The New Hacker's Dictionary

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Node:cascade, Next:[2467]case and paste, Previous:[2468]cargo cult programming, Up:[2469]= C =

cascade n.

1. A huge volume of spurious error-message output produced by a compiler with poor error recovery. Too frequently, one trivial syntax error (such as a missing `)' or `}') throws the parser out of synch so that much of the remaining program text is interpreted as garbaged or ill-formed. 2. A chain of Usenet followups, each adding some trivial variation or riposte to the text of the previous one, all of which is reproduced in the new message; an [2470]include war in which the object is to create a sort of communal graffito.

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Node:case and paste, Next:[2471]casters-up mode, Previous:[2472]cascade, Up:[2473]= C =

case and paste n.

[from `cut and paste'] 1. The addition of a new [2474]feature to an existing system by selecting the code from an existing feature and pasting it in with minor changes. Common in telephony circles because most operations in a telephone switch are selected using case statements. Leads to [2475]software bloat.

In some circles of EMACS users this is called `programming by Meta-W', because Meta-W is the EMACS command for copying a block of text to a kill buffer in preparation to pasting it in elsewhere. The term is condescending, implying that the programmer is acting mindlessly rather than thinking carefully about what is required to integrate the code for two similar cases.

At [2476]DEC (now Compaq), this is sometimes called `clone-and-hack' coding.

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Node:casters-up mode, Next:[2477]casting the runes, Previous:[2478]case and paste, Up:[2479]= C =

casters-up mode n.

[IBM, prob. fr. slang belly up] Yet another synonym for `broken' or `down'. Usually connotes a major failure. A system (hardware or software) which is `down' may be already being restarted before the failure is noticed, whereas one which is `casters up' is usually a good excuse to take the rest of the day off (as long as you're not responsible for fixing it).

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Node:casting the runes, Next:[2480]cat, Previous:[2481]casters-up mode, Up:[2482]= C =

casting the runes n.

What a [2483]guru does when you ask him or her to run a particular program and type at it because it never works for anyone else; esp. used when nobody can ever see what the guru is doing different from what J. Random Luser does. Compare [2484]incantation, [2485]runes, [2486]examining the entrails; also see the AI koan about Tom Knight in "[2487]Some AI Koans" (Appendix A).

A correspondent from England tells us that one of ICL's most talented systems designers used to be called out occasionally to service machines which the [2488]field circus had given up on. Since he knew the design inside out, he could often find faults simply by listening to a quick outline of the symptoms. He used to play on this by going to some site where the field circus had just spent the last two weeks solid trying to find a fault, and spreading a diagram of the system out on a table top. He'd then shake some chicken bones and cast them over the diagram, peer at the bones intently for a minute, and then tell them that a certain module needed replacing. The

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system would start working again immediately upon the replacement.

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Node:cat, Next:[2489]catatonic, Previous:[2490]casting the runes, Up:[2491]= C =

cat [from `catenate' via [2492]Unix cat(1)] vt.

1. [techspeak] To spew an entire file to the screen or some other output sink without pause (syn. [2493]blast). 2. By extension, to dump large amounts of data at an unprepared target or with no intention of browsing it carefully. Usage: considered silly. Rare outside Unix sites. See also [2494]dd, [2495]BLT.

Among Unix fans, cat(1) is considered an excellent example of user-interface design, because it delivers the file contents without such verbosity as spacing or headers between the files, and because it does not require the files to consist of lines of text, but works with any sort of data.

Among Unix haters, cat(1) is considered the [2496]canonical example of bad user-interface design, because of its woefully unobvious name. It is far more often used to [2497]blast a file to standard output than to concatenate two files. The name cat for the former operation is just as unintuitive as, say, LISP's [2498]cdr.

Of such oppositions are [2499]holy wars made....

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Node:catatonic, Next:[2500]cathedral, Previous:[2501]cat, Up:[2502]= C =

catatonic adj.

Describes a condition of suspended animation in which something is so [2503]wedged or [2504]hung that it makes no response. If you are typing

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CDA /C-D-A/

The "Communications Decency Act" of 1996, passed on [2518]Black Thursday as section 502 of a major telecommunications reform bill. The CDA made it a federal crime in the USA to send a communication which is "obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or indecent, with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass another person." It also threatened with imprisonment anyone who "knowingly" makes accessible to minors any message that "describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards, sexual or excretory activities or organs".

While the CDA was sold as a measure to protect minors from the putative evils of pornography, the repressive political aims of the bill were laid bare by the Hyde amendment, which intended to outlaw discussion of abortion on the Internet.

To say that this direct attack on First Amendment free-speech rights was not well received on the Internet would be putting it mildly. A firestorm of protest followed, including a February 29th mass demonstration by thousands of netters who turned their [2519]home pages black for 48 hours. Several civil-rights groups and computing/telecommunications companies mounted a constitutional challenge. The CDA was demolished by a strongly-worded decision handed down on in 8th-circuit Federal court and subsequently affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court on 26 June 1997 (`White Thursday'). See also [2520]Exon.

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Node:cdr, Next:[2521]chad, Previous:[2522]CDA, Up:[2523]= C =

cdr /ku'dr/ or /kuh'dr/ vt.

