Part 57
1. To be stuck, incapable of proceeding without help. This is different from having crashed. If the system has crashed, it has become totally non-functioning. If the system is wedged, it is trying to do something but cannot make progress; it may be capable of doing a few things, but not be fully operational. For example, a process may become wedged if it deadlocks with another (but not all instances of wedging are deadlocks). See also gronk, locked up, hosed, hung (wedged is more severe than hung). 2. Often refers to humans suffering misconceptions. "He's totally wedged -- he's convinced that he can levitate through meditation." 3. [Unix] Specifically used to describe the state of a TTY left in a losing state by abort of a screen-oriented program or one that has messed with the line discipline in some obscure way.
There is some dispute over the origin of this term. It is usually thought to derive from a common description of recto-cranial inversion; however, it may actually have originated with older `hot-press' printing technology in which physical type elements were locked into type frames with wedges driven in by mallets. Once this had been done, no changes in the typesetting for that page could be made.
Node:wedgie, Next:wedgitude, Previous:wedged, Up:= W =
wedgie n.
[Fairchild] A bug. Prob. related to wedged.
Node:wedgitude, Next:weeble, Previous:wedgie, Up:= W =
wedgitude /wedj'i-t[y]ood/ n.
The quality or state of being wedged.
Node:weeble, Next:weeds, Previous:wedgitude, Up:= W =
weeble /weeb'l/ interj.
[Cambridge] Used to denote frustration, usually at amazing stupidity. "I stuck the disk in upside down." "Weeble...." Compare gurfle.
Node:weeds, Next:weenie, Previous:weeble, Up:= W =
weeds n.
1. Refers to development projects or algorithms that have no possible relevance or practical application. Comes from `off in the weeds'. Used in phrases like "lexical analysis for microcode is serious weeds...." 2. At CDC/ETA before its demise, the phrase `go off in the weeds' was equivalent to IBM's branch to Fishkill and mainstream hackerdom's jump off into never-never land.
Node:weenie, Next:Weenix, Previous:weeds, Up:= W =
weenie n.
1. [on BBSes] Any of a species of luser resembling a less amusing version of B1FF that infests many BBS systems. The typical weenie is a teenage boy with poor social skills travelling under a grandiose handle derived from fantasy or heavy-metal rock lyrics. Among sysops, `the weenie problem' refers to the marginally literate and profanity-laden flamage weenies tend to spew all over a newly-discovered BBS. Compare spod, computer geek, terminal junkie, warez d00dz. 2. [Among hackers] When used with a qualifier (for example, as in Unix weenie, VMS weenie, IBM weenie) this can be either an insult or a term of praise, depending on context, tone of voice, and whether or not it is applied by a person who considers him or herself to be the same sort of weenie. Implies that the weenie has put a major investment of time, effort, and concentration into the area indicated; whether this is good or bad depends on the hearer's judgment of how the speaker feels about that area. See also bigot. 3. The semicolon character, ; (ASCII 0111011).
Node:Weenix, Next:well-behaved, Previous:weenie, Up:= W =
Weenix /wee'niks/ n.
1. [ITS] A derogatory term for Unix, derived from Unix weenie. According to one noted ex-ITSer, it is "the operating system preferred by Unix Weenies: typified by poor modularity, poor reliability, hard file deletion, no file version numbers, case sensitivity everywhere, and users who believe that these are all advantages". (Some ITS fans behave as though they believe Unix stole a future that rightfully belonged to them. See ITS, sense 2.) 2. [Brown University] A Unix-like OS developed for tutorial purposes at Brown University. See http://www.cs.brown.edu/courses/cs167/weenix.html. Named independently of the ITS usage.
Node:well-behaved, Next:well-connected, Previous:Weenix, Up:= W =
well-behaved adj.
