The Jargon File v2.2.1 15 DEC 1990, part 7 of 10

[Eric S. Raymond]

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XPERL [Practical Extraction and Report Language, aka Pathologically
X   Eclectic Rubbish Lister] n. An interpreted language developed by
X   Larry Wall (lwall at jpl.nasa.gov, author of patch(1)) and distributed
X   over USENET.  Superficially resembles awk(1), but is much more
X   arcane (see AWK).  Increasingly considered a LANGUAGE OF CHOICE by
X   UNIX sysadmins, who are almost always incorrigible hackers. Perl
X   has been described, in a parody of a famous remark about lex(1), as
X   the "Swiss-army chainsaw" of UNIX programming.
X
XPESSIMAL /pes'i-ml/ [Latin-based antonym for "optimal"] adj.
X   Maximally bad.  "This is a pessimal situation." Also PESSIMIZE v.
X   to make as bad as possible.  These words are the obvious
X   Latin-based antonyms for "optimal" and "optimize", but for some
X   reason they do not appear in most English dictionaries, although
X   "pessimize" is listed in the Oxford English Dictionary.
X
XPESSIMIZING COMPILER /pes'i-miez-ing kuhm-pie'lr/ [antonym of
X   `optimizing compiler'] n. A compiler that produces object code that
X   is worse than the straightforward or obvious translation.  The
X   implication is that the compiler is actually trying to optimize the
X   program, but through stupidity is doing the opposite.  A few
X   pessimizing compilers have been written on purpose, however, as
X   pranks.
X
XPHANTOM n. At Stanford, the term PHANTOM was formerly used to mean a
X   DRAGON (q.v.).
X
XPHASE 1. n. The phase of one's waking-sleeping schedule with respect
X   to the standard 24-hour cycle.  This is a useful concept among
X   people who often work at night according to no fixed schedule.  It
X   is not uncommon to change one's phase by as much as six hours/day
X   on a regular basis.  "What's your phase?"  "I've been getting in
X   about 8 PM lately, but I'm going to work around to the day schedule
X   by Friday."  A person who is roughly 12 hours out of phase is
X   sometimes said to be in "night mode".  (The term "day mode" is
X   also , but less frequently, used, meaning you're working 9 to 5 (or
X   more likely 10 to 6)) 2. CHANGE PHASE THE HARD WAY: To stay awake
X   for a very long time in order to get into a different phase.  3.
X   CHANGE PHASE THE EASY WAY: To stay asleep etc. However, some claim
X   that either staying awake longer or sleeping longer is easy, an
X   that it's *shortening* your day or night that's hard. The
X   phenomenon of "jet lag" that afflicts travelers who cross many
X   time-zone boundaries may be attributed to two distinct causes: the
X   strain of travel per se, and the strain of changing phase.  Hackers
X   who suddenly find that they must change phase drastically in a
X   short period of time, particularly the hard way, experience
X   something very like jet lag without travelling.
X
XPHASE OF THE MOON n. Used humorously as a random parameter on which
X   something is said to depend.  Sometimes implies unreliability of
X   whatever is dependent, or that reliability seems to be dependent on
X   conditions nobody has been able to determine.  "This feature
X   depends on having the channel open in mumble mode, having the foo
X   switch set, and on the phase of the moon."
X
X   True story: Once upon a time, a program written by Gerry Sussman
X   (professor of Electrical Engineering at MIT) and Guy Steele had a
X   bug that really did depend on the phase of the moon!  There is a
X   little subroutine that had traditionally been used in various
X   programs at MIT to calculate an approximation to the moon's true
X   phase; the phase is then printed out at the top of program
X   listings, for example, along with the date and time, purely for
X   fun.  (Actually, since hackers spend a lot of time indoors, this
X   might be the only way they would ever know what the moon's phase
X   was!)  Steele incorporated this routine into a LISP program that,
X   when it wrote out a file, would print a `timestamp" line almost
X   80 characters long. Very occasionally the first line of the message
X   would be too long and would overflow onto the next line, and when
X   the file was later read back in the program would BARF.  The length
X   of the first line depended on the precise time when the timestamp
X   was printed, and so the bug literally depended on the phase of the
X   moon!
X
XPIG, RUN LIKE A adj. To run very slowly on given hardware, said of
X   software.  Distinct from HOG, q.v.
X
XPING /ping/ [from TCP/IP terminology] n.,v. 1. Slang term for a small
X   network message (ICMP ECHO) sent by a computer to check for the
X   presence and aliveness of another.  Occasionally used as a phone
X   greeting.  See ACK, also ENQ. 2.  To verify the presence of.  3. To
X   get the attention of.  From the Unix command by the same name (an
X   acronym of "Packet INternet Groper) that sends an ICMP ECHO packet
X   to another host.  This was probably contrived to match submariners'
X   "ping" (sonar ranging pulse).
X
XPINK SHIRT BOOK "The Peter Norton Programmer's Guide to the IBM PC".
X   The original cover featured a picture of Peter Norton with a silly
X   smirk on his face, wearing a pink shirt.  Perhaps in recognition of
X   this usage, the current edition has a different picture of Norton
X   wearing a pink shirt.
X
XPIP /pip/ v. obs. To copy, from the program PIP on CP/M and RSX-11
X   that was used for file copying (and in RSX for just about every
X   other file operation you might want to do). Obsolete, but still
X   occasionally heard.
X
XPIPELINE [UNIX, orig. by Doug McIlroy; now also used under MS-DOS and
X   elsewhere] n. A chain of FILTER programs connected
X   "head-to-tail", so that the output of one becomes the input of
X   the next.  Under UNIX, user utilities can often be implemented or
X   at least prototyped by a suitable collection of pipelines and
X   temp-file grinding encapsulated in a shell script; this is much
X   less effort than writing C every time, and the capability is
X   considered one of UNIX's major WINNING features.
X
XPIZZA, ANSI STANDARD /pee'tz@, an'see stan'd at rd/ [CMU] Pepperoni and
X   mushroom pizza.  Coined allegedly because most pizzas ordered by
X   CMU hackers during some period leading up to mid-1990 were of that
X   flavor. See also ROTARY DEBUGGER.
X
XPLAYPEN [IBM] n. A room where programmers work.  Compare SALT MINES.
X
XPLAYTE /din'r/ 16 bits, by analogy with NYBBLE and BYTE. Usage: rare
X   and extremely silly.  See also DYNNER.
X
XPLINGNET /pling'net/ n. See UUCPNET.  (Usage: British)
X
XPLONK [USENET] The sound a NEWBIE makes as he falls to the bottom of a
X   KILL FILE.  Almost exclusively used in the NEWSGROUP
X   "talk.bizarre", this term (usually written "*plonk*") is a form
X   of public ridicule.
X
XPLUGH /ploogh/ [from the ADVENT game] v. See XYZZY.
X
XPM /pee em/ 1. [from "preventive maintenence"] v. to bring down a
X   machine for inspection or test purposes; see SCRATCH MONKEY. 2. n.
X   Abbrev. for "Presentation Manager", an ELEPHANTINE OS/2 graphical
X   user interface.
X
XP.O.D. /pee-oh-dee/ Acronym for `Piece Of Data' (as opposed to a code
X   section). Usage: pedantic and rare.
X
XPOD n. A diablo 630 (or, latterly, any impact letter quality printer).
X   From the DEC-10 PODTYPE program used to feed formatted text to
X   same.
X
XPOLL v.,n. 1. The action of checking the status of an input line,
X   sensor, or memory location to see if a particular external event
X   has been registered. 2. To ask.  "I'll poll everyone and see where
X   they want to go for lunch."
X
XPOLYGON PUSHER n. A chip designer who spends most of his/her time at
X   the physical layout level (which requires drawing *lots* of
X   multi-colored polygons). Also "rectangle slinger".
X
XPOM /pee-oh-em/ n. Phase of the moon (q.v.).  Usage: usually used in
X   the phrase "POM dependent" which means FLAKEY (q.v.).
X
XPOP also POPJ /pop-jay/ [based on the stack operation that removes the
X   top of a stack, and the fact that procedure return addresses are
X   saved on the stack] 1. v.  To remove something from a stack or PDL.
X   If a person says he has popped something from his pdl, he means he
X   has finally finished working on it and can now remove it from the
X   list of things hanging over his head.  2. To return from a
X   digression (the J-form derives specifically from a PDP-10 assembler
X   instruction).  By verb doubling, "Popj, popj" means roughly,
X   "Now let's see, where were we?"  See RTI.
X
XPRECEDENCE LOSSAGE /pre's at -dens los'j/ [C programmers] n. Coding error
X   in an expression due to unexpected grouping of arithmetic or
X   logical operators by the compiler.  Used esp. of certain common
X   coding errors in C due to the nonintuitively low precedence levels
X   of &, | and ^. Can always be avoided by suitable use of
X   parentheses.  See ALIASING BUG, MEMORY LEAK, SMASH THE STACK,
X   FANDANGO ON CORE, OVERRUN SCREW.
X
XPRETTY PRINT or PRETTYPRINT v. 1. To generate `pretty' human-readable
X   output from a hairy internal representation; esp. used for the
X   process of GRINDing (sense #2) LISP code. 2. To format in some
X   particularly slick and nontrivial way.  See GRIND.
X
XPRIME TIME [from TV programming] n. Normal high-usage hours on a
X   timesharing system, the `day shift'. Avoidance of prime time is a
X   major reason for NIGHT MODE hacking.
X
XPRIORITY INTERRUPT [from the hardware term] n. Describes any stimulus
X   compelling enough to yank one right out of HACK MODE.  Classically
X   used to describe being dragged away by an SO for immediate sex, but
X   may also refer to more mundane interruptions such as a fire alarm
X   going off in the near vicinity. Also called an NMI (non maskable
X   interrupt) especially in PC-land.
X
XPROGRAMMER'S CHEER "Shift to the left!  Shift to the right!  Push
X   down, pop up!  Byte!  Byte!  Byte!"  A joke so old it has hair on
X   it...
X
XPROPELLER HEAD n. Used by hackers, this is syn. with COMPUTER GEEK.
X   Non-hackers sometimes use it to describe all techies.  Prob.
X   derives from SF fandom's tradition of propeller beanies as fannish
X   insignia (though nobody actually wears them except as a joke).
X
XPROTOCOL n. See DO PROTOCOL.
X
XPROWLER [UNIX] n. A DEMON that is run periodically (typically once a
X   week) to seek out and erase core files, truncate administrative
X   logfiles, nuke lost+found directories, and otherwise clean up the
X   cruft that tends to pile up in the corners of a file system.  See
X   also GFR, REAPER.
X
XPSEUDO /soo'do/ [USENET] n. 1. An electronic-mail or USENET persona
X   adopted by a human for amusement value or as a means of avoiding
X   negative repercussions of his/her net.behavior; a `nom de USENET',
X   often associated with forged postings designed to conceal message
X   origins. Perhaps the best-known and funniest hoax of this type is
X   BIFF (q.v.). 2. Notionally, a FLAMAGE-generating AI program
X   simulating a USENET user. Many FLAMERS have been accused of
X   actually being such entities, despite the fact that no AI program
X   of the required sophistication exists. However, in 1989 there was a
X   famous series of forged postings that used a phrase-frequency-based
X   travesty generator to simulate the styles of several well-known
X   flamers based on large samples of their back postings. A
X   significant number of people were fooled by these, and the debate
X   over their authenticity was only settled when the perpetrator of
X   the hoax came publicly forward to admit the deed.
X
XPSEUDOPRIME n. A backgammon prime (six consecutive occupied points)
X   with one point missing.  This term is an esoteric pun derived from
X   a mathematical method which, rather than determining precisely
X   whether a number is prime (has no divisors), uses a statistical
X   technique to decide whether the number is "probably" prime.  A
X   number that passes this test is called a pseudoprime.  The hacker
X   backgammon usage stems from the idea that pseudoprime is almost as
X   good as a prime: it does the job of a prime until proven otherwise,
X   and that probably won't happen.
X
XPSEUDOSUIT n. A SUIT wannabee; a hacker who's decided that he wants to
X   be in management or administration and begins wearing ties, sport
X   coats and (shudder!) suits voluntarily.  Chacun a son gout...
X
XPUNT [from the punch line of an old joke referring to American
X   football: "Drop back 15 yards and punt"] v. To give up, typically
X   without any intention of retrying.  "Let's punt the movie
X   tonight."  "I was going to hack all night to get this feature in,
X   but I decided to punt" may mean that you've decided not to stay up
X   all night, and may also mean you're not ever even going to put in
X   the feature.
X
XPURPLE BOOK, THE n. The System V Interface Definition.  The covers of
X   the first editions were an amazingly nauseating shade of
X   off-lavender.  See also RED BOOK, BLUE BOOK, GREEN BOOK, SILVER
X   BOOK, ORANGE BOOK, WHITE BOOK, PINK-SHIRT BOOK, DRAGON BOOK.
X
XPUSH [based on the stack operation that puts the current information
X   on a stack, and the fact that procedure call addresses are saved on
X   the stack] Also PUSHJ (push-jay), based on the PDP-10 procedure
X   call instruction.  1. To put something onto a stack or PDL.  If a
X   person says something has been pushed onto his pdl, he means yet
X   another thing has been added to the list of things hanging over his
X   head for him to do.  2. v. To enter upon a digression, to save the
X   current discussion for later.  Antonym of POP, POPJ; see also PDL.
