The New Hacker's Dictionary - Eric S. Raymond (e book reader online txt) 📗

being used, rather than being handed down from on high by a

vendor or a heavily-politicized standards committee. Consequently, it

(a) works, (b) actually promotes cheap cross-platform connectivity,

and (c) annoys the hell out of corporate and governmental

empire-builders everywhere. Hackers value all three of these

properties. See [13171]creationism. 2. [Amateur Packet Radio] Formerly

expanded as "The Crap Phil Is Pushing". The reference is to Phil Karn,

KA9Q, and the context was an ongoing technical/political war between

the majority of sites still running AX.25 and the TCP/IP relays.

TCP/IP won.

Node:TechRef, Next:[13172]TECO, Previous:[13173]TCP/IP, Up:[13174]= T

=

TechRef /tek'ref/ n.

[MS-DOS] The original "IBM PC Technical Reference Manual", including

the BIOS listing and complete schematics for the PC. The only PC

documentation in the original-issue package that was considered

serious by real hackers.

Node:TECO, Next:[13175]tee, Previous:[13176]TechRef, Up:[13177]= T =

TECO /tee'koh/ n.,v. obs.

[originally an acronym for `[paper] Tape Editor and COrrector';

later, `Text Editor and COrrector'] n. A text editor developed at MIT

and modified by just about everybody. With all the dialects included,

TECO may have been the most prolific editor in use before

[13178]EMACS, to which it was directly ancestral. Noted for its

powerful programming-language-like features and its unspeakably hairy

syntax. It is literally the case that every string of characters is a

valid TECO program (though probably not a useful one); one common game

used to be mentally working out what the TECO commands corresponding

to human names did. 2. vt. Originally, to edit using the TECO editor

in one of its infinite variations (see below). 3. vt.,obs. To edit

even when TECO is not the editor being used! This usage is rare and

now primarily historical.

As an example of TECO's obscurity, here is a TECO program that takes a

list of names such as:

Loser, J. Random

Quux, The Great

Dick, Moby

sorts them alphabetically according to surname, and then puts the

surname last, removing the comma, to produce the following:

Moby Dick

J. Random Loser

The Great Quux

The program is

[1 J^P$L$$

J <.-Z; .,(S,$ -D .)FX1 @F^B $K :L I $ G1 L>$$

(where ^B means `Control-B' (ASCII 0000010) and $ is actually an

[13179]alt or escape (ASCII 0011011) character).

In fact, this very program was used to produce the second, sorted list

from the first list. The first hack at it had a [13180]bug: GLS (the

author) had accidentally omitted the @ in front of F^B, which as

anyone can see is clearly the [13181]Wrong Thing. It worked fine the

second time. There is no space to describe all the features of TECO,

but it may be of interest that ^P means `sort' and J<.-Z; ... L> is an

idiomatic series of commands for `do once for every line'.

In mid-1991, TECO is pretty much one with the dust of history, having

been replaced in the affections of hackerdom by [13182]EMACS.

Descendants of an early (and somewhat lobotomized) version adopted by

DEC can still be found lurking on VMS and a couple of crufty PDP-11

operating systems, however, and ports of the more advanced MIT

versions remain the focus of some antiquarian interest. See also

[13183]retrocomputing, [13184]write-only language.

Node:tee, Next:[13185]teergrube, Previous:[13186]TECO, Up:[13187]= T =

tee n.,vt.

[Purdue] A carbon copy of an electronic transmission. "Oh, you're

sending him the [13188]bits to that? Slap on a tee for me." From the

Unix command tee(1), itself named after a pipe fitting (see

[13189]plumbing). Can also mean `save one for me', as in "Tee a slice

for me!" Also spelled `T'.

Node:teergrube, Next:[13190]teledildonics, Previous:[13191]tee,

Up:[13192]= T =

teergrube /teer'groob/ n.

[German for `tar pit'] A trap set to punish spammers who use an

[13193]address harvester; a mail server deliberately set up to be

really, really slow. To activate it, scatter addresses that look like

users on the teergrube's host in places where the address harvester

will be trolling (one popular way is to embed the fake address in a

Usenet sig block next to a human-readable warning not to send mail to

it). The address harvester will dutifully collect the address. When

the spammer tries to mailbomb it, his mailer will get stuck.

