alt. sp. of [13154]tayste.
Node:tayste, Next:[13155]TCB, Previous:[13156]taste, Up:[13157]= T =
tayste /tayst/
n. Two bits; also as [13158]taste. Syn. [13159]crumb, [13160]quarter.
See [13161]nybble.
Node:TCB, Next:[13162]TCP/IP, Previous:[13163]tayste, Up:[13164]= T =
TCB /T-C-B/ n.
[IBM] 1. Trouble Came Back. An intermittent or difficult-to-reproduce
problem that has failed to respond to neglect or [13165]shotgun
debugging. Compare [13166]heisenbug. Not to be confused with: 2.
Trusted Computing Base, an `official' jargon term from the
[13167]Orange Book.
Node:TCP/IP, Next:[13168]TechRef, Previous:[13169]TCB, Up:[13170]= T =
TCP/IP /T'C-P I'P/ n.
[Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol] Thewide-area-networking protocol that makes the Internet work, and the
only one most hackers can speak the name of without laughing or
retching. Unlike such allegedly `standard' competitors such as X.25,
DECnet, and the ISO 7-layer stack, TCP/IP evolved primarily by
actually
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