Part 58
[IBM] 1. In conformance to a wrong or inappropriate specification; useful, but misdesigned. 2. Frequently used as a sardonic comment on a program's utility. 3. Unfortunately also used as a bogus reason for not accepting a criticism or suggestion. At IBM, this sense is used in official documents! See BAD.
Node:worm, Next:wormhole, Previous:working as designed, Up:= W =
worm n.
[from `tapeworm' in John Brunner's novel "The Shockwave Rider", via XEROX PARC] A program that propagates itself over a network, reproducing itself as it goes. Compare virus. Nowadays the term has negative connotations, as it is assumed that only crackers write worms. Perhaps the best-known example was Robert T. Morris's Great Worm of 1988, a `benign' one that got out of control and hogged hundreds of Suns and VAXen across the U.S. See also cracker, RTM, Trojan horse, ice.
Node:wormhole, Next:wound around the axle, Previous:worm, Up:= W =
wormhole /werm'hohl/ n.
[from the `wormhole' singularities hypothesized in some versions of General Relativity theory] 1. [n.,obs.] A location in a monitor which contains the address of a routine, with the specific intent of making it easy to substitute a different routine. This term is now obsolescent; modern operating systems use clusters of wormholes extensively (for modularization of I/O handling in particular, as in the Unix device-driver organization) but the preferred techspeak for these clusters is `device tables', `jump tables' or `capability tables'. 2. [Amateur Packet Radio] A network path using a commercial satellite link to join two or more amateur VHF networks. So called because traffic routed through a wormhole leaves and re-enters the amateur network over great distances with usually little clue in the message routing header as to how it got from one relay to the other. Compare gopher hole (sense 2).
Node:wound around the axle, Next:wrap around, Previous:wormhole, Up:= W =
wound around the axle adj.
In an infinite loop. Often used by older computer types.
Node:wrap around, Next:write-only code, Previous:wound around the axle, Up:= W =
wrap around vi.
(also n. `wraparound' and v. shorthand `wrap') 1. [techspeak] The action of a counter that starts over at zero or at `minus infinity' (see infinity) after its maximum value has been reached, and continues incrementing, either because it is programmed to do so or because of an overflow (as when a car's odometer starts over at 0). 2. To change phase gradually and continuously by maintaining a steady wake-sleep cycle somewhat longer than 24 hours, e.g., living six long (28-hour) days in a week (or, equivalently, sleeping at the rate of 10 microhertz). This sense is also called phase-wrapping.
Node:write-only code, Next:write-only language, Previous:wrap around, Up:= W =
write-only code n.
[a play on `read-only memory'] Code so arcane, complex, or ill-structured that it cannot be modified or even comprehended by anyone but its author, and possibly not even by him/her. A Bad Thing.
Node:write-only language, Next:write-only memory, Previous:write-only code, Up:= W =
write-only language n.
A language with syntax (or semantics) sufficiently dense and bizarre that any routine of significant size is automatically write-only code. A sobriquet applied occasionally to C and often to APL, though INTERCAL and TECO certainly deserve it more. See also Befunge.
Node:write-only memory, Next:Wrong Thing, Previous:write-only language, Up:= W =
write-only memory n.
The obvious antonym to `read-only memory'. Out of frustration with the long and seemingly useless chain of approvals required of component specifications, during which no actual checking seemed to occur, an engineer at Signetics once created a specification for a write-only memory and included it with a bunch of other specifications to be approved. This inclusion came to the attention of Signetics management only when regular customers started calling and asking for pricing information. Signetics published a corrected edition of the data book and requested the return of the `erroneous' ones. Later, in 1972, Signetics bought a double-page spread in "Electronics" magazine's April issue and used the spec as an April Fools' Day joke. Instead of the more conventional characteristic curves, the 25120 "fully encoded, 9046 x N, Random Access, write-only-memory" data sheet included diagrams of "bit capacity vs. Temp.", "Iff vs. Vff", "Number of pins remaining vs. number of socket insertions", and "AQL vs. selling price". The 25120 required a 6.3 VAC VFF supply, a +10V VCC, and VDD of 0V, +/- 2%.
