- EPSILON
- [from standard mathematical notation for a small quantity]
1. n. A small quantity of anything. "The cost is epsilon."
2.adj. Very small, negligible; less than marginal (q.v.). "We can get
this feature for epsilon cost."
3. WITHIN EPSILON OF:Close enough
to be indistinguishable for all practical purposes.
- EXCH
- ex'chuh, ekstch) [from the PDP-10 instruction set] v. To
exchange two things, each for the other.
- EXCL
- (eks'cul) n. Abbreviation for "exclamation point". See BANG,
SHRIEK, WOW.
- EXE
- (ex'ee) See BIN.
- FAULTY
- adj. Same denotation as "bagbiting", "bletcherous", "losing",
q.v., but the connotation is much milder.
- FEATURE
- n.1. A surprising property of a program. Occasionally documented. To call a property a feature sometimes means the author of
the program did not consider the particular case, and the program
makes an unexpected, although not strictly speaking an incorrect
response. See BUG. "That's not a bug, that's a feature!" A bug
can be changed to a feature by documenting it.
2. A well-known and
beloved property; a facility. Sometimes features are planned, but
are called crocks by others. An approximately correct spectrum:
(These terms are all used to describe programs or portions thereof,
except for the first two, which are included for completeness.)
CRASH STOPPAGE BUG SCREW LOSS MISFEATURE
CROCK KLUGE HACK WIN FEATURE PERFECTION
(The last is never actually attained.)
- FEEP
- 1.n. The soft bell of a display terminal (except for a VT-52!);
a beep.
2.v. To cause the display to make a feep sound. TTY's do
not have feeps. Alternate forms: BEEP, BLEEP, or just about
anything suitably onomatopoeic. The term BREEDLE is sometimes
heard at SAIL, where the terminal bleepers are not particularly
"soft" (they sound more like the musical equivalent of sticking out
one's tongue). The "feeper" on a VT-52 has been compared to the
sound of a '52 Chevy stripping its gears.
- FENCEPOST ERROR
- n. The discrete equivalent of a boundary condition.
Often exhibited in programs by iterative loops. From the following
problem: "If you build a fence 100 feet long with posts ten feet
apart, how many posts do you need?" (Either 9 or 11 is a better
answer than the obvious 10.)
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