X
XPSYCHEDELICWARE [Great Britain] n. Syn. DISPLAY HACK.
X
X                                {= Q =}
X
XQUADRUPLE BUCKY n., obs. On a SPACE-CADET KEYBOARD (q.v.), use of all
X   four of the shifting keys control, meta, hyper, and super while
X   typing a character key.  This was very difficult to do!  One
X   accepted technique was to press the left-control and left-meta keys
X   with your left hand, the right-control and right-meta keys with
X   your right hand, and the fifth key with your nose.  Thus, this
X   combination was very seldom used in practice, because when you
X   invent a new command you usually assign it to some character that
X   is easier to type.  If you want to imply that a program has
X   ridiculously many commands or features, you can say something like
X   "Oh, the command that makes it spin all the tapes while whistling
X   Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is quadruple-bucky-cokebottle". See
X   DOUBLE BUCKY, BUCKY BITS.
X
XQUANTUM BOGODYNAMICS /kwahn'tm boh`goh-die-nam'iks/ n. Theory
X   promulgated by ESR which characterizes the universe in terms of
X   bogon sources (such as politicians, used-car salesmen, TV
X   evangelists, and SUITs in general), bogon sinks (such as taxpayers
X   and computers), and bogosity potential fields.  Bogon absorption,
X   of course, causes human beings to behave mindlessly and machines to
X   fail (and may cause them to emit secondary bogons as well);
X   however, the precise mechanics of the bogon-computron interaction
X   are not yet understood and remain to be elucidated.  Quantum
X   bogodynamics is most frequently invoked to explain the sharp
X   increase in hardware and software failures in the presence of
X   suits; the latter emit bogons which the former absorb.  See BOGON,
X   COMPUTRON, SUIT.
X
XQUES /kwess/ 1. n. The question mark character ("?").  2. interj.
X   What?  Also QUES QUES?  See WALL.
X
XQUX /kwuhks/ The fourth of the standard metasyntactic variables, after
X   BAZ and before the QUU*X series.  See FOO, BAR, BAZ, QUUX. Note
X   that this appears to a be recent mutation from QUUX, and that many
X   versions of the standard series just run FOO, BAR, BAZ, QUUX,
X   QUUUX...
X
XQUUX /kwuhks/ [invented by Steele] Mythically, from the Latin
X   semi-deponent verb QUUXO, QUUXARE, QUUXANDUM IRI; noun form
X   variously QUUX (plural QUUCES, Anglicized to QUUXES) and QUUXU
X   (genitive plural is QUUXUUM, four U's in seven letters).] 1.
X   Originally, a meta-word like FOO and FOOBAR.  Invented by Guy
X   Steele for precisely this purpose when he was young and naive and
X   not yet interacting with the real computing community.  Many people
X   invent such words; this one seems simply to have been lucky enough
X   to have spread a little.  In an eloquent display of poetic justice,
X   it has returned to the originator in the form of a nickname, as
X   punishment for inventing this bletcherous word in the first place.
X   2. interj. See FOO; however, denotes very little disgust, and is
X   uttered mostly for the sake of the sound of it.  3. Guy L. Steele
X   in his persona as "The Great Quux", which is somewhat infamous
X   for light verse and for the "Crunchly" cartoons.  4. QUUXY: adj.
X   Of or pertaining to a QUUX.
X
XQWERTY /kwer'tee/ adj. Pertaining to a standard English typewriter
X   keyboard, as opposed to Dvorak or foreign-language layouts or a
X   SPACE-CADET or APL keyboard.
X
X                                {= R =}
X
XRANDOM adj. 1. Unpredictable (closest to mathematical definition);
X   weird.  "The system's been behaving pretty randomly."  2.
X   Assorted; undistinguished.  "Who was at the conference?"  "Just
X   a bunch of random business types."  3.  Frivolous; unproductive;
X   undirected (pejorative).  "He's just a random loser."  4.
X   Incoherent or inelegant; not well organized.  "The program has a
X   random set of misfeatures."  "That's a random name for that
X   function."  "Well, all the names were chosen pretty randomly."
X   5.  Gratuitously wrong, i.e., poorly done and for no good apparent
X   reason.  For example, a program that handles file name defaulting
X   in a particularly useless way, or an assembler routine that could
X   easily have been coded using only three registers, but randomly
X   uses seven for assorted non-overlapping purposes, so that no one
X   else can invoke it without first saving four extra registers.  6.
X   In no particular order, though deterministic.  "The I/O channels
X   are in a pool, and when a file is opened one is chosen randomly."
X   n.  7. A random hacker; used particularly of high school students
X   who soak up computer time and generally get in the way.  8.
X   (occasional MIT usage) One who lives at Random Hall.  J. RANDOM is
X   often prefixed to a noun to make a "name" out of it (by
X   comparison to common names such as "J. Fred Muggs").  It means
X   roughly "some particular" or "any specific one".  The most
X   common uses are "J. RANDOM HACKER, "J. Random Loser" and "J.
X   Random Nerd" ("Should J. Random Loser be allowed to gun down other
X   people?"), but it can be used just as an elaborate version of
X   RANDOM in any sense.  See also SOME RANDOM X.
X
XRANDOM NUMBERS n. When one wishes to specify a large but random number
X   of things, and the context is inappropriate for `N' (q.v.), certain
X   numbers are preferred by hacker tradition (that is, easily
X   recognized as placeholders). These include
X
X     17 Long described at MIT as "the least random number", see 23.
X     23 Sacred number of Eris, Goddess of Discord (along with 17 & 5).
X     42 The Answer to the Question of Life, the Universe and Everything.
X     69 From the sexual act. This one was favored in MIT's ITS culture.
X     666 The Number of the Beast.
X
X   For further enlightenment, consult the _Principia_Discordia_,
X   _The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_To_The_Galaxy_, any porn movie, and the
X   Christian Bible's _Book_Of_Revelations_. See also DISCORDIANISM.
X
XRANDOMNESS n. An unexplainable misfeature; gratuitous inelegance.
X   Also, a HACK or CROCK which depends on a complex combination of
X   coincidences (or rather, the combination upon which the crock
X   depends for its accidental failure to malfunction).  "This hack
X   can output characters 40-57 by putting the character in the
X   accumulator field of an XCT and then extracting 6 bits --- the low
X   two bits of the XCT opcode are the right thing."  "What
X   randomness!"
X
XRAPE v. To (metaphorically) screw someone or something, violently; in
X   particular, to destroy a program or information irrecoverably
X   Usage: often used in describing file-system damage.  "So-and-so
X   was running a program that did absolute disk I/O and ended up
X   raping the master directory."
