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

>Bentley, in the "Bumper-Sticker Computer Science" chapter of his book

"More Programming Pearls", quotes Dick Sites from [13514]DEC as saying

"I'd rather write programs to write programs than write programs".

Node:toor, Next:[13515]topic drift, Previous:[13516]toolsmith,

Up:[13517]= T =

toor n.

The Bourne-Again Super-user. An alternate account with UID of 0,

created on Unix machines where the root user has an inconvenient

choice of shell. Compare [13518]avatar.

Node:topic drift, Next:[13519]topic group, Previous:[13520]toor,

Up:[13521]= T =

topic drift n.

Term used on GEnie, Usenet and other electronic fora to describe the

tendency of a [13522]thread to drift away from the original subject of

discussion (and thus, from the Subject header of the originating

message), or the results of that tendency. The header in each post can

be changed to keep current with the posts, but usually isn't due to

forgetfulness or laziness. A single post may often result in several

posts each responding to a different point in the original. Some

subthreads will actually be in response to some off-the-cuff side

comment, possibly degenerating into a [13523]flame war, or just as

often evolving into a separate discussion. Hence, discussions aren't

really so much threads as they are trees. Except that they don't

really have leaves, or multiple branching roots; usually some lines of

discussion will just sort of die off after everyone gets tired of

them. This could take anywhere from hours to weeks, or even longer.

The term `topic drift' is often used in gentle reminders that the

discussion has strayed off any useful track. "I think we started with

a question about Niven's last book, but we've ended up discussing the

sexual habits of the common marmoset. Now that's topic drift!"

Node:topic group, Next:[13524]TOPS-10, Previous:[13525]topic drift,

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topic group n.

Syn. [13527]forum.

Node:TOPS-10, Next:[13528]TOPS-20, Previous:[13529]topic group,

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TOPS-10 /tops-ten/ n.

[13531]DEC's proprietary OS for the fabled [13532]PDP-10 machines,

long a favorite of hackers but now effectively extinct. A fountain of

hacker folklore; see Appendix A. See also [13533]ITS, [13534]TOPS-20,

[13535]TWENEX, [13536]VMS, [13537]operating system. TOPS-10 was

sometimes called BOTS-10 (from `bottoms-ten') as a comment on the

inappropriateness of describing it as the top of anything.

Node:TOPS-20, Next:[13538]tourist, Previous:[13539]TOPS-10,

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TOPS-20 /tops-twen'tee/ n.

See [13541]TWENEX.

Node:tourist, Next:[13542]tourist information,

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tourist n.

[ITS] A guest on the system, especially one who generally logs in

over a network from a remote location for [13545]comm mode, email,

games, and other trivial purposes. One step below [13546]luser. ITS

hackers often used to spell this [13547]turist, perhaps by some sort

of tenuous analogy with [13548]luser (this usage may also have

expressed the ITS culture's penchant for six-letterisms, and-or been

some sort of tribute to Alan Turing). Compare [13549]twink,

[13550]lurker, [13551]read-only user. 2. [IRC] An [13552]IRC user who

goes from channel to channel without saying anything; see

[13553]channel hopping.

Node:tourist information, Next:[13554]touristic,

Previous:[13555]tourist, Up:[13556]= T =

tourist information n.

Information in an on-line display that is not immediately useful, but

contributes to a viewer's gestalt of what's going on with the software

or hardware behind it. Whether a given piece of info falls in this

category depends partly on what the user is looking for at any given

time. The `bytes free' information at the bottom of an MS-DOS dir

display is tourist information; so (most of the time) is the TIME

information in a Unix ps(1) display.

Node:touristic, Next:[13557]toy, Previous:[13558]tourist information,

Up:[13559]= T =

touristic adj.

Having the quality of a [13560]tourist. Often used as a pejorative, as

in losing touristic scum'. Often spelledturistic' or `turistik', so

that phrase might be more properly rendered `lusing turistic scum'.

Node:toy, Next:[13561]toy language, Previous:[13562]touristic,

Up:[13563]= T =

toy n.

A computer system; always used with qualifiers. 1. `nice toy': One

that supports the speaker's hacking style adequately. 2. `just a toy':

A machine that yields insufficient [13564]computrons for the speaker's

preferred uses. This is not condemnatory, as is [13565]bitty box; toys

can at least be fun. It is also strongly conditioned by one's

expectations; Cray XMP users sometimes consider the Cray-1 a `toy',

and certainly all RISC boxes and mainframes are toys by their

standards. See also [13566]Get a real computer!.

