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

terminal to perform this action. ASCII

0011010, also called SUB or control-Z, was one common line-starve

character in the days before microcomputers and the X3.64 terminal

standard. Today, the term might be used for the ISO reverse line feed

character 0x8D. Unlike line feed',line starve' is not standard

[7983]ASCII terminology. Even among hackers it is considered a bit

silly. 3. [proposed] A sequence such as c (used in System V echo, as

well as [7984]nroff and [7985]troff) that suppresses a [7986]newline

or other character(s) that would normally be emitted.

Node:linearithmic, Next:[7987]link farm, Previous:[7988]line starve,

Up:[7989]= L =

linearithmic adj.

Of an algorithm, having running time that is O(N log N). Coined as a

portmanteau of linear' andlogarithmic' in "Algorithms In C" by

Robert Sedgewick (Addison-Wesley 1990, ISBN 0-201-51425-7).

Node:link farm, Next:[7990]link rot, Previous:[7991]linearithmic,

Up:[7992]= L =

link farm n.

[Unix] A directory tree that contains many links to files in a master

directory tree of files. Link farms save space when one is maintaining

several nearly identical copies of the same source tree -- for

example, when the only difference is architecture-dependent object

files. "Let's freeze the source and then rebuild the FROBOZZ-3 and

FROBOZZ-4 link farms." Link farms may also be used to get around

restrictions on the number of -I (include-file directory) arguments on

older C preprocessors. However, they can also get completely out of

hand, becoming the filesystem equivalent of [7993]spaghetti code.

Node:link rot, Next:[7994]link-dead, Previous:[7995]link farm,

Up:[7996]= L =

link rot n.

The natural decay of web links as the sites they're connected to

change or die. Compare [7997]bit rot.

Node:link-dead, Next:[7998]lint, Previous:[7999]link rot, Up:[8000]= L

=

link-dead adj.

[MUD] The state a player is in when they kill their connection to a

[8001]MUD without leaving it properly. The player is then commonly

left as a statue in the game, and is only removed after a certain

period of time (an hour on most MUDs). Used on [8002]IRC as well,

although it is inappropriate in that context. Compare [8003]netdead.

Node:lint, Next:[8004]Lintel, Previous:[8005]link-dead, Up:[8006]= L =

lint

[from Unix's lint(1), named for the bits of fluff it supposedly picks

from programs] 1. vt. To examine a program closely for style, language

usage, and portability problems, esp. if in C, esp. if via use of

automated analysis tools, most esp. if the Unix utility lint(1) is

used. This term used to be restricted to use of lint(1) itself, but

(judging by references on Usenet) it has become a shorthand for

[8007]desk check at some non-Unix shops, even in languages other than

C. Also as v. [8008]delint. 2. n. Excess verbiage in a document, as in

"This draft has too much lint".

Node:Lintel, Next:[8009]Linus, Previous:[8010]lint, Up:[8011]= L =

Lintel n.

The emerging [8012]Linux/Intel alliance. This term began to be used in

early 1999 after it became clear that the [8013]Wintel alliance was

under increasing strain and Intel started taking stakes in Linux

companies.

Node:Linus, Next:[8014]Linux, Previous:[8015]Lintel, Up:[8016]= L =

Linus /leen'us'/ or /lin'us'/, not /li:'nus/

Linus Torvalds, the author of [8017]Linux. Nobody in the hacker

culture has been as readily recognized by first name alone since Ken

(Thompson).

Node:Linux, Next:[8018]lion food, Previous:[8019]Linus, Up:[8020]= L =

Linux /lee'nuhks/ or /li'nuks/, not /li:'nuhks/ n.

The free Unix workalike created by Linus Torvalds and friends starting

about 1991. The pronunciation /lee'nuhks/ is preferred because the

name `Linus' has an /ee/ sound in Swedish (Linus's family is part of

Finland's 6% ethnic-Swedish minority). This may be the most remarkable

hacker project in history -- an entire clone of Unix for 386, 486 and

Pentium micros, distributed for free with sources over the net (ports

to Alpha and Sparc and many other machines are also in use).