1. [primarily MS-DOS] Said of software conforming to system interface guidelines and standards. Well-behaved software uses the operating system to do chores such as keyboard input, allocating memory and drawing graphics. Oppose ill-behaved. 2. Software that does its job quietly and without counterintuitive effects. Esp. said of software having an interface spec sufficiently simple and well-defined that it can be used as a tool by other software. See cat. 3. Said of an algorithm that doesn't crash or blow up, even when given pathological input. Implies that the stability of the algorithm is intrinsic, which makes this somewhat different from bulletproof.
Node:well-connected, Next:wetware, Previous:well-behaved, Up:= W =
well-connected adj.
Said of a computer installation, asserts that it has reliable email links with the network and/or that it relays a large fraction of available Usenet newsgroups. `Well-known' can be almost synonymous, but also implies that the site's name is familiar to many (due perhaps to an archive service or active Usenet users).
Node:wetware, Next:whack, Previous:well-connected, Up:= W =
wetware /wet'weir/ n.
[prob. from the novels of Rudy Rucker] 1. The human nervous system, as opposed to computer hardware or software. "Wetware has 7 plus or minus 2 temporary registers." 2. Human beings (programmers, operators, administrators) attached to a computer system, as opposed to the system's hardware or software. See liveware, meatware.
Node:whack, Next:whack-a-mole, Previous:wetware, Up:= W =
whack v.
According to arch-hacker James Gosling (designer of NeWS, GOSMACS and Java), to "...modify a program with no idea whatsoever how it works." (See whacker.) It is actually possible to do this in nontrivial circumstances if the change is small and well-defined and you are very good at glarking things from context. As a trivial example, it is relatively easy to change all stderr writes to stdout writes in a piece of C filter code which remains otherwise mysterious.
Node:whack-a-mole, Next:whacker, Previous:whack, Up:= W =
whack-a-mole n.
[from the carnival game which involves quickly and repeatedly hitting the heads of mechanical moles with a mallet as they pop up from their holes.] 1. The practice of repeatedly causing spammers' throwaway accounts and drop boxes to be terminated. 2. After sense 1 became established in the mid-1990s the term passed into more generalized use, and now is commonly found in such combinations as `whack-a-mole windows'; the obnoxious pop-ip advertisement windows spawned in flocks when you surg to sites like Geocities or Tripod.
Node:whacker, Next:whales, Previous:whack-a-mole, Up:= W =
whacker n.
[University of Maryland: from hacker] 1. A person, similar to a hacker, who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities. Whereas a hacker tends to produce great hacks, a whacker only ends up whacking the system or program in question. Whackers are often quite egotistical and eager to claim wizard status, regardless of the views of their peers. 2. A person who is good at programming quickly, though rather poorly and ineptly.
Node:whales, Next:whalesong, Previous:whacker, Up:= W =
whales n.
See like kicking dead whales down the beach.
Node:whalesong, Next:What's a spline?, Previous:whales, Up:= W =
whalesong n.
The peculiar clicking and whooshing sounds made by a PEP modem such as the Telebit Trailblazer as it tries to synchronize with another PEP modem for their special high-speed mode. This sound isn't anything like the normal two-tone handshake between conventional V-series modems and is instantly recognizable to anyone who has heard it more than once. It sounds, in fact, very much like whale songs. This noise is also called "the moose call" or "moose tones".
Node:What's a spline?, Next:wheel, Previous:whalesong, Up:= W =
What's a spline?
[XEROX PARC] This phrase expands to: "You have just used a term that I've heard for a year and a half, and I feel I should know, but don't. My curiosity has finally overcome my guilt." The PARC lexicon adds "Moral: don't hesitate to ask questions, even if they seem obvious."
Node:wheel, Next:wheel bit, Previous:What's a spline?, Up:= W =
wheel n.
[from slang `big wheel' for a powerful person] A person who has an active wheel bit. "We need to find a wheel to unwedge the hung tape drives." (See wedged, sense 1.) The traditional name of security group zero in BSD (to which the major system-internal users like root belong) is `wheel'. Some vendors have expanded on this usage, modifying Unix so that only members of group `wheel' can go root.
Node:wheel bit, Next:wheel of reincarnation, Previous:wheel, Up:= W =
wheel bit n.