X
XRARE [UNIX] adj. CBREAK mode (character-by-character with interrupts
X   enabled). Distinguished from `raw' and `cooked', but unlike them
X   this term is strictly a creature of folklore, not found in the
X   manuals (though it is alleged that some versions of the V7 manuals
X   used the term `half-cooked'). Usage: rare.
X
XRASTER BLASTER n. [Cambridge] Specialized hardware for BITBLT (q.v.)
X   operations.  Allegedly inspired by analogy with `Rasta Blasta',
X   British slang for the sort of portable stereo/radio/tapedeck
X   Americans call a `boom box' or `ghetto blaster'.
X
XRASTER BURN n. Eyestrain brought on by too many hours of looking at
X   low-res, poorly tuned or glare-ridden monitors, esp.  graphics
X   monitors.  See TERMINAL ILLNESS.
X
XRAVE [WPI] v. 1. To persist in discussing a specific subject.  2. To
X   speak authoritatively on a subject about which one knows very
X   little.  3. To complain to a person who is not in a position to
X   correct the difficulty.  4. To purposely annoy another person
X   verbally.  5. To evangelize.  See FLAME.  Also used to describe a
X   less negative form of blather, such as friendly bullshitting.  RAVE
X   differs slightly from FLAME in that RAVE implies that it is the
X   manner or persistence of speaking that is annoying, while FLAME
X   implies somewhat more strongly that the subject matter is annoying
X   as well.
X
XRAVE ON! imp. Sarcastic invitation to continue a RAVE, often by
X   someone who wishes the raver would get a clue but realizes this is
X   unlikely.
X
XRAVS /ravz/, also CHINESE RAVS n.  Kuo-teh.  A Chinese appetizer,
X   known variously in the plural as dumplings, potstickers and (around
X   Boston) `Peking Ravioli'.  The term "rav" is short for
X   "ravioli", which among hackers always means the Chinese kind
X   rather than the Italian kind.  Both consist of a filling in a pasta
X   shell, but the Chinese kind uses a thinner pasta and is cooked
X   differently, either by steaming or frying.  A rav or dumpling can
X   be steamed or fried, but a potsticker is always the fried kind (so
X   called because it sticks to the frying pot and has to be scraped
X   off).  "Let's get hot-and-sour soup and three orders of ravs."
X   See also ORIENTAL FOOD.
X
XREAD.ME FILE n. By convention, the top-level directory of a UNIX
X   source distribution always contains a file named `READ.ME' (or
X   README, or (rarely) ReadMe) which is a hacker's-eye introduction
X   containing a pointer to more detailed documentation, credits,
X   miscellaneous revision history notes, etc.
X
XREAD-ONLY USER n. Describes a LUSER who uses computers almost
X   exclusively for reading USENET, bulletin boards and email, as
X   opposed to writing code or purveying useful information.  See
X   TWINK.
X
XREAL PROGRAMMER [indirectly, from the book "Real Men Don't Eat
X   Quiche"] n. A particular sub-variety of hacker, one possessed of a
X   flippant attitude towards complexity that is arrogant even when
X   justified by experience.  The archetypal `real programmer' likes to
X   program on the BARE METAL, and is very good at same; he remembers
X   the binary opcodes for every machine he's every programmed and
X   thinks that HLLs are for wimps.  Real Programmers aren't satisfied
X   with code that hasn't been BUMmed into a state of TENSEness just
X   short of rupture.  Real Programmers never use comments or write
X   documentation; "If it was hard to write", says the Real
X   Programmer, "it should be hard to understand."  Real Programmers
X   can make machines do things that were never in their spec sheets;
X   in fact, they're seldom really happy unless doing so.  A Real
X   Programmer's code can awe you with its fiendish brilliance even as
X   it appalls by its level of CROCKISHNESS.  Real Programmers live on
X   junk food and coffee, hang line-printer art on their walls, and
X   terrify the crap out of other programmers --- because someday,
X   somebody else might have to try to understand their code in order
X   to change it.  Their successors generally consider it a GOOD THING
X   that there aren't many Real Programmers around any more.
X
XREAL SOON NOW [orig. from SF's fanzine community. popularized by Jerry
X   Pournelle's BYTE column] adj.  1. Supposed to be available (or
X   fixed, or cheap, or whatever) real soon now according to somebody,
X   but the speaker is quite skeptical.  2. When the gods/fates/other
X   time commitments permit the speaker to get to it.  Often
X   abbreviated RSN.
X
XREAL TIME adv. Doing something while people are watching or waiting.
X   "I asked her how to find the calling procedure's program counter
X   on the stack and she came up with an algorithm in real time."
X
XREAL USER n. 1. A commercial user.  One who is paying "real" money
X   for his computer usage.  2. A non-hacker.  Someone using the system
X   for an explicit purpose (research project, course, etc.).  See
X   USER.  Hackers who are also students may also be REAL USERS.  "I
X   need this fixed so I can do a problem set.  I'm not complaining out
X   of randomness, but as a real user." See also LUSER.
X
XREAL WORLD, THE n. 1. In programming, those institutions at which
X   programming may be used in the same sentence as FORTRAN, COBOL,
X   RPG, IBM, etc.  Places where programs do such commercially
X   necessary but intellectually uninspiring things as compute payroll
X   checks and invoices.  2. To programmers, the location of
X   non-programmers and activities not related to programming.  3. A
X   universe in which the standard dress is shirt and tie and in which
X   a person's working hours are defined as 9 to 5.  4. The location of
X   the status quo.  5. Anywhere outside a university.  "Poor fellow,
X   he's left MIT and gone into the real world."  Used pejoratively by
X   those not in residence there.  In conversation, talking of someone
X   who has entered the real world is not unlike talking about a
X   deceased person.  See also FEAR AND LOATHING, MUNDANE, and
X   UNINTERESTING.
X
XREAPER n. A PROWLER which GFRs files (see GFR). A file removed in this
X   way is said to have been "reaped".
X
XRECTANGLE SLINGER n. See POLYGON PUSHER.
X
XRECURSION n. See RECURSION, TAIL RECURSION.
X
XRECURSIVE ACRONYMS pl.n. A hackish (and especially MIT) tradition is
X   to choose acronyms which refer humorously to themselves or to other
X   acronyms. The classic examples were two MIT editors called EINE
X   ("EINE Is Not EMACS") and ZWEI ("ZWEI Was EINE Initially").
X   More recently, GNU (q.v., sense #1) is said to stand for "GNU's
X   Not UNIX!"