Linux is what [8021]GNU aimed to be, and it relies on the GNU toolset.

But the Free Software Foundation didn't produce the kernel to go with

that toolset until 1999, which was too late. Other, similar efforts

like FreeBSD and NetBSD have been technically successful but never

caught fire the way Linux has; as this is written in 2000, Linux is

seriously challenging Microsoft's OS dominance. It has already

captured 31% of the Internet-server market and 25% of general business

servers.

An earlier version of this entry opined "The secret of Linux's success

seems to be that Linus worked much harder early on to keep the

development process open and recruit other hackers, creating a

snowball effect." Truer than we knew. See [8022]bazaar.

(Some people object that the name `Linux' should be used to refer only

to the kernel, not the entire operating system. This claim is a proxy

for an underlying territorial dispute; people who insist on the term

`GNU/Linux' want the the [8023]FSF to get most of the credit for Linux

because RMS and friends wrote many of its user-level tools. Neither

this theory nor the term `GNU/Linux' has gained more than minority

acceptance).

Node:lion food, Next:[8024]Lions Book, Previous:[8025]Linux,

Up:[8026]= L =

lion food n.

[IBM] Middle management or HQ staff (or, by extension, administrative

drones in general). From an old joke about two lions who, escaping

from the zoo, split up to increase their chances but agree to meet

after 2 months. When they finally meet, one is skinny and the other

overweight. The thin one says: "How did you manage? I ate a human just

once and they turned out a small army to chase me -- guns, nets, it

was terrible. Since then I've been reduced to eating mice, insects,

even grass." The fat one replies: "Well, I hid near an IBM office and

ate a manager a day. And nobody even noticed!"

Node:Lions Book, Next:[8027]LISP, Previous:[8028]lion food, Up:[8029]=

L =

Lions Book n.

"Source Code and Commentary on Unix level 6", by John Lions. The two

parts of this book contained (1) the entire source listing of the Unix

Version 6 kernel, and (2) a commentary on the source discussing the

algorithms. These were circulated internally at the University of New

South Wales beginning 1976-77, and were, for years after, the only

detailed kernel documentation available to anyone outside Bell Labs.

Because Western Electric wished to maintain trade secret status on the

kernel, the Lions Book was only supposed to be distributed to

affiliates of source licensees. In spite of this, it soon spread by

[8030]samizdat to a good many of the early Unix hackers.

[1996 update: The Lions book lives again! It was put back in print as

ISBN 1-57398-013-7 from Peer-To-Peer Communications, with forewords by

Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson. In a neat bit of reflexivity, the

page before the contents quotes this entry.]

Node:LISP, Next:[8031]list-bomb, Previous:[8032]Lions Book, Up:[8033]=

L =

LISP n.

[from LISt Processing language', but mythically fromLots of

Irritating Superfluous Parentheses'] AI's mother tongue, a language

based on the ideas of (a) variable-length lists and trees as

fundamental data types, and (b) the interpretation of code as data and

vice-versa. Invented by John McCarthy at MIT in the late 1950s, it is

actually older than any other [8034]HLL still in use except FORTRAN.

Accordingly, it has undergone considerable adaptive radiation over the

years; modern variants are quite different in detail from the original

LISP 1.5. The dominant HLL among hackers until the early 1980s, LISP

now shares the throne with [8035]C. Its partisans claim it is the only

language that is truly beautiful. See [8036]languages of choice.

All LISP functions and programs are expressions that return values;

this, together with the high memory utilization of LISPs, gave rise to

Alan Perlis's famous quip (itself a take on an Oscar Wilde quote) that

"LISP programmers know the value of everything and the cost of

nothing".

One significant application for LISP has been as a proof by example

that most newer languages, such as [8037]COBOL and [8038]Ada, are full

of unnecessary [8039]crocks. When the [8040]Right Thing has already

been done once, there is no justification for [8041]bogosity in newer

languages.

