The Jargon File is a compendium of computer jargon from long ago, when the term hacker had not yet been seized upon by the press as a label for computer
vandals and criminals.
In 1983, Harper & Row published the Jargon File as The Hacker's Dictionary. In 1991, MIT Press published an updated version of the Jargon File as The New Hacker's Dictionary. Revised editions of the book were published in 1993 and 1996. The
book includes a complete history of the File and its print editions.
The New Hacker's Dictionary is a nice book, but the unity of the original Jargon File was diluted
in the process of adding terms from Unix users and other groups.
Originally, the File was almost exclusively a compilation of the lingo
of three groups: the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab, the Stanford
University Artificial Intelligence Lab, and the Tech Model Railroad
Club at MIT. Now, however, it is a hodgepodge of terms used by the
many groups that have adopted the name hacker. Therefore, in the interests of history and nostalgia, I'm hosting an
old version of the File here on my web site.
I used the free info2html program to convert this copy of the Jargon File from its original
Emacs Info format into HTML. The only changes I made to its output
were to add this introduction, to add my standard header and footer to
every page, and to note that one number is expressed in octal.
Please don't send email to the addresses listed in this version of the
Jargon File. Instead, see The Jargon File is a living document for information about submitting new jargon for consideration in
future editions.
Go forward to Constructs.
This is a general glossary of most commonly-used computer jargon. If
you don't see something that should be here, send mail to
lum@cis.ohio-state.edu, don@sail.stanford.edu, gls@ai.ai.mit.edu,
and/or mrc@sail.stanford.edu, along with a suggested definition.
Menu
- Notes
- [Updating this file]
- Constructs
- [Verb doubling, soundalikes, etc]
- @Begin
- the @Begin(mode) ... @End(mode) convention
- Angle Brackets
- the < ... > bracket characters
- AOS
- a synonym for increment
- Arg
- an abbrev for argument
- Automagically
- automatically, in an unexplained manner
- Bagbiter
- a pejorative for losing systems
- Bang
- the ! character
- Bar
- a metasyntatic variable
- Barf
- a term of disgust
- Bells and Whistles
- all the little fiddly bits
- Bignums
- multiple-precision integers
- BIN
- an abbrev for binary
- Binary
- a binary file
- Bit
- a binary digit
- Bitblt
- bitwise block transfer or calculation
- Bit Bucket
- a place to dump unwanted data
- Bletch
- a term of disgust
- Blt
- the block transfer instruction or method
- Bogosity
- the degree to which something is bogus
- Bogus
- non-functional, useless, false, incorrect, silly
- Bounce
- to play volleyball
- Brain-Damaged
- obviously wrong, cretinous, demented
- Break
- to cause to break or be broken; to breakpoint
- Broken
- not working properly, behaving strangely
- Broket
- the < ... > bracket characters
- Bucky Bits
- the extra-high-order (8th/9th) bits of ASCII chars
- Bug
- an unwanted or unintended property
- Bum
- to optimize for efficiency
- Buzz
- to run in a very tight loop
- Canonical
- the standard state or manner of something
- Catatonia
- suspended animation; being wedged or hung
- CDR
- to trace down a list of elements
- Chine Nual
- the Lisp Machine Manual
- Chomp
- to lose, to chew on too much
- Close
- ), >, ], } close bracket characters
- Cokebottle
- any unusual characters
- Com Mode
- the communication or "TALK" mode
- Connector Conspiracy
- the perverse avoidance of compatibility
- CONS
- to synthesize from smaller pieces
- Crash
- sudden, drastic failure
- Cretin
- congenital loser
- CRLF
- a Carriage Return Line Feed char pair
- Crock
- an awkward, crufty feature or technique
- Crufty
- poorly built, obtusely complex
- Crunch
- to process in a time-consuming manner
- CTY
- the controlling terminal of a system
- Cuspy
- well-written, functionally excellent
- Daemon
- programs which are not explicitly invoked
- Day Mode
- (see phase)
- Deadlock
- a situation of fruitless waiting
- Deadly Embrace
- (ditto)
- Demented
- a term of disgust
- Demon
- program routines which are not explicity invoked
- Diablo
- a letter-quality printing terminal
- Diddle
- to work in a non-serious manner
- Dike
- to remove or disable a module
- DMP
- a binary file
- Do Protocol
- to follow an established procedure
- Down
- non-functional, temporarily
- DPB
- to insert in the middle
- Dragon
- programs which run concurrently with the monitor
- DWIM
- "Do what I mean"
- English
- a program's source files
- Epsilon
- very small, negligible, less than marginal
- EXCH
- to exchange two things
- EXCL
- the ! character (exclamation)
- EXE
- a binary file
- Faulty
- losing, but with milder connotation
- Feature
- a surprising, useful property of a program
- Feep
- a soft beep
- Fencepost Error
- discrete boundary condition error (off by one)
- Fine
- good, but not good enough to be cuspy
- Firebottle
- a primitive equivalent of an FET
- Flag Day
- an incompatible software change
- Flakey
- unreliable, subject to frequent lossages
- Flame
- to rave, to speak incessantly or rabidly
- Flap
- to unload tape (so the end flaps)
- Flavor
- variety, type, kind
- Flavorful
- aesthetically pleasing
- Flush
- to delete or remove something
- Foo
- a metasyntactic variable
- Fried
- non-functional due to hardware failure, burnt out
- Frob
- any smallish thing
- Frobnicate
- to tweak some small thing
- Frobnitz
- an unspecified object, a widjet, a black box
- Frog
- a term of disgust
- Frotz
- (see frobnitz)
- Fry
- to fail, esp. of hardware, esp. with smoke
- FTP
- File Transfer Protocol ala ARPANET, to transfer files
- Fudge
- to perform in a marginally acceptable way
- Fudge Factor
- an ad hoc value or parameter varied for effect
- Gabriel
- any unnecessary stalling tactic
- Garbage Collect
- garbage collection; see GC
- Garply
- a metasyntactic variable
- Gas
- a term of disgust and hatred
- GC
- to clean up, to recycle, to forget
- Gedanken
- thought-experiment, programming-in-vacuum, methods
- Glass TTY
- a display terminal which behaves like a teletype
- Glitch
- a sudden interruption in service, sanity, or function
- Glork
- a term of mild surprise, tinged with outrage
- Gobble
- to consume or to obtain
- Gorp
- a metasyntactic variable
- Grind
- to format code, esp. LISP code; to crunch
- Gritch
- to complain
- Grok
- to comprehend in a global manner
- Gronk
- to restart, to break
- Grovel
- to work interminably without progress
- Grungy
- incredibly dirty or grubby
- Gubbish
- a portmanteau of garbage and rubbish
- Gun
- to terminate with extreme prejudice
- Hack
- quick or clever programming or program, etc
- Hacker
- someone who programs quickly or cleverly, etc
- Hackish
- being or involving a hack
- Hair
- the complications which make something hairy
- Hairy
- overly complicated, incomprehensible, etc
- Hakmem
- MIT AI Memo 239 (February 1972) - neat hacks
- Handwave
- to gloss over complex material
- Hardwarily
- pertaining to hardware
- Hello Wall
- (see wall)
- Hirsute
- hairy
- Hook
- something which exists to allow modification
- Humongous
- large, unwieldy, usually unmanageable
- Hungus
- (ditto)
- Impcom
- (see telnet)
- Infinite
- any extremely large number or quantity
- IRP
- to iterate with minor variations
- JFCL
- to cancel or annul something
- Jiffy
- a small interval of time, eg, 1/60 or 1/1000 sec
- Jock
- someone who handles large, brute-force programs
- J. Random
- an emphatic form of random
- JRST
- to suddenly go on to something else
- JSYS
- a jump to system monitor call
- Kluge
- something clever, that works for the wrong reason
- LDB
- to extract from the middle
- Life
- a cellular automata by John Horton Conway
- Line Feed
- the Line Feed character
- Line Starve
- the absence of a Line Feed character
- Logical
- virtual, not physical
- Lose
- to fail, to be exceptionally unaesthetic or obnoxious
- Loser
- an unexpectedly bad situation, program/mer, or person
- Loss
- something which loses
- Lossage
- the result of a loss, bug, or malfunction
- LPT
- a line printer
- Luser
- (see user)
- Macrotape
- an industry standard reel of tape
- Magic
- unexplained, too complicated to explain
- Marginal
- extremely small, esp. of merit or likelihood of winning
- Microtape
- the original name of DECtape, very small reels of tape
- Misfeature
- a feature which screws someone, a perennial annoyance
- Moby
- large, immense, complex; numerically, 256K
- Mode
- a state, usually with a descriptive adjective
- Modulo
- except for, ignoring
- Moon
- a celestial object characterised by having phases
- Mumblage
- a topic of mumbling
- Mumble
- a substitue for a full response
- Munch
- to process serially with much computation
- Munching Squares
- a clever display hack; see HAKMEM 146-148
- Mung
- "mung until no good"; to change irrevocably
- N
- any number, large, indeterminate, or known from context
- Night Mode
- (see phase)
- Nil
- no, false
- Obscure
- totally incomprehensible
- Open
- the (, <, [, { bracket characters
- Parse
- to determine syntactic structure, to understand
- Patch
- a temporary or quick-and-dirty fix to code
- PDL
- a push down list, LIFO queue, or, loosely, any queue
- Pessimal
- maximally bad
- Pessimizing Compiler
- one producing code worse than the obvious translation
- Phantom
- programs which run concurrently with the monitor
- Phase
- the phase of one's circadian schedule
- Phase of the moon
- a random parameter on which something depends
- Plugh
- (see xyzzy)
- POM
- an abbrev for phase of the moon
- Pop
- to return from a digression
- PPN
- a project-programmer number
- Protocol
- (see do protocol)
- Pseudoprime
- a backgammon prime lacking one point
- PTY
- a pseudoterminal, a simulated software terminal
- Punt
- to give up, often without intending to try again
- Push
- to enter into a digression
- Ques
- the ? character (question)
- Quux
- a metasyntactic variable
- Random
- unpredictable, assorted, undirected, incoherent
- Randomness
- an inexplicable misfeature, gratuitous inelegance
- Rape
- to (metaphorically) screw someone or something
- Rave
- to persist on a topic, to annoy someone verbally
- Real user
- someone who pays real money for computer usage
- Real world
- the location of the status quo
- Recursion
- (see recursion)
- REL
- a binary file
- Right thing
- the obviously correct or appropriate thing
- Rude
- badly written, functionally poor
- Sacred
- reserved for the exclusive use of something
- Saga
- a cuspy bogus raving story about N random broken people
- SAV
- a binary file
- Semi
- an abbrev for semicolon
- Server
- a daemon which perform service on request
- Shift left (right) logical
- to move to the side or out of the way
- SHR
- a binary file
- Shriek
- the ! character
- 69
- a large number or quantity
- Slop
- a one-sided fudge factor
- Slurp
- to read a large data file entirely into core
- Smart
- something which does the right thing
- Smoking clover
- a psychedelic color munch due to Gosper
- SMOP
- a "simple matter of programming", not yet written
- Snarf
- to grab, esp. of a large file
- Software rot
- the tendency of programs to break down over time
- Softwarily
- pertaining to software
- SOS
- a line editor; a synonym for decrement
- Spazz
- to behave spastically or erratically
- Splat
- a name for various characters
- Supdup
- a super-duper flavor of ARPANET TELNET
- State
- condition, situation
- Stoppage
- extreme lossage, complete unusability
- STY
- (see pty)
- Superprogrammer
- a rare synonym for wizard or hacker
- Swapped
- to (not) be available, usually with in or out
- System
- any large program, eg, the monitor, method, etc
- T
- yes, true
- Tail recursion
- (see tail recursion)
- Talk mode
- (see com mode)
- Taste
- elegance, absence of hacks and kluges
- TECO
- the text editor and corrector programming language
- Telnet
- to communicate with another ARPANET host via TELNET
- Tense
- very clever and efficient
- TERPRI
- to output a crlf
- Theory
- idea, plan, story, rules
- Thrash
- to move wildly or violently and uselessly
- Tick
- an interval of time, eg, 1/60 or 1/1000 sec
- Time T
- an unspecified but known time, with T+1 or T-1
- Tool
- to work, to study
- Trap
- a program interrupt; to cause an interrupt
- TTY
- terminal, esp. a teletype
- Tweak
- to change slightly, esp. in ref. to a value
- Twenex
- the TOPS-20 operating system
- Twiddle
- the tilde char, a small change
- Up
- functional, working, in order
- User
- a programmer who believes what they are told
- UUO
- an un-used operation monitor call
- Vanilla
- standard, ordinary flavor
- Vaxen
- the plural of VAX
- Virgin
- unused, in ref. to an instantiation of a program
- Virtual
- logical, performing the functions of
- Visionary
- one who hacks vision in an AI context
- Waldo
- a metasyntactic variable
- Wall
- a request for explanation, an expression of confusion
- Wallpaper
- a log file, containing a session listing or transcript
- Waterbottle soccer
- a deadly sport
- Wedged
- to be in a locked state
- What
- the ? character
- Wheel
- a capability bit originally implemented in TENEX
- Wheel Wars
- a period of extreme danger
- Win
- to succeed; serendipity
- Winnage
- the result of winning or of the correction of lossage
- Winner
- an unexpectedly good situation, program/mer, or person
- Winnitude
- the quality of winning
- Wizard
- someone who knows how a complex system works, a hacker
- Wormhole
- a location in the monitor, provided as a hook
- Wow
- the ! character
- XGP
- a xerographic printer
- Xyzzy
- (see plugh)
- Yoyo
- a synonym for UUO
- Yoyo mode
- a rapid alternation between up and down
- Yu-shiang whole fish
- the gamma SAIL character
- Zero
- to set to zero, to erase, to discard data