BUZZWORDSSymbols :-) : Electronic smiles. Denoite humor or sarcasm. ;-) : Wink. Denoite humor or sarcasm. :-( : Electronic frown. :'( : Cry. :+) : Drunk. :D : Laugh. B) : Sunglasses. :O : Surprise. :I : Board. :P : Sticking out tongue. :* : Kiss. :* <> : Kiss and hug. ->->>+ : Sending flowers. :Q : Throwing up. A AD DOSeum : The feeling you get when working with a misbehaving (or ridiculous) operating system. AFK : Away form keys. Algorthymically Generated Self-Modifying Code: A program that rewrites itself while running. Amigoid : Nickname for dedicated Amiga Hackers. Archival Backup: Software a Leech has borrowed. Arthritis : The infliction a mouse gets when its rollers are dirty. B B/Xen : Nickname for people using B/X. Balloonian variable: Any variable that doesn't do anything but is required to run the program. BAT : Back at terminal. Baudbarf : Any garbage characters sent across a terminal as a result of a disconnect. Usually seen when you logoff a system using a modem. Bit Bucket : This is where overwritten data goes. Bit-twiddler: Hacker. Blitter : Block transferor. Bodysurf code: A subroutine written quickly in the heat of artistic inspiration, without benefit of flowcharts or deep thought. Like the activity, when actually performed, the result usually is a wipeout (o.g., a program crash) that results in the programmer eating sand. Boilerplate : (adj,n, from newspaper publishing) A series of games in which the programmer obviously reused subroutines. BRB : Be right back. BSW engineer: A sophisticated carbon-based machine designed to turn coffee into productivity software. BTW : By the way. Bugfix : A large patch or workaround. Buglette(s) : A bug or bugs created plural as in "I created several buglettes when I fixed the problem. Bulletproof : A program which is free of bugs. C C.A.T.S.(Commodore/Amiga Technical Support): A group of people with feline tendencies. They can be found in the far upper reaches of Commodore's West Chester facility. Their feline ability to see in the dark is especially valuable, as they tend to work well into the night casing bugs. Cablelexia : A condition that keeps you from being able to connect a cable into a computer. Symptoms: Usually you look at the connector several times, but still fail to get it in right. Card : An 8x8-pixel block on the Commodore hi-res graphics screen. The screen is composed of cards and each card occupies eight bytes in memory. Cardinal ToolBox: When the Apple Macintosh appeared on the scene, admiration for its developers soon evaporated when it became apparent that their devotion to doing things the right way(i.e., The Macintosh Way) went far beyond the bounds of reason. The term Cardinal Toolbox refers to the Mac way of doing anything, and it's still used today whenever blind slavisyh devotion to the Mac rears its head. Example: "Q. Can we use a ficed-windth font in this window? A. No, Cardinal Toolbox wont't allow it." (Note: Cardinal Toolbox is also the name of a caracter who appears in Beyond Zork.) CB : Citizens band, chatline. Charity Ware: Like shareware, but money goes to a charity. Chicken Head: (also Chicken Lips) Nickname for Commodore Logo. Cleesh : In Enchanter, this spell can be used to turn a person into a newt, and it's not uncommon to hear an Imp say "Will someone please clessh the Marketoons?" CP/M : The operating system used by Jerry Pournelle. Code № : The program. Code І : To write a program. Codehead : A programmer capable of writing code in machine language. Cosmic rays : The factor of the universe that gets worse when near computer RAM chips; frequently used as an explanation for bugs when talking with a non-technical manager. Cracked : When software is broken down by removing copy protection in order to make an archival backup. Crash and Burn: When the computer undergoes a particularly phenomenal systems crash, generating aural and visual effects reminiscent of '60'ss psychedelia, that even a guru master couldn't duplicate on purpose. Crunch Time : The final hours of coding (non-stop) in order to meet a deadline. Often involves forsaking sleep. CULTR : See you later. D Data structure: A group of related data. Defensive programming: A method of programming that anticipates the worst of all scenarios ("if anythign can go wrong, it will") and combats this with overwhelming error checking. Delta Compression: A term used to describe a method of animation where each new "cell" or frame is