Jargon File

Entries from the jargon file that I found interesting.

121 reset: I just like the sound of it -- reminds me of 360 no-scope
accumulator: explains some unexpected usage of "accumulator" for things that aren't necessarily accumulating
AFAIK: still commonly used, from Usenet
AFK: still commonly used, from MUDs and IRC
AI-complete: interesting because it describes problems as "too hard" which have now been effectively solved
AIDS: funny pejorative for Apple and Amiga machines
airplane rule: useful guideline -- simplicity increases robustness
Aliasing bug: alternative name for what I would call a stale or dangling pointer
Amiga Persecution Complex: funny phrase from a time when platforms were less homogenized
amp off: useful phrase for starting a command in the background
angry fruit salad: funny phrase for poorly designed UIs
ANSI standard pizza: funny name for pepperoni and mushroom pizza
AOL!: interesting to see how Usenet felt about the influx of new users in the 90s. I feel like adoption of smartphones had a similar effect on the Internet
app: interesting to see a definition that has nothing to do with smartphones
arena: I didn't know that's what it was called
ASCII: interesting history. Still fundamental to computing, if largely through UTF-8 backward-compatibility
automagically: I've heard and probably used this term many times. It didn't occur to me that it isn't heard much outside of an IT context
baggy pantsing: apparently an early example of similar pranks I've seen involving computers left unattended
banana problem: useful phrase for bugs involving termination conditions not occurring
binary four / 00100: funny but silly reference to the finger
batbelt: funny relic from a time before a single device could do everything
baroque: useful term for something that is overly complicated or excessive
bazaar: term for the open-source practice of releasing early and often, and getting a lot of eyes on the code
beige toaster: pejorative term for old Macs
Berzerkeley / Berkeley Quality Software: apparently Berkeley had a certain reputation?
beta: interesting historical notes on a common term
BiCapitalization: term for ProductName capitalization that is maybe less common now but was definitely in fashion for a while
Big Red Switch: interesting notes on the signifiance of the power switch on a mainframe
Big Room / Big Blue Room: took me too long to realize what this refers to
bitty box: pejorative term for a relatively primitive machine
black art: useful term for knowledge that is not widely known and has few sources to learn from
black magic: useful term for techniques that are used without understanding them fully
Black Screen of Death: I didn't know there was a BSOD other than the blue one
blink: interesting that methods of limiting online connection time were needed due to cost
blinkenlights: funny entry on blinking lights found more commonly on old machines
blitter: interesting because the IBM PC never had one, or it was uncommon, which I guess is part of why the Amiga had superior graphics at the time
blow away: I've definitely heard and used this phrase
Blue Screen of Death: classic
BOFH: I feel like I've come across some of the associated stories before
bogo-sort: It never occurred to me that bubble sort is not really the worst possible way to sort, it's just the worst way that is somewhat reasonable
bogus: interesting because it seems to have a long history
Borg: interesting because I feel Microsoft is no longer as Borg-like these days
borken / borked: I have heard and used "borked" without really considering its relationship to "broken". It just sounds right
bot: interesting that "bot" only displaced "robot" in the 90s
bottom-up implementation: interesting thoughts about bottom-up, top-down, and middle-out approaches
bounce: commonly used alternative to rebooting in my experience
box / boxen: funny plural form of box (as in computer/machine)
boxed comments: useful -- I've never heard a name for this other than "multi-line comment"
brain dump: I've certainly heard this, its just an odd phrase now that I stop to think about it
braino: I assumed this would mean something used to unclog/unblock your brain, but it's more like "brain typo"
bread crumbs: interesting because it's not refering to navigation trails on a webpage
BrokenWindows: one of several entries hating on Sun workstations
Brooke's Law: useful wisdom, "adding manpower to a late software project makes it later"
browser: interesting because web browsers somewhat displaced a more general use of the term "browser"
brute force: interesting for making points in favor of selectively applying brute-force solutions rather than simply hating on them as you might expect
bubble sort: similarly, interesting for pointing out that bubble sort is empirically okay below 5000 items
bug: interesting for historical information, including the fact that "bug" appears to have already been in use prior to that well-known "first computer bug" factoid
buried treasure: funny term for burried code that works in unexpected ways
burn-in: interesting for historical origins
byte: interesting because I didn't know the spelling was intended to make it more distinct from "bit"
C Programmer's Disease: useful term for for the semi-arbitrary fixed array sizes seen in a lot of C code
can't happen: true
cargo cult programming: I've heard this before, ~~but I can't really imagine an example of it~~ I suppose this is an example
cascade: useful term for what C++ compilers tend to do
cathedral: interesting for contrast with "bazaar"
cdr: interesting because of the historic origin of the odd terms "cdr" and "car"
channel: interesting because it is solely about IRC channels
