- BROKEN
- adj.
1. Not working properly (of programs).
2. Behaving
strangely; especially (of people), exhibiting extreme depression.
- BROKET
- [by analogy with "bracket": a "broken bracket"] (primarily
Stanford) n. Either of the characters "<" and ">". (At MIT, and
apparently in The Real World (q.v.) as well, these are usually
called ANGLE BRACKETS.)
- BUCKY BITS
- (primarily Stanford) n. The bits produced by the CTRL and
META shift keys on a Stanford (or Knight) keyboard. Rumor has it
that the idea for extra bits for characters came from Niklaus
Wirth, and that his nickname was `Bucky'.
DOUBLE BUCKY: adj. Using both the CTRL and META keys. "The command
to burn all LEDs is double bucky F."
- BUG
- [from telephone terminology, "bugs in a telephone cable", blamed
for noisy lines; however, Jean Sammet has repeatedly been heard to
claim that the use of the term in CS comes from a story concerning
actual bugs found wedged in an early malfunctioning computer] n. An
unwanted and unintended property of a program. (People can have
bugs too (even winners) as in "PHW is a super winner, but he has
some bugs.") See FEATURE.
- BUM
- 1. v. To make highly efficient, either in time or space, often at
the expense of clarity. The object of the verb is usually what was
removed ("I managed to bum three more instructions.") but can be
the program being changed ("I bummed the inner loop down to seven
microseconds.")
2.n. A small change to an algorithm to make it
more efficient.
- BUZZ
- v. To run in a very tight loop, perhaps without guarantee of
getting out.
- CANONICAL
- adj. The usual or standard state or manner of something.
A true story: One Bob Sjoberg, new at the MIT AI Lab, expressed
some annoyance at the use of jargon. Over his loud objections, we
made a point of using jargon as much as possible in his presence,
and eventually it began to sink in. Finally, in one conversation,
he used the word "canonical" in jargon-like fashion without
thinking.
Steele: "Aha! We've finally got you talking jargon too!"
Stallman: "What did he say?"
Steele: "He just used `canonical' in the canonical way."
|
Delicious
Digg
reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon