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

source of frustration to many others, for reasons ranging

from uneven support on different Web browser platforms, performance

issues, and some notorious deficiencies of some of the standard

toolkits (AWT in particular). [7419]Microsoft's determined attempts to

corrupt the language (which it rightly sees as a threat to its OS

monopoly) have not helped. As of 1999, these issues are still in the

process of being resolved.

Despite many attractive features and a good design, it is difficult to

find people willing to praise Java who have tried to implement a

complex, real-world system with it (but to be fair it is early days

yet, and no other language has ever been forced to spend its childhood

under the limelight the way Java has). On the other hand, Java has

already been a big [7420]win in academic circles, where it has taken

the place of [7421]Pascal as the preferred tool for teaching the

basics of good programming to the next generation of hackers.

Node:JCL, Next:[7422]JEDR, Previous:[7423]Java, Up:[7424]= J =

JCL /J-C-L/ n.

IBM's supremely [7425]rude Job Control Language. JCL is the script

language used to control the execution of programs in IBM's batch

systems. JCL has a very [7426]fascist syntax, and some versions will,

for example, [7427]barf if two spaces appear where it expects one.

Most programmers confronted with JCL simply copy a working file (or

card deck), changing the file names. Someone who actually understands

and generates unique JCL is regarded with the mixed respect one gives

to someone who memorizes the phone book. It is reported that hackers

at IBM itself sometimes sing "Who's the breeder of the crud that

mangles you and me? I-B-M, J-C-L, M-o-u-s-e" to the tune of the

"Mickey Mouse Club" theme to express their opinion of the beast. 2. A

comparative for any very [7428]rude software that a hacker is expected

to use. "That's as bad as JCL." As with [7429]COBOL, JCL is often used

as an archetype of ugliness even by those who haven't experienced it.

See also [7430]IBM, [7431]fear and loathing.

A (poorly documented, naturally) shell simulating JCL syntax is

available at the Retrocomputing Museum

[7432]http://www.ccil.org/retro.

Node:JEDR, Next:[7433]Jeff K., Previous:[7434]JCL, Up:[7435]= J =

JEDR // n.

Synonymous with [7436]IYFEG. At one time, people in the Usenet

newsgroup rec.humor.funny tended to use `JEDR' instead of [7437]IYFEG

or `'; this stemmed from a public attempt to suppress the

group once made by a loser with initials JEDR after he was offended by

an ethnic joke posted there. (The practice was [7438]retconned by the

expanding these initials as `Joke Ethnic/Denomination/Race'.) After

much sound and fury JEDR faded away; this term appears to be doing

likewise. JEDR's only permanent effect on the net.culture was to

discredit `sensitivity' arguments for censorship so thoroughly that

more recent attempts to raise them have met with immediate and

near-universal rejection.

Node:Jeff K., Next:[7439]jello, Previous:[7440]JEDR, Up:[7441]= J =

Jeff K.

The spiritual successor to [7442]B1FF and the archetype of

[7443]script kiddies. Jeff K. is a sixteen-year-old suburbanite who

fancies himself a "l33t haX0r", although his knowledge of computers

seems to be limited to the procedure for getting Quake up and running.

His Web page [7444]http://www.somethingawful.com/jeffk features a

number of hopelessly naive articles, essays, and rants, all filled

with the kind of misspellings, [7445]studlycaps, and number-for-letter

substitutions endemic to the script kiddie and [7446]warez d00dz

communities. Jeff's offerings, among other things, include hardware

advice (such as "AMD VERSIS PENTIUM" and "HOW TO OVARCLOAK YOUR

COMPUTAR"), his own Quake clan (Clan 40 OUNSCE), and his own comic

strip (Wacky Fun Computar Comic Jokes).

Like B1FF, Jeff K. is (fortunately) a hoax. Jeff K. was created by

internet game journalist Richard "Lowtax" Kyanka, whose web site

Something Awful (http://www.somethingawful.com) highlights

unintentionally humorous news items and Web sites, as a parody of the

kind of teenage [7447]luser who infests Quake servers, chat rooms, and

other places where computer enthusiasts congregate. He is

well-recognized in the PC game community and his influence has spread

to hacker [7448]fora like Slashdot as well.

Node:jello, Next:[7449]jiffy, Previous:[7450]Jeff K., Up:[7451]= J =

jello n.

[Usenet: by analogy with [7452]spam] A message that is both

excessively cross-posted and too frequently posted, as opposed to

[7453]spam (which is merely too frequently posted) or [7454]velveeta

(which is merely excessively cross-posted). This term is widely

recognized but not commonly used; most people refer to both kinds of

abuse or their combination as spam.