X
XRED BOOK n. 1. Informal name for one of the three standard references
X   on PostScript; the others are known as the GREEN BOOK and BLUE
X   BOOK.  2. Any of the 1984 standards issued by the CCIT 8th plenary
X   assembly. They change color each review cycle (1988 was BLUE BOOK,
X   1992 will be GREEN BOOK).  These include, among other things, the
X   X.400 email spec and the Group 1 through 4 fax standards.  See also
X   GREEN BOOK, BLUE BOOK, PURPLE BOOK, SILVER BOOK, ORANGE BOOK, WHITE
X   BOOK, PINK-SHIRT BOOK, DRAGON BOOK.
X
XREGEXP /reg'exp/ [UNIX] n. 1. Common written and spoken abbreviation
X   for `regular expression', one of the wildcard patterns used, e.g.,
X   by UNIX utilities such as grep(1), sed(1) and awk(1). These use
X   conventions similar to but more elaborate than those described
X   under GLOB.  2. Name of a well-known PD regexp-handling package in
X   portable C, written by revered USENETter Henry Spencer
X   (henry at utzoo.uucp).
X
XREINCARNATION, CYCLE OF n. Term used to refer to a well-known effect
X   whereby function in a computing system family is migrated out to
X   special purpose peripheral hardware for speed, then the peripheral
X   evolves towards more computing power as it does its job, then
X   somebody notices that it's inefficient to support two asymmetrical
X   processors in the architecture and folds the function back into the
X   main CPU, at which point the cycle begins again.  Several
X   iterations of this cycle have been observed in graphics processor
X   design, and at least one or two in communications and
X   floating-point processors.  Also known as "the Wheel of Life",
X   "the Wheel of Samsara", and other variations of the basic
X   Hindu/Buddhist theological idea.
X
XRELIGIOUS ISSUES n. Questions which seemingly cannot be raised without
X   touching off a HOLY WAR, such as "What is the best
X   editor/language/operating system/architecture/shell/mail
X   reader/news reader". See also THEOLOGY.
X
XREPLICATOR n. Any construct that acts to produce copies of itself;
X   this could be a living organism, an idea (see MEME), a program (see
X   WORM, WABBIT and VIRUS), a pattern in a cellular automaton (see
X   LIFE, sense #1), or (speculatively) a robot.
X
XRETCON /ret'-con/ ["retroactive continuity", from USENET's
X   rec.arts.comics] 1. n. the common situation in pulp fiction (esp.
X   comics, soaps) where a new story "reveals" new things about
X   events previous stories, usually leaving the "facts" the same
X   (thus preserving "continuity") while completely changing their
X   interpretation.  E.g., revealing that a whole season's episodes of
X   Dallas was a dream was a retcon.  2.  v.t. To write such a story
X   about (a character or fictitious object).  Thus, "Byrne has
X   retconned Superman's cape so that it is no longer unbreakable".
X   3. v.i. Used of something "transformed" in this way -
X   "Marvelman's old adventures were retconned into synthetic
X   dreams", "Swamp Thing was retconned from a transformed person
X   into a sentient vegetable."
X
X   [Ed.note: This is included because it's a good example of hackish
X   innovation in a field completely unrelated to computers.  The word
X   "retcon" will probably spread through comics fandom and lose its
X   association with hackerdom within a couple of years; for the
X   record, it started here.]
X
XRETROCOMPUTING /ret'-roh-k at m-pyoo'ting/ n. Refers to emulations of
X   way-behind-the state-of-the-art hardware or software, or
X   implementations of never-was-state-of-the-art; esp. if such
X   implementations are elaborate practical jokes and/or parodies of
X   more `serious' designs.  Perhaps the most widely distributed
X   retrocomputing utility was the pnch(6) program on V7 and other
X   early UNIX versions, which would accept up to 80 characters of text
X   argument and display the corresponding pattern in Hollerith card
X   code.  Other well-known retrocomputing hacks have included the
X   programming language INTERCAL (q.v.), a jcl-emulating shell for
X   UNIX, the card-punch-emulating editor named 029, and various
X   elaborate PDP-11 hardware emulators and RT-11 OS emulators written
X   just to keep an old, sourceless ZORK binary running.
X
XRFC /ahr ef see/ n. Request For Comment.  One of a long-established
X   series of numbered Internet standards widely followed by commercial
X   and PD software in the Internet and UNIX communities.  Perhaps the
X   single most influential one has been RFC-822 (the Internet
X   mail-format standard). The RFCs are unusual in that they are
X   floated by technical experts acting on their own initiative and
X   reviewed by the Internet at large, rather than formally promulgated
X   through an institution such as ANSI.  For this reason they remain
X   known as RFCs even once adopted.
X
XRICE BOX [from ham radio slang] n. Any Asian-made commodity computer,
X   esp. an 8086, 80286, 80386 or 80486-based machine built to IBM
X   PC-compatible ISA or EISA-bus standards.
X
XRIGHT THING, THE n. That which is "obviously" the correct or
X   appropriate thing to use, do, say, etc.  Use of this term often
X   implies that in fact reasonable people may disagree.  "Never let
X   your conscience keep you from doing the right thing!"  "What's
X   the right thing for LISP to do when it reads a mod 0? Should it
X   return a, or give a divide-by-zero error?"  Antonym: WRONG THING,
X   THE (q.v.).
X
XROACH [Bell Labs] v. To destroy, esp. of a data structure.  Hardware
X   gets TOASTed, software gets roached.
X
XROBUST adj. Said of a system which has demonstrated an ability to
X   recover gracefully from the whole range of exception conditions in
X   a given environment.  One step below BULLETPROOF.  Compare SMART,
X   oppose BRITTLE.
X
XROOT n. [UNIX] 1. The top node of the system directory structure (home
X   directory of the root user).  2. The "superuser" account that
X   ignores permission bits, user number zero on a UNIX system. This
X   account has the user name `root'.  3. By extension, the privileged
X   system-maintenance login on any OS.  4. Thus, ROOT MODE: Syn. with
X   WIZARD MODE or WHEEL MODE. Like these, it is often generalized to
X   describe privileged states in systems other than OSs.  5. GO ROOT:
X   to temporarily enter ROOT MODE in order to perform a privileged
X   operation. This use is deprecated in Australia, where v. "root"
X   is slang for "to have sex with".
X
XROTARY DEBUGGER [Commodore] n.  Essential equipment for those late
X   night or early morning debugging sessions.  Mainly used as
X   sustenance for the hacker.  Comes in many decorator colors such as
X   Sausage, Pepperoni, and Garbage.  See ANSI-STANDARD PIZZA.
X
XROGUE [UNIX] n. Graphic Dungeons-And-Dragons-like game written under
X   BSD UNIX and subsequently ported to other UNIX systems.  The
X   original BSD curses(3) screen-handling package was hacked together
X   by Ken Arnold to support ROGUE, and has since become one of UNIX's
X   most important and heavily used application libraries.  See HACK.
