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

fails by implicitly assuming that technologies develop

linearly, incrementally, and in isolation from one another when in

fact the learning curve tends to be highly nonlinear, revolutions are

common, and competition is the rule. The prototype was Vannevar Bush's

prediction of `electronic brains' the size of the Empire State

Building with a Niagara-Falls-equivalent cooling system for their

tubes and relays, a prediction made at a time when the semiconductor

effect had already been demonstrated. Other famous vannevars have

included magnetic-bubble memory, LISP machines, [14058]videotex, and a

paper from the late 1970s that computed a purported ultimate limit on

areal density for ICs that was in fact less than the routine densities

of 5 years later.

Node:vaporware, Next:[14059]var, Previous:[14060]vannevar, Up:[14061]=

V =

vaporware /vay'pr-weir/ n.

Products announced far in advance of any release (which may or may not

actually take place). See also [14062]brochureware.

Node:var, Next:[14063]vaston, Previous:[14064]vaporware, Up:[14065]= V

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var /veir/ or /var/ n.

Short for `variable'. Compare [14066]arg, [14067]param.

Node:vaston, Next:[14068]VAX, Previous:[14069]var, Up:[14070]= V =

vaston n.

[Durham, UK] The unit of `load average'. A measure of how much work a

computer is doing. A meter displaying this as a function of time is

known as a `vastometer'. First used during a computing practical in

December 1996.

Node:VAX, Next:[14071]VAXectomy, Previous:[14072]vaston, Up:[14073]= V

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VAX /vaks/ n.

[from Virtual Address eXtension] The most successful minicomputer

design in industry history, possibly excepting its immediate ancestor,

the PDP-11. Between its release in 1978 and its eclipse by

[14074]killer micros after about 1986, the VAX was probably the

hacker's favorite machine of them all, esp. after the 1982 release of

4.2 BSD Unix (see [14075]BSD). Esp. noted for its large,

assembler-programmer-friendly instruction set -- an asset that became

a liability after the RISC revolution. 2. A major brand of vacuum

cleaner in Britain. Cited here because its sales pitch, "Nothing sucks

like a VAX!" became a sort of battle-cry of RISC partisans. It is even

sometimes claimed that DEC actually entered a cross-licensing deal

with the vacuum-Vax people that allowed them to market VAX computers

in the U.K. in return for not challenging the vacuum cleaner trademark

in the U.S.

A rival brand actually pioneered the slogan: its original form was

"Nothing sucks like Electrolux". It has apparently become a classic

example (used in advertising textbooks) of the perils of not knowing

the local idiom. But in 1996, the press manager of Electrolux AB,

while confirming that the company used this slogan in the late 1960s,

also tells us that their marketing people were fully aware of the

possible double entendre and intended it to gain attention.

And gain attention it did - the VAX-vacuum-cleaner people thought the

slogan a sufficiently good idea to copy it. Several British hackers

report that VAX's promotions used it in 1986-1987, and we have one

report from a New Zealander that the infamous slogan surfaced there in

TV ads for the product in 1992.

Node:VAXectomy, Next:[14076]VAXen, Previous:[14077]VAX, Up:[14078]= V

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VAXectomy /vak-sek't*-mee/ n.

[by analogy with `vasectomy'] A VAX removal. [14079]DEC's Microvaxen,

especially, are much slower than newer RISC-based workstations such as

the SPARC. Thus, if one knows one has a replacement coming, VAX

removal can be cause for celebration.

Node:VAXen, Next:[14080]vaxherd, Previous:[14081]VAXectomy,

Up:[14082]= V =

VAXen /vak'sn/ n.

[from oxen', perhaps influenced byvixen'] (alt. `vaxen') The plural

canonically used among hackers for the [14083]DEC VAX computers. "Our

installation has four PDP-10s and twenty vaxen." See [14084]boxen.

Node:vaxherd, Next:[14085]vaxism, Previous:[14086]VAXen, Up:[14087]= V

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vaxherd /vaks'herd/ n. obs.

[from `oxherd'] A VAX operator. The image is reinforced because VAXen

actually did tend to come in herds, technically known as `clusters'.

Node:vaxism, Next:[14088]vaxocentrism, Previous:[14089]vaxherd,

Up:[14090]= V =

vaxism /vak'sizm/ n.