Node:Wrong Thing, Next:wugga wugga, Previous:write-only memory, Up:= W =
Wrong Thing n.
A design, action, or decision that is clearly incorrect or inappropriate. Often capitalized; always emphasized in speech as if capitalized. The opposite of the Right Thing; more generally, anything that is not the Right Thing. In cases where `the good is the enemy of the best', the merely good -- although good -- is nevertheless the Wrong Thing. "In C, the default is for module-level declarations to be visible everywhere, rather than just within the module. This is clearly the Wrong Thing."
Node:wugga wugga, Next:wumpus, Previous:Wrong Thing, Up:= W =
wugga wugga /wuh'g* wuh'g*/ n.
Imaginary sound that a computer program makes as it labors with a tedious or difficult task.grind (sense 4).
Node:wumpus, Next:WYSIAYG, Previous:wugga wugga, Up:= W =
wumpus /wuhm'p*s/ n.
The central monster (and, in many versions, the name) of a famous family of very early computer games called "Hunt The Wumpus'. The original was invented in 1970 (several years before ADVENT) by Gregory Yob. The wumpus lived somewhere in a cave with the topology of an dodecahedron's edge/vertex graph (later versions supported other topologies, including an icosahedron and Möbius strip). The player started somewhere at random in the cave with five `crooked arrows'; these could be shot through up to three connected rooms, and would kill the wumpus on a hit (later versions introduced the wounded wumpus, which got very angry). Unfortunately for players, the movement necessary to map the maze was made hazardous not merely by the wumpus (which would eat you if you stepped on him) but also by bottomless pits and colonies of super bats that would pick you up and drop you at a random location (later versions added `anaerobic termites' that ate arrows, bat migrations, and earthquakes that randomly changed pit locations).
This game appears to have been the first to use a non-random graph-structured map (as opposed to a rectangular grid like the even older Star Trek games). In this respect, as in the dungeon-like setting and its terse, amusing messages, it prefigured ADVENT and Zork and was directly ancestral to the latter (Zork acknowledged this heritage by including a super-bat colony). A C emulation of the original Basic game is available at the Retrocomputing Museum, http://www.ccil.org/retro.
Node:WYSIAYG, Next:WYSIWYG, Previous:wumpus, Up:= W =
WYSIAYG /wiz'ee-ayg/ adj.
Describes a user interface under which "What You See Is All You Get"; an unhappy variant of WYSIWYG. Visual, `point-and-shoot'-style interfaces tend to have easy initial learning curves, but also to lack depth; they often frustrate advanced users who would be better served by a command-style interface. When this happens, the frustrated user has a WYSIAYG problem. This term is most often used of editors, word processors, and document formatting programs. WYSIWYG `desktop publishing' programs, for example, are a clear win for creating small documents with lots of fonts and graphics in them, especially things like newsletters and presentation slides. When typesetting book-length manuscripts, on the other hand, scale changes the nature of the task; one quickly runs into WYSIAYG limitations, and the increased power and flexibility of a command-driven formatter like TeX or Unix's troff becomes not just desirable but a necessity. Compare YAFIYGI.
Node:WYSIWYG, Next:X, Previous:WYSIAYG, Up:= W =
WYSIWYG /wiz'ee-wig/ adj.
[Traced to Flip Wilson's "Geraldine" character c.1970] Describes a user interface under which "What You See Is What You Get", as opposed to one that uses more-or-less obscure commands that do not result in immediate visual feedback. True WYSIWYG in environments supporting multiple fonts or graphics is a a rarely-attained ideal; there are variants of this term to express real-world manifestations including WYSIAWYG (What You See Is Almost What You Get) and WYSIMOLWYG (What You See Is More or Less What You Get). All these can be mildly derogatory, as they are often used to refer to dumbed-down user-friendly interfaces targeted at non-programmers; a hacker has no fear of obscure commands (compare WYSIAYG). On the other hand, EMACS was one of the very first WYSIWYG editors, replacing (actually, at first overlaying) the extremely obscure, command-based TECO. See also WIMP environment. [Oddly enough, WYSIWYG has already made it into the OED, in lower case yet. --ESR]
Node:= X =, Next:= Y =, Previous:= W =, Up:The Jargon Lexicon
= X =
X:
XEROX PARC:
XOFF:
XON:
xor:
xref:
XXX:
xyzzy:
Node:X, Next:XEROX PARC, Previous:WYSIWYG, Up:= X =
X /X/ n.