Node:toy language, Next:[13567]toy problem, Previous:[13568]toy,

Up:[13569]= T =

toy language n.

A language useful for instructional purposes or as a proof-of-concept

for some aspect of computer-science theory, but inadequate for

general-purpose programming. [13570]Bad Things can result when a toy

language is promoted as a general purpose solution for programming

(see [13571]bondage-and-discipline language); the classic example is

[13572]Pascal. Several moderately well-known formalisms for conceptual

tasks such as programming Turing machines also qualify as toy

languages in a less negative sense. See also [13573]MFTL.

Node:toy problem, Next:[13574]toy program, Previous:[13575]toy

language, Up:[13576]= T =

toy problem n.

[AI] A deliberately oversimplified case of a challenging problem used

to investigate, prototype, or test algorithms for a real problem.

Sometimes used pejoratively. See also [13577]gedanken, [13578]toy

program.

Node:toy program, Next:[13579]trampoline, Previous:[13580]toy problem,

Up:[13581]= T =

toy program n.

One that can be readily comprehended; hence, a trivial program

(compare [13582]noddy). 2. One for which the effort of initial coding

dominates the costs through its life cycle. See also [13583]noddy.

Node:trampoline, Next:[13584]trap, Previous:[13585]toy program,

Up:[13586]= T =

trampoline n.

An incredibly [13587]hairy technique, found in some [13588]HLL and

program-overlay implementations (e.g., on the Macintosh), that

involves on-the-fly generation of small executable (and, likely as

not, self-modifying) code objects to do indirection between code

sections. Under BSD and possibly in other Unixes, trampoline code is

used to transfer control from the kernel back to user mode when a

signal (which has had a handler installed) is sent to a process. hese

pieces of [13589]live data are called `trampolines'. Trampolines are

notoriously difficult to understand in action; in fact, it is said by

those who use this term that the trampoline that doesn't bend your

brain is not the true trampoline. See also [13590]snap.

Node:trap, Next:[13591]trap door, Previous:[13592]trampoline,

Up:[13593]= T =

trap

n. A program interrupt, usually an interrupt caused by some

exceptional situation in the user program. In most cases, the OS

performs some action, then returns control to the program. 2. vi. To

cause a trap. "These instructions trap to the monitor." Also used

transitively to indicate the cause of the trap. "The monitor traps all

input/output instructions."

This term is associated with assembler programming (`interrupt' or

`exception' is more common among [13594]HLL programmers) and appears

to be fading into history among programmers as the role of assembler

continues to shrink. However, it is still important to computer

architects and systems hackers (see [13595]system, sense 1), who use

it to distinguish deterministically repeatable exceptions from

timing-dependent ones (such as I/O interrupts).

Node:trap door, Next:[13596]trash, Previous:[13597]trap, Up:[13598]= T

=

trap door n.

(alt. `trapdoor') 1. Syn. [13599]back door -- a [13600]Bad Thing. 2.

[techspeak] A `trap-door function' is one which is easy to compute but

very difficult to compute the inverse of. Such functions are

[13601]Good Things with important applications in cryptography,

specifically in the construction of public-key cryptosystems.

Node:trash, Next:[13602]trawl, Previous:[13603]trap door, Up:[13604]=

T =

trash vt.

To destroy the contents of (said of a data structure). The most common

of the family of near-synonyms including [13605]mung, [13606]mangle,

and [13607]scribble.

Node:trawl, Next:[13608]tree-killer, Previous:[13609]trash,

Up:[13610]= T =

trawl v.

To sift through large volumes of data (e.g., Usenet postings, FTP

archives, or the Jargon File) looking for something of interest.

Node:tree-killer, Next:[13611]treeware, Previous:[13612]trawl,

Up:[13613]= T =

tree-killer n.

[Sun] 1. A printer. 2. A person who wastes paper. This epithet should

be interpreted in a broad sense; `wasting paper' includes the

production of [13614]spiffy but [13615]content-free documents. Thus,

most [13616]suits are tree-killers. The negative loading of this term

may reflect the epithet `tree-killer' applied by Treebeard the Ent to

the Orcs in J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" (see also

[13617]elvish, [13618]elder days).

Node:treeware, Next:[13619]trit, Previous:[13620]tree-killer,

Up:[13621]= T =

treeware /tree'weir/ n.

Printouts, books, and other information media made from pulped dead

trees. Compare [13622]tree-killer, see [13623]documentation.

