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demoscene
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demoscene/dem'oh-seen/
[also `demo scene'] A culture of multimedia hackers located primarily in Scandinavia and northern Europe. Demoscene folklore recounts that when old-timewarez d00dzcracked some piece of software they often added an advertisement of in the beginning, usually containing colorfuldisplay hacks with greetings to other cracking groups. The demoscene was born among people who decided building these display hacks is more interesting than hacking and began to build self-contained display hacks of considerable elaboration and beauty (within the culture such a hack is called ademo). The split seems to have happened at the end of the 1980s. As more of thesedemogroups emerged, they started to havecompos at copying parties (seecopyparty), which later evolved to standalone events (seedemoparty). The demoscene has retained some traits from thewarez d00dz, including their style of handles and group names and some of their jargon.
Traditionally demos were written in assembly language, with lots of smart tricks, self-modifying code, undocumented op-codes and the like. Some time around 1995, people started coding demos in C, and a couple of years after that, they also started using Java.
Ten years on (in 1998-1999), the demoscene is changing as its original platforms (C64, Amiga, Spectrum, Atari ST, IBM PC under DOS) die out and activity shifts towards Windows, Linux, and the Internet. While deeply underground in the past, demoscene is trying to get into the mainstream as accepted art form, and one symptom of this is the commercialization of bigger demoparties. Older demosceneers frown at this, but the majority think it's a good direction. Many demosceneers end up working in the computer game industry. Demoscene resource pages are available at http://www.oldskool.org/demos/explained/ and http://www.scene.org/.
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dentro
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dentro/den'troh/
[demoscene] Combination ofdemo(sense 4) andintro. Other name mixings include intmo, dentmo etc. and are used usually when the authors are not quite sure whether the program is ademoor anintro. Special-purpose coinages like wedtro (some member of a group got married), invtro (invitation intro) etc. have also been sighted.
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depeditate
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depeditate/dee-ped'*-tayt/ n.
[by (faulty) analogy with `decapitate'] 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.
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deprecated
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deprecatedadj.
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 writing the documents realize that large amounts of extant (and presumably happily working) code depend on the feature(s) that have passed out of favor. See alsodusty deck.
[Usage note: don't confuse this word with `depreciate', or the verb form `deprecate' with `depreciated`. They are different words; see any dictionary for discussion.]
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derf
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derf/derf/ v.,n.
[PLATO] The act of exploiting a terminal which someone else has absentmindedly left logged on, to use that person's account, especially to post articles intended to make an ass of the victim you're impersonating. It has been alleged that the term originated as a reversal of the name of the gentleman who most usually left himself vulnerable to it, who also happened to be the head of the department that handled PLATO at the University of Delaware.
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deserves to loseadj.
[common] Said of someone who willfully does theWrong Thing; humorously, if one uses a feature known to bemarginal. What is meant is that one deserves the consequences of one'slosingactions. "Boy, anyone who tries to usemess-dosdeserves tolose!" (ITSfans used to say the same thing ofUnix; many still do.) See alsoscrew,chomp,bagbiter.
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desk checkn.,v.
Togrovelover 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. Compareeyeball search,vdiff,vgrep.
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despew
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despew/d*-spyoo'/ v.
[Usenet] To automatically generate a large amount of garbage to the net, esp. from an automated posting program gone wild. SeeARMM.
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Devil Book
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/dev/null
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Devil Bookn.
Seedaemon book, the term preferred by its authors.
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/dev/null/dev-nuhl/ n.
[from the Unix null device, used as a data sink] A notional `black hole' in any information space being discussed, used, or referred to. A controversial posting, for example, might end "Kudos to rasputin@kremlin.org, flames to /dev/null". Seebit bucket.
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dickless workstationn.
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 evenbootthemselves without help (in the form of some kind ofbreath-of-life packet) from the server.
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dictionary flamen.
[Usenet] 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. Comparespelling flame.
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diddle
1. vt. To work with or modify in a not particularly serious manner. "I diddled a copy ofADVENTso it didn't double-space all the time." "Let's diddle this piece of code and see if the problem goes away." Seetweakandtwiddle. 2. n. The action or result of diddling. See alsotweak,twiddle,frob.
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diev.
Syn.crash. Unlikecrash, which is used primarily of hardware, this verb is used of both hardware and software. See alsogo flatline,casters-up mode.
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die horriblyv.
The software equivalent ofcrash and burn, and the preferred emphatic form ofdie. "The converter choked on an FF in its input and died horribly".
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diff
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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!" Comparevdiff. 2. Specifically, such a listing produced by thediff(1)command, esp. when used as specification input to thepatch(1)utility (which can actually perform the modifications; seepatch). This is a common method of distributing patches and source updates in the Unix/C world. 3. v. To compare (whether or not by use of automated tools on machine-readable files); see alsovdiff,mod.
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digitn.,obs.
An employee of Digital Equipment Corporation. See alsoVAX,VMS,PDP-10,TOPS-10,field circus.
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dikevt.
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. the heavy-duty metal-cutting version, 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.
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Dilbert
n. Name and title character of a comic strip nationally syndicated in the U.S. and enormously popular among hackers. Dilbert is an archetypical engineer-nerd who works at an anonymous high-technology company; the strips present a lacerating satire of insane working conditions and idioticmanagementpractices all too readily recognized by hackers. Adams, who spent nine years incube4S700R at Pacific Bell (notDECas often reported), often remarks that he has never been able to come up with a fictional management blunder that his correspondents didn't quickly either report to have actually happened or top with a similar but even more bizarre incident. In 1996 Adams distilled his insights into the collective psychology of businesses into an even funnier book, "The Dilbert Principle" (HarperCollins, ISBN 0-887-30787-6). See alsopointy-haired,rat dance.
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dingn.,vi.
1. Synonym forfeep. Usage: rare among hackers, but more common in theReal 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."
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dink/dink/ adj.
Said of a machine that has thebitty boxnature; 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. Seemacdink.
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dinosaurn.
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 EXPO, Bill Joy compared the liquid-cooled mainframe in the massive IBM display with a grazing dinosaur "with a truck outside pumping its bodily fluids through it". IBM was not amused. Comparebig iron; see alsomainframe. 2. [IBM] A very conservative user; azipperhead.
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dinosaur penn.
A traditionalmainframecomputer room complete with raised flooring, special power, its own ultra-heavy-duty air conditioning, and a side order of Halon fire extinguishers. Seeboa.
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dinosaurs matingn.
Said to occur when yet anotherbig ironmerger or buyout occurs; reflects a perception by hackers that these signal another stage in the long, slow dying of themainframeindustry. In its glory days of the 1960s, it was `IBM and the Seven Dwarves': Burroughs, Control Data, General Electric, Honeywell, NCR, RCA, and Univac. RCA and GE sold out early, and it was `IBM and the Bunch' (Burroughs, Univac, NCR, Control Data, and Honeywell) for a while. Honeywell was bought out by Bull; Burroughs merged with Univac to form Unisys (in 1984 -- this was when the phrase `dinosaurs mating' was coined); and in 1991 AT&T absorbed NCR (but spat it back out a few years later). Control Data still exists but is no longer in the mainframe business. More such earth-shaking unions of doomed giants seem inevitable.
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dirtballn.
[XEROX PARC] A small, perhaps struggling outsider; not in the major or even the minor leagues. For example, "Xerox is not a dirtball company".
[Outsiders often observe in the PARC culture an institutional arrogance which usage of this term exemplifies. The brilliance and scope of PARC's contributions to computer science have been such that this superior attitude is not much resented. --ESR]
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