X
XROOM-TEMPERATURE IQ [IBM] 80 or below.  Used in describing the
X   expected intelligence range of the LUSER. As in "Well, but how's
X   this interface gonna play with the room-temperature IQ crowd?" See
X   DROOL-PROOF PAPER.
X
XROT13 /rot-ther'teen/ [USENET, from "rotate alphabet 13 places"]
X   n.,v. The simple encryption of replacing each English letter with
X   the one 13 places forward or back along the alphabet, so that "The
X   butler did it!" becomes "Gur ohgyre qvq vg!"  Most Usenet news
X   reading and posting programs include a rot13 feature.  It is used
X   as if to enclose the text in a sealed wrapper that the reader must
X   choose to open, for posting things that might offend some readers,
X   answers to puzzles, or discussion of movie plot surprises.
X
XRTFM /ahr-tee-ef-em/ [UNIX] Abbrev. for "Read The Fucking Manual".
X   1. Used by GURUs to brush off questions they consider trivial or
X   annoying.  Compare DON'T DO THAT, THEN.  2. Used when reporting a
X   problem to indicate that you aren't just asking out of RANDOMNESS.
X   "No, I can't figure out how to interface UNIX to my toaster and
X   yes I have RTFM."  Unlike sense #1 this use is considered polite.
X
XRTI /ahr-tee-ie/ interj. The mnemonic for the `return from interrupt'
X   instruction on Intel microprocessors.  Equivalent to "Now, where
X   was I?" or used to end a conversational digression.  See POP,
X   POPJ.
X
XRUDE [WPI] adj. 1. (of a program) Badly written.  2.  Functionally
X   poor, e.g. a program which is very difficult to use because of
X   gratuitously poor (random?) design decisions.  See CUSPY.
X
XRUNES pl.n. 1. Anything that requires HEAVY WIZARDRY or BLACK ART to
X   PARSE; core dumps, JCL commands, or even code in a language you
X   don't have the faintest idea how to read.  Compare CASTING THE
X   RUNES.  2. Special display characters (for example, the high-half
X   graphics on an IBM PC).  3. RUNIC adj. Syn. OBSCURE. VMS fans
X   sometimes refer to UNIX as `Runix'; UNIX fans return the compliment
X   by expanding VMS to `Vachement Mauvais Systeme'.
X
X                                {= S =}
X
XSACRED adj. Reserved for the exclusive use of something (a
X   metaphorical extension of the standard meaning).  "Accumulator 7
X   is sacred to the UUO handler."  Often means that anyone may look
X   at the sacred object, but clobbering it will screw whatever it is
X   sacred to.  Example: The comment "Register 7 is sacred to the
X   interrupt handler" appearing in a program would be interpreted by
X   a hacker to mean that one part of the program, the "interrupt
X   handler", uses register 7, and if any other part of the program
X   changes the contents of register 7 dire consequences are likely to
X   ensue.
X
XSADISTICS /s@'dis'tiks/ n. University slang for statistics and
X   probability theory, often used by hackers.
X
XSAGA [WPI] n. A cuspy but bogus raving story dealing with N random
X   broken people.
X
XSAIL n. Stanford University Artificial Intelligence Lab.  An important
X   site in the early development of LISP; with the MIT AI LAB, CMU and
X   the UNIX community, one of the major founts of hacker culture
X   traditions.  The SAIL machines were shut down in late May 1990,
X   scant weeks after the MIT AI lab's ITS cluster went down for the
X   last time.
X
XSALESCRITTER /sayls'kri-tr/ n. Pejorative hackerism for a computer
X   salesperson. Hackers tell the following joke:
X
X     Q. What's the difference between a used car dealer and a
X        computer saleman?
X     A. The used car dealer knows he's lying.
X
X   This reflects the widespread hacker belief that salescritters are
X   self-selected for stupidity (after all, if they had brains and the
X   inclination to use them they'd be making more money programming).
X   Compare MARKETROID, SUIT.
X
XSALT MINES n. Dense quarters housing large numbers of programmers
X   working long hours on grungy projects, with some hope of seeing the
X   end of the tunnel in N years.  Noted for their absence of sunshine.
X   Compare PLAYPEN.
X
XSANDBENDER [IBM] n. A person involved with silicon lithography and the
X   physical design of chips.  Compare IRONMONGER, POLYGON PUSHER.
X
XSCIENCE-FICTION FANDOM n. Another voluntary subculture having a very
X   heavy overlap with hackerdom; most hackers read SF and/or fantasy
X   fiction avidly, and many go to "cons" (SF conventions) or are
X   involved in fandom-connected activities like the Society for
X   Creative Anachronism.  Some hacker slang originated in SF fandom;
X   see DEFENESTRATION, GREAT-WALL, CYBERPUNK, H INFIX, HA HA ONLY
X   SERIOUS, IMHO, MUNDANE, NEEP-NEEP, REAL SOON NOW.  Additionally,
X   the jargon terms CYBERSPACE, DE-REZZ, GO FLATLINE, ICE, VIRUS,
X   WIREHEAD and WORM originated in SF itself.
X
XSCRATCH [from "scratchpad"] 1. adj. A device or recording medium
X   attached to a machine for testing or temporary-use purposes; one
X   which can be SCRIBBLED on without loss.  Usually in the combining
X   forms SCRATCH MEMORY, SCRATCH DISK, SCRATCH TAPE, SCRATCH VOLUME.
X   See SCRATCH MONKEY. 2. [primarily IBM] v. To delete (as in a file).
X
XSCRATCH MONKEY n. As in, "Before testing or reconfiguring, always
X   mount a". A proverb used to advise caution when dealing with
X   irreplacable data or devices.  Used in memory of Mabel, the
X   Swimming Wonder Monkey who expired when a computer vendor PM'd a
X   machine which was regulating the gas mixture that the monkey was
X   breathing at the time.  See Appendix A.  See SCRATCH.
X
XSCREW [MIT] n. A LOSE, usually in software.  Especially used for
X   user-visible misbehavior caused by a bug or misfeature.
X
XSCREWAGE /scroo'@j/ n. Like LOSSAGE (q.v.) but connotes that the
X   failure is due to a designed-in misfeature rather than a simple
X   inadequacy or mere bug.
X
XSCROG /skrog/ [Bell Labs] v. To damage, trash or corrupt a data
X   structure.  "The cblock got scrogged."  Also reported as SKROG,
X   and ascribed to "The Wizard of Id" comix.  Equivalent to SCRIBBLE
X   or MANGLE (q.v.)
X
XSCROZZLE /skroh'zl/ v. Used when a self-modifying code segment runs
X   incorrectly and corrupts the running program, or vital data.  "The
X   damn compiler scrozzled itself again!"
X
XSCRIBBLE n. To modify a data structure in a random and unintentionally
X   destructive way. "Bletch! Somebody's disk-compactor program went
X   berserk and scribbled on the i-node table." "It was working fine
X   until one of the allocation routines scribbled on low core."
