WYSIWYG /wiz'ee-wig/ adj.
[Traced to Flip Wilson's "Geraldine" character c.1970] Describes a user interface under which "What You See Is What You Get", as opposed to one that uses more-or-less obscure commands that do not result in immediate visual feedback. True WYSIWYG in environments supporting multiple fonts or graphics is a a rarely-attained ideal; there are variants of this term to express real-world manifestations including WYSIAWYG (What You See Is Almost What You Get) and WYSIMOLWYG (What You See Is More or Less What You Get). All these can be mildly derogatory, as they are often used to refer to dumbed-down user-friendly interfaces targeted at non-programmers; a hacker has no fear of obscure commands (compare WYSIAYG). On the other hand, EMACS was one of the very first WYSIWYG editors, replacing (actually, at first overlaying) the extremely obscure, command-based TECO. See also WIMP environment. [Oddly enough, WYSIWYG has already made it into the OED, in lower case yet. --ESR]
= X =
X /X/ n.
1. Used in various speech and writing contexts (also in lowercase) in roughly its algebraic sense of `unknown within a set defined by context' (compare N). Thus, the abbreviation 680x0 stands for 68000, 68010, 68020, 68030, or 68040, and 80x86 stands for 80186, 80286, 80386, 80486, 80586 or 80686 (note that a Unix hacker might write these as 680[0-6]0 and 80[1-6]86 or 680?0 and 80?86 respectively; see glob). 2. [after the name of an earlier window system called `W'] An over-sized, over-featured, over-engineered and incredibly over-complicated window system developed at MIT and widely used on Unix systems.
XEROX PARC /zee'roks park'/ n.
The famed Palo Alto Research Center. For more than a decade, from the early 1970s into the mid-1980s, PARC yielded an astonishing volume of groundbreaking hardware and software innovations. The modern mice, windows, and icons style of software interface was invented there. So was the laser printer and the local-area network; and PARC's series of D machines anticipated the powerful personal computers of the 1980s by a decade. Sadly, the prophets at PARC were without honor in their own company, so much so that it became a standard joke to describe PARC as a place that specialized in developing brilliant ideas for everyone else.
The stunning shortsightedness and obtusity of XEROX's top-level suits has been well anatomized in "Fumbling The Future: How XEROX Invented, Then Ignored, the First Personal Computer" by Douglas K. Smith and Robert C. Alexander (William Morrow & Co., 1988, ISBN 0-688-09511-9).
XOFF /X-of/ n.
Syn. control-S.
XON /X-on/ n.
Syn. control-Q.
xor /X'or/, /kzor/ conj.
Exclusive or. `A xor B' means `A or B, but not both'. "I want to get cherry pie xor a banana split." This derives from the technical use of the term as a function on truth-values that is true if exactly one of its two arguments is true.
xref /X'ref/ v.,n.
Hackish standard abbreviation for `cross-reference'.
XXX /X-X-X/ n.
A marker that attention is needed. Commonly used in program comments to indicate areas that are kluged up or need to be. Some hackers liken `XXX' to the notional heavy-porn movie rating. Compare FIXME.
xyzzy /X-Y-Z-Z-Y/, /X-Y-ziz'ee/, /ziz'ee/, or /ik-ziz'ee/ adj.
[from the ADVENT game] The canonical `magic word'. This comes from ADVENT, in which the idea is to explore an underground cave with many rooms and to collect the treasures you find there. If you type `xyzzy' at the appropriate time, you can move instantly between two otherwise distant points. If, therefore, you encounter some bit of magic, you might remark on this quite succinctly by saying simply "Xyzzy!" "Ordinarily you can't look at someone else's screen if he has protected it, but if you type quadruple-bucky-clear the system will let you do it anyway." "Xyzzy!" It's traditional for xyzzy to be an Easter egg in games with text interfaces.
Xyzzy has actually been implemented as an undocumented no-op command on several OSes; in Data General's AOS/VS, for example, it would typically respond "Nothing happens", just as ADVENT did if the magic was invoked at the wrong spot or before a player had performed the action that enabled the word. In more recent 32-bit versions, by the way, AOS/VS responds "Twice as much happens".
Early versions of the popular `minesweeper' game under Microsoft Windows had a cheat mode triggered by the command `xyzzy<enter><right-shift>' that turns the top-left pixel of the screen different colors depending on whether or not the cursor is over a bomb. This feature temporarily diasappeared in Windows 98, but reappeared in Windows 2000.
The following passage from "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum, suggesting a possible pre-ADVENT origin, has recently come to light:
"Ziz-zy, zuz-zy, zik!" said Dorothy, who was now standing on both feet. This ended the saying of the charm, and they heard a great chattering and flapping of wings, as the band of Winged Monkeys flew up to them.
= Y =
- YA-:
- YABA:
- YAFIYGI:
- YAUN:
- Yellow Book:
- yellow card:
- yellow wire:
- Yet Another:
- YHBT:
- YKYBHTLW:
- YMMV:
- You are not expected to understand this:
- You know you've been hacking too long when:
- Your mileage may vary:
- Yow!:
- yoyo mode:
- Yu-Shiang Whole Fish:
YA- abbrev.