Node:list-bomb, Next:[8042]lithium lick, Previous:[8043]LISP,

Up:[8044]= L =

list-bomb v.

To [8045]mailbomb someone by forging messages causing the victim to

become a subscriber to many mailing lists. This is a self-defeating

tactic; it merely forces mailing list servers to require confirmation

by return message for every subscription.

Node:lithium lick, Next:[8046]little-endian, Previous:[8047]list-bomb,

Up:[8048]= L =

lithium lick n.

[NeXT] Steve Jobs. Employees who have gotten too much attention from

their esteemed founder are said to have `lithium lick' when they begin

to show signs of Jobsian fervor and repeat the most recent catch

phrases in normal conversation -- for example, "It just works, right

out of the box!"

Node:little-endian, Next:[8049]live, Previous:[8050]lithium lick,

Up:[8051]= L =

little-endian adj.

Describes a computer architecture in which, within a given 16- or

32-bit word, bytes at lower addresses have lower significance (the

word is stored `little-end-first'). The PDP-11 and VAX families of

computers and Intel microprocessors and a lot of communications and

networking hardware are little-endian. See [8052]big-endian,

[8053]middle-endian, [8054]NUXI problem. The term is sometimes used to

describe the ordering of units other than bytes; most often, bits

within a byte.

Node:live, Next:[8055]live data, Previous:[8056]little-endian,

Up:[8057]= L =

live /li:v/ adj.,adv.

[common] Opposite of `test'. Refers to actual real-world data or a

program working with it. For example, the response to "I think the

record deleter is finished" might be "Is it live yet?" or "Have you

tried it out on live data?" This usage usually carries the connotation

that live data is more fragile and must not be corrupted, or bad

things will happen. So a more appropriate response might be: "Well,

make sure it works perfectly before we throw live data at it." The

implication here is that record deletion is something pretty

significant, and a haywire record-deleter running amok live would

probably cause great harm.

Node:live data, Next:[8058]Live Free Or Die!, Previous:[8059]live,

Up:[8060]= L =

live data n.

Data that is written to be interpreted and takes over program flow

when triggered by some un-obvious operation, such as viewing it. One

use of such hacks is to break security. For example, some smart

terminals have commands that allow one to download strings to program

keys; this can be used to write live data that, when listed to the

terminal, infects it with a security-breaking [8061]virus that is

triggered the next time a hapless user strikes that key. For another,

there are some well-known bugs in [8062]vi that allow certain texts to

send arbitrary commands back to the machine when they are simply

viewed. 2. In C code, data that includes pointers to function

[8063]hooks (executable code). 3. An object, such as a

[8064]trampoline, that is constructed on the fly by a program and

intended to be executed as code.

Node:Live Free Or Die!, Next:[8065]livelock, Previous:[8066]live data,

Up:[8067]= L =

Live Free Or Die! imp.

The state motto of New Hampshire, which appears on that state's

automobile license plates. 2. A slogan associated with Unix in the

romantic days when Unix aficionados saw themselves as a tiny,

beleaguered underground tilting against the windmills of industry. The

"free" referred specifically to freedom from the [8068]fascist design

philosophies and crufty misfeatures common on competing operating

systems. Armando Stettner, one of the early Unix developers, used to

give out fake license plates bearing this motto under a large Unix,

all in New Hampshire colors of green and white. These are now valued

collector's items. In 1994 [8069]DEC put an inferior imitation of

these in circulation with a red corporate logo added. Compaq (half of

which was once DEC) has continued the practice.

Node:livelock, Next:[8070]liveware, Previous:[8071]Live Free Or Die!,

Up:[8072]= L =

livelock /li:v'lok/ n.

A situation in which some critical stage of a task is unable to finish

because its clients perpetually create more work for it to do after

they have been serviced but before it can clear its queue. Differs

from [8073]deadlock in that the process is not blocked or waiting for

anything, but has a virtually infinite amount of