[from LISP] To skip past the first item from a list of things (generalized from the LISP operation on binary tree structures, which returns a list consisting of all but the first element of its argument). In the form `cdr down', to trace down a list of elements: "Shall we cdr down the agenda?"

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Usage: silly. See also [2524]loop through.

Historical note: The instruction format of the IBM 704 that hosted the original LISP implementation featured two 15-bit fields called the `address' and `decrement' parts. The term `cdr' was originally `Contents of Decrement part of Register'. Similarly, `car' stood for `Contents of Address part of Register'.

The cdr and car operations have since become bases for formation of compound metaphors in non-LISP contexts. GLS recalls, for example, a programming project in which strings were represented as linked lists; the get-character and skip-character operations were of course called CHAR and CHDR.

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Node:chad, Next:[2525]chad box, Previous:[2526]cdr, Up:[2527]= C =

chad /chad/ n.

1. [common] The perforated edge strips on printer paper, after they have been separated from the printed portion. Also called [2528]selvage, [2529]perf, and [2530]ripoff. 2. obs. The confetti-like paper bits punched out of cards or paper tape; this has also been called `chaff', `computer confetti', and `keypunch droppings'. It's reported that this was very old Army slang, and it may now be mainstream; it has been reported seen (1993) in directions for a card-based voting machine in California.

Historical note: One correspondent believes `chad' (sense 2) derives from the Chadless keypunch (named for its inventor), which cut little u-shaped tabs in the card to make a hole when the tab folded back, rather than punching out a circle/rectangle; it was clear that if the Chadless keypunch didn't make them, then the stuff that other keypunches made had to be `chad'. There is a legend that the word was originally acronymic, standing for "Card Hole Aggregate Debris", but this has all the earmarks of a [2531]backronym.

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Node:channel, Next:[2543]channel hopping, Previous:[2544]chain, Up:[2545]= C =

channel n.

[IRC] The basic unit of discussion on [2546]IRC. Once one joins a channel, everything one types is read by others on that channel. Channels are named with strings that begin with a `#' sign and can have topic descriptions (which are generally irrelevant to the actual subject of discussion). Some notable channels are #initgame, #hottub, callahans, and #report. At times of international crisis, #report has hundreds of members, some of whom take turns listening to various news services and typing in summaries of the news, or in some cases, giving first-hand accounts of the action (e.g., Scud missile attacks in Tel Aviv during the Gulf War in 1991).

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Node:channel hopping, Next:[2547]channel op, Previous:[2548]channel, Up:[2549]= C =

channel hopping n.

[common; IRC, GEnie] To rapidly switch channels on [2550]IRC, or a GEnie chat board, just as a social butterfly might hop from one group to another at a party. This term may derive from the TV watcher's idiom, `channel surfing'.

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Node:channel op, Next:[2551]chanop, Previous:[2552]channel hopping, Up:[2553]= C =

channel op /chan'l op/ n.

[IRC] Someone who is endowed with privileges on a particular [2554]IRC channel; commonly abbreviated `chanop' or `CHOP' or just `op' (as of 2000

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these short forms have almost crowded out the parent usage). These privileges include the right to [2555]kick users, to change various status bits, and to make others into CHOPs.

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Node:chanop, Next:[2556]char, Previous:[2557]channel op, Up:[2558]= C

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chanop /chan'-op/ n.

[IRC] See [2559]channel op.

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Node:char, Next:[2560]charityware, Previous:[2561]chanop, Up:[2562]= C

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char /keir/ or /char/; rarely, /kar/ n.

Shorthand for `character'. Esp. used by C programmers, as `char' is C's typename for character data.

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Node:charityware, Next:[2563]chase pointers, Previous:[2564]char, Up:[2565]= C =

charityware /cha'rit-ee-weir`/ n.

Syn. [2566]careware.

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Node:chase pointers, Next:[2567]chawmp, Previous:[2568]charityware, Up:[2569]= C =

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chase pointers

1. vi. To go through multiple levels of indirection, as in traversing a linked list or graph structure. Used esp. by programmers in C, where explicit pointers are a very common data type. This is techspeak, but it remains jargon when used of human networks. "I'm chasing pointers. Bob said you could tell me who to talk to about...." See [2570]dangling pointer and [2571]snap. 2. [Cambridge] `pointer chase' or `pointer hunt': The process of going through a [2572]core dump (sense 1), interactively or on a large piece of paper printed with hex [2573]runes, following dynamic data-structures. Used only in a debugging context.

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Node:chawmp, Next:[2574]check, Previous:[2575]chase pointers, Up:[2576]= C =

chawmp n.

[University of Florida] 16 or 18 bits (half of a machine word). This term was used by FORTH hackers during the late 1970s/early 1980s; it is said to have been archaic then, and may now be obsolete. It was coined in revolt against the promiscuous use of `word' for anything between 16 and 32 bits; `word' has an additional special meaning for FORTH hacks that made the overloading intolerable. For similar reasons, /gaw'bl/ (spelled `gawble' or possibly `gawbul') was in use as a term for 32 or 48 bits (presumably a full machine word, but our sources are unclear on this). These terms are more easily understood if one thinks of them as faithful phonetic spellings of `chomp' and `gobble' pronounced in a Florida or other Southern U.S. dialect. For general discussion of similar terms, see [2577]nybble.

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Node:check, Next:[2578]cheerfully, Previous:[2579]chawmp, Up:[2580]=

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