The Hackers'''' Dictionary legal torrents phần 4 ppsx

Richard M. Stallman (inventor of {EMACS}). In their hearts of hearts, most hackers dream of someday

becoming demigods themselves, and more than one major software project has been driven to completion by

the author's veiled hopes of apotheosis. See also {net.god}, {true-hacker}.

:demo: /de'moh/ [short for `demonstration'] 1. v. To demonstrate a product or prototype. A far more effective

way of inducing bugs to manifest than any number of {test} runs, especially when important people are

watching. 2. n. The act of demoing. 3. n. Esp. as `demo version', can refer to either a special version of a

program (frequently with some features crippled) which is distributed at little or no cost to the user for

demonstration purposes.

:demo mode: [Sun] n. 1. The state of being {heads down} in order to finish code in time for a {demo}, usually

due yesterday. 2. A mode in which video games sit there by themselves running through a portion of the

game, also known as `attract mode'. Some serious {app}s have a demo mode they use as a screen saver, or

may go through a demo mode on startup (for example, the Microsoft Windows opening screen --- which lets

you impress your neighbors without actually having to put up with {Microsloth Windows}).

:demon: n. 1. [MIT] A portion of a program that is not invoked explicitly, but that lies dormant waiting for

some condition(s) to occur. See {daemon}. The distinction is that demons are usually processes within a

program, while daemons are usually programs running on an operating system. Demons are particularly

common in AI programs. For example, a knowledge-manipulation program might implement inference rules

as demons. Whenever a new piece of knowledge was added, various demons would activate (which demons

depends on the particular piece of data) and would create additional pieces of knowledge by applying their

respective inference rules to the original piece. These new pieces could in turn activate more demons as the

inferences filtered down through chains of logic. Meanwhile, the main program could continue with whatever

its primary task was. 2. [outside MIT] Often used equivalently to {daemon} --- especially in the {{UNIX}}

world, where the latter spelling and pronunciation is considered mildly archaic.

:depeditate: /dee-ped'*-tayt/ [by (faulty) analogy with `decapitate'] vt. Humorously, to cut off the feet of.

When one is using some computer-aided typesetting tools, careless placement of text blocks within a page or

above a rule can result in chopped-off letter descenders. Such letters are said to have been depeditated.

:deprecated: adj. Said of a program or feature that is considered obsolescent and in the process of being

phased out, usually in favor of a specified replacement. Deprecated features can, unfortunately, linger on for

many years. This term appears with distressing frequency in standards documents when the committees which

write them decide that a sufficient number of users have written code which depends on specific features

which are out of favor.

:deserves to lose: adj. Said of someone who willfully does the {Wrong Thing}; humorously, if one uses a

feature known to be {marginal}. What is meant is that one deserves the consequences of one's {losing}

actions. "Boy, anyone who tries to use {mess-dos} deserves to {lose}!" ({{ITS}} fans used to say this of

{{UNIX}}; many still do.) See also {screw}, {chomp}, {bagbiter}.

:desk check: n.,v. To {grovel} over hardcopy of source code, mentally simulating the control flow; a method

of catching bugs. No longer common practice in this age of on-screen editing, fast compiles, and sophisticated

debuggers --- though some maintain stoutly that it ought to be. Compare {eyeball search}, {vdiff}, {vgrep}.

:Devil Book: n. `The Design and Implementation of the 4.3BSD UNIX Operating System', by Samuel J.

Leffler, Marshall Kirk McKusick, Michael J. Karels, and John S. Quarterman (Addison-Wesley Publishers,

1989) --- the standard reference book on the internals of {BSD} UNIX. So called because the cover has a

picture depicting a little devil (a visual play on {daemon}) in sneakers, holding a pitchfork (referring to one of

the characteristic features of UNIX, the `fork(2)' system call).

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:devo: /dee'voh/ [orig. in-house jargon at Symbolics] n. A person in a development group. See also {doco}

and {mango}.

:dickless workstation: n. Extremely pejorative hackerism for `diskless workstation', a class of botches

including the Sun 3/50 and other machines designed exclusively to network with an expensive central disk

server. These combine all the disadvantages of time-sharing with all the disadvantages of distributed personal

computers; typically, they cannot even {boot} themselves without help (in the form of some kind of

{breath-of-life packet}) from the server.

:dictionary flame: [USENET] n. An attempt to sidetrack a debate away from issues by insisting on meanings

for key terms that presuppose a desired conclusion or smuggle in an implicit premise. A common tactic of

people who prefer argument over definitions to disputes about reality.

:diddle: 1. vt. To work with or modify in a not particularly serious manner. "I diddled a copy of {ADVENT}

so it didn't double-space all the time." "Let's diddle this piece of code and see if the problem goes away." See

{tweak} and {twiddle}. 2. n. The action or result of diddling. See also {tweak}, {twiddle}, {frob}.

:die: v. Syn. {crash}. Unlike {crash}, which is used primarily of hardware, this verb is used of both hardware

and software. See also {go flatline}, {casters-up mode}.

:die horribly: v. The software equivalent of {crash and burn}, and the preferred emphatic form of {die}. "The

converter choked on an FF in its input and died horribly".

:diff: /dif/ n. 1. A change listing, especially giving differences between (and additions to) source code or

documents (the term is often used in the plural `diffs'). "Send me your diffs for the Jargon File!" Compare

{vdiff}. 2. Specifically, such a listing produced by the `diff(1)' command, esp. when used as specification

input to the `patch(1)' utility (which can actually perform the modifications; see {patch}). This is a common

method of distributing patches and source updates in the UNIX/C world. See also {vdiff}, {mod}.

:digit: n. An employee of Digital Equipment Corporation. See also {VAX}, {VMS}, {PDP-10},

{{TOPS-10}}, {DEChead}, {double DECkers}, {field circus}.

:dike: vt. To remove or disable a portion of something, as a wire from a computer or a subroutine from a

program. A standard slogan is "When in doubt, dike it out". (The implication is that it is usually more

effective to attack software problems by reducing complexity than by increasing it.) The word `dikes' is

widely used among mechanics and engineers to mean `diagonal cutters', esp. a heavy-duty metal-cutting

device, but may also refer to a kind of wire-cutters used by electronics techs. To `dike something out' means

to use such cutters to remove something. Indeed, the TMRC Dictionary defined dike as "to attack with dikes".

Among hackers this term has been metaphorically extended to informational objects such as sections of code.

:ding: n.,vi. 1. Synonym for {feep}. Usage: rare among hackers, but commoner in the {Real World}. 2.

`dinged': What happens when someone in authority gives you a minor bitching about something, esp.

something trivial. "I was dinged for having a messy desk."

:dink: /dink/ n. Said of a machine that has the {bitty box} nature; a machine too small to be worth bothering

with --- sometimes the system you're currently forced to work on. First heard from an MIT hacker working on

a CP/M system with 64K, in reference to any 6502 system, then from fans of 32-bit architectures about 16-bit

machines. "GNUMACS will never work on that dink machine." Probably derived from mainstream `dinky',

which isn't sufficiently pejorative.

:dinosaur: n. 1. Any hardware requiring raised flooring and special power. Used especially of old minis and

mainframes, in contrast with newer microprocessor-based machines. In a famous quote from the 1988 UNIX

Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor 81