A privilege bit that allows the possessor to perform some restricted operation on a timesharing system, such as read or write any file on the system regardless of protections, change or look at any address in the running monitor, crash or reload the system, and kill or create jobs and user accounts. The term was invented on the TENEX operating system, and carried over to TOPS-20, XEROX-IFS, and others. The state of being in a privileged logon is sometimes called `wheel mode'. This term entered the Unix culture from TWENEX in the mid-1980s and has been gaining popularity there (esp. at university sites). See also root.
Node:wheel of reincarnation, Next:wheel wars, Previous:wheel bit, Up:= W =
wheel of reincarnation
[coined in a paper by T. H. Myer and I.E. Sutherland "On the Design of Display Processors", Comm. ACM, Vol. 11, no. 6, June 1968)] Term used to refer to a well-known effect whereby function in a computing system family is migrated out to special-purpose peripheral hardware for speed, then the peripheral evolves toward more computing power as it does its job, then somebody notices that it is inefficient to support two asymmetrical processors in the architecture and folds the function back into the main CPU, at which point the cycle begins again.
Several iterations of this cycle have been observed in graphics-processor design, and at least one or two in communications and floating-point processors. Also known as `the Wheel of Life', `the Wheel of Samsara', and other variations of the basic Hindu/Buddhist theological idea. See also blitter, bit bang.
Node:wheel wars, Next:White Book, Previous:wheel of reincarnation, Up:= W =
wheel wars n.
[Stanford University] A period in larval stage during which student hackers hassle each other by attempting to log each other out of the system, delete each other's files, and otherwise wreak havoc, usually at the expense of the lesser users.
Node:White Book, Next:whitelist, Previous:wheel wars, Up:= W =
White Book n.
1. Syn. K&R. 2. Adobe's fourth book in the PostScript series, describing the previously-secret format of Type 1 fonts; "Adobe Type 1 Font Format, version 1.1", (Addison-Wesley, 1990, ISBN 0-201-57044-0). See also Red Book, Green Book, Blue Book.
Node:whitelist, Next:whizzy, Previous:White Book, Up:= W =
whitelist n.
The opposite of a blacklist. That is, instead of being an explicit list of people who are banned, it's an explicit list of people who are to be admitted. Hackers use this especially of lists of email addresses that are explicitly enabled to get past strict anti-spam filters.
Node:whizzy, Next:wibble, Previous:whitelist, Up:= W =
whizzy adj.
(alt. `wizzy') [Sun] Describes a cuspy program; one that is feature-rich and well presented.
Node:wibble, Next:WIBNI, Previous:whizzy, Up:= W =
wibble
[UK, perh. originally from the first "Roger Irrelevant" strip in "VIZ" comics, spread via "Your Sinclair magazine in the 1980s and early 1990s"] 1. n.,v. Commonly used to describe chatter, content-free remarks or other essentially meaningless contributions to threads in newsgroups. "Oh, rspence is wibbling again". 2. [UK IRC] An explicit on-line no-op equivalent to humma. 3. One of the preferred metasyntactic variables in the UK, forming a series with wobble, wubble, and flob (attributed to the hilarious historical comedy "Blackadder"). 4. A pronounciation of the letters "www", as seen in URLs; i.e., www.foo.com may be pronounced "wibble dot foo dot com" (compare dub dub dub).
The ancestral sense of this word is reported to have been "My brain is packing it in now. I give up. Tilt! Tilt! Tilt!"
Node:WIBNI, Next:widget, Previous:wibble, Up:= W =
WIBNI // n.
[Bell Labs: Wouldn't It Be Nice If] What most requirements documents and specifications consist entirely of. Compare IWBNI.
Node:widget, Next:wiggles, Previous:WIBNI, Up:= W =
widget n.
1. A meta-thing. Used to stand for a real object in didactic examples (especially database tutorials). Legend has it that the original widgets were holders for buggy whips. "But suppose the parts list for a widget has 52 entries...." 2. [poss. evoking `window gadget'] A user interface object in X graphical user interfaces.