1. Used in various speech and writing contexts (also in lowercase) in roughly its algebraic sense of `unknown within a set defined by context' (compare N). Thus, the abbreviation 680x0 stands for 68000, 68010, 68020, 68030, or 68040, and 80x86 stands for 80186, 80286, 80386, 80486, 80586 or 80686 (note that a Unix hacker might write these as 680[0-6]0 and 80[1-6]86 or 680?0 and 80?86 respectively; see glob). 2. [after the name of an earlier window system called `W'] An over-sized, over-featured, over-engineered and incredibly over-complicated window system developed at MIT and widely used on Unix systems.
Node:XEROX PARC, Next:XOFF, Previous:X, Up:= X =
XEROX PARC /zee'roks park'/ n.
The famed Palo Alto Research Center. For more than a decade, from the early 1970s into the mid-1980s, PARC yielded an astonishing volume of groundbreaking hardware and software innovations. The modern mice, windows, and icons style of software interface was invented there. So was the laser printer and the local-area network; and PARC's series of D machines anticipated the powerful personal computers of the 1980s by a decade. Sadly, the prophets at PARC were without honor in their own company, so much so that it became a standard joke to describe PARC as a place that specialized in developing brilliant ideas for everyone else.
The stunning shortsightedness and obtusity of XEROX's top-level suits has been well anatomized in "Fumbling The Future: How XEROX Invented, Then Ignored, the First Personal Computer" by Douglas K. Smith and Robert C. Alexander (William Morrow & Co., 1988, ISBN 0-688-09511-9).
Node:XOFF, Next:XON, Previous:XEROX PARC, Up:= X =
XOFF /X-of/ n.
Syn. control-S.
Node:XON, Next:xor, Previous:XOFF, Up:= X =
XON /X-on/ n.
Syn. control-Q.
Node:xor, Next:xref, Previous:XON, Up:= X =
xor /X'or/, /kzor/ conj.
Exclusive or. `A xor B' means `A or B, but not both'. "I want to get cherry pie xor a banana split." This derives from the technical use of the term as a function on truth-values that is true if exactly one of its two arguments is true.
Node:xref, Next:XXX, Previous:xor, Up:= X =
xref /X'ref/ v.,n.
Hackish standard abbreviation for `cross-reference'.
Node:XXX, Next:xyzzy, Previous:xref, Up:= X =
XXX /X-X-X/ n.
A marker that attention is needed. Commonly used in program comments to indicate areas that are kluged up or need to be. Some hackers liken `XXX' to the notional heavy-porn movie rating. Compare FIXME.
Node:xyzzy, Next:YA-, Previous:XXX, Up:= X =
xyzzy /X-Y-Z-Z-Y/, /X-Y-ziz'ee/, /ziz'ee/, or /ik-ziz'ee/ adj.
[from the ADVENT game] The canonical `magic word'. This comes from ADVENT, in which the idea is to explore an underground cave with many rooms and to collect the treasures you find there. If you type `xyzzy' at the appropriate time, you can move instantly between two otherwise distant points. If, therefore, you encounter some bit of magic, you might remark on this quite succinctly by saying simply "Xyzzy!" "Ordinarily you can't look at someone else's screen if he has protected it, but if you type quadruple-bucky-clear the system will let you do it anyway." "Xyzzy!" It's traditional for xyzzy to be an Easter egg in games with text interfaces.
Xyzzy has actually been implemented as an undocumented no-op command on several OSes; in Data General's AOS/VS, for example, it would typically respond "Nothing happens", just as ADVENT did if the magic was invoked at the wrong spot or before a player had performed the action that enabled the word. In more recent 32-bit versions, by the way, AOS/VS responds "Twice as much happens".