chase pointers: aside from the obvious, useful term for following leads to find someone who has what you need
Classic C: interesting to consider that C was at one point in use but not standardized yet
clean: commonly used to mean "elegant" or "devoid of cruft"
clobber: useful term for overwriting/destroying previous data, especially unintentionally
code / codes: I feel an unreasonable disgust when someone uses "code" as a countable noun, as in "write a code". However "codes" was apparently a common way to refer to "programs" in the scientific computing community at some point
cobweb site: interesting because the concept feels outdated. Nearly all web content I access is some kind of well-maintained information source, semi-disposable user-generated content within a well-maintained website, or news that is only temporarily relevant
Compu$erve: pejorative for CompuServe which is definitely a name I've heard but I never knew what it was
computer geek: interesting because I feel like there used to be a much greater distinction between "computer people" and "normal people" that is substantially less pronounced today
condition out: useful term for putting code in a dead code path to effectively "comment it out"
console: interesting for clarifying the historical distinction between terminal and console, which is used mostly interchangeably today
content free: useful term for a lot of words that don't really say anything
Conway's Law: useful wisdom, and also related to my observation that the way groups are organized and the incentives or goals the groups are given has a large impact on the system or product they work on. It's not just about dividing labor efficiently
cooked mode / raw mode / rare mode: funny terms for character-input modes
cookie: useful alternative for handle or token, and interesting because it partly explains why browser cookies are called that
cookie jar: useful term for a collection of identifiers that signify the presence of things
core dump: interesting because it is still in common use but refers to a long-obsolete form of memory
cosmic rays: interesting because I was led to believe that cosmic rays were actually a possible, though rare, reason for bits to flip randomly
cow orker: funny typo of coworker
crapplet: pejorative for applet, which is mainly interesting because Java applets and the term applet more generally seem to have gone away
crash: interesting because of etymology
CP/M: interesting history
crayola / crayon: funny terms related to Cray supercomputers
creationism: useful term for the demonstrably false idea that software can be fully designed and implemented successfully all at once with no iteration
creeping featurism: useful term for the tendency of questionable features to be added over time
cross-post: interesting because I thought the term started with Reddit
cruft: useful, common, but kind of odd word for messy, ugly, or otherwise unpleasant stuff
crumb: possibly useful term for 2 bits
crunch: common term for time-consuming computation
C|N>K: excessively nerdy way to describe laughing
daemon: interesting etymological history
dancing frog: useful term for a problem that doesn't occur when anyone else is watching
dangling pointer: more common term, in my experience, for aliasing bug
dd: interesting history
dead code: useful and common term for branches of code that will never occur in practice
DEADBEEF: funny filler value for unused memory
deep magic: useful term for knowledge that can't be easily found or learned
demigod: useful term for certain notable people
demo: common abbreviation for demonstration
demoscene: interesting subculture that wasn't much of "a thing" in the U.S. from what I can tell
deprecated: common term that non-programmers seem to get confused with "depreciated"
die horribly: sounds familiar to me
dinosaur / dinosaur pen: funny terms for an old mainframe or minicomputer as well as the room they sit in
dogcow: interesting because the description is not making any sense to me
dogfood: seems to have become common in my experience. I just heard it the other day in fact
domainist: funny because I'm guilty of judging "hotmail", "aol", "outlook", and, to a lesser extent, "yahoo" email domains
dot file: still very relevant
Don't do that then!: funny but good advice
drunk mouse syndrome: funny term for an issue I remember encountering but which doesn't happen much anymore
Duff's device: interesting technique for partially unrolling a loop
DWIM: arguably a valid UX design goal?
dynner: funny but silly term for 32 bits
Easter egg: common term, but sadly uncommon these days
EBCDIC: interesting given that ASCII has been ubiquitous for a long time now
ed: interesting mainly for historical value
El Camino Bignum: funny but silly pun on El Camino Real
elder days: useful term for pre-1980 computing
elegant: common and useful term for simple yet effective tools or designs
elevator controller: more realistic alternative to "toaster" as a dumb or constrained device
EMACS: I encountered a few people around 2010 who were EMACS users but I've never seen anyone use or reference it recently
emoticon: I still prefer them to emoji when applicable
EOF: interesting because I guess I didn't realize this is system-specific and not an ASCII control character
EOU: funny hypothetical control character that ends the user
epoch: interesting because of historically different definitions across systems
exercise left as an: something I hate to see
Exploder: pejorative for Windows Explorer
fall over: common alternative for crashing or entering the state of being down
fall through: interesting for historical note
FAQ: interesting because it implies it originated with Usenet. ChatGPT corroborates this.