Node:wiggles, Next:WIMP environment, Previous:widget, Up:= W =
wiggles n.
[scientific computation] In solving partial differential equations by finite difference and similar methods, wiggles are sawtooth (up-down-up-down) oscillations at the shortest wavelength representable on the grid. If an algorithm is unstable, this is often the most unstable waveform, so it grows to dominate the solution. Alternatively, stable (though inaccurate) wiggles can be generated near a discontinuity by a Gibbs phenomenon.
Node:WIMP environment, Next:win, Previous:wiggles, Up:= W =
WIMP environment n.
[acronym: `Window, Icon, Menu, Pointing device (or Pull-down menu)'] A graphical-user-interface environment such as X or the Macintosh interface, esp. as described by a hacker who prefers command-line interfaces for their superior flexibility and extensibility. However, it is also used without negative connotations; one must pay attention to voice tone and other signals to interpret correctly. See menuitis, user-obsequious.
Node:win, Next:win big, Previous:WIMP environment, Up:= W =
win
[MIT; now common everywhere] 1. vi. To succeed. A program wins if no unexpected conditions arise, or (especially) if it sufficiently robust to take exceptions in stride. 2. n. Success, or a specific instance thereof. A pleasing outcome. "So it turned out I could use a lexer generator instead of hand-coding my own pattern recognizer. What a win!" Emphatic forms: `moby win', `super win', `hyper-win' (often used interjectively as a reply). For some reason `suitable win' is also common at MIT, usually in reference to a satisfactory solution to a problem. Oppose lose; see also big win, which isn't quite just an intensification of `win'.
Node:win big, Next:win win, Previous:win, Up:= W =
win big vi.
To experience serendipity. "I went shopping and won big; there was a 2-for-1 sale." See big win.
Node:win win, Next:Winchester, Previous:win big, Up:= W =
win win excl.
Expresses pleasure at a win.
Node:Winchester, Next:windoid, Previous:win win, Up:= W =
Winchester n.
Informal generic term for sealed-enclosure magnetic-disk drives in which the read-write head planes over the disk surface on an air cushion. There is a legend that the name arose because the original 1973 engineering prototype for what later became the IBM 3340 featured two 30-megabyte volumes; 30-30 became `Winchester' when somebody noticed the similarity to the common term for a famous Winchester rifle (in the latter, the first 30 referred to caliber and the second to the grain weight of the charge). (It is sometimes incorrectly claimed that Winchester was the laboratory in which the technology was developed.)
Node:windoid, Next:window shopping, Previous:Winchester, Up:= W =
windoid n.
In the Macintosh world, a style of window with much less adornment (smaller or missing title bar, zoom box, etc, etc) than a standard window.
Node:window shopping, Next:Windoze, Previous:windoid, Up:= W =
window shopping n.
[US Geological Survey] Among users of WIMP environments like X or the Macintosh, extended experimentation with new window colors, fonts, and icon shapes. This activity can take up hours of what might otherwise have been productive working time. "I spent the afternoon window shopping until I found the coolest shade of green for my active window borders -- now they perfectly match my medium slate blue background." Serious window shoppers will spend their days with bitmap editors, creating new and different icons and background patterns for all to see. Also: `window dressing', the act of applying new fonts, colors, etc. See fritterware, compare macdink.
Node:Windoze, Next:winged comments, Previous:window shopping, Up:= W =
Windoze /win'dohz/ n.
See Microsloth Windows.
Node:winged comments, Next:winkey, Previous:Windoze, Up:= W =
winged comments n.
Comments set on the same line as code, as opposed to boxed comments. In C, for example:
d = sqrt(x*x + y*y); /* distance from origin */
Generally these refer only to the action(s) taken on that line.
Node:winkey, Next:winnage, Previous:winged comments, Up:= W =
winkey n.
(alt. `winkey face') See emoticon.
Node:winnage, Next:winner, Previous:winkey, Up:= W =
winnage /win'*j/ n.
The situation when a lossage is corrected, or when something is winning.