Node:trit, Next:[13624]trivial, Previous:[13625]treeware, Up:[13626]=

T =

trit /trit/ n.

[by analogy with `bit'] One base-3 digit; the amount of information

conveyed by a selection among one of three equally likely outcomes

(see also [13627]bit). Trits arise, for example, in the context of a

[13628]flag that should actually be able to assume three values --

such as yes, no, or unknown. Trits are sometimes jokingly called

3-state bits'. A trit may be semi-seriously referred to asa bit and

a half', although it is linearly equivalent to 1.5849625 bits (that

is, log2(3) bits).

Node:trivial, Next:[13629]troff, Previous:[13630]trit, Up:[13631]= T =

trivial adj.

Too simple to bother detailing. 2. Not worth the speaker's time. 3.

Complex, but solvable by methods so well known that anyone not utterly

[13632]cretinous would have thought of them already. 4. Any problem

one has already solved (some claim that hackish `trivial' usually

evaluates to `I've seen it before'). Hackers' notions of triviality

may be quite at variance with those of non-hackers. See

[13633]nontrivial, [13634]uninteresting.

The physicist Richard Feynman, who had the hacker nature to an amazing

degree (see his essay "Los Alamos From Below" in "Surely You're

Joking, Mr. Feynman!"), defined `trivial theorem' as "one that has

already been proved".

Node:troff, Next:[13635]troglodyte, Previous:[13636]trivial,

Up:[13637]= T =

troff /T'rof/ or /trof/ n.

[Unix] The gray eminence of Unix text processing; a formatting and

phototypesetting program, written originally in PDP-11 assembler and

then in barely-structured early C by the late Joseph Ossanna, modeled

after the earlier ROFF which was in turn modeled after the

[13638]Multics and [13639]CTSS program RUNOFF by Jerome Saltzer (that

name came from the expression "to run off a copy"). A companion

program, [13640]nroff, formats output for terminals and line printers.

In 1979, Brian Kernighan modified troff so that it could drive

phototypesetters other than the Graphic Systems CAT. His paper

describing that work ("A Typesetter-independent troff," AT&T CSTR #97)

explains troff's durability. After discussing the program's "obvious

deficiencies -- a rebarbative input syntax, mysterious and

undocumented properties in some areas, and a voracious appetite for

computer resources" and noting the ugliness and extreme hairiness of

the code and internals, Kernighan concludes:

None of these remarks should be taken as denigrating Ossanna's

accomplishment with TROFF. It has proven a remarkably robust tool,

taking unbelievable abuse from a variety of preprocessors and being

forced into uses that were never conceived of in the original

design, all with considerable grace under fire.

The success of [13641]TeX and desktop publishing systems have reduced

troff's relative importance, but this tribute perfectly captures the

strengths that secured troff a place in hacker folklore; indeed, it

could be taken more generally as an indication of those qualities of

good programs that, in the long run, hackers most admire.

Node:troglodyte, Next:[13642]troglodyte mode, Previous:[13643]troff,

Up:[13644]= T =

troglodyte n.

[Commodore] 1. A hacker who never leaves his cubicle. The term `gnoll'

(from Dungeons & Dragons) is also reported. 2. A curmudgeon attached

to an obsolescent computing environment. The combination `ITS

troglodyte' was flung around some during the Usenet and email

wringle-wrangle attending the 2.x.x revision of the Jargon File; at

least one of the people it was intended to describe adopted it with

pride.

Node:troglodyte mode, Next:[13645]Trojan horse,

Previous:[13646]troglodyte, Up:[13647]= T =

troglodyte mode n.

[Rice University] Programming with the lights turned off, sunglasses

on, and the terminal inverted (black on white) because you've been up

for so many days straight that your eyes hurt (see [13648]raster

burn). Loud music blaring from a stereo stacked in the corner is

optional but recommended. See [13649]larval stage, [13650]hack mode.

Node:Trojan horse, Next:[13651]troll, Previous:[13652]troglodyte mode,

Up:[13653]= T =

Trojan horse n.

[coined by MIT-hacker-turned-NSA-spook Dan Edwards] A malicious,

security-breaking program that is disguised as something benign, such

as a directory lister, archiver, game, or (in one notorious 1990 case

on the Mac) a program to find and destroy viruses! See [13654]back

door, [13655]virus, [13656]worm, [13657]phage, [13658]mockingbird.

Node:troll, Next:[13659]Troll-O-Meter,