X   Synonymous with TRASH; compare MUNG, which conveys a bit more
X   intention, and MANGLE, which is more violent and final.
X
XSEARCH-AND-DESTROY MODE n. Hackerism for the search-and-replace
X   facility in an editor, so called because an incautiously chosen
X   match pattern can cause INFINITE damage.
X
XSECOND-SYSTEM EFFECT n. When designing the successor to a relatively
X   small, elegant and successful system, there is a tendency to become
X   grandiose in one's success and perpetrate an ELEPHANTINE
X   feature-laden monstrosity.  The term was first used by Fred Brooks
X   in his classic book "The Mythical Man-Month". It described the jump
X   from a set of nice, simple, operating monitors on the IBM 70xx
X   series to OS/360 on the 360 series.
X
XSEGGIE /seg'ee/ [UNIX] n. Reported from Britain as a shorthand for
X   `segment violation', an attempted access to a protected memory area
X   usually resulting in a CORE DUMP.
X
XSEGMENT v. To CORE DUMP with a segment violation error (see SEGGIE).
X   Used of programs.
X
XSELF-REFERENCE n. See SELF-REFERENCE.
X
XSELVAGE /selv'@j/ [from sewing] n. See CHAD (sense #1).
X
XSEMI /se'mee/ 1. n. Abbreviation for "semicolon", when speaking.
X   "Commands to GRIND are prefixed by semi-semi-star" means that the
X   prefix is ";;*", not 1/4 of a star.  2. Prefix with words such as
X   "immediately", as a qualifier.  "When is the system coming up?"
X   "Semi-immediately." (That is, maybe not for an hour).  "We did
X   consider that possibility semi-seriously."
X
XSERVER n. A kind of DAEMON which performs a service for the requester,
X   which often runs on a computer other than the one on which the
X   server runs.  A particularly common term on the Internet, which is
X   rife with "name servers" "domain servers" "news servers"
X   "finger servers" and the like.
X
XSEX [Sun User's Group & elsewhere] n. 1.  Software EXchange.  A
X   technique invented by the blue-green algae hundereds of millions of
X   years ago to speed up their evolution, which had been terribly slow
X   up until then.  Today, SEX parties are popular among hackers and
X   others. 2. The rather Freudian mnemonic often used for Sign Extend,
X   a machine instruction found in many architectures.  The Intel 8048
X   even had logical-or and logical-and instructions ORL and ANL.
X
XSHAREWARE n. FREEWARE for which the author requests some payment,
X   usually in the accompanying documentation files or in an
X   announcement made by the software itself.  Such payment may or may
X   not buy additional support or functionality.  See GUILTWARE,
X   CRIPPLEWARE.
X
XSHELFWARE n. Software purchased on a whim (by an individual user) or
X   in accordance with policy (by a corporation or government) but not
X   actually required for any particular use.  Therefore, it often ends
X   up on some shelf.
X
XSHELL [UNIX, now used elsewhere] n. 1. The command interpreter used to
X   pass commands to an operating system.  2. More generally, any
X   interface program which mediates access to a special resource or
X   SERVER for convenience, efficiency or security reasons; for this
X   meaning, the usage is usually "a shell around" whatever.  This sort
X   of program is also called a "wrapper".
X
XSHELL OUT [UNIX] n. To spawn an interactive subshell from within a
X   program such as a mailer or editor.  "BANG FOO runs FOO in a
X   SUBSHELL, while BANG alone shells out."
X
XSHIFT LEFT (or RIGHT) LOGICAL [from any of various machines'
X   instruction sets] 1. v. To move oneself to the left (right).  To
X   move out of the way.  2. imper. "Get out of that (my) seat!  You
X   can move to that empty one to the left (right)."  Usage: often
X   used without the "logical", or as "left shift" instead of
X   "shift left".  Sometimes heard as LSH (lish), from the PDP-10
X   instruction set.
X
XSHITOGRAM /shit'oh-gram/ n. A *really* nasty piece of email. Compare
X   NASTYGRAM, FLAME.
X
XSHRIEK See EXCL.  Occasional CMU usage, also in common use among
X   mathematicians, especially category theorists.
X
XSIG /sig/ or SIG BLOCK /sig blok/ [UNIX; often written ".sig"
X   there] n. Short for "signature", used specifically to refer to
X   the electronic signature block which most UNIX mail- and
X   news-posting software will allow you to automatically append to
X   outgoing mail and news.  The composition of one's sig can be quite
X   an art form, including an ASCII logo or one's choice of witty
X   sayings (see SIG QUOTE); but many consider large sigs a waste of
X   bandwidth, and it has been observed that the size of one's sig
X   block is usually inversely proportional to one's longevity and
X   level of prestige on THE NETWORK.
X
XSIG QUOTE /sig kwoht/ [USENET] n. A maxim, quote, proverb, joke or
X   slogan embedded in one's SIG (q.v.) and intended to convey
X   something of one's philosophical stance, pet peeves, or sense of
X   humor. "He *must* be a Democrat --- he posted a sig quote from Dan
X   Quayle."
X
XSILICON n. Hardware, esp.  ICs or microprocessor-based computer
X   systems (compare IRON). Contrasted with software.
X
XSILLY WALK [from Monty Python] v. A ridiculous procedure required to
X   accomplish a task.  Like GROVEL, but more RANDOM and humorous. "I
X   had to silly-walk through half the /usr directories to find the
X   maps file."
X
XSILO n. The FIFO input-character buffer in an RS-232 line card.  So
X   called from DEC terminology used on DH and DZ line cards for the
X   VAX and PDP-11.
X
XSILVER BOOK, THE n. Jensen & Wirth's infamous "Pascal User Manual and
X   Report", so called because of the silver cover of the
X   widely-distributed Springer-Verlag second edition of 1978. See
X   RED BOOK, GREEN BOOK, BLUE BOOK, WHITE BOOK, PURPLE BOOK, ORANGE
X   BOOK, PINK-SHIRT BOOK, DRAGON BOOK.
X
XSITENAME [UNIX/Internet] n. The unique electronic name of a computer
X   system, used to identify it in UUCP mail, USENET or other forms of
X   electronic information interchange. The folklore interest of
X   sitenames stems from the creativity and humor they often display.
X   Interpreting a sitename is not unlike interpreting a vanity license
X   plate; one has to mentally unpack it, allowing for mono-case and
X   length restrictions and the lack of whitespace. Hacker tradition
X   deprecates dull, institutional-sounding names in favor of punchy,
X   humorous and clever coinages (except that it is considered
X   appropriate for the official public gateway machine of an
X   organization to bear the organization's name or acronym).