described by its differences from the previous cell. Derf : See Fred. Diration : The time it takes for you to get a disk directory listing. Doc : docs, dox The documentation for a program. Doink № : General verb used to indicate some sort of programming action. Example: "I have to doink this routine before this section is finished." Doink І : Used as a sign-off on memeos, e-mail, etc. Dorked : Destroyed or damaged. Differs from munged, which often implies that the damage was done for a purpose, whereas dorked implies that it was done by accident or through stupidity, as in "The machine is all dorked up." E Easter Egg : Surprise message or picture hidden by the programmer and activated by less-than-obvious means. Editits : The mental confusion experienced by programmers who use more than three different text editors or word processors on a regular basis. Export : To store data in another program's format. F FAS : For a second. FAW : For a while. Fireworks : A variety of spectacular displays produced by trashing the Amiga copper lists. Flakey : A descriptive term which helps QA (Quality Assurance) reproduce the exact problems you are experiencing. Flame : Electronic verbal assault. Often accentuated by CAPITAL LETTERS, punctuation!!!!!, and curses &%&*%%*&!!!! Floormat : What you feel like when you format a disk that you shouldn't have. Foamware : Program in bubble memeory. Freak : German expression for person whose main topic of conversation and interest is computer hacking. (Diminutive of Computer Freak.) (U.S. Equivalent: Propeller Head.) Fred : Most commonly-used name for testing on a computer due to proximity of letters on the keyboard. (Alternative: Derf) Frob : A word that can be substituted for any noun when the object in question has no name, the speaker cant't remember it, or the term is too long to bother saying. During the early days, for example, Infocom shared a photocopy machine with another company in the same building. To use it, an Infocom person had to get a little box (from the office manager) and insert it into the machine. This would activate the photocopier and count the number of copies made. Lacking any better name, this box was called the frob. G ga : go ahead. (In chat mode, signals to other users that you're done typing. Gadgethacker: Someone who likes to load and have running, many different "features" in an environment. For example, a clock, memory monitor, disk monitor, window shadow package, etc. The end result is an unusable Workbench. Gameplay : Enjoyability or fun/quantity of a game. Geek-out : What happens when a program crashes. gF : Girlfriend. GFD : Going for drink. Glitz : Screen gadgets and controls which are heavily decorated, or have an "eye candy" look. Guncho : It's the "Banish" spell in the Enchanter program that might be used this way in real life: "I worked late last night and gunchoed over fifty bugs." H Hack № : A piece of code or a program that is thrown together quickly to solve a problem, or any piece of code that is inelegant, but gets the job done. Often applies to some kind of "quick & dirty" fix for a bug. See kludge. Hack І : To create a hack; show off. Hork : To borrow without returning. Hyper-(anything): Started with Hypercard. I Iconitis : The condition of an icondriven work environment when you can't find the icon you need. ILY : I love you. I.M.H.O.(In My Humble Opinion): Used to denote prior remarks as personal opinion. Humorous after a pompous statement. Imp : Infocom game writers have always been referred to as "Implementers"- the debate rages on). After a while, the term was shortened to Imp, which then covered both their game-writing functions and prankish personalitites. Example: "Will this week's Imp lunch be held in the Imp suite, in the conference room, or at the expensive French restaurant in Harvard Square?" Import : To load another program's data. Info : A prefix that can be added to the beginning of any word to denote a connection with Infocom. When used correctly, the first letter after the prefix is always capitalized. Some examples: "Friday parties are a long standing InfoTradition." "Remember, Monday is an InfoHoliday." "InfoPrez Joel Berez is fond of using InfoMemos to pass along Infolnfo." Incidentally, Infocom's underground employee newspaper is called InfoDope. IQY2 : I like you too. J K Kludge № : A clever programming trick. Often the term kludge is applied to a piece of code that achieves results through some obscure trick rather than through a clear algorithm. A kludge is usually more respected than a hack. Kludge І : An inelegant way of making a particular section of program code work. Often used to avoid restructuring large portions of previously-working code. Kludge і : Quick-fix by using bad code. L Lamer : Someone who copies software, end user only. Avoids WB and hates DOS. Lebler : Someone who wanders around aimlessly, waiting for his game to be compiled. Mid-afternoon is a good time to see "cheerful" Dave Lebling lebling around the hallways or kitchen. A topnotch lebler is always seen nursing a cup of coffee. Example: "Yes, I just saw him__he was lebling over near Tim's office." While no one can hope to leble as well as Dave, virtually everyone who has to compile ends up lebling at one point during the day. Leech : A non-reciprocating borrower of software. Listpacker : Another name for a Lisp Hacker. LOL : Laughing out loud. Logic Bug : You can tlprt to lab in demon-mode & use time mach. to escape Nova. Move t.m. to next century and rearrange Nova ints. as follows--(what follows is an unreadable complex of boxes and arrows). M Mainline : Any part of a program that is not interrupt code. Manq : from the Italian, to mangle. What happens when the programmers, in fixing a code module and saving it, accidentally overwrite a portion of the program that was not responsible for the crash in the first place. Megs : Megabytes. Memeater : As in, "It's a memeater program." Any program that doesn't free memory allocations, thus slowly consuming free system memory. MIPS : Millions of instuctions per second. Mugger : A user who priates using only commercial software preset to automatically copy a specific program. Multiprocessing: Two or more computers performing tasks concurrently. Multitiasking: Allows you to do twice as much work at half the speed. Munge : To destory, convolute, obfuscate or render unusable, source code, object code, or program data, as in "I munged the file." MYK : Minimize Your Keystrokes N Neuronet : GBrain simulator. No-Bozo routine: A subroutine that contains little error checking and expects a specific (usually compшicated) setof parameters, and is therefore not for the inecxperienced programmer or weak of heart. Not doing well: What you say when you have a bug. Nuke : Slang for deleted or commented out, as in "I nuked these two lines." O Ogre-Dokey : Origin Systems specific analog to "OK" (ref.Ogre). Optimize : Make a program or subroutine smaller, faster and more powerful. OTF : On the floor (as in laughing). OTW : On the way. Over-the-Transom: (adj, from book publishiing) An unsolicited computer game submission. Most companies frown on reviewing games without executing the proper forms. P Paraquat debugger: Method of solving the bugs by destroying the environment (typically a diskette, source code, etc.). Parserspeak : The practice (at Infocom) of using the responses from Infocom's interactive fiction parser in normal coversa- tion. Here's an example from a recent Imps' Lunch: Stu: Steve, comma, pass me that bonbon. Steve: Which bon-bon do you mean, the yummy fresh bon-bon or the crufty melted bon-bon? Stu: Yummy. Patch № : A temporary fix to a problem in asmall portion of code. Often patches become permanent (Also see kludge). Patch І : Usually a small piece of code desinged to correct a bug or provide a needed feature. Piece of (-): An over-used Activision term taced on the front of any noun, as in "This piece of computer is broken" or "Pull up a piece of chair" Pixel Sort : A compression routine where all the pixels are sorted by color, counted and reduced to a single number. (The de- compression routine is left as an exercise for the user! Platform : Generic term for computer. Poof : The universal disclaimer. Roughly translates to "This is how it is, unless, of course, it's not". Power-geek : A programmer. Printef : (usually printeffing or printeffed), Using the C language PRINTF function to debug C programs. Usage: "I printeffed everything I could, but I still can't find the bug." Printereia : Any garbage characters that get dumped to the printer when you turn it on or off,or exit or enter an editor. Prop-head : A programmer (Diminutive of Propeller Head). Pseudoregister: Any of the two-byte xzero-page variables used in GEOS and GEOS applications to pass parameteers and retain results. The GEOS registers are labeled rO tshrough r15. The