A piece of code that exhibits [14091]vaxocentrism in critical areas.

Compare [14092]PC-ism, [14093]unixism.

Node:vaxocentrism, Next:[14094]vdiff, Previous:[14095]vaxism,

Up:[14096]= V =

vaxocentrism /vak`soh-sen'trizm/ n.

[analogy with `ethnocentrism'] A notional disease said to afflict C

programmers who persist in coding according to certain assumptions

that are valid (esp. under Unix) on [14097]VAXen but false elsewhere.

Among these are:

The assumption that dereferencing a null pointer is safe because

it is all bits 0, and location 0 is readable and 0. Problem: this

may instead cause an illegal-address trap on non-VAXen, and even

on VAXen under OSes other than BSD Unix. Usually this is an

implicit assumption of sloppy code (forgetting to check the

pointer before using it), rather than deliberate exploitation of a

misfeature.

The assumption that characters are signed.

The assumption that a pointer to any one type can freely be cast

into a pointer to any other type. A stronger form of this is the

assumption that all pointers are the same size and format, which

means you don't have to worry about getting the casts or types

correct in calls. Problem: this fails on word-oriented machines or

others with multiple pointer formats.

The assumption that the parameters of a routine are stored in

memory, on a stack, contiguously, and in strictly ascending or

descending order. Problem: this fails on many RISC architectures.

The assumption that pointer and integer types are the same size,

and that pointers can be stuffed into integer variables (and

vice-versa) and drawn back out without being truncated or mangled.

Problem: this fails on segmented architectures or word-oriented

machines with funny pointer formats.

The assumption that a data type of any size may begin at any byte

address in memory (for example, that you can freely construct and

dereference a pointer to a word- or greater-sized object at an odd

char address). Problem: this fails on many (esp. RISC)

architectures better optimized for [14098]HLL execution speed, and

can cause an illegal address fault or bus error.

The (related) assumption that there is no padding at the end of

types and that in an array you can thus step right from the last

byte of a previous component to the first byte of the next one.

This is not only machine- but compiler-dependent.

The assumption that memory address space is globally flat and that

the array reference foo[-1] is necessarily valid. Problem: this

fails at 0, or other places on segment-addressed machines like

Intel chips (yes, segmentation is universally considered a

[14099]brain-damaged way to design machines (see [14100]moby), but

that is a separate issue).

The assumption that objects can be arbitrarily large with no

special considerations. Problem: this fails on segmented

architectures and under non-virtual-addressing environments.

The assumption that the stack can be as large as memory. Problem:

this fails on segmented architectures or almost anything else

without virtual addressing and a paged stack.

The assumption that bits and addressable units within an object

are ordered in the same way and that this order is a constant of

nature. Problem: this fails on [14101]big-endian machines.

The assumption that it is meaningful to compare pointers to

different objects not located within the same array, or to objects

of different types. Problem: the former fails on segmented

architectures, the latter on word-oriented machines or others with

multiple pointer formats.

The assumption that an int is 32 bits, or (nearly equivalently)

the assumption that sizeof(int) == sizeof(long). Problem: this

fails on PDP-11s, 286-based systems and even on 386 and 68000

systems under some compilers (and on 64-bit systems like the

Alpha, of course).

The assumption that argv[] is writable. Problem: this fails in

many embedded-systems C environments and even under a few flavors

of Unix.

Note that a programmer can validly be accused of vaxocentrism even if

he or she has never seen a VAX. Some of these assumptions (esp. 2-5)

were valid on the PDP-11, the original C machine, and became endemic

years before the VAX. The terms `vaxocentricity' and

`all-the-world's-a-VAX syndrome' have been used synonymously.

Node:vdiff, Next:[14102]veeblefester, Previous:[14103]vaxocentrism,

Up:[14104]= V =

vdiff /vee'dif/ v.,n.

Visual diff. The operation of finding differences between two files by

[14105]eyeball search. The term `optical diff' has also been reported,

and is sometimes more specifically used for the act of superimposing

two nearly identical printouts on one another and holding them up to a

light to spot differences. Though this method is poor for detecting

omissions in the `rear' file, it can also be used with printouts of

graphics, a claim few if any diff programs can make. See [14106]diff.

