The Jargon File by Eric S. Raymond (sites to read books for free .TXT) 📖

======= THIS IS THE JARGON FILE, VERSION 4.2.2, 20 AUG 2000 =======

This is the Jargon File, a comprehensive compendium of hacker slang

illuminating many aspects of hackish tradition, folklore, and humor.

This document (the Jargon File) is in the public domain, to be freely

used, shared, and modified. There are (by intention) no legal

restraints on what you can do with it, but there are traditions about

its proper use to which many hackers are quite strongly attached.

Please extend the courtesy of proper citation when you quote the File,

ideally with a version number, as it will change and grow over time.

(Examples of appropriate citation form: "Jargon File 4.2.2" or "The

on-line hacker Jargon File, version 4.2.2, 20 AUG 2000".)

The Jargon File is a common heritage of the hacker culture. Over the

years a number of individuals have volunteered considerable time to

maintaining the File and been recognized by the net at large as

editors of it. Editorial responsibilities include: to collate

contributions and suggestions from others; to seek out corroborating

information; to cross-reference related entries; to keep the file in a

consistent format; and to announce and distribute updated versions

periodically. Current volunteer editors include:

Eric Raymond [5]esr@snark.thyrsus.com

Although there is no requirement that you do so, it is considered good

form to check with an editor before quoting the File in a published

work or commercial product. We may have additional information that

would be helpful to you and can assist you in framing your quote to

reflect not only the letter of the File but its spirit as well.

All contributions and suggestions about this file sent to a volunteer

editor are gratefully received and will be regarded, unless otherwise

labelled, as freely given donations for possible use as part of this

public-domain file.

From time to time a snapshot of this file has been polished, edited,

and formatted for commercial publication with the cooperation of the

volunteer editors and the hacker community at large. If you wish to

have a bound paper copy of this file, you may find it convenient to

purchase one of these. They often contain additional material not

found in on-line versions. The two `authorized' editions so far are

described in the Revision History section; there may be more in the

future.

[6]Introduction: The purpose and scope of this File

[7]A Few Terms: Of Slang, Jargon and Techspeak

[8]Revision History: How the File came to be

[9]Jargon Construction: How hackers invent jargon

[10]Hacker Writing Style: How they write

[11]Email Quotes: And the Inclusion Problem

[12]Hacker Speech Style: How hackers talk

[13]International Style: Some notes on usage outside the U.S.

[14]Lamer-speak: Crackers, Phreaks, and Lamers

[15]Pronunciation Guide: How to read the pronunciation keys

[16]Other Lexicon Conventions: How to read lexicon entries

[17]Format for New Entries: How to submit new entries for the File

[18]The Jargon Lexicon: The lexicon itself

[19]Appendix A: Hacker Folklore

[20]Appendix B: A Portrait of J. Random Hacker

[21]Appendix C: Helping Hacker Culture Grow

[22]Bibliography: For your further enjoyment

Node:Introduction, Next:[23]A Few Terms, Previous:[24]Top, Up:[25]Top

Introduction

This document is a collection of slang terms used by various

subcultures of computer hackers. Though some technical material is

included for background and flavor, it is not a technical dictionary;

what we describe here is the language hackers use among themselves for

fun, social communication, and technical debate.

The `hacker culture' is actually a loosely networked collection of

subcultures that is nevertheless conscious of some important shared

experiences, shared roots, and shared values. It has its own myths,

heroes, villains, folk epics, in-jokes, taboos, and dreams. Because

hackers as a group are particularly creative people who define

themselves partly by rejection of `normal' values and working habits,

it has unusually rich and conscious traditions for an intentional

culture less than 40 years old.

As usual with slang, the special vocabulary of hackers helps hold

their culture together -- it helps hackers recognize each other's

places in the community and expresses shared values and experiences.

Also as usual, not knowing the slang (or using it inappropriately)

defines one as an outsider, a mundane, or (worst of all in hackish

vocabulary) possibly even a [26]suit. All human cultures use slang in

this threefold way -- as a tool of communication, and of inclusion,

and of exclusion.

Among hackers, though, slang has a subtler aspect, paralleled perhaps

in the slang of jazz musicians and some kinds of fine artists but hard

to detect in most technical or scientific cultures; parts of it are

code for shared states of consciousness. There is a whole range of

altered states and problem-solving mental stances basic to high-level

hacking which don't fit into conventional linguistic reality any

better than a Coltrane solo or one of Maurits Escher's `trompe l'oeil'

compositions (Escher is a favorite of hackers), and hacker slang

encodes these subtleties in many unobvious ways. As a simple example,

take the distinction between a [27]kluge and an [28]elegant solution,

and the differing connotations attached to each. The distinction is

not only of engineering significance; it reaches right back into the

nature of the generative processes in program design and asserts

something important about two different kinds of relationship between

the hacker and the hack. Hacker slang is unusually rich in

implications of this kind, of overtones and undertones that illuminate

the hackish psyche.