Node:winner, Next:winnitude, Previous:winnage, Up:= W =
winner
1. n. An unexpectedly good situation, program, programmer, or person. 2. `real winner': Often sarcastic, but also used as high praise (see also the note under user). "He's a real winner -- never reports a bug till he can duplicate it and send in an example."
Node:winnitude, Next:Wintel, Previous:winner, Up:= W =
winnitude /win'*-t[y]ood/ n.
The quality of winning (as opposed to winnage, which is the result of winning). "Guess what? They tweaked the microcode and now the LISP interpreter runs twice as fast as it used to." "That's really great! Boy, what winnitude!" "Yup. I'll probably get a half-hour's winnage on the next run of my program." Perhaps curiously, the obvious antonym `lossitude' is rare.
Node:Wintel, Next:wired, Previous:winnitude, Up:= W =
Wintel n.
Microsoft Windows plus Intel - the tacit alliance that dominated desktop computing in the 1990s. Now (1999) possibly on the verge of breaking up under pressure from Linux; see Lintel.
Node:wired, Next:wirehead, Previous:Wintel, Up:= W =
wired n.
See hardwired.
Node:wirehead, Next:wirewater, Previous:wired, Up:= W =
wirehead /wi:r'hed/ n.
[prob. from SF slang for an electrical-brain-stimulation addict] 1. A hardware hacker, especially one who concentrates on communications hardware. 2. An expert in local-area networks. A wirehead can be a network software wizard too, but will always have the ability to deal with network hardware, down to the smallest component. Wireheads are known for their ability to lash up an Ethernet terminator from spare resistors, for example.
Node:wirewater, Next:wish list, Previous:wirehead, Up:= W =
wirewater n.
Syn. programming fluid. This melds the mainstream slang adjective `wired' (stimulated, up, hyperactive) with `firewater'; however, it refers to caffeinacious rather than alcoholic beverages.
Node:wish list, Next:within delta of, Previous:wirewater, Up:= W =
wish list n.
A list of desired features or bug fixes that probably won't get done for a long time, usually because the person responsible for the code is too busy or can't think of a clean way to do it. "OK, I'll add automatic filename completion to the wish list for the new interface." Compare tick-list features.
Node:within delta of, Next:within epsilon of, Previous:wish list, Up:= W =
within delta of adj.
See delta.
Node:within epsilon of, Next:wizard, Previous:within delta of, Up:= W =
within epsilon of adj.
See epsilon.
Node:wizard, Next:Wizard Book, Previous:within epsilon of, Up:= W =
wizard n.
1. Transitively, a person who knows how a complex piece of software or hardware works (that is, who groks it); esp. someone who can find and fix bugs quickly in an emergency. Someone is a hacker if he or she has general hacking ability, but is a wizard with respect to something only if he or she has specific detailed knowledge of that thing. A good hacker could become a wizard for something given the time to study it. 2. The term `wizard' is also used intransitively of someone who has extremely high-level hacking or problem-solving ability. 3. A person who is permitted to do things forbidden to ordinary people; one who has wheel privileges on a system. 4. A Unix expert, esp. a Unix systems programmer. This usage is well enough established that `Unix Wizard' is a recognized job title at some corporations and to most headhunters. See guru, lord high fixer. See also deep magic, heavy wizardry, incantation, magic, mutter, rain dance, voodoo programming, wave a dead chicken.
Node:Wizard Book, Next:wizard hat, Previous:wizard, Up:= W =
Wizard Book n.
"Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs" (Hal Abelson, Jerry Sussman and Julie Sussman; MIT Press, 1984, 1996; ISBN 0-262-01153-0), an excellent computer science text used in introductory courses at MIT. So called because of the wizard on the jacket. One of the bibles of the LISP/Scheme world. Also, less commonly, known as the Purple Book.
Node:wizard hat, Next:wizard mode, Previous:Wizard Book, Up:= W =
wizard hat n.
[also, after Terry Pratchett, `pointy hat'] Notional headgear worn by whoever is the wizard in a
## particular context. The implication is that it's a transferable
role. "Talk to Alice, she's wearing the TCP/IP wizard hat while Bob is on vacation." This metaphor is sufficiently live that one may actually see hackers miming the act of putting on, taking off, or transferring a phantom hat. Compare patch pumpkin.
Node:wizard mode, Next:wizardly, Previous:wizard hat, Up:= W =
wizard mode n.
[from rogue] A special access mode of a program or system, usually passworded, that permits some users godlike privileges. Generally not used for operating systems themselves (`root mode' or `wheel mode' would be used instead). This term is often used with respect to games that have editable state.
Node:wizardly, Next:wok-on-the-wall, Previous:wizard mode, Up:= W =
wizardly adj.
Pertaining to wizards. A wizardly feature is one that only a wizard could understand or use properly.
Node:wok-on-the-wall, Next:womb box, Previous:wizardly, Up:= W =
wok-on-the-wall n.
A small microwave dish antenna used for cross-campus private network circuits, from the obvious resemblance between a microwave dish and the Chinese culinary utensil.
Node:womb box, Next:WOMBAT, Previous:wok-on-the-wall, Up:= W =
womb box n.
1. [TMRC] Storage space for equipment. 2. [proposed] A variety of hard-shell equipment case with heavy interior padding and/or shaped carrier cutouts in a foam-rubber matrix; mundanely called a `flight case'. Used for delicate test equipment, electronics, and musical instruments.
Node:WOMBAT, Next:womble, Previous:womb box, Up:= W =
WOMBAT /wom'bat/ adj.
[acronym: Waste Of Money, Brains, And Time] Applied to problems which are both profoundly uninteresting in themselves and unlikely to benefit anyone interesting even if solved. Often used in fanciful constructions such as `wrestling with a wombat'. See also crawling horror, SMOP. Also note the rather different usage as a metasyntactic variable in Commonwealth Hackish.
Users of the PDP-11 database program DATATRIEVE adopted the wombat as their notional mascot; the program's help file responded to "HELP WOMBAT" with factual information about Real World wombats.
Node:womble, Next:wonky, Previous:WOMBAT, Up:= W =
womble n.
[Unisys UK: from British animated characters] A user who has great difficulty in communicating their requirements and/or in using the resulting software. Extreme case of luser. An especially senior or high-ranking womble is referred to as Great-Uncle Bulgaria.
Node:wonky, Next:woofer, Previous:womble, Up:= W =
wonky /wong'kee/ adj.
[from Australian slang] Yet another approximate synonym for broken. Specifically connotes a malfunction that produces behavior seen as crazy, humorous, or amusingly perverse. "That was the day the printer's font logic went wonky and everybody's listings came out in Tengwar." Also in `wonked out'. See funky, demented, bozotic.
Node:woofer, Next:workaround, Previous:wonky, Up:= W =
woofer n.
[University of Waterloo] Some varieties of wide paper for printers have a perforation 8.5 inches from the left margin that allows the excess on the right-hand side to be torn off when the print format is 80 columns or less wide. The right-hand excess may be called `woofer'. This term (like tweeter) has been in use at Waterloo since 1972, but is elsewhere unknown. In audio jargon, the word refers to the bass speaker(s) on a hi-fi.
Node:workaround, Next:working as designed, Previous:woofer, Up:= W =
workaround n.
1. A temporary kluge used to bypass, mask, or otherwise avoid a bug or misfeature in some system. Theoretically, workarounds are always replaced by fixes; in practice, customers often find themselves living with workarounds for long periods of time. "The code died on NUL characters in the input, so I fixed it to interpret them as spaces." "That's not a fix, that's a workaround!" 2. A procedure to be employed by the user in order to do what some currently non-working feature should do. Hypothetical example: "Using META-F7 crashes the 4.43 build of Weemax, but as a workaround you can type CTRL-R, then SHIFT-F5, and delete the remaining cruft by hand."
Node:working as designed, Next:worm, Previous:workaround, Up:= W =
working as designed adj.