fascist: useful term for a system with annoying limits or policies
feature key: interesting because I've never heard it called anything other than the command key
feep: interesting because it seems to describe what I think everyone would call a "beep"
fence: useful term for delimiter. I suppose I have heard it in regard to markdown code "fences"
fencepost error: useful term for a specific type of off-by-one error
FidoNet: interesting because it may still exist and be worth exploring
film at 11: funny way of saying more information will be available later
filter: useful term for a program which reads STDIN and writes to STDOUT in a well-defined way
firefighting: common way (more commonly "fighting fires") to describe dealing with operational issues instead of building things
FIXME: common way to mark things that should be fixed later
flag: common way to say "boolean value"
flag day: useful term for a planned, disruptive outage
flame: "flame war" used to be a common phrase, but it feels somehow less relevant or replaced with alternatives now
flat: common and useful term for data that lacks a hierarchical structure
flavor: common, useful term for a variety of something
flush: interesting for having two almost opposing definitions historically
foo: interesting for the extended list of metasyntactic variable names
for free: common phrase for that which can essentially be taken for granted
Fortrash: funny pejorative for Fortran
frag: interesting because I don't know why the term was used (rather than simply "kill") or why we stopped using it
front end: interesting because the definition doesn't include the most common meaning of today
fscking: funny because the 'fsck' command is always funny
fudge factor: common, I think, but kind of an odd term
geek out: common
General Public Virus: funny term for versions of the GPL that require downstream code to be similarly free
Get a life!: interesting for notes about origin of the phrase
Get a real computer!: interesting because of changing definitions for what constitutes a "real computer"
glob: common, still very relevant, interesting for historical note
glue: common
gnarly: common but weird
Godwin's Law: still gets brought up regularly today
grep: common, still very relevant, interesting for etymology / history
gribble: useful term for rendering of arbitrary data as meaningless text
grok: I had only encountered this term a few times, but the Grok AI has made it much more significant
ha ha only serious: basically another form of "haha just kidding... but seriously though"
hack: interesting to see definitions because I feel it has become almost meaningless due to overuse
Hackintosh: interesting because it had earlier meanings than the one I grew up with
hairy: common but weird, interesting note about origins
Halloween Documents: interesting history from Microsoft's more blatantly evil days
handle: interesting because I don't hear it used much anymore in either sense, nor do I really hear "nickname" or "screen name". I think "username" and "display name" are the standard now.
handwave: useful and, I think, common term
hang: common term for stuck but not necessarily down
Hanlon's Razor: commonly referenced, I don't think of it as specifically a tech thing
happily: common, never considered it a computing term even with this definition
heavy wizardry: useful term for something less mysterious than black magic
heisenbug: useful term for a common situation where a bug is hard to reproduce reliably
Helen Keller mode: horrible but hilarious
hello world: interesting for historical origins
hidden flag: a common questionable practice
highly: common, never thought much about it, as in the phrase "highly unlikely"
holy wars: interesting for the list of holy wars
home box: interesting because the concept of a home box is kind of fuzzy and/or irrelevant now
home machine: interesting because these days "the machine that receives your email" is almost certainly a server farm somewhere that you've never seen
home page: interesting because, even if some people do have a personal website of some kind, it probably is never referred to as their "home page"
hook: still common and relevant
hop: still common and relevant
hosed: common in my experience, but odd
hot spot: common term in the context of performance/profiling, I believe
How does one patch KDE2 under FreeBSD?: interesting because it seems to be some kind of exotic meme
HP-SUX: funny pejorative for HP-UX
hysterical reasons: funny play on "for historical reasons"
I didn't change anything!: it's true
IANAL: common on Reddit, started on Usenet apparently
ID10T error: I remember we thought this was funny in high school
idempotent: common and necessary, but a strange word
If you want X you know where to find it.: sassy and funny
ifdef out: useful alternative to commenting out
IIRC: common and useful acronym
ill-behaved: useful term for non-conforming or problematic behavior
IMHO: common and useful acronym
incantation: useful term for any weird step needed to make things work as desired
indent style: interesting for the discussion and historical notes
insanely great: sounds familiar
INTERCAL: interesting for historical info
interesting: I certainly use it in the way defined here
Internet Exploder: funny pejorative for Internet Explorer
interrupt list: interesting reminder of how messy the DOS world apparently was
Iron Age: useful term for the 60's
iron box: interesting technique, possibly still used for all I know
ISO standard cup of tea: funny term for particular preparation of tea
jiffy: useful term for one system clock tick
juggling eggs: useful term for tracking too much state in your head
killer micro: interesting reminder of a time before ubiquitous (micro) computers
language lawyer: something that I feel applies very much to C++
languages of choice: interesting because it feels pretty out-of-date. "Nobody" uses Perl or Smalltalk as far as I know. Also it says "Python has been gaining popularity" which would be an understatement today.
laser chicken: never heard this, skeptical anyone actually called it that
like kicking dead whales down the beach: never heard it but it's a great metaphor
linearithmic: useful because it sounds more academic than "oh en log en"
lint: interesting for origin of the term
Linux: interesting because apparently it's supposed to be pronounced "Leenux" but nobody says it that way
LISP: interesting for historical info
livelock: useful, probably common in the right context but I don't think I've heard it
lots of MIPS but no I/O: funny term for a possibly neurodivergent person
Lumber Cartel: funny story
luser: funny pejorative for a user
M$: reminds me of when Microsoft was the big, bad monopoly
Macintrash: funny pejorative for Macs
macdink: useful term for the way many things seem to have perpetual, superficial changes made to them
magic: common term for something not understood or even just not worth explaining
magic cookie: useful term for opaque identifier, interesting as the likely root of browser cookie
magic number: common, but most often in the sense of an unexplained number
magic smoke: interesting because I thought this term was largely from a Reddit meme
manularity: useful term for a quantity of non-automatedness
meme / meme plague: interesting because it does not describe meme as it is commonly used today
memory smash: useful term for writing to an unintended place in memory
mess-dos: not-so-funny pejorative for MS-DOS
meta: common term with many uses
metasyntactic variable: useful, the term for foo, bar, etc. Also interesting for the list of them
Microsloth Windows: mildly funny pejorative for Microsoft Windows, but the entry contains funnier ones
mockingbird: sounds like a specific kind of man-in-the-middle attack
monstrosity: common term for big and hairy
Moore's Law: of course
MS-DOS: interesting for historical info
mu: theoretically useful but nobody will know what you mean
MUD: interesting for historical info
nailing jelly: useful phrase for something hopelessly difficult
nastygram: I have heard this in reference to an angry email
neats vs. scruffies: interesting difference in approaches, especially with recent focus on AI
nerd: interesting for historical origins
nethack: interesting project that is still around
New Testament / Old Testament: funny names for the 1st and 2nd editions of The C Programming Language book
NeWS: interesting because it sounded like a good idea
Nominal Semidestructor: funny pejorative for National Semiconductor
nonlinear: I like the idea of describing angry behavior as nonlinear
nuke: somewhat common term for deleting a lot of things in my experience
nyetwork: funny but silly term for a network that is not working
Objectionable-C: hilarious pejorative for Objective-C, and I agree
off-by-one error: useful term for a common type of bug
offline: commonly used in the sense "let's continue this discussion separately, later"
orthogonal: commonly used in the sense of something being separate or independent
out-of-band: useful term for values with a special meaning in a given context or information channel
page out: I like it as an alternative to "zone out"
param / arg / var: short form of parameter (and argument, variable) that bothers me, especially when spoken out loud
parity errors: useful term for minor brain malfunction
Parkinson's Law of Data: very true, my storage always becomes full. Also counter-top space
Pascal: interesting for historical info
PC-ism: useful term for things that would be done in a DOS environment
Pentagram Pro: mildly funny pejorative for Pentium Pro
ping: common, interesting for historical info
plan file: interesting as a historical artifact
plug-and-pray: funny pejorative for plug-and-play which actually works quite well these days
profile: all definitions still pretty common and relevant
Programmer's Cheer: embarassing
programming fluid: necessary
rc file: interesting because it apparently comes from "runcom file" used in some Iron Age system
Real World: familiar in the sense of "location of non-programmers and activites not related to programming", or "place I'm supposedly building this for"
rice box: questionable term for an Asian-made computer (not sure if this refers to things like the Sharp X1, NEC PC8801, or what)
say: interesting because I never considered that it might be odd to use "say" in the ways described
screwage: useful term for something intentionally made lacking or difficult
second-system effect: interesting observation that the second version of something successful may be bloated or overly complex
September that never ended: interesting that Usenet activity from AOL users was so significant
sharing violation: hilarious alternative to what would commonly be called TMI / too much information
shell: interesting because, in addition to the common usage, it apparently has also been used to mean what I would call a "skeleton" or framework
showstopper: interesting because I never considered that the usage is inverted from its meaning outside of software