X   Mythological references, cartoon characters, animal names, and
X   allusions to SF or fantasy literature are probably the most popular
X   sources for sitenames (in roughly that order). See also NETWORK
X   ADDRESS.
X
XSLEEP v. On a timesharing system, a process which relinquishes its
X   claim on the scheduler until some given event occurs or a specified
X   time delay elapses is said to `go to sleep'.
X
XSLOP n. 1. A one-sided fudge factor (q.v.), that is, an allowance for
X   error but only in one of two directions.  For example, if you need
X   a piece of wire ten feet long and have to guess when you cut it,
X   you make very sure to cut it too long, by a large amount if
X   necessary, rather than too short by even a little bit, because you
X   can always cut off the SLOP but you can't paste it back on again.
X   When discrete quantities are involved, slop is often introduced to
X   avoid the possibility of a FENCEPOST ERROR (q.v.).  2. n. The ratio
X   of the size code generated by a compiler to the size of equivalent
X   HAND-HACKED assembler code, minus 1; i.e., the space (or maybe
X   time) you lose because you didn't do it yourself.  This number is
X   often used as a measure of the goodness of a compiler; slop below
X   5% is very good, and 10% is usually acceptable for most purposes.
X   With modern compiler technology, esp. on RISC machines, the
X   compiler's slop may actually be *negative*; that is, humans may be
X   unable to generate code as good.  This is one of the reasons
X   assembler programming is no longer common.
X
XSLOPSUCKER n. A lowest-priority task that must wait around until
X   everything else has "had its fill" of machine resources.  Only
X   when the machine would otherwise be idle is the task allowed to
X   "suck up the slop." Also called a HUNGRY PUPPY.  One common
X   variety of slopsucker hunts for large prime numbers.  Compare
X   BACKGROUND.
X
XSLUGGY /sluh'gee/ adj. Hackish variant of `sluggish'. Used only of
X   people, esp.  someone just waking up after a long GRONK-OUT.
X
XSLURP v. To read a large data file entirely into core before working
X   on it (This may be contrasted with the strategy of reading a small
X   piece at a time, processing it, and then reading the next piece).
X   "This program slurps in a 1K-by-1K matrix and does an FFT."
X
XSMART adj. Said of a program that does the RIGHT THING (q.v.)  in a
X   wide variety of complicated circumstances.  There is a difference
X   between calling a program smart and calling it intelligent; in
X   particular, there do not exist any intelligent programs (yet).
X   Compare ROBUST (smart programs can be BRITTLE).
X
XSMART TERMINAL n. A terminal that has enough computing capability to
X   perform useful work independently of the main computer.  The
X   development of workstations and personal computers has made this
X   term and the product it describes semi-obsolescent, but one may
X   still hear variants of the phrase "act like a smart terminal"
X   used to describe the behavior of workstations/PCs with respect to
X   programs that execute almost entirely out of a remote SERVER's
X   storage, using said devices as displays.
X
X   There's a classic quote from Rob Pike (inventor of the BLIT (q.v.)
X   terminal): "A smart terminal is not a smart*ass* terminal,
X   but rather a terminal you can educate."  This illustrates a common
X   design problem; the attempt to make peripherals (or anything else)
X   intelligent sometimes results in finicky, rigid "special
X   features" that become just so much dead weight if you try to use
X   the device in any way the designer didn't anticipate.  Flexibility
X   and programmability, on the other hand, are *really* smart.
X
XSMASH THE STACK [C programming] n. On many C implementations it is
X   possible to corrupt the execution stack by writing past the end of
X   an array declared auto in a routine.  Code that does this is said
X   to `smash the stack', and can cause return from the routine to jump
X   to a random text address.  This can produce some of the most
X   insidious data-dependent bugs known to mankind.  Variants include
X   `trash the stack', `SCRIBBLE ON the stack', `MANGLE the stack';
X   `MUNG the stack' is not used as this is never done intentionally.
X   See ALIASING BUG, FANDANGO ON CORE, MEMORY LEAK, PRECEDENCE
X   LOSSAGE, OVERRUN SCREW.
X
XSMILEY n. See EMOTICON.
X
XSMOKE TEST n. 1. A rudimentary form of testing applied to electronic
X   equipment following repair or reconfiguration in which AC power is
X   applied and during which the tester checks for sparks, smoke, or
X   other dramatic signs of fundamental failure.  2. By extension, the
X   first run of a piece of software after construction or a critical
X   change.  See MAGIC SMOKE.
X
XSMOKING CLOVER [ITS] n. A DISPLAY HACK originally due to Bill Gosper.
X   Many convergent lines are drawn on a color monitor in AOS mode (so
X   that every pixel struck has its color incremented).  The color map
X   is then rotated.  The lines all have one endpoint in the middle of
X   the screen; the other endpoints are spaced one pixel apart around
X   the perimeter of a large square.  This results in a striking,
X   rainbow-hued, shimmering four-leaf clover.  Gosper joked about
X   keeping it hidden from the FDA lest it be banned.
X
XSMOP /smop/ [Simple (or Small) Matter of Programming] n. 1. A piece of
X   code, not yet written, whose anticipated length is significantly
X   greater than its complexity.  Usage: used to refer to a program
X   that could obviously be written, but is not worth the trouble.  It
X   is also used ironically to imply that a difficult problem can be
X   easily solved because a program can be written to do it; the irony
X   is that it is very clear that writing such a program will be a
X   great deal of work.  Example: "It's easy to change a FORTRAN
X   compiler to compile COBOL as well; it's just a Small Matter of
X   Programming."  2. Often used ironically by the intended victim
X   when a suggestion for a program is made which seems easy to the
X   suggester, but is obviously a lot of work to the programmer.
X
XSNAIL-MAIL n. Paper mail, as opposed to electronic.  Sometimes written
X   as the single word `SnailMail'.  Derives from earlier coinage
X   `USnail' for which there have been parody posters and stamps made.
X   Oppose EMAIL.
X
XSNARF /snarf/ v. 1. To grab, esp. a large document or file for the
X   purpose of using it either with or without the author's permission.
X   See BLT.  Variant: SNARF (IT) DOWN.  to snarf, sometimes with the
X   connotation of absorbing, processing, or understanding.  "I think
X   I'll snarf down the list of DDT commands so I'll know what's
X   changed recently."  2. [in the UNIX community] to fetch a file or
X   set of files across a network.  See also BLAST.
X
XSNARF & BARF /snarf-n-barf/ n. The act of grabbing a region of text
X   using a WIMP (q.v.) environment and then stuffing the contents of
X   that region into another region or into the same region, to avoid
X   re-typing a command line.
SHAR_EOF
chmod 0644 jsplit.ag || echo "restore of jsplit.ag fails"
if [ $TOUCH = can ]
then
    touch -am 1215215290 jsplit.ag
fi
exit 0