The Jargon File

A Chronology...The Jargon FileComputer Dictionary
@BEGIN
(primarily CMU) with @END, used humorously in writing to indicate a context or to remark on the surrounded text. From the SCRIBE command of the same name. For example:
	@Begin(Flame)
	Predicate logic is the only good programming language.
	Anyone who would use anything else is an idiot.  Also,
	computers should be tredecimal instead of binary.
	@End(Flame)
ANGLE BRACKETS
(primarily MIT) n. Either of the characters "<" and ">". See BROKET.
AOS
(aus (East coast) ay-ahs (West coast)) [based on a PDP-10 increment instruction] v. To increase the amount of something. "Aos the campfire."
Usage: considered silly. See SOS.
ARG
n. Abbreviation for "argument" (to a function), used so often as to have become a new word.
AUTOMAGICALLY
adv. Automatically, but in a way which, for some reason (typically because it is too complicated, or too ugly, or perhaps even too trivial), I don't feel like explaining to you. See MAGIC.
Example: Some programs which produce XGP output files spool them automagically.
BAGBITER
1. n. Equipment or program that fails, usually intermittently.
2. BAGBITING: adj. Failing hardware or software. "This bagbiting system won't let me get out of spacewar."
Usage: verges on obscenity. Grammatically separable; one may speak of "biting the bag".
Synonyms: LOSER, LOSING, CRETINOUS, BLETCHEROUS, BARFUCIOUS, CHOMPER, CHOMPING.
BANG
n. Common alternate name for EXCL (q.v.), especially at CMU. See SHRIEK.
BAR
1. The second metasyntactic variable, after FOO. "Suppose we have two functions FOO and BAR. FOO calls BAR..."
2. Often appended to FOO to produce FOOBAR.
BARF
[from the "layman" slang, meaning "vomit"] 1. interj. Term of disgust. See BLETCH.
2. v. Choke, as on input. May mean to give an error message. "The function `=' compares two fixnums or two flonums, and barfs on anything else."
3. BARFULOUS, BARFUCIOUS: adj. Said of something which would make anyone barf, if only for aesthetic reasons.
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