The Jargon File - Eric S. Raymond (best books for 8th graders .txt) 📗
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distinguished from those for ordinary entries by being followed by
"::" rather than ":"; similarly, references are surrounded by "{{" and
"}}" rather than "{" and "}".
Defining instances of terms and phrases appear in `slanted type'. A
defining instance is one which occurs near to or as part of an
explanation of it.
Prefixed ** is used as linguists do; to mark examples of incorrect
usage.
We follow the `logical' quoting convention described in the Writing
Style section above. In addition, we reserve double quotes for actual
excerpts of text or (sometimes invented) speech. Scare quotes (which
mark a word being used in a nonstandard way), and philosopher's quotes
(which turn an utterance into the string of letters or words that name
it) are both rendered with single quotes.
References such as malloc(3) and patch(1) are to Unix facilities (some
of which, such as patch(1), are actually freeware distributed over
Usenet). The Unix manuals use foo(n) to refer to item foo in section
(n) of the manual, where n=1 is utilities, n=2 is system calls, n=3 is
C library routines, n=6 is games, and n=8 (where present) is system
administration utilities. Sections 4, 5, and 7 of the manuals have
changed roles frequently and in any case are not referred to in any of
the entries.
Various abbreviations used frequently in the lexicon are summarized
here:
abbrev.
abbreviationadj.
adjectiveadv.
adverbalt.
alternatecav.
caveatconj.
conjunctionesp.
especiallyexcl.
exclamationimp.
imperativeinterj.
interjectionn.
nounobs.
obsoletepl.
pluralposs.
possiblypref.
prefixprob.
probablyprov.
proverbialquant.
quantifiersuff.
suffixsyn.
synonym (or synonymous with)v.
verb (may be transitive or intransitive)var.
variantvi.
intransitive verbvt.
transitive verbWhere alternate spellings or pronunciations are given, alt. separates
two possibilities with nearly equal distribution, while var. prefixes
one that is markedly less common than the primary.
Where a term can be attributed to a particular subculture or is known
to have originated there, we have tried to so indicate. Here is a list
of abbreviations used in etymologies:
Amateur Packet Radio
A technical culture of ham-radio sites using AX.25 and TCP/IP for wide-area networking and BBS systems.Berkeley
University of California at BerkeleyBBN
Bolt, Beranek & NewmanCambridge
the university in England (not the city in Massachusetts where MIT happens to be located!)CMU
Carnegie-Mellon UniversityCommodore
Commodore Business MachinesDEC
The Digital Equipment Corporation (now Compaq).Fairchild
The Fairchild Instruments Palo Alto development groupFidoNet
See the [165]FidoNet entryIBM
International Business MachinesMIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology; esp. the legendary MIT AI Lab culture of roughly 1971 to 1983 and its feeder groups, including the Tech Model Railroad ClubNRL
Naval Research LaboratoriesNYU
New York UniversityOED
The Oxford English DictionaryPurdue
Purdue UniversitySAIL
Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (at Stanford University)SI
From Syst�me International, the name for the standard conventions of metric nomenclature used in the sciencesStanford
Stanford UniversitySun
Sun MicrosystemsTMRC
Some MITisms go back as far as the Tech Model Railroad Club (TMRC) at MIT c. 1960. Material marked TMRC is from "An Abridged Dictionary of the TMRC Language", originally compiled by Pete Samson in 1959UCLA
University of California at Los AngelesUK
the United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland)Usenet
See the [166]Usenet entryWPI
Worcester Polytechnic Institute, site of a very active community of PDP-10 hackers during the 1970sWWW
The World-Wide-Web.XEROX PARC
XEROX's Palo Alto Research Center, site of much pioneering research in user interface design and networkingYale
Yale UniversitySome other etymology abbreviations such as [167]Unix and [168]PDP-10
refer to technical cultures surrounding specific operating systems,
processors, or other environments. The fact that a term is labelled
with any one of these abbreviations does not necessarily mean its use
is confined to that culture. In particular, many terms labelled `MIT'
and `Stanford' are in quite general use. We have tried to give some
indication of the distribution of speakers in the usage notes;
however, a number of factors mentioned in the introduction conspire to
make these indications less definite than might be desirable.
A few new definitions attached to entries are marked [proposed]. These
are usually generalizations suggested by editors or Usenet respondents
in the process of commenting on previous definitions of those entries.
These are not represented as established jargon.
Node:Format for New Entries, Next:[169]The Jargon Lexicon,
Previous:[170]Other Lexicon Conventions, Up:[171]Top
Format For New Entries
You can mail submissions for the Jargon File to
[172]jargon@snark.thyrsus.com.
We welcome new jargon, and corrections to or amplifications of
existing entries. You can improve your submission's chances of being
included by adding background information on user population and years
of currency. References to actual usage via URLs and/or DejaNews
pointers are particularly welcomed.
All contributions and suggestions about the Jargon File will be
considered donations to be placed in the public domain as part of this
File, and may be used in subsequent paper editions. Submissions may be
edited for accuracy, clarity and concision.
We are looking to expand the File's range of technical specialties
covered. There are doubtless rich veins of jargon yet untapped in the
scientific computing, graphics, and networking hacker communities;
also in numerical analysis, computer architectures and VLSI design,
language design, and many other related fields. Send us your jargon!
