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menuitis
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memory smash
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menuitis/men`yoo-i:'tis/ n.
Notional disease suffered by software with an obsessively simple-minded menu interface and no escape. Hackers find this intensely irritating and much prefer the flexibility of command-line or language-style interfaces, especially those customizable via macros or a special-purpose language in which one can encode useful hacks. Seeuser-obsequious,drool-proof paper,WIMP environment,for the rest of us.
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mess-dos
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meta
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mess-dos/mes-dos/ n.
[semi-obsolescent now that DOS is] Derisory term for MS-DOS. Often followed by the ritual banishing "Just say No!" SeeMS-DOS. Most hackers (even many MS-DOS hackers) loathed MS-DOS for its single-tasking nature, its limits on application size, its nasty primitive interface, and its ties to IBMness and Microsoftness (seefear and loathing). Also `mess-loss', `messy-dos', `mess-dog', `mess-dross', `mush-dos', and various combinations thereof. In Ireland and the U.K. it is even sometimes called `Domestos' after a brand of toilet cleanser.
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meta
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meta/me't*/ or /may't*/ or (Commonwealth) /mee't*/ adj.,pref.
[from analytic philosophy] One level of description up. A metasyntactic variable is a variable in notation used to describe syntax, and meta-language is language used to describe language. This is difficult to explain briefly, but much hacker humor turns on deliberate confusion between meta-levels. Seehacker humor.
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meta bit
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meta
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meta bitn.
The top bit of an 8-bit character, which is on in character values 128-255. Also calledhigh bit,alt bit, or (rarely)hobbit. Some terminals and consoles (seespace-cadet keyboard) have a META shift key. Others (including,mirabile dictu, keyboards on IBM PC-class machines) have an ALT key. See alsobucky bits.
Historical note: although in modern usage shaped by a universe of 8-bit bytes the meta bit is invariably hex 80 (octal 0200), things were different on earlier machines with 36-bit words and 9-bit bytes. The MIT and Stanford keyboards (seespace-cadet keyboard) generated hex 100 (octal 400) from their meta keys.
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metasyntactic variable
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metasyntactic variablen.
A name used in examples and understood to stand for whatever thing is under discussion, or any random member of a class of things under discussion. The wordfoois thecanonicalexample. To avoid confusion, hackers never (well, hardly ever) use `foo' or other words like it as permanent names for anything. In filenames, a common convention is that any filename beginning with a metasyntactic-variable name is ascratchfile that may be deleted at any time.
Metasyntactic variables are so called because (1) they are variables in the metalanguage used to talk about programs etc; (2) they are variables whose values are often variables (as in usages usages like "the value of f(foo,bar) is the sum of foo and bar"). However, it has been plausibly suggested that the real reason for the term "metasyntactic variable" is that it sounds good.
To some extent, the list of one's preferred metasyntactic variables is a cultural signature. They occur both in series (used for related groups of variables or objects) and as singletons. Here are a few common signatures:
foo,bar,baz,quux, quuux, quuuux...:MIT/Stanford usage, now found everywhere (thanks largely to early versions of this lexicon!). At MIT (but not at Stanford),bazdropped out of use for a while in the 1970s and '80s. A common recent mutation of this sequence insertsquxbeforequux.bazola, ztesch:Stanford (from mid-'70s on).foo,bar, thud, grunt:This series was popular at CMU. Other CMU-associated variables includegorp.foo,bar, fum:This series is reported to be common at XEROX PARC.fred, jim, sheila,barney:See the entry forfred. These tend to be Britishisms.corge,grault,flarp:Popular at Rutgers University and amongGOSMACShackers.zxc, spqr, wombat:Cambridge University (England).shmeBerkeley, GeoWorks, Ingres. Pronounced /shme/ with a short /e/.foo, bar, baz, bongoYale, late 1970s.spamPythonprogrammers.snorkBrown University, early 1970s.foo,bar, zotHelsinki University of Technology, Finland.blarg, wibbleNew Zealand.toto, titi, tata, tutuFrance.pippo, pluto, paperinoItaly. Pippo /pee'po/ and Paperino /pa-per-ee'-no/ are the Italian names for Goofy and Donald Duck.aap, noot, miesThe Netherlands. These are the first words a child used to learn to spell on a Dutch spelling board.oogle, foogle, boogle; zork, gork, borkThese two series (which may be continued with other initial consonents) are reportedly common in England, and said to go back to Lewis Carroll.
Of all these, only `foo' and `bar' are universal (andbaznearly so). The compoundsfoobarand `foobaz' also enjoy very wide currency.
Some jargon terms are also used as metasyntactic names;barfandmumble, for example. See alsoCommonwealth Hackishfor discussion of numerous metasyntactic variables found in Great Britain and the Commonwealth.
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MFTL
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MFTL/M-F-T-L/
[abbreviation: `My Favorite Toy Language'] 1. adj. Describes a talk on a programming language design that is heavy on the syntax (with lots of BNF), sometimes even talks about semantics (e.g., type systems), but rarely, if ever, has any content (seecontent-free). More broadly applied to talks -- even when the topic is not a programming language -- in which the subject matter is gone into in unnecessary and meticulous detail at the sacrifice of any conceptual content. "Well, it was a typical MFTL talk". 2. n. Describes a language about which the developers are passionate (often to the point of proselytic zeal) but no one else cares about. Applied to the language by those outside the originating group. "He cornered me about type resolution in his MFTL."
The first great goal in the mind of the designer of an MFTL is usually to write a compiler for it, then bootstrap the design away from contamination by lesser languages by writing a compiler for it in itself. Thus, the standard put-down question at an MFTL talk is "Has it been used for anything besides its own compiler?" On the other hand, a (compiled) language that cannot even be used to write its own compiler is beneath contempt. (The qualification has become necessary because of the increasing popularity of interpreted languages likePerlandPython. Seebreak-even point.
(On a related note, Doug McIlroy once proposed a test of the generality and utility of a language and the operating system under which it is compiled: "Is the output of a FORTRAN program acceptable as input to the FORTRAN compiler?" In other words, can you write programs that write programs? (Seetoolsmith.) Alarming numbers of (language, OS) pairs fail this test, particularly when the language is FORTRAN; aficionados are quick to point out thatUnix(even using FORTRAN) passes it handily. That the test could ever be failed is only surprising to those who have had the good fortune to have worked only under modern systems which lack OS-supported and -imposed "file types".)
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mickey
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mickeyn.
The resolution unit of mouse movement. It has been suggested that the `disney' will become a benchmark unit for animation graphics performance.
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mickey mouse program
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micro-
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mickey
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mickey mouse programn.
North American equivalent of anoddy(that is, trivial) program. Doesn't necessarily have the belittling connotations of mainstream slang "Oh, that's just mickey mouse stuff!"; sometimes trivial programs can be very useful.
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micro-pref.
1. Very small; this is the root of its use as a quantifier prefix. 2. A quantifier prefix, calling for multiplication by 10^(-6) (seequantifiers). Neither of these uses is peculiar to hackers, but hackers tend to fling them both around rather more freely than is countenanced in standard English. It is recorded, for example, that one CS professor used to characterize the standard length of his lectures as a microcentury -- that is, about 52.6 minutes (see alsoattoparsec,nanoacre, and especiallymicrofortnight). 3. Personal or human-scale -- that is, capable of being maintained or comprehended or manipulated by one human being. This sense is generalized from `microcomputer', and is esp. used in contrast with `macro-' (the corresponding Greek prefix meaning `large'). 4. Local as opposed to global (ormacro-). Thus a hacker might say that buying a smaller car to reduce pollution only solves a microproblem; the macroproblem of getting to work might be better solved by using mass transit, moving to within walking distance, or (best of all) telecommuting.
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MicroDroid
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MicroDroidn.
[Usenet] A Microsoft employee, esp. one who posts to various operating-system advocacy newsgroups. MicroDroids post follow-ups to any messages critical of Microsoft's operating systems, and often end up sounding like visiting fundamentalist missionaries. See alsoastroturfing; comparemicroserf.
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microfloppies
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microfloppiesn.
3.5-inch floppies, as opposed to 5.25-inchvanillaor mini-floppies and the now-obsolete 8-inch variety. This term may be headed for obsolescence as 5.25-inchers pass out of use, only to be revived if anybody floats a sub-3-inch floppy standard. Seestiffy,minifloppies.
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microfortnight
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microfortnightn.
1/1000000 of the fundamental unit of time in the Furlong/Firkin/Fortnight system of measurement; 1.2096 sec. (A furlong is 1/8th of a mile; a firkin is 1/4th of a barrel; the mass unit of the system is taken to be a firkin of water). The VMS operating system has a lot of tuning parameters that you can set with the SYSGEN utility, and one of these is TIMEPROMPTWAIT, the time the system will wait for an operator to set the correct date and time at boot if it realizes that the current value is bogus. This time is specified in microfortnights!
Multiple uses of the millifortnight (about 20 minutes) andnanofortnighthave also been reported.
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microLenat
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microLenat/mi:`-kroh-len'-*t/ n.
The unit ofbogosity. consensus is that this is the largest unit practical for everyday use. The microLenat, originally invented by David Jefferson, was promulgated as an attack against noted computer scientist Doug Lenat by atenured graduate studentat CMU. Doug had failed the student on an important exam because the student gave only "AI is bogus" as his answer to the questions. The slur is generally considered unmerited, but it has become a running gag nevertheless. Some of Doug's friends argue thatof coursea microLenat is bogus, since it is only one millionth of a Lenat. Others have suggested that the unit should be redesignated after the grad student, as the microReid.
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microReid
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microserf
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microReid/mi:'kroh-reed/ n.
SeemicroLenat.
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microserf
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microserf/mi:'kro-s*rf/
[popularized, though not originated, by Douglas Copeland's book "Microserfs"] A programmer atMicrosoft, especially a low-level coder with little chance of fame or fortune. CompareMicroDroid.
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Microsloth Windows/mi:'kroh-sloth` win'dohz/ n.
(Variants combine {Microshift, Macroshaft, Microsuck} with {Windoze, WinDOS}. Hackerism(s) for `Microsoft Windows'. A thirty-two bit extension and graphical shell to a sixteen bit patch to an eight bit operating system originally coded for a four bit microprocessor which was written by a two-bit company that can't stand one bit of competition. Also just called `Windoze', with the implication that you can fall asleep waiting for it to do anything; the latter term is extremely common on Usenet. SeeBlack Screen of DeathandBlue Screen of Death; compareX,sun-stools.
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Microsoft
The newEvil Empire(the old one wasIBM). The basic complaints are, as formerly with IBM, that (a) their system designs are horrible botches, (b) we can't getsourceto fix them, and (c) they throw their weight around a lot. See alsoHalloween Documents.
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micros~1
An abbreviation of the full nameMicrosoftresembling the ratherbogusway Windows 9x's VFAT filesystem truncates long file names to fit in the MS-DOS 8+3 scheme (the real filename is stored elsewhere). If other files start with the same prefix, they'll be called micros~2 and so on, causing lots of problems with backups and other routine system-administration problems. During the US Antitrust trial against Microsoft the names Micros~1 ans Micros~2 were suggested for the two companies that would exist after a break-up.
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middle-endianadj.
Notbig-endianorlittle-endian. Used of perverse byte orders such as 3-4-1-2 or 2-1-4-3, occasionally found in the packed-decimal formats of minicomputer manufacturers who shall remain nameless. SeeNUXI problem. Non-US hackers use this term to describe the American mm/dd/yy style of writing dates (Europeans write little-endian dd/mm/yy, and Japanese use big-endian yy/mm/dd for Western dates).
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middle-out implementation
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middle-out implementation
Seebottom-up implementation.
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milliLampson
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milliLampson/mil'*-lamp`sn/ n.
A unit of talking speed, abbreviated mL. Most people run about 200 milliLampsons. The eponymous Butler Lampson (a CS theorist and systems implementor highly regarded among hackers) goes at 1000. A few people speak faster. This unit is sometimes used to compare the (sometimes widely disparate) rates at which people can generate ideas and actually emit them in speech. For example, noted computer architect C. Gordon Bell (designer of the PDP-11) is said, with some awe, to think at about 1200 mL but only talk at about 300; he is frequently reduced to fragments of sentences as his mouth tries to keep up with his speeding brain.
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minifloppies
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minifloppiesn.,obs.
5.25-inch floppy disks, as opposed to 3.5-inch ormicrofloppiesand the long-obsolescent 8-inch variety (if there is ever a smaller size, they will undoubtedly be tagged `nanofloppies'). At one time, this term was a trademark of Shugart Associates for their SA-400 minifloppy drive. Nobody paid any attention. Seestiffy.