[Yet Another] In hackish acronyms this almost invariably
expands to Yet Another,
following the precedent set by Unix yacc(1) (Yet
Another Compiler-Compiler). See YABA.
YABA /ya'b*/ n.
[Cambridge] Yet Another Bloody Acronym. Whenever some program is being named, someone invariably suggests that it be given a name that is acronymic. The response from those with a trace of originality is to remark ironically that the proposed name would then be `YABA-compatible'. Also used in response to questions like "What is WYSIWYG?" See also TLA.
YAFIYGI /yaf'ee-y*-gee/ adj.
[coined in response to WYSIWYG] Describes the command-oriented ed/vi/nroff/TeX style of word processing or other user interface, the opposite of WYSIWYG. Stands for "You asked for it, you got it", because what you actually asked for is often not apparent until long after it is too late to do anything about it. Used to denote perversity ("Real Programmers use YAFIYGI tools...and like it!") or, less often, a necessary tradeoff ("Only a YAFIYGI tool can have full programmable flexibility in its interface.").
This precise sense of "You asked for it, you got it" seems to have first appeared in Ed Post's classic parody "Real Programmers don't use Pascal" (see Real Programmers); the acronym is a more recent invention.
YAUN /yawn/ n.
[Acronym for `Yet Another Unix Nerd'] Reported from the San Diego Computer Society (predominantly a microcomputer users' group) as a good-natured punning insult aimed at Unix zealots.
Yellow Book n.
The print version of this Jargon File; "The New Hacker's Dictionary" from MIT Press; The book includes essentially all the material the File, plus a Foreword by Guy L. Steele Jr. and a Preface by Eric S. Raymond. Most importantly, the book version is nicely typeset and includes almost all of the infamous Crunchly cartoons by the Great Quux, each attached to an appropriate entry. The first edition (1991, ISBN 0-262-68069-6) corresponded to the Jargon File version 2.9.6. The second edition (1993, ISBN 0-262-68079-3) corresponded to the Jargon File 3.0.0. The third (1996, ISBN 0-262-68092-0) corresponded to 4.0.0.
yellow card n.
See green card.
yellow wire n.
[IBM] Repair wires used when connectors (especially ribbon connectors) got broken due to some schlemiel pinching them, or to reconnect cut traces after the FE mistakenly cut one. Compare blue wire, purple wire, red wire.
Yet Another adj.
[From Unix's yacc(1), `Yet Another
Compiler-Compiler', a LALR parser generator] 1. Of your own work:
A humorous allusion often used in titles to acknowledge that the
topic is not original, though the content is. As in `Yet Another
AI Group' or `Yet Another Simulated Annealing Algorithm'. 2. Of
others' work: Describes something of which there are already far
too many. See also YA-, YABA, YAUN.
YHBT //
[Usenet: very common] Abbreviation: You Have Been Trolled (see troll, sense 1). Especially used in "YHBT. YHL. HAND.", which is widely understood to expand to "You Have Been Trolled. You Have Lost. Have A Nice Day". You are quite likely to see this if you respond incautiously to a flame-provoking post that was obviously floated as sucker bait.
YKYBHTLW // abbrev.
Abbreviation of `You know you've been hacking too long when...', which became established on the Usenet group alt.folklore.computers during extended discussion of the indicated entry in the Jargon File.
YMMV // cav.
Abbreviation for Your mileage may vary common on Usenet.
You are not expected to understand this [Unix] cav.
The canonical comment describing something magic or too complicated to bother explaining properly. From an infamous comment in the context-switching code of the V6 Unix kernel. Dennis Ritchie has explained this in detail.
You know you've been hacking too long when
The set-up line for a genre of one-liners told by hackers
about themselves. These include the following:
- not only do you check your email more often than your paper mail, but you remember your network address faster than your postal one.
- your SO kisses you on the neck and the first thing you think is "Uh, oh, priority interrupt."
- you go to balance your checkbook and discover that you're doing it in octal.
- your computers have a higher street value than your car.
- in your universe, `round numbers' are powers of 2, not 10.
- more than once, you have woken up recalling a dream in some programming language.
- you realize you have never seen half of your best friends.
A list list of these can be found by searching for this phrase on the web.
[An early version of this entry said "All but one of these have been reliably reported as hacker traits (some of them quite often). Even hackers may have trouble spotting the ringer." The ringer was balancing one's checkbook in octal, which I made up out of whole cloth. Although more respondents picked that one out as fiction than any of the others, I also received multiple independent reports of its actually happening, most famously to Grace Hopper while she was working with BINAC in 1949. --ESR]
Your mileage may vary cav.
[from the standard disclaimer attached to EPA mileage ratings by American car manufacturers] 1. A ritual warning often found in Unix freeware distributions. Translates roughly as "Hey, I tried to write this portably, but who knows what'll happen on your system?" 2. More generally, a qualifier attached to advice. "I find that sending flowers works well, but your mileage may vary."
Yow! /yow/ interj.
[from "Zippy the Pinhead" comix] A favored hacker expression of humorous surprise or emphasis. "Yow! Check out what happens when you twiddle the foo option on this display hack!" Compare gurfle.