Node:veeblefester, Next:[14107]velveeta, Previous:[14108]vdiff,

Up:[14109]= V =

veeblefester /vee'b*l-fes`tr/ n.

[from the "Born Loser" comix via Commodore; prob. originally from

"Mad" Magazine's `Veeblefetzer' parodies beginning in #15, 1954] Any

obnoxious person engaged in the (alleged) professions of marketing or

management. Antonym of [14110]hacker. Compare [14111]suit,

[14112]marketroid.

Node:velveeta, Next:[14113]ventilator card,

Previous:[14114]veeblefester, Up:[14115]= V =

velveeta n.

[Usenet: by analogy with [14116]spam. The trade name Velveeta is

attached in the U.S. to a particularly nasty processed-cheese spread.]

Also knows as [14117]ECP; a message that is excessively cross-posted,

as opposed to [14118]spam which is too frequently posted. This term is

widely recognized but not commonly used; most people refer to both

kinds of abuse as spam. Compare [14119]jello.

Node:ventilator card, Next:[14120]Venus flytrap,

Previous:[14121]velveeta, Up:[14122]= V =

ventilator card n.

Syn. [14123]lace card.

Node:Venus flytrap, Next:[14124]verbage, Previous:[14125]ventilator

card, Up:[14126]= V =

Venus flytrap n.

[after the insect-eating plant] See [14127]firewall machine.

Node:verbage, Next:[14128]verbiage, Previous:[14129]Venus flytrap,

Up:[14130]= V =

verbage /ver'b*j/ n.

A deliberate misspelling and mispronunciation of [14131]verbiage that

assimilates it to the word `garbage'. Compare [14132]content-free.

More pejorative than `verbiage'.

Node:verbiage, Next:[14133]Version 7, Previous:[14134]verbage,

Up:[14135]= V =

verbiage n.

When the context involves a software or hardware system, this refers

to [14136]documentation. This term borrows the connotations of

mainstream `verbiage' to suggest that the documentation is of marginal

utility and that the motives behind its production have little to do

with the ostensible subject.

Node:Version 7, Next:[14137]vgrep, Previous:[14138]verbiage,

Up:[14139]= V =

Version 7 alt. V7 /vee' se'vn/ n.

The first widely distributed version of [14140]Unix, released

unsupported by Bell Labs in 1978. The term is used adjectivally to

describe Unix features and programs that date from that release, and

are thus guaranteed to be present and portable in all Unix versions

(this was the standard gauge of portability before the POSIX and IEEE

1003 standards). Note that this usage does not derive from the release

being the "seventh version of [14141]Unix"; research [14142]Unix at

Bell Labs has traditionally been numbered according to the edition of

the associated documentation. Indeed, only the widely-distributed

Sixth and Seventh Editions are widely known as V[67]; the OS that

might today be known as `V10' is instead known in full as "Tenth

Edition Research Unix" or just "Tenth Edition" for short. For this

reason, "V7" is often read by cognoscenti as "Seventh Edition". See

[14143]BSD, [14144]USG Unix, [14145]Unix. Some old-timers impatient

with commercialization and kernel bloat still maintain that V7 was the

Last True Unix.

Node:vgrep, Next:[14146]vi, Previous:[14147]Version 7, Up:[14148]= V =

vgrep /vee'grep/ v.,n.

Visual grep. The operation of finding patterns in a file optically

rather than digitally (also called an `optical grep'). See

[14149]grep; compare [14150]vdiff.

Node:vi, Next:[14151]video toaster, Previous:[14152]vgrep, Up:[14153]=

V =

vi /V-I/, not /vi:/ and never /siks/ n.

[from `Visual Interface'] A screen editor crufted together by Bill Joy

for an early [14154]BSD release. Became the de facto standard Unix

editor and a nearly undisputed hacker favorite outside of MIT until

the rise of [14155]EMACS after about 1984. Tends to frustrate new

users no end, as it will neither take commands while expecting input

text nor vice versa, and the default setup on older versions provides

no indication of which mode the editor is in (years ago, a

correspondent reported that he has often heard the editor's name

pronounced /vi:l/; there is now a vi clone named `vile'). Nevertheless

vi (and variants such as vim and elvis) is still widely used (about

half the respondents in a 1991 Usenet poll preferred it), and even

EMACS fans often resort to it as a mail editor and for small editing

jobs (mainly because