application registers are labeled aO through a15. Q R REHI : Hello again. ROFL : Rolling on floor laughing. R.S.N. : (Real Soon Now) That's when you'll see something that's already six months late. R.T.F.M. : Please Read the Manual. ;-) RAMmy : Condition caused by overindulgence in personal multi- tasking. Symptoms include refusal of patient to access additional brain cells, all tasks put to sleep and Guru Meditation messages flashing before the eyes. Most prevalent on Friday afternoons when the boss has been in the office all weekends without the presence of phones or computers. Rip Out : Delete parts of (a program). ROMable : Code that may be placed in ROM (or EPROM, etc.). ROMable code cannot be self-modifying. Rose Bug : When a Gamestar emplyee encounters a bug, it is sometimes called a Rose Bug. The group started using this term after working with Pete Rose on the Pennant Fever project. Runaway task: What causes an Amiga program to geek-out. S Scrogged : When data is unretrievable, especially on a disk. "The disk is scrogged." Self-modifying code: A portion of a program that, as part of its normal course of operations, modifies itself to realixe an increase in performance or a decrease in memory space. Extremely prone to bugs, selfmodifying code is viewed as a necessary evil and should be used in moderation. SIP : Self-inflicxted problem. Skew, Slew : To push or rotate slightly. Occurs in programming anything to represent three-dimensional objects on a two- dimensional plane. Usage: "This plane would look better if that wing were slewed over a bit. " Note; that the word skew also describes an object that is out of proportion or otherwise incorrectly drawn: "That B-17 is so skewed it looks like a dachshund with wings." Slushamatic : A game which contains far more than the user has any right to expect. Frequently, this comes from a designer/ programmer who knows that a machine such as the Commodore 64 can execute code as fast as any other home computer if it is well written. An extreme usage of the word is super slushamatic. Snotpit : May I have the pleasure of buying you lunch? Spaghetti code: A program or routine with a confusing, nonlinear and nonsensical organization, often exhibited by beginning programmers and lazy hackers. Splat : To update a portion of the screen as fast as possible. Sugartime : The time it takes to compile any large file. T Table Top Publishing: A step below Desktop Publishing. Tardyware : Software that is released considerably later than expected or forecast (contrast with Vaporware below). Techno-weenie: A programmer or hardware desingner. That's Nice, I like it: What you say when someone else has a bug. The tomorrow problem: Any problem that is insignificant compared to the amount of sleep that you need immediately. Toast : Any burned-up hardware. Tricked out : Software which has had many features added over its original design to enhance its marketability (attributed to Jim Steinert). Trivial Bug : There shouldn't be a hyphen in "Dimly-lit". TRON : TRON desk accessory, TRON printer driver. A GEOS application, desk accessory or printer driver whose sole purpose in life is supreme nastiness; used by BSW in alpha-test procedures to ensure that products are as bullet-proof as possible. The TRON desk accessory, for example, will trash global variables, muck with sprites, erase the screens and otherwise attempt to kill the calling application (it does, however, operate within the standard GEOS conventions-it just pushes them to the limits). Turing tap-pit: The low-end machine's equivalent of entropy. The point where a program becomes so complex that every operation takes slightly less than an eternity to complete. A feared reality when dealing with limited memory and processing speed (such as on the Commodore 64). (A one-bit Turing machine can emulate even the fastest, most complex computer because the formal manipulataion of symbols will be the same at any level. In theory, there is nothing a Cray XM-P can compute that a 64 cannot. It's just that what the Cray can do in three seconds might take a 64 three years. Tweak № : The last fine adjustment. To fine-tune a program by adding features, recompiling the code and removing small bugs and annoyances. Tweaking occurs only at the end of a project and is used only when the feature modifies no more than 25 % of the program. Tweak І : Fine adjustment. Tweening : Interpolation of animation cells. Twiