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

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:[14780]wish list, Previous:[14781]wirehead,

Up:[14782]= W =

wirewater n.

Syn. [14783]programming fluid. This melds the mainstream slang

adjective wired' (stimulated, up, hyperactive) withfirewater';

however, it refers to caffeinacious rather than alcoholic beverages.

Node:wish list, Next:[14784]within delta of,

Previous:[14785]wirewater, Up:[14786]= 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 [14787]tick-list features.

Node:within delta of, Next:[14788]within epsilon of,

Previous:[14789]wish list, Up:[14790]= W =

within delta of adj.

See [14791]delta.

Node:within epsilon of, Next:[14792]wizard, Previous:[14793]within

delta of, Up:[14794]= W =

within epsilon of adj.

See [14795]epsilon.

Node:wizard, Next:[14796]Wizard Book, Previous:[14797]within epsilon

of, Up:[14798]= W =

wizard n.

Transitively, a person who knows how a complex piece of software or

hardware works (that is, who [14799]groks it); esp. someone who can

find and fix bugs quickly in an emergency. Someone is a [14800]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 [14801]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 [14802]guru, [14803]lord

high fixer. See also [14804]deep magic, [14805]heavy wizardry,

[14806]incantation, [14807]magic, [14808]mutter, [14809]rain dance,

[14810]voodoo programming, [14811]wave a dead chicken.

Node:Wizard Book, Next:[14812]wizard hat, Previous:[14813]wizard,

Up:[14814]= 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 [14815]bibles of the LISP/Scheme world. Also, less

commonly, known as the [14816]Purple Book.

Node:wizard hat, Next:[14817]wizard mode, Previous:[14818]Wizard Book,

Up:[14819]= W =

wizard hat n.

[also, after Terry Pratchett, `pointy hat'] Notional headgear worn by

whoever is the [14820]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

[14821]patch pumpkin.

Node:wizard mode, Next:[14822]wizardly, Previous:[14823]wizard hat,

Up:[14824]= W =

wizard mode n.

[from [14825]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:[14826]wok-on-the-wall, Previous:[14827]wizard

mode, Up:[14828]= W =

wizardly adj.

Pertaining to wizards. A wizardly [14829]feature is one that only a

wizard could understand or use properly.

Node:wok-on-the-wall, Next:[14830]womb box, Previous:[14831]wizardly,

Up:[14832]= 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:[14833]WOMBAT, Previous:[14834]wok-on-the-wall,

Up:[14835]= W =

womb box n.

[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:[14836]womble, Previous:[14837]womb box, Up:[14838]=

W =

WOMBAT /wom'bat/ adj.

[acronym: Waste Of Money, Brains, And Time] Applied to problems which

are both profoundly [14839]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

[14840]crawling horror, [14841]SMOP. Also note the rather different

usage as a metasyntactic variable in [14842]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:[14843]wonky, Previous:[14844]WOMBAT, Up:[14845]= 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 [14846]luser. An especially senior

or high-ranking womble is referred to as Great-Uncle Bulgaria.

Node:wonky, Next:[14847]woofer, Previous:[14848]womble, Up:[14849]= W

=

wonky /wong'kee/ adj.

[from Australian slang] Yet another approximate synonym for

[14850]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 [14851]funky,

[14852]demented, [14853]bozotic.

Node:woofer, Next:[14854]workaround, Previous:[14855]wonky,

Up:[14856]= 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 [14857]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:[14858]working as designed,

Previous:[14859]woofer, Up:[14860]= W =

workaround n.

A temporary [14861]kluge used to bypass, mask, or otherwise avoid a

[14862]bug or [14863]misfeature in some system. Theoretically,

workarounds are always replaced by [14864]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 [14865]crashes the 4.43 build of Weemax, but

as a workaround you can type CTRL-R, then SHIFT-F5, and delete the

remaining [14866]cruft by hand."

Node:working as designed, Next:[14867]worm,

Previous:[14868]workaround, Up:[14869]= W =

working as designed adj.

[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 [14870]IBM, this sense is

used in official documents! See [14871]BAD.

Node:worm, Next:[14872]wormhole, Previous:[14873]working as designed,

Up:[14874]= 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 [14875]virus. Nowadays the term

has negative connotations, as it is assumed that only [14876]crackers

write worms. Perhaps the best-known example was Robert T. Morris's

[14877]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

[14878]cracker, [14879]RTM, [14880]Trojan horse, [14881]ice.

Node:wormhole, Next:[14882]wound around the axle,

Previous:[14883]worm, Up:[14884]= 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 [14885]gopher hole (sense 2).

Node:wound around the axle, Next:[14886]wrap around,

Previous:[14887]wormhole, Up:[14888]= W =

wound around the axle adj.

In an infinite loop. Often used by older computer types.

Node:wrap around, Next:[14889]write-only code, Previous:[14890]wound

around the axle, Up:[14891]= W =

wrap around vi.

(also n. wraparound' and v. shorthandwrap') 1. [techspeak] The

action of a counter that starts over at zero or at `minus infinity'

(see [14892]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 [14893]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

[14894]phase-wrapping.

Node:write-only code, Next:[14895]write-only language,

Previous:[14896]wrap around, Up:[14897]= 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 [14898]Bad

Thing.

Node:write-only language, Next:[14899]write-only memory,

Previous:[14900]write-only code, Up:[14901]= W =

write-only language n.

A language with syntax (or semantics) sufficiently dense and bizarre

that any routine of significant size is automatically

[14902]write-only code. A sobriquet applied occasionally to C and

often to APL, though [14903]INTERCAL and [14904]TECO certainly deserve

it more. See also [14905]Befunge.

Node:write-only memory, Next:[14906]Wrong Thing,

Previous:[14907]write-only language, Up:[14908]= 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

[14909]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:[14910]wugga wugga, Previous:[14911]write-only

memory, Up:[14912]= 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 [14913]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:[14914]wumpus, Previous:[14915]Wrong Thing,

Up:[14916]= W =

wugga wugga /wuh'g wuh'g/ n.

Imaginary sound that a computer program makes as it labors with a

tedious or difficult task.[14917]grind (sense 4).

Node:wumpus, Next:[14918]WYSIAYG, Previous:[14919]wugga wugga,

Up:[14920]= 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 [14921]ADVENT) by

Gregory Yob. The wumpus lived