But there is more. Hackers, as a rule, love wordplay and are very

conscious and inventive in their use of language. These traits seem to

be common in young children, but the conformity-enforcing machine we

are pleased to call an educational system bludgeons them out of most

of us before adolescence. Thus, linguistic invention in most

subcultures of the modern West is a halting and largely unconscious

process. Hackers, by contrast, regard slang formation and use as a

game to be played for conscious pleasure. Their inventions thus

display an almost unique combination of the neotenous enjoyment of

language-play with the discrimination of educated and powerful

intelligence. Further, the electronic media which knit them together

are fluid, `hot' connections, well adapted to both the dissemination

of new slang and the ruthless culling of weak and superannuated

specimens. The results of this process give us perhaps a uniquely

intense and accelerated view of linguistic evolution in action.

Hacker slang also challenges some common linguistic and

anthropological assumptions. For example, it has recently become

fashionable to speak of low-context' versushigh-context'

communication, and to classify cultures by the preferred context level

of their languages and art forms. It is usually claimed that

low-context communication (characterized by precision, clarity, and

completeness of self-contained utterances) is typical in cultures

which value logic, objectivity, individualism, and competition; by

contrast, high-context communication (elliptical, emotive,

nuance-filled, multi-modal, heavily coded) is associated with cultures

which value subjectivity, consensus, cooperation, and tradition. What

then are we to make of hackerdom, which is themed around extremely

low-context interaction with computers and exhibits primarily

"low-context" values, but cultivates an almost absurdly high-context

slang style?

The intensity and consciousness of hackish invention make a

compilation of hacker slang a particularly effective window into the

surrounding culture -- and, in fact, this one is the latest version of

an evolving compilation called the `Jargon File', maintained by

hackers themselves for over 15 years. This one (like its ancestors) is

primarily a lexicon, but also includes topic entries which collect

background or sidelight information on hacker culture that would be

awkward to try to subsume under individual slang definitions.

Though the format is that of a reference volume, it is intended that

the material be enjoyable to browse. Even a complete outsider should

find at least a chuckle on nearly every page, and much that is

amusingly thought-provoking. But it is also true that hackers use

humorous wordplay to make strong, sometimes combative statements about

what they feel. Some of these entries reflect the views of opposing

sides in disputes that have been genuinely passionate; this is

deliberate. We have not tried to moderate or pretty up these disputes;

rather we have attempted to ensure that everyone's sacred cows get

gored, impartially. Compromise is not particularly a hackish virtue,

but the honest presentation of divergent viewpoints is.

The reader with minimal computer background who finds some references

incomprehensibly technical can safely ignore them. We have not felt it

either necessary or desirable to eliminate all such; they, too,

contribute flavor, and one of this document's major intended audiences

-- fledgling hackers already partway inside the culture -- will

benefit from them.

A selection of longer items of hacker folklore and humor is included

in [29]Appendix A. The `outside' reader's attention is particularly

directed to the Portrait of J. Random Hacker in [30]Appendix B.

Appendix C, the [31]Bibliography, lists some non-technical works which

have either influenced or described the hacker culture.

Because hackerdom is an intentional culture (one each individual must

choose by action to join), one should not be surprised that the line

between description and influence can become more than a little

blurred. Earlier versions of the Jargon File have played a central

role in spreading hacker language and the culture that goes with it to

successively larger populations, and we hope and expect that this one

will do likewise.

Node:A Few Terms, Next:[32]Revision History,

Previous:[33]Introduction, Up:[34]Top

Of Slang, Jargon, and Techspeak

Linguists usually refer to informal language as `slang' and reserve

the term `jargon' for the technical vocabularies of various

occupations. However, the ancestor of this collection was called the

Jargon File', and hacker slang is traditionallythe jargon'. When

talking about the jargon there is therefore no convenient way to

distinguish it from what a linguist would call hackers' jargon -- the

formal vocabulary they learn from textbooks, technical papers, and

manuals.

To make a confused situation worse, the line between hacker slang and

the vocabulary of technical programming and computer science is fuzzy,

and shifts over time. Further, this vocabulary is shared with a wider

technical culture of programmers, many of whom are not hackers and do

not speak or recognize hackish slang.

Accordingly, this lexicon will try to be as precise as the facts of

usage permit about the distinctions among three categories:

`slang': informal language from mainstream English or

non-technical subcultures (bikers, rock fans, surfers, etc).

jargon': without qualifier, denotes informalslangy' language

peculiar to or predominantly found among hackers -- the subject of

this lexicon.

`techspeak': the formal technical vocabulary of programming,

computer science, electronics, and other fields connected to

hacking.

This terminology will be consistently used throughout the remainder of

this lexicon.

The jargon/techspeak distinction is the delicate one. A lot of

techspeak originated as jargon, and there is a steady continuing

uptake of jargon into techspeak. On the other hand, a lot of jargon

arises from overgeneralization of techspeak terms (there is more about

this in the [35]Jargon Construction section below).

In general, we have considered techspeak any term that communicates

primarily by a denotation well established in textbooks, technical

dictionaries, or standards documents.

A few obviously techspeak terms (names of operating systems,

languages, or documents) are listed when they are tied to hacker

folklore that isn't covered in formal sources, or sometimes to convey

critical historical background necessary to understand other entries

to which they are cross-referenced. Some other techspeak senses of

jargon