slashdot effect: interesting because it lives on as the "Reddit kiss of death" or similar
slopsucker: useful term for a process that has low priority
slurp: the definition is specifically about reading all relevant data into memory, but I may use it the same way as "snarf" below
smash the stack: useful term for writing to memory beyond the current stack frame
snarf: fun word for fetching data or otherwise consuming something
sock puppet: another term I mostly associate with Reddit and Twitter/X but that is actually much older
space-cadet keyboard: historical keyboard with a ton of modifier keys
SPACEWAR: interesting for historical significance
spaghetti code: common term for poorly structured code
spaghetti inheritance: less common term for poorly structured inheritance
spider food: fun term for a kind of SEO
spiffy: haven't heard this in a while
sponge: useful term for a filter that must read all input before producing output
Stone Age: useless term for the 1940's and 50's
superloser: funny term for a reckless root user
swizzle: useful term for replacing indirect pointers to things with more direct ones for efficiency reasons
tar and feather: more meaningful and funnier term for a tar archive that has been compressed
tarball: interesting for note about tar baby of which I'm skeptical. This word gives me the ick, not sure why. Probably because it sounds like hairball
text: interesting for the fact that it has two opposing definitions (textual, non-executable data and the "text" section of a binary containing executable code)
thanks in advance: interesting for being associated with Usenet when I thought it was just a common phrase in general
the network: interesting for the reminder that non-Internet networks existed
This time for sure!: feeling and thought I often have when trying to fix something
thrash: common in my experience, specifically when it comes to hard disks constantly reading/writing
throwaway account: interesting because it refers specifically to a cheap "Internet account" as opposed to a temporary (free) account on a specific site
thunk: interesting because I've encountered this term in the context of pointers to functions and wondered why it would be called that
trampoline: another term I've come across occasionally and wondered about. I'm not sure what I saw is quite what this entry describes
trap: still common in relation to interrupts, although I think the main usage I see is the trap command in shell scripts
trap door: term for one-way cryptographic function
troll: interesting for origins on Usenet as well as the idea that it is in reference to a style of fishing called trolling. I had assumed it just had something to do with trolls being ugly, undesirable creatures.
Turing tar-pit: useful term for a language that is powerful but difficult to use in practice
unixism: interesting for the idea that things we take for granted today came out of unix "winning" against other fancy multitasking OSes
vaxocentrism: similarly, interesting for things that can be assumed on VAX but not necessarily on Unix
virtual Friday: useful term for when the last day of the work week is not Friday due to a holiday
walking drives: interesting phenomenon, hard to imagine
wall follower: interesting for the anecdote about a simple solution outperforming ones that try to be smart
webify: interesting because everything is probably already webified or is webified from the start these days
webmaster: I suppose this is still a role, but how often is it one person and/or not mostly managed by a hosting service?
wedged: common and fun way to say something is hung or broken
well-behaved: common way to say something behaves in expected and predictable ways (not ill-behaved)
What's a spline?: interesting anecdote related to something I experience where I avoid asking a question for too long and then feel like I can't ask it anymore
wheel: interesting because I was wondering why the superuser group is often called "wheel"
wheel of reincarnation: maybe still holds true, although more in the sense that the CPU and other chips become part of an SoC rather than the CPU itself becoming responsible for other functions
win: interesting because I first noticed "win" used as a kind of early Internet term for a success or anything "good". Then I found it being used in professional environments, e.g. "easy win" being something worth improving that doesn't require much effort
winged comments: interesting because I've never heard this; people call them "inline comments" in my experience
Wintel: nostalgic
WYSIAYG: variation of WYSIWYG emphasizing the limitations of many GUIs
Zero-One-Infinity Rule: guideline saying limits shouldn't be arbitrary (should be zero, one, or unbounded)
zeroth: interesting because I never considered that this is sort of a meaningless word outside of a programming context
zigamorph: interesting because I didn't know there was a Unicode non-character / end-of-string value