The New Hacker's Dictionary
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Node:test, Next:[13272]TeX, Previous:[13273]terpri, Up:[13274]= T =
test n.
1. Real users bashing on a prototype long enough to get thoroughly acquainted with it, with careful monitoring and followup of the results. 2. Some bored random user trying a couple of the simpler features with a developer looking over his or her shoulder, ready to pounce on mistakes. Judging by the quality of most software, the second definition is far more prevalent. See also [13275]demo.
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Node:TeX, Next:[13276]text, Previous:[13277]test, Up:[13278]= T =
TeX /tekh/ n.
An extremely powerful [13279]macro-based text formatter written by Donald E. [13280]Knuth, very popular in the computer-science community (it is good enough to have displaced Unix [13281]troff, the other favored formatter, even at many Unix installations). TeX fans insist on the correct (guttural) pronunciation, and the correct spelling (all caps, squished together, with the E depressed below the baseline; the mixed-case `TeX' is considered an acceptable kluge on ASCII-only devices). Fans like to proliferate names from the word `TeX' -- such as TeXnician (TeX user), TeXhacker (TeX programmer), TeXmaster (competent TeX programmer), TeXhax, and TeXnique. See also [13282]CrApTeX.
Knuth began TeX because he had become annoyed at the declining quality of the typesetting in volumes I-III of his monumental "Art of Computer Programming" (see [13283]Knuth, also [13284]bible). In a manifestation of the typical hackish urge to solve the problem at hand once and for all, he began to design his own typesetting language. He thought he would finish it on his sabbatical in 1978; he was wrong by only about 8 years. The
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language was finally frozen around 1985, but volume IV of "The Art of Computer Programming" is not expected to appear until 2002. The impact and influence of TeX's design has been such that nobody minds this very much. Many grand hackish projects have started as a bit of [13285]toolsmithing on the way to something else; Knuth's diversion was simply on a grander scale than most.
TeX has also been a noteworthy example of free, shared, but high-quality software. Knuth offers a monetary awards to anyone who found and reported bugs dating from before the 1989 code freeze; as the years wore on and the few remaining bugs were fixed (and new ones even harder to find), the bribe went up. Though well-written, TeX is so large (and so full of cutting edge technique) that it is said to have unearthed at least one bug in every Pascal system it has been compiled with.
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Node:text, Next:[13286]thanks in advance, Previous:[13287]TeX, Up:[13288]= T =
text n.
1. [techspeak] Executable code, esp. a `pure code' portion shared between multiple instances of a program running in a multitasking OS. Compare [13289]English. 2. Textual material in the mainstream sense; data in ordinary [13290]ASCII or [13291]EBCDIC representation (see [13292]flat-ASCII). "Those are text files; you can review them using the editor." These two contradictory senses confuse hackers, too.
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Node:thanks in advance, Next:[13293]That's not a bug that's a feature!, Previous:[13294]text, Up:[13295]= T =
thanks in advance
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[Usenet] Conventional net.politeness ending a posted request for information or assistance. Sometimes written `advTHANKSance' or `aTdHvAaNnKcSe' or abbreviated `TIA'. See [13296]net.-, [13297]netiquette.
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Node:That's not a bug that's a feature!, Next:[13298]the literature, Previous:[13299]thanks in advance, Up:[13300]= T =
That's not a bug, that's a feature!
The [13301]canonical first parry in a debate about a purported bug. The complainant, if unconvinced, is likely to retort that the bug is then at best a [13302]misfeature. See also [13303]feature.
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Node:the literature, Next:[13304]the network, Previous:[13305]That's not a bug that's a feature!, Up:[13306]= T =
the literature n.
Computer-science journals and other publications, vaguely gestured at to answer a question that the speaker believes is [13307]trivial. Thus, one might answer an annoying question by saying "It's in the literature." Oppose [13308]Knuth, which has no connotation of triviality.
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Node:the network, Next:[13309]the X that can be Y is not the true X, Previous:[13310]the literature, Up:[13311]= T =
the network n.