Early versions of the popular `minesweeper' game under Microsoft Windows had a cheat mode triggered by the command `xyzzy<enter><right-shift>' that turns the top-left pixel of the screen different colors depending on whether or not the cursor is over a bomb. This feature temporarily diasappeared in Windows 98, but reappeared in Windows 2000.
The following passage from "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum, suggesting a possible pre-ADVENT origin, has recently come to light:
"Ziz-zy, zuz-zy, zik!" said Dorothy, who was now standing on both feet. This ended the saying of the charm, and they heard a great chattering and flapping of wings, as the band of Winged Monkeys flew up to them.
Node:= Y =, Next:= Z =, Previous:= X =, Up:The Jargon Lexicon
= Y =
YA-:
YABA:
YAFIYGI:
YAUN:
Yellow Book:
yellow card:
yellow wire:
Yet Another:
YHBT:
YKYBHTLW:
YMMV:
You are not expected to understand this:
You know you've been hacking too long when:
Your mileage may vary:
Yow!:
yoyo mode:
Yu-Shiang Whole Fish:
Node:YA-, Next:YABA, Previous:xyzzy, Up:= Y =
YA- abbrev.
[Yet Another] In hackish acronyms this almost invariably expands to Yet Another, following the precedent set by Unix yacc(1) (Yet Another Compiler-Compiler). See YABA.
Node:YABA, Next:YAFIYGI, Previous:YA-, Up:= Y =
YABA /ya'b*/ n.
[Cambridge] Yet Another Bloody Acronym. Whenever some program is being named, someone invariably suggests that it be given a name that is acronymic. The response from those with a trace of originality is to remark ironically that the proposed name would then be `YABA-compatible'. Also used in response to questions like "What is WYSIWYG?" See also TLA.
Node:YAFIYGI, Next:YAUN, Previous:YABA, Up:= Y =
YAFIYGI /yaf'ee-y*-gee/ adj.
[coined in response to WYSIWYG] Describes the command-oriented ed/vi/nroff/TeX style of word processing or other user interface, the opposite of WYSIWYG. Stands for "You asked for it, you got it", because what you actually asked for is often not apparent until long after it is too late to do anything about it. Used to denote perversity ("Real Programmers use YAFIYGI tools...and like it!") or, less often, a necessary tradeoff ("Only a YAFIYGI tool can have full programmable flexibility in its interface.").
This precise sense of "You asked for it, you got it" seems to have first appeared in Ed Post's classic parody "Real Programmers don't use Pascal" (see Real Programmers); the acronym is a more recent invention.
Node:YAUN, Next:Yellow Book, Previous:YAFIYGI, Up:= Y =
YAUN /yawn/ n.
[Acronym for `Yet Another Unix Nerd'] Reported from the San Diego Computer Society (predominantly a microcomputer users' group) as a good-natured punning insult aimed at Unix zealots.
Node:Yellow Book, Next:yellow card, Previous:YAUN, Up:= Y =
Yellow Book n.
The print version of this Jargon File; "The New Hacker's Dictionary" from MIT Press; The book includes essentially all the material the File, plus a Foreword by Guy L. Steele Jr. and a Preface by Eric S. Raymond. Most importantly, the book version is nicely typeset and includes almost all of the infamous Crunchly cartoons by the Great Quux, each attached to an appropriate entry. The first edition (1991, ISBN 0-262-68069-6) corresponded to the Jargon File version 2.9.6. The second edition (1993, ISBN 0-262-68079-3) corresponded to the Jargon File 3.0.0. The third (1996, ISBN 0-262-68092-0) corresponded to 4.0.0.
Node:yellow card, Next:yellow wire, Previous:Yellow Book, Up:= Y =
yellow card n.
See green card.
Node:yellow wire, Next:Yet Another, Previous:yellow card, Up:= Y =
yellow wire n.
[IBM] Repair wires used when connectors (especially ribbon connectors) got broken due to some schlemiel pinching them, or to reconnect cut traces after the FE mistakenly cut one. Compare blue wire, purple wire, red wire.
