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

>Knuth /ka-nooth'/ n.

[Donald E. Knuth's "The Art of Computer Programming"] Mythically, the

reference that answers all questions about data structures or

algorithms. A safe answer when you do not know: "I think you can find

that in Knuth." Contrast [7690]the literature. See also [7691]bible.

There is a Donald Knuth home page at

[7692]http://www-cs-faculty.Stanford.EDU/~knuth.

Node:koan, Next:[7693]kremvax, Previous:[7694]Knuth, Up:[7695]= K =

koan /koh'an/ n.

A Zen teaching riddle. Classically, koans are attractive paradoxes to

be meditated on; their purpose is to help one to enlightenment by

temporarily jamming normal cognitive processing so that something more

interesting can happen (this practice is associated with Rinzei Zen

Buddhism). Hackers are very fond of the koan form and compose their

own koans for humororous and/or enlightening effect. See [7696]Some AI

Koans, [7697]has the X nature, [7698]hacker humor.

Node:kremvax, Next:[7699]kyrka, Previous:[7700]koan, Up:[7701]= K =

kremvax /krem-vaks/ n.

[from the then large number of [7702]Usenet [7703]VAXen with names of

the form foovax] Originally, a fictitious Usenet site at the Kremlin,

announced on April 1, 1984 in a posting ostensibly originated there by

Soviet leader Konstantin Chernenko. The posting was actually forged by

Piet Beertema as an April Fool's joke. Other fictitious sites

mentioned in the hoax were moskvax and [7704]kgbvax. This was probably

the funniest of the many April Fool's forgeries perpetrated on Usenet

(which has negligible security against them), because the notion that

Usenet might ever penetrate the Iron Curtain seemed so totally absurd

at the time.

In fact, it was only six years later that the first genuine site in

Moscow, demos.su, joined Usenet. Some readers needed convincing that

the postings from it weren't just another prank. Vadim Antonov, senior

programmer at Demos and the major poster from there up to mid-1991,

was quite aware of all this, referred to it frequently in his own

postings, and at one point twitted some credulous readers by blandly

asserting that he was a hoax!

Eventually he even arranged to have the domain's gateway site named

kremvax, thus neatly turning fiction into fact and demonstrating that

the hackish sense of humor transcends cultural barriers. [Mr. Antonov

also contributed the Russian-language material for this lexicon.

--ESR]

In an even more ironic historical footnote, kremvax became an

electronic center of the anti-communist resistance during the bungled

hard-line coup of August 1991. During those three days the Soviet UUCP

network centered on kremvax became the only trustworthy news source

for many places within the USSR. Though the sysops were concentrating

on internal communications, cross-border postings included immediate

transliterations of Boris Yeltsin's decrees condemning the coup and

eyewitness reports of the demonstrations in Moscow's streets. In those

hours, years of speculation that totalitarianism would prove unable to

maintain its grip on politically-loaded information in the age of

computer networking were proved devastatingly accurate -- and the

original kremvax joke became a reality as Yeltsin and the new Russian

revolutionaries of glasnost' andperestroika' made kremvax one of

the timeliest means of their outreach to the West.

Node:kyrka, Next:[7705]lace card, Previous:[7706]kremvax, Up:[7707]= K

=

kyrka /chur'ka/ n.

[Swedish] See [7708]feature key.

Node:= L =, Next:[7709]= M =, Previous:[7710]= K =, Up:[7711]The

Jargon Lexicon

= L =

[7712]lace card:

[7713]lag:

[7714]lamer:

[7715]language lawyer:

[7716]languages of choice:

[7717]LART:

[7718]larval stage:

[7719]lase:

[7720]laser chicken:

[7721]lasherism:

[7722]laundromat:

[7723]LDB:

[7724]leaf site:

[7725]leak:

[7726]leaky heap:

[7727]leapfrog attack:

[7728]leech:

[7729]leech mode:

[7730]legal:

[7731]legalese:

[7732]LER:

[7733]LERP:

[7734]let the smoke out:

[7735]letterbomb:

[7736]lexer:

[7737]lexiphage:

[7738]life:

[7739]Life is hard:

[7740]light pipe:

[7741]lightweight:

[7742]like kicking dead whales down the beach:

[7743]like nailing jelly to a tree:

[7744]line 666:

[7745]line eater the:

[7746]line noise:

[7747]line starve:

[7748]linearithmic:

[7749]link farm:

[7750]link rot:

[7751]link-dead:

[7752]lint:

[7753]Lintel:

[7754]Linus:

[7755]Linux:

[7756]lion food:

[7757]Lions Book:

[7758]LISP:

[7759]list-bomb:

[7760]lithium lick:

[7761]little-endian:

[7762]live:

[7763]live data:

[7764]Live Free Or Die!:

[7765]livelock:

[7766]liveware:

[7767]lobotomy:

[7768]locals the:

[7769]locked and loaded:

[7770]locked up:

[7771]logic bomb:

[7772]logical:

[7773]loop through:

[7774]loose bytes:

[7775]lord high fixer:

[7776]lose:

[7777]lose lose:

[7778]loser:

[7779]losing:

[7780]loss:

[7781]lossage:

[7782]lost in the noise:

[7783]lost in the underflow:

[7784]lots of MIPS but no I/O:

[7785]low-bandwidth:

[7786]LPT:

[7787]Lubarsky's Law of Cybernetic Entomology:

[7788]Lumber Cartel:

[7789]lunatic fringe:

[7790]lurker:

[7791]luser:

Node:lace card, Next:[7792]lag, Previous:[7793]kyrka, Up:[7794]= L =

lace card n. obs.

A [7795]punched card with all holes punched (also called a `whoopee

card' or `ventilator card'). Card readers tended to jam when they got

to one of these, as the resulting card had too little structural

strength to avoid buckling inside the mechanism. Card punches could

also jam trying to produce these things owing to power-supply

problems. When some practical joker fed a lace card through the

reader, you needed to clear the jam with a `card knife' -- which you

used on the joker first.

Node:lag, Next:[7796]lamer, Previous:[7797]lace card, Up:[7798]= L =

lag n.

[MUD, IRC; very common] When used without qualification this is

synomous with [7799]netlag. Curiously, people will often complain "I'm

really lagged" when in fact it is their server or network connection

that is lagging.

Node:lamer, Next:[7800]language lawyer, Previous:[7801]lag, Up:[7802]=

L =

lamer n.

[prob. originated in skateboarder slang] 1. Synonym for [7803]luser,

not used much by hackers but common among [7804]warez d00dz, crackers,

and [7805]phreakers. A person who downloads much, but who never

uploads. (Also known as `leecher'). Oppose [7806]elite. Has the same

connotations of self-conscious elitism that use of [7807]luser does

among hackers. 2. Someone who tries to crack a BBS. 3. Someone who

annoys the sysop or other BBS users - for instance, by posting lots of

silly messages, uploading virus-ridden software, frequently dropping

carrier, etc.

Crackers also use it to refer to cracker [7808]wannabees. In phreak

culture, a lamer is one who scams codes off others rather than doing

cracks or really understanding the fundamental concepts. In

[7809]warez d00dz culture, where the ability to wave around cracked

commercial software within days of (or before) release to the

commercial market is much esteemed, the lamer might try to upload

garbage or shareware or something incredibly old (old in this context

is read as a few years to anything older than 3 days).

`Lamer' is also much used in the IRC world in a similar sense to the

above.

Node:language lawyer, Next:[7810]languages of choice,

Previous:[7811]lamer, Up:[7812]= L =

language lawyer n.

A person, usually an experienced or senior software engineer, who is

intimately familiar with many or most of the numerous restrictions and

features (both useful and esoteric) applicable to one or more computer

programming languages. A language lawyer is distinguished by the

ability to show you the five sentences scattered through a

200-plus-page manual that together imply the answer to your question

"if only you had thought to look there". Compare [7813]wizard,

[7814]legal, [7815]legalese.

Node:languages of choice, Next:[7816]LART, Previous:[7817]language

lawyer, Up:[7818]= L =

languages of choice n.

[7819]C, [7820]C++, [7821]LISP, and [7822]Perl. Nearly every hacker

knows one of C or LISP, and most good ones are fluent in both. C++,

despite some serious drawbacks, is generally preferred to other

object-oriented languages (though in 1999 it looks as though

[7823]Java has displaced it in the affections of hackers, if not

everywhere). Since around 1990 Perl has rapidly been gaining favor,

especially as a tool for systems-administration utilities and rapid

prototyping. [7824]Python, Smalltalk and Prolog are also popular in

small but influential communities.

There is also a rapidly dwindling category of older hackers with

FORTRAN, or even assembler, as their language of choice. They often

prefer to be known as [7825]Real Programmers, and other hackers

consider them a bit odd (see "[7826]The Story of Mel" in Appendix A).

Assembler is generally no longer considered interesting or appropriate

for anything but [7827]HLL implementation, [7828]glue, and a few

time-critical and hardware-specific uses in systems programs. FORTRAN

occupies a shrinking niche in scientific programming.

Most hackers tend to frown on languages like [7829]Pascal and

[7830]Ada, which don't give them the near-total freedom considered

necessary for hacking (see [7831]bondage-and-discipline language), and

to regard everything even remotely connected with [7832]COBOL or other

traditional [7833]card walloper languages as a total and unmitigated

[7834]loss.

Node:LART, Next:[7835]larval stage, Previous:[7836]languages of

choice, Up:[7837]= L =

LART //

Luser Attitude Readjustment Tool. 1. n. In the collective mythos of

[7838]scary devil monastery, this is an essential item in the toolkit

of every [7839]BOFH. The LART classic is a 2x4 or other large billet

of wood usable as a club, to be applied upside the head of spammers

and other people who cause sysadmins more grief than just naturally

goes with the job. Perennial debates rage on alt.sysadmin.recovery

over what constitutes the truly effective LART; knobkerries,

semiautomatic weapons, flamethrowers, and tactical nukes all have

their partisans. Compare [7840]clue-by-four. 2. v. To use a LART. Some

would add "in malice", but some sysadmins do prefer to gently lart

their users as a first (and sometimes final) warning. 3. interj.

Calling for one's LART, much as a surgeon might call "Scalpel!". 4.

interj. [rare] Used in [7841]flames as a rebuke. "LART! LART! LART!"

Node:larval stage, Next:[7842]lase, Previous:[7843]LART, Up:[7844]= L

=

larval stage n.

Describes a period of monomaniacal concentration on coding apparently

passed through by all fledgling hackers. Common symptoms include the

perpetration of more than one 36-hour [7845]hacking run in a given

week; neglect of all other activities including usual basics like

food, sleep, and personal hygiene; and a chronic case of advanced

bleary-eye. Can last from 6 months to 2 years, the apparent median

being around 18 months. A few so afflicted never resume a more

`normal' life, but the ordeal seems to be necessary to produce really

wizardly (as opposed to merely competent) programmers. See also

[7846]wannabee. A less protracted and intense version of larval stage

(typically lasting about a month) may recur when one is learning a new

[7847]OS or programming language.

Node:lase, Next:[7848]laser chicken, Previous:[7849]larval stage,

Up:[7850]= L =

lase /layz/ vt.

To print a given document via a laser printer. "OK, let's lase that

sucker and see if all those graphics-macro calls did the right

things."

Node:laser chicken, Next:[7851]lasherism, Previous:[7852]lase,

Up:[7853]= L =

laser chicken n.

Kung Pao Chicken, a standard Chinese dish containing chicken, peanuts,

and hot red peppers in a spicy pepper-oil sauce. Many hackers call it

`laser chicken' for two reasons: It can [7854]zap you just like a

laser, and the sauce has a red color reminiscent of some laser beams.

The dish has also been called `gunpowder chicken'.

In a variation on this theme, it is reported that some Australian

hackers have redesignated the common dish `lemon chicken' as

`Chernobyl Chicken'. The name is derived from the color of the sauce,

which is considered bright enough to glow in the dark (as, mythically,

do some of the inhabitants of Chernobyl).

Node:lasherism, Next:[7855]laundromat, Previous:[7856]laser chicken,

Up:[7857]= L =

lasherism n.

[Harvard] A program that solves a standard problem (such as the Eight

Queens puzzle or implementing the [7858]life algorithm) in a

deliberately nonstandard way. Distinguished from a [7859]crock or

[7860]kluge by the fact that the programmer did it on purpose as a

mental exercise. Such constructions are quite popular in exercises

such as the [7861]Obfuscated C Contest, and occasionally in

[7862]retrocomputing. Lew Lasher was a student at Harvard around 1980

who became notorious for such behavior.

Node:laundromat, Next:[7863]LDB, Previous:[7864]lasherism, Up:[7865]=

L =

laundromat n.

Syn. [7866]disk farm; see [7867]washing machine.

Node:LDB, Next:[7868]leaf site, Previous:[7869]laundromat, Up:[7870]=

L =

LDB /l'db/ vt.

[from the PDP-10 instruction set] To extract from the middle. "LDB me

a slice of cake, please." This usage has been kept alive by Common

LISP's function of the same name. Considered silly. See also

[7871]DPB.

Node:leaf site,