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1. Historicaslly, the union of all the major noncommercial, academic, and hacker-oriented networks, such as Internet, the pre-1990 ARPANET, NSFnet, [13312]BITNET, and the virtual UUCP and [13313]Usenet `networks', plus the corporate in-house networks and commercial time-sharing services (such as CompuServe, GEnie and AOL) that gateway to them. A site is generally considered `on the network' if it can be reached through some combination of Internet-style (@-sign) and UUCP (bang-path) addresses. See [13314]Internet, [13315]bang path, [13316]Internet address, [13317]network address. 2. Following the mass-culture discovery of the Internet in 1994 and subsequent proliferation of cheap TCP/IP connections, "the network" is increasingly synonymous with the Internet itself (as it was before the second wave of wide-area computer networking began around 1980). 3. A fictional conspiracy of libertarian hacker-subversives and anti-authoritarian monkeywrenchers described in Robert Anton Wilson's novel "Schršdinger's Cat", to which many hackers have subsequently decided they belong (this is an example of [13318]ha ha only serious).
In sense 1, `the network' is often abbreviated to `the net'. "Are you on the net?" is a frequent question when hackers first meet face to face, and "See you on the net!" is a frequent goodbye.
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Node:the X that can be Y is not the true X, Next:[13319]theology, Previous:[13320]the network, Up:[13321]= T =
the X that can be Y is not the true X
Yet another instance of hackerdom's peculiar attraction to mystical references -- a common humorous way of making exclusive statements about a class of things. The template is from the "Tao te Ching": "The Tao which can be spoken of is not the true Tao." The implication is often that the X is a mystery accessible only to the enlightened. See the [13322]trampoline entry for an example, and compare [13323]has the X nature.
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Node:theology, Next:[13324]theory, Previous:[13325]the X that can be Y is not the true X, Up:[13326]= T =
theology n.
1. Ironically or humorously used to refer to [13327]religious issues. 2. Technical fine points of an abstruse nature, esp. those where the resolution is of theoretical interest but is relatively [13328]marginal with respect to actual use of a design or system. Used esp. around software issues with a heavy AI or language-design component, such as the smart-data vs. smart-programs dispute in AI.
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Node:theory, Next:[13329]thinko, Previous:[13330]theology, Up:[13331]=
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theory n.
The consensus, idea, plan, story, or set of rules that is currently being used to inform a behavior. This usage is a generalization and (deliberate) abuse of the technical meaning. "What's the theory on fixing this TECO loss?"
"What's the theory on dinner tonight?" ("Chinatown, I guess.") "What's the current theory on letting lusers on during the day?" "The theory behind this change is to fix the following well-known screw...."
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Node:thinko, Next:[13332]This can't happen, Previous:[13333]theory, Up:[13334]= T =
thinko /thing'koh/ n.
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[by analogy with `typo'] A momentary, correctable glitch in mental processing, especially one involving recall of information learned by rote; a bubble in the stream of consciousness. Syn. [13335]braino; see also [13336]brain fart. Compare [13337]mouso.
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Node:This can't happen, Next:[13338]This time for sure!, Previous:[13339]thinko, Up:[13340]= T =
This can't happen
Less clipped variant of [13341]can't happen.
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Node:This time for sure!, Next:[13342]thrash, Previous:[13343]This can't happen, Up:[13344]= T =
This time, for sure! excl.
Ritual affirmation frequently uttered during protracted debugging sessions involving numerous small obstacles (e.g., attempts to bring up a UUCP connection). For the proper effect, this must be uttered in a fruity imitation of Bullwinkle J. Moose. Also heard: "Hey, Rocky! Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!" The [13345]canonical response is, of course, "But that trick never works!" See [13346]hacker humor.
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Node:thrash, Next:[13347]thread, Previous:[13348]This time for sure!, Up:[13349]= T =
thrash vi.
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To move wildly or violently, without accomplishing anything useful. Paging or swapping systems that are overloaded waste most of their time moving data into and out of core (rather than performing useful computation) and are therefore said to thrash. Someone who keeps changing his mind (esp. about what to work on next) is said to be thrashing. A person frantically trying to execute too many tasks at once (and not spending enough time on any single task) may also be described as thrashing. Compare [13350]multitask.
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Node:thread, Next:[13351]three-finger salute, Previous:[13352]thrash, Up:[13353]= T =
thread n.