Node:Yet Another, Next:YHBT, Previous:yellow wire, Up:= Y =
Yet Another adj.
[From Unix's yacc(1), `Yet Another Compiler-Compiler', a LALR parser generator] 1. Of your own work: A humorous allusion often used in titles to acknowledge that the topic is not original, though the content is. As in `Yet Another AI Group' or `Yet Another Simulated Annealing Algorithm'. 2. Of others' work: Describes something of which there are already far too many. See also YA-, YABA, YAUN.
Node:YHBT, Next:YKYBHTLW, Previous:Yet Another, Up:= Y =
YHBT //
[Usenet: very common] Abbreviation: You Have Been Trolled (see troll, sense 1). Especially used in "YHBT. YHL. HAND.", which is widely understood to expand to "You Have Been Trolled. You Have Lost. Have A Nice Day". You are quite likely to see this if you respond incautiously to a flame-provoking post that was obviously floated as sucker bait.
Node:YKYBHTLW, Next:YMMV, Previous:YHBT, Up:= Y =
YKYBHTLW // abbrev.
Abbreviation of `You know you've been hacking too long when...', which became established on the Usenet group _alt.folklore.computers_ during extended discussion of the indicated entry in the Jargon File.
Node:YMMV, Next:You are not expected to understand this, Previous:YKYBHTLW, Up:= Y =
YMMV // cav.
Abbreviation for Your mileage may vary common on Usenet.
Node:You are not expected to understand this, Next:You know you've been hacking too long when, Previous:YMMV, Up:= Y =
You are not expected to understand this [Unix] cav.
The canonical comment describing something magic or too complicated to bother explaining properly. From an infamous comment in the context-switching code of the V6 Unix kernel. Dennis Ritchie has explained this in detail.
Node:You know you've been hacking too long when, Next:Your mileage may vary, Previous:You are not expected to understand this, Up:= Y =
You know you've been hacking too long when
The set-up line for a genre of one-liners told by hackers about themselves. These include the following:
not only do you check your email more often than your paper mail, but you remember your network address faster than your postal one.
your SO kisses you on the neck and the first thing you think is "Uh, oh, priority interrupt."
you go to balance your checkbook and discover that you're doing it in octal.
your computers have a higher street value than your car.
in your universe, `round numbers' are powers of 2, not 10.
more than once, you have woken up recalling a dream in some programming language.
you realize you have never seen half of your best friends.
A list list of these can be found by searching for this phrase on the web.
[An early version of this entry said "All but one of these have been reliably reported as hacker traits (some of them quite often). Even hackers may have trouble spotting the ringer." The ringer was balancing one's checkbook in octal, which I made up out of whole cloth. Although more respondents picked that one out as fiction than any of the others, I also received multiple independent reports of its actually happening, most famously to Grace Hopper while she was working with BINAC in 1949. --ESR]
Node:Your mileage may vary, Next:Yow!, Previous:You know you've been hacking too long when, Up:= Y =
Your mileage may vary cav.
[from the standard disclaimer attached to EPA mileage ratings by American car manufacturers] 1. A ritual warning often found in Unix freeware distributions. Translates roughly as "Hey, I tried to write this portably, but who knows what'll happen on your system?" 2. More generally, a qualifier attached to advice. "I find that sending flowers works well, but your mileage may vary."
Node:Yow!, Next:yoyo mode, Previous:Your mileage may vary, Up:= Y =
Yow! /yow/ interj.
[from "Zippy the Pinhead" comix] A favored hacker expression of humorous surprise or emphasis. "Yow! Check out what happens when you twiddle the foo option on this display hack!" Compare gurfle.
Node:yoyo mode, Next:Yu-Shiang Whole Fish, Previous:Yow!, Up:= Y =
yoyo mode n.
The state in which the system is said to be when it rapidly alternates several times between being up and being down. Interestingly (and perhaps not by coincidence), many hardware vendors give out free yoyos at Usenix exhibits.