Node:teledildonics, Next:[13194]Telerat, Previous:[13195]teergrube,

Up:[13196]= T =

teledildonics /tel`*-dil-do'-niks/ n.

Sex in a computer simulated virtual reality, esp. computer-mediated

sexual interaction between the [13197]VR presences of two humans. This

practice is not yet possible except in the rather limited form of

erotic conversation on [13198]MUDs and the like. The term, however, is

widely recognized in the VR community as a [13199]ha ha only serious

projection of things to come. "When we can sustain a multi-sensory

surround good enough for teledildonics, then we'll know we're getting

somewhere." See also [13200]hot chat.

Node:Telerat, Next:[13201]TELNET, Previous:[13202]teledildonics,

Up:[13203]= T =

Telerat /tel'*-rat/ n. obs.

Unflattering hackerism for `Teleray', a now-extinct line of extremely

losing terminals. Compare [13204]AIDX, [13205]Macintrash

[13206]Nominal Semidestructor, [13207]ScumOS, [13208]sun-stools,

[13209]HP-SUX, [13210]Slowlaris.

Node:TELNET, Next:[13211]ten-finger interface,

Previous:[13212]Telerat, Up:[13213]= T =

TELNET /tel'net/ vt.

(also commonly lowercased as `telnet') To communicate with another

Internet host using the TELNET ([13214]RFC 854) protocol (usually

using a program of the same name). TOPS-10 people used the word

IMPCOM, since that was the program name for them. Sometimes

abbreviated to TN /T-N/. "I usually TN over to SAIL just to read the

AP News."

Node:ten-finger interface, Next:[13215]tense, Previous:[13216]TELNET,

Up:[13217]= T =

ten-finger interface n.

The interface between two networks that cannot be directly connected

for security reasons; refers to the practice of placing two terminals

side by side and having an operator read from one and type into the

other.

Node:tense, Next:[13218]tentacle, Previous:[13219]ten-finger

interface, Up:[13220]= T =

tense adj.

Of programs, very clever and efficient. A tense piece of code often

got that way because it was highly [13221]bummed, but sometimes it was

just based on a great idea. A comment in a clever routine by Mike

Kazar, once a grad-student hacker at CMU: "This routine is so tense it

will bring tears to your eyes." A tense programmer is one who produces

tense code.

Node:tentacle, Next:[13222]tenured graduate student,

Previous:[13223]tense, Up:[13224]= T =

tentacle n.

A covert [13225]pseudo, sense 1. An artificial identity created in

cyberspace for nefarious and deceptive purposes. The implication is

that a single person may have multiple tentacles. This term was

originally floated in some paranoid ravings on the cypherpunks list

(see [13226]cypherpunk), and adopted in a spirit of irony by other,

saner members. It has since shown up, used seriously, in the

documentation for some remailer software, and is now (1994) widely

recognized on the net.

Node:tenured graduate student, Next:[13227]tera-,

Previous:[13228]tentacle, Up:[13229]= T =

tenured graduate student n.

One who has been in graduate school for 10 years (the usual maximum is

5 or 6): a `ten-yeared' student (get it?). Actually, this term may be

used of any grad student beginning in his seventh year. Students don't

really get tenure, of course, the way professors do, but a tenth-year

graduate student has probably been around the university longer than

any untenured professor.

Node:tera-, Next:[13230]teraflop club, Previous:[13231]tenured

graduate student, Up:[13232]= T =

tera- /te'r*/ pref.

[SI] See [13233]quantifiers.

Node:teraflop club, Next:[13234]terminak, Previous:[13235]tera-,

Up:[13236]= T =

teraflop club /te'r*-flop kluhb/ n.

[FLOP = Floating Point Operation] A mythical association of people who

consume outrageous amounts of computer time in order to produce a few

simple pictures of glass balls with intricate ray-tracing techniques.

Caltech professor James Kajiya is said to have been the founder.

Compare [13237]Knights of the Lambda Calculus.

Node:terminak, Next:[13238]terminal brain death,

Previous:[13239]teraflop club, Up:[13240]= T =

terminak /ter'mi-nak`/ n.

[Caltech, ca. 1979] Any malfunctioning computer terminal. A common

failure mode of Lear-Siegler ADM 3a terminals caused the `L' key to

produce the `K' code instead; complaints about this tended to look

like "Terminak #3 has a bad keyboard. Pkease fix." Compare

[13241]dread high-bit disease, [13242]frogging; see also [13243]AIDX,

[13244]Nominal Semidestructor, [13245]ScumOS, [13246]sun-stools,

[13247]Telerat, [13248]HP-SUX, [13249]Slowlaris.