We are not interested in straight technical terms explained by
textbooks or technical dictionaries unless an entry illuminates
`underground' meanings or aspects not covered by official histories.
We are also not interested in `joke' entries -- there is a lot of
humor in the file but it must flow naturally out of the explanations
of what hackers do and how they think.
It is OK to submit items of jargon you have originated if they have
spread to the point of being used by people who are not personally
acquainted with you. We prefer items to be attested by independent
submission from two different sites.
An HTML version of the File is available at
http://www.tuxedo.org/jargon. Please send us URLs for materials
related to the entries, so we can enrich the File's link structure.
The Jargon File will be regularly maintained and made available for
browsing on the World Wide Web, and will include a version number.
Read it, pass it around, contribute -- this is your monument!
Node:The Jargon Lexicon, Next:[173]Appendix A, Previous:[174]Format
for New Entries, Up:[175]Top
The Jargon Lexicon[176]= 0 =:
[177]= A =:
[178]= B =:
[179]= C =:
[180]= D =:
[181]= E =:
[182]= F =:
[183]= G =:
[184]= H =:
[185]= I =:
[186]= J =:
[187]= K =:
[188]= L =:
[189]= M =:
[190]= N =:
[191]= O =:
[192]= P =:
[193]= Q =:
[194]= R =:
[195]= S =:
[196]= T =:
[197]= U =:
[198]= V =:
[199]= W =:
[200]= X =:
[201]= Y =:
[202]= Z =:
Node:= 0 =, Next:[203]= A =, Up:[204]The Jargon Lexicon
= 0 =
[205]0:
[206]1TBS:
[207]120 reset:
[208]2:
[209]404:
[210]404 compliant:
[211]4.2:
[212]@-party:
Node:0, Next:[213]1TBS, Up:[214]= 0 =
0
Numeric zero, as opposed to the letter `O' (the 15th letter of the
English alphabet). In their unmodified forms they look a lot alike,
and various kluges invented to make them visually distinct have
compounded the confusion. If your zero is center-dotted and letter-O
is not, or if letter-O looks almost rectangular but zero looks more
like an American football stood on end (or the reverse), you're
probably looking at a modern character display (though the dotted zero
seems to have originated as an option on IBM 3270 controllers). If
your zero is slashed but letter-O is not, you're probably looking at
an old-style ASCII graphic set descended from the default typewheel on
the venerable ASR-33 Teletype (Scandinavians, for whom � is a letter,
curse this arrangement). (Interestingly, the slashed zero long
predates computers; Florian Cajori's monumental "A History of
Mathematical Notations" notes that it was used in the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries.) If letter-O has a slash across it and the zero
does not, your display is tuned for a very old convention used at IBM
and a few other early mainframe makers (Scandinavians curse this
arrangement even more, because it means two of their letters collide).
Some Burroughs/Unisys equipment displays a zero with a reversed slash.
Old CDC computers rendered letter O as an unbroken oval and 0 as an
oval broken at upper right and lower left. And yet another convention
common on early line printers left zero unornamented but added a tail
or hook to the letter-O so that it resembled an inverted Q or cursive
capital letter-O (this was endorsed by a draft ANSI standard for how
to draw ASCII characters, but the final standard changed the
distinguisher to a tick-mark in the upper-left corner). Are we
sufficiently confused yet?
Node:1TBS, Next:[215]120 reset, Previous:[216]0, Up:[217]= 0 =
1TBS // n.
The "One True Brace Style"; see [218]indent style.
Node:120 reset, Next:[219]2, Previous:[220]1TBS, Up:[221]= 0 =
120 reset /wuhn-twen'tee ree'set/ n.
[from 120 volts, U.S. wall voltage] To cycle power on a machine in
order to reset or unjam it. Compare [222]Big Red Switch, [223]power
cycle.
Node:2, Next:[224]404, Previous:[225]120 reset, Up:[226]= 0 =
2 infix.
In translation software written by hackers, infix 2 often represents
the syllable to with the connotation `translate to': as in dvi2ps (DVI
to PostScript), int2string (integer to string), and texi2roff (Texinfo
to [nt]roff). Several versions of a joke have floated around the
internet in which some idiot programmer fixes the Y2K bug by changing
all the Y's in something to K's, as in Januark, Februark, etc.
Node:404, Next:[227]404 compliant, Previous:[228]2, Up:[229]= 0 =
404 // n.
[from the HTTP error "file not found on server"] Extended to humans to
convey that the subject has no idea or no clue - sapience not found.
May be used reflexively; "Uh, I'm 404ing" means "I'm drawing a blank".
Node:404 compliant, Next:[230]4.2, Previous:[231]404, Up:[232]= 0 =
404 compliant adj.
The status of a website which has been completely removed, usually by
the administrators of the hosting site as a result of net abuse by the
website operators. The term is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the
standard "301 compliant" Murkowski Bill disclaimer used by spammers.
See also: [233]spam, [234]spamvertize.
Node:4.2, Next:[235]@-party, Previous:[236]404 compliant, Up:[237]= 0
=
4.2 /for' poynt too'/ n.
Without a prefix, this almost invariably refers to [238]BSD Unix
release 4.2. Note that it is an indication of cluelessness to say
"version 4.2", and "release 4.2" is rare; the number stands on its
own, or is used in the
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