Sun Microsystems gave out logoized yoyos at SIGPLAN '88. Tourists staying at one of Atlanta's most respectable hotels were subsequently treated to the sight of 200 of the country's top computer scientists testing yo-yo algorithms in the lobby.
Node:Yu-Shiang Whole Fish, Next:zap, Previous:yoyo mode, Up:= Y =
Yu-Shiang Whole Fish /yoo-shyang hohl fish/ n. obs.
The character gamma (extended SAIL ASCII 0001001), which with a loop in its tail looks like a little fish swimming down the page. The term is actually the name of a Chinese dish in which a fish is cooked whole (not parsed) and covered with Yu-Shiang (or Yu-Hsiang) sauce. Usage: primarily by people on the MIT LISP Machine, which could display this character on the screen. Tends to elicit incredulity from people who hear about it second-hand.
Node:= Z =, Previous:= Y =, Up:The Jargon Lexicon
= Z =
zap:
zapped:
Zawinski's Law:
zbeba:
zen:
zero:
zero-content:
Zero-One-Infinity Rule:
zeroth:
zigamorph:
zip:
zipperhead:
zombie:
zorch:
Zork:
zorkmid:
Node:zap, Next:zapped, Previous:Yu-Shiang Whole Fish, Up:= Z =
zap
1. n. Spiciness. 2. vt. To make food spicy. 3. vt. To make someone `suffer' by making his food spicy. (Most hackers love spicy food. Hot-and-sour soup is considered wimpy unless it makes you wipe your nose for the rest of the meal.) See zapped. 4. vt. To modify, usually to correct; esp. used when the action is performed with a debugger or binary patching tool. Also implies surgical precision. "Zap the debug level to 6 and run it again." In the IBM mainframe world, binary patches are applied to programs or to the OS with a program called `superzap', whose file name is `IMASPZAP' (possibly contrived from I M A SuPerZAP). 5. vt. To erase or reset. 6. To fry a chip with static electricity. "Uh oh -- I think that lightning strike may have zapped the disk controller."
Node:zapped, Next:Zawinski's Law, Previous:zap, Up:= Z =
zapped adj.
Spicy. This term is used to distinguish between food that is hot (in temperature) and food that is spicy-hot. For example, the Chinese appetizer Bon Bon Chicken is a kind of chicken salad that is cold but zapped; by contrast, vanilla wonton soup is hot but not zapped. See also oriental food, laser chicken. See zap, senses 1 and 2.
Node:Zawinski's Law, Next:zbeba, Previous:zapped, Up:= Z =
Zawinski's Law
"Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can." Coined by Jamie Zawinski (who called it the "Law of Software Envelopment") to express his belief that all truly useful programs experience pressure to evolve into toolkits and application platforms (the mailer thing, he says, is just a side effect of that). It is commonly cited, though with widely varying degrees of accuracy.
Node:zbeba, Next:zen, Previous:Zawinski's Law, Up:= Z =
zbeba n.
[USENET] The word `moron' in rot13. Used to describe newbies who are behaving with especial cluelessness.
Node:zen, Next:zero, Previous:zbeba, Up:= Z =
zen vt.
To figure out something by meditation or by a sudden flash of enlightenment. Originally applied to bugs, but occasionally applied to problems of life in general. "How'd you figure out the buffer allocation problem?" "Oh, I zenned it." Contrast grok, which connotes a time-extended version of zenning a system. Compare hack mode. See also guru.
Node:zero, Next:zero-content, Previous:zen, Up:= Z =
zero vt.
1. To set to 0. Usually said of small pieces of data, such as bits or words (esp. in the construction `zero out'). 2. To erase; to discard all data from. Said of disks and directories, where `zeroing' need not involve actually writing zeroes throughout the area being zeroed. One may speak of something being `logically zeroed' rather than being `physically zeroed'. See scribble.
Node:zero-content, Next:Zero-One-Infinity Rule, Previous:zero, Up:= Z =
zero-content adj.
Syn. content-free.
Node:Zero-One-Infinity Rule, Next:zeroth, Previous:zero-content, Up:= Z =
Zero-One-Infinity Rule prov.