Node:terminal brain death, Next:[13250]terminal illness,

Previous:[13251]terminak, Up:[13252]= T =

terminal brain death n.

The extreme form of [13253]terminal illness (sense 1). What someone

who has obviously been hacking continuously for far too long is said

to be suffering from.

Node:terminal illness, Next:[13254]terminal junkie,

Previous:[13255]terminal brain death, Up:[13256]= T =

terminal illness n.

Syn. [13257]raster burn. 2. The `burn-in' condition your CRT tends

to get if you don't have a screen saver.

Node:terminal junkie, Next:[13258]terpri, Previous:[13259]terminal

illness, Up:[13260]= T =

terminal junkie n.

[UK] A [13261]wannabee or early [13262]larval stage hacker who spends

most of his or her time wandering the directory tree and writing

[13263]noddy programs just to get a fix of computer time. Variants

include terminal jockey',console junkie', and [13264]console

jockey. The term `console jockey' seems to imply more expertise than

the other three (possibly because of the exalted status of the

[13265]console relative to an ordinary terminal). See also

[13266]twink, [13267]read-only user. Appropriately, this term was used

in the works of William S. Burroughs to describe a heroin addict with

an unlimited supply.

Node:terpri, Next:[13268]test, Previous:[13269]terminal junkie,

Up:[13270]= T =

terpri /ter'pree/ vi.

[from LISP 1.5 (and later, MacLISP)] To output a [13271]newline. Now

rare as jargon, though still used as techspeak in Common LISP. It is a

contraction of `TERminate PRInt line', named for the fact that, on

some early OSes and hardware, no characters would be printed until a

complete line was formed, so this operation terminated the line and

emitted the output.

Node:test, Next:[13272]TeX, Previous:[13273]terpri, Up:[13274]= T =

test n.

Real users bashing on a prototype long enough to get thoroughly

acquainted with it, with careful monitoring and followup of the

results. 2. Some bored random user trying a couple of the simpler

features with a developer looking over his or her shoulder, ready to

pounce on mistakes. Judging by the quality of most software, the

second definition is far more prevalent. See also [13275]demo.

Node:TeX, Next:[13276]text, Previous:[13277]test, Up:[13278]= T =

TeX /tekh/ n.

An extremely powerful [13279]macro-based text formatter written by

Donald E. [13280]Knuth, very popular in the computer-science community

(it is good enough to have displaced Unix [13281]troff, the other

favored formatter, even at many Unix installations). TeX fans insist

on the correct (guttural) pronunciation, and the correct spelling (all

caps, squished together, with the E depressed below the baseline; the

mixed-case `TeX' is considered an acceptable kluge on ASCII-only

devices). Fans like to proliferate names from the word `TeX' -- such

as TeXnician (TeX user), TeXhacker (TeX programmer), TeXmaster

(competent TeX programmer), TeXhax, and TeXnique. See also

[13282]CrApTeX.

Knuth began TeX because he had become annoyed at the declining quality

of the typesetting in volumes I-III of his monumental "Art of Computer

Programming" (see [13283]Knuth, also [13284]bible). In a manifestation

of the typical hackish urge to solve the problem at hand once and for

all, he began to design his own typesetting language. He thought he

would finish it on his sabbatical in 1978; he was wrong by only about

8 years. The language was finally frozen around 1985, but volume IV of

"The Art of Computer Programming" is not expected to appear until

The impact and influence of TeX's design has been such that

nobody minds this very much. Many grand hackish projects have started

as a bit of [13285]toolsmithing on the way to something else; Knuth's

diversion was simply on a grander scale than most.

TeX has also been a noteworthy example of free, shared, but

high-quality software. Knuth offers a monetary awards to anyone who

found and reported bugs dating from before the 1989 code freeze; as

the years wore on and the few remaining bugs were fixed (and new ones

even harder to find), the bribe went up. Though well-written, TeX is

so large (and so full of cutting edge technique) that it is said to

have unearthed at least one bug in every Pascal system it has been

compiled with.

Node:text, Next:[13286]thanks in advance, Previous:[13287]TeX,

Up:[13288]= T =

text n.

[techspeak] Executable code, esp. a `pure code' portion shared