Node:jiffy, Next:[7455]job security, Previous:[7456]jello, Up:[7457]=

J =

jiffy n.

The duration of one tick of the system clock on your computer (see

[7458]tick). Often one AC cycle time (1/60 second in the U.S. and

Canada, 1/50 most other places), but more recently 1/100 sec has

become common. "The swapper runs every 6 jiffies" means that the

virtual memory management routine is executed once for every 6 ticks

of the clock, or about ten times a second. 2. Confusingly, the term is

sometimes also used for a 1-millisecond [7459]wall time interval. 3.

Even more confusingly, physicists semi-jokingly use `jiffy' to mean

the time required for light to travel one foot in a vacuum, which

turns out to be close to one nanosecond. 4. Indeterminate time from a

few seconds to forever. "I'll do it in a jiffy" means certainly not

now and possibly never. This is a bit contrary to the more widespread

use of the word. Oppose [7460]nano. See also [7461]Real Soon Now.

Node:job security, Next:[7462]jock, Previous:[7463]jiffy, Up:[7464]= J

=

job security n.

When some piece of code is written in a particularly [7465]obscure

fashion, and no good reason (such as time or space optimization) can

be discovered, it is often said that the programmer was attempting to

increase his job security (i.e., by making himself indispensable for

maintenance). This sour joke seldom has to be said in full; if two

hackers are looking over some code together and one points at a

section and says "job security", the other one may just nod.

Node:jock, Next:[7466]joe code, Previous:[7467]job security,

Up:[7468]= J =

jock n.

A programmer who is characterized by large and somewhat brute-force

programs. See [7469]brute force. 2. When modified by another noun,

describes a specialist in some particular computing area. The

compounds compiler jock' andsystems jock' seem to be the

best-established examples.

Node:joe code, Next:[7470]jolix, Previous:[7471]jock, Up:[7472]= J =

joe code /joh' kohd`/ n.

Code that is overly [7473]tense and unmaintainable. "[7474]Perl may

be a handy program, but if you look at the source, it's complete joe

code." 2. Badly written, possibly buggy code.

Correspondents wishing to remain anonymous have fingered a particular

Joe at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and observed that usage has

drifted slightly; the original sobriquet `Joe code' was intended in

sense 1.

1994 update: This term has now generalized to ` code', used to

designate code with distinct characteristics traceable to its author.

"This section doesn't check for a NULL return from malloc()! Oh. No

wonder! It's Ed code!". Used most often with a programmer who has left

the shop and thus is a convenient scapegoat for anything that is wrong

with the project.

Node:jolix, Next:[7475]juggling eggs, Previous:[7476]joe code,

Up:[7477]= J =

jolix /joh'liks/ n.,adj.

386BSD, the freeware port of the BSD Net/2 release to the Intel i386

architecture by Bill Jolitz, Lynne Greer Jolitz, and friends. Used to

differentiate from BSDI's port based on the same source tape, which

used to be called BSD/386 and is now BSD/OS. See [7478]BSD.

Node:juggling eggs, Next:[7479]jump off into never-never land,

Previous:[7480]jolix, Up:[7481]= J =

juggling eggs vi.

Keeping a lot of [7482]state in your head while modifying a program.

"Don't bother me now, I'm juggling eggs", means that an interrupt is

likely to result in the program's being scrambled. In the classic 1975

first-contact SF novel "The Mote in God's Eye", by Larry Niven and

Jerry Pournelle, an alien describes a very difficult task by saying

"We juggle priceless eggs in variable gravity." See also [7483]hack

mode and [7484]on the gripping hand.

Node:jump off into never-never land, Next:[7485]jupiter,

Previous:[7486]juggling eggs, Up:[7487]= J =

jump off into never-never land v.

[from J. M. Barrie's "Peter Pan"] Same as [7488]branch to Fishkill,

but more common in technical cultures associated with non-IBM

computers that use the term jump' rather thanbranch'. Compare

[7489]hyperspace.

Node:jupiter, Next:[7490]K, Previous:[7491]jump off into never-never

land, Up:[7492]= J =

jupiter vt.

[IRC] To kill an [7493]IRC [7494]bot or user and then take its place

by adopting its [7495]nick so that it cannot reconnect. Named after a

particular IRC user who did this to NickServ, the robot in charge of

preventing people from inadvertently using a nick claimed by another

user. Now commonly shortened to `jupe'.

Node:= K =, Next:[7496]= L =, Previous:[7497]= J =, Up:[7498]The

Jargon Lexicon

= K =

[7499]K:

[7500]K&R:

[7501]k-:

[7502]kahuna:

[7503]kamikaze packet:

[7504]kangaroo code:

[7505]ken:

[7506]kernel-of-the-week club:

[7507]kgbvax:

[7508]KIBO:

[7509]kiboze:

[7510]kibozo:

[7511]kick:

[7512]kill file:

[7513]killer app:

[7514]killer micro:

[7515]killer poke:

[7516]kilo-:

[7517]KIPS:

[7518]KISS Principle:

[7519]kit:

[7520]klone:

[7521]kludge:

[7522]kluge:

[7523]kluge around:

[7524]kluge up:

[7525]Knights of the Lambda Calculus:

[7526]knobs:

[7527]Knuth:

[7528]koan:

[7529]kremvax:

[7530]kyrka:

Node:K, Next:[7531]K&R, Previous:[7532]jupiter, Up:[7533]= K =

K /K/ n.

[from [7534]kilo-] A kilobyte. Used both as a spoken word and a

written suffix (like [7535]meg and [7536]gig for megabyte and

gigabyte). See [7537]quantifiers.

Node:K&R, Next:[7538]k-, Previous:[7539]K, Up:[7540]= K =

K&R [Kernighan and Ritchie] n.

Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie's book "The C Programming

Language", esp. the classic and influential first edition

(Prentice-Hall 1978; ISBN 0-13-110163-3). Syn. [7541]White Book,

[7542]Old Testament. See also [7543]New Testament.

Node:k-, Next:[7544]kahuna, Previous:[7545]K&R, Up:[7546]= K =

k- pref.

[rare; poss fr. `kilo-' prefix] Extremely. Rare among hackers, but

quite common among crackers and [7547]warez d00dz in compounds such as

k-kool' /K'kool'/,k-rad' /K'rad'/, and k-awesome' /K'awsm/. Also

used to intensify negatives; thus, k-evil',k-lame', `k-screwed',

and `k-annoying'. Overuse of this prefix, or use in more formal or

technical contexts, is considered an indicator of [7548]lamer status.

Node:kahuna, Next:[7549]kamikaze packet, Previous:[7550]k-, Up:[7551]=

K =

kahuna /k-hoo'n/ n.

[IBM: from the Hawaiian title for a shaman] Synonym for [7552]wizard,

[7553]guru.

Node:kamikaze packet, Next:[7554]kangaroo code, Previous:[7555]kahuna,

Up:[7556]= K =

kamikaze packet n.

The `official' jargon for what is more commonly called a

[7557]Christmas tree packet. [7558]RFC-1025, "TCP and IP Bake Off"

says:

10 points for correctly being able to process a "Kamikaze" packet

(AKA nastygram, christmas tree packet, lamp test segment, et al.).

That is, correctly handle a segment with the maximum combination of

features at once (e.g., a SYN URG PUSH FIN segment with options and

data).

See also [7559]Chernobyl packet.

Node:kangaroo code, Next:[7560]ken, Previous:[7561]kamikaze packet,

Up:[7562]= K =

kangaroo code n.

Syn. [7563]spaghetti code.

Node:ken, Next:[7564]kernel-of-the-week club, Previous:[7565]kangaroo

code, Up:[7566]= K =

ken /ken/ n.

[Unix] Ken Thompson, principal inventor of Unix. In the early days

he used to hand-cut distribution tapes, often with a note that read

"Love, ken". Old-timers still use his first name (sometimes

uncapitalized, because it's a login name and mail address) in

third-person reference; it is widely understood (on Usenet, in

particular) that without a last name `Ken' refers only to Ken

Thompson. Similarly, Dennis without last name means Dennis Ritchie

(and he is often known as dmr). See also [7567]demigod, [7568]Unix. 2.

A flaming user. This was originated by the Software Support group at

Symbolics because the two greatest flamers in the user community were

both named Ken.

Node:kernel-of-the-week club, Next:[7569]kgbvax, Previous:[7570]ken,

Up:[7571]= K =

kernel-of-the-week club

The fictional society that [7572]BSD [7573]bigots claim [Linux] users

belong to, alluding to the release-early-release-often style preferred

by the kernel maintainers. See [7574]bazaar. This was almost certainly

inspired by the earlier [7575]bug-of-the-month club.

Node:kgbvax, Next:[7576]KIBO, Previous:[7577]kernel-of-the-week club,

Up:[7578]= K =

kgbvax /K-G-B'vaks/ n.

See [7579]kremvax.

Node:KIBO, Next:[7580]kiboze, Previous:[7581]kgbvax, Up:[7582]= K =

KIBO /ki:'boh/

[acronym] Knowledge In, Bullshit Out. A