[Usenet, GEnie, CompuServe] Common abbreviation of `topic thread', a more or less continuous chain of postings on a single topic. To `follow a thread' is to read a series of Usenet postings sharing a common subject or (more correctly) which are connected by Reference headers. The better newsreaders can present news in thread order automatically. Not to be confused with the techspeak sense of `thread', e.g. a lightweight process.
Interestingly, this is far from a neologism. The OED says: "That which connects the successive points in anything, esp. a narrative, train of thought, or the like; the sequence of events or ideas continuing throughout the whole course of anything;" Citations are given going back to 1642!
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Node:three-finger salute, Next:[13354]throwaway account, Previous:[13355]thread, Up:[13356]= T =
three-finger salute n.
Syn. [13357]Vulcan nerve pinch.
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Node:throwaway account, Next:[13358]thud, Previous:[13359]three-finger salute, Up:[13360]= T =
throwaway account n.
1. An inexpensive Internet account purchased on a legitimate [13361]ISP for the the sole purpose of spewing [13362]spam. 2. An inexpensive Internet account obtained for the sole purpose of doing something which requires a valid email address but being able to ignore spam since the user will not look at the account again.
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Node:thud, Next:[13363]thumb, Previous:[13364]throwaway account, Up:[13365]= T =
thud n.
1. Yet another [13366]metasyntactic variable (see [13367]foo). It is reported that at CMU from the mid-1970s the canonical series of these was `foo', `bar', `thud', `blat'. 2. Rare term for the hash character, `#' (ASCII 0100011). See [13368]ASCII for other synonyms.
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thumb n.
The slider on a window-system scrollbar. So called because moving it allows you to browse through the contents of a text window in a way analogous to thumbing through a book.
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Node:thundering herd problem, Next:[13372]thunk,
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thundering herd problem
Scheduler thrashing. This can happen under Unix when you have a number of processes that are waiting on a single event. When that event (a connection to the web server, say) happens, every process which could possibly handle the event is awakened. In the end, only one of those processes will actually be able to do the work, but, in the meantime, all the others wake up and contend for CPU time before being put back to sleep. Thus the system thrashes briefly while a herd of processes thunders through. If this starts to happen many times per second, the performance impact can be significant.
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Node:thunk, Next:[13375]tick, Previous:[13376]thundering herd problem, Up:[13377]= T =
thunk /thuhnk/ n.
1. [obs.]"A piece of coding which provides an address", according to P. Z. Ingerman, who invented thunks in 1961 as a way of binding actual parameters to their formal definitions in Algol-60 procedure calls. If a procedure is called with an expression in the place of a formal parameter, the compiler generates a thunk which computes the expression and leaves the address of the result in some standard location. 2. Later generalized into: an expression, frozen together with its environment, for later evaluation if and when needed (similar to what in techspeak is called a `closure'). The process of unfreezing these thunks is called `forcing'. 3. A [13378]stubroutine, in an overlay programming environment, that loads and jumps to the correct overlay. Compare [13379]trampoline. 4. People and activities scheduled in a thunklike manner. "It occurred to me the other
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day that I am rather accurately modeled by a thunk -- I frequently need to be forced to completion." -- paraphrased from a [13380]plan file.
Historical note: There are a couple of onomatopoeic myths circulating about the origin of this term. The most common is that it is the sound made by data hitting the stack; another holds that the sound is that of the data hitting an accumulator. Yet another suggests that it is the sound of the expression being unfrozen at argument-evaluation time. In fact, according to the inventors, it was coined after they realized (in the wee hours after hours of discussion) that the type of an argument in Algol-60 could be figured out in advance with a little compile-time thought, simplifying the evaluation machinery. In other words, it had `already been thought of'; thus it was christened a `thunk', which is "the past tense of `think' at two in the morning".
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Node:tick, Next:[13381]tick-list features, Previous:[13382]thunk, Up:[13383]= T =
tick n.
1. A [13384]jiffy (sense 1). 2. In simulations, the discrete unit of time that passes between iterations of the simulation mechanism. In AI applications, this amount of time is often left unspecified, since the only constraint of interest is the ordering of events. This sort of AI simulation is often pejoratively referred to as `tick-tick-tick' simulation, especially when the issue of simultaneity of events with long, independent chains of causes is [13385]handwaved. 3. In the FORTH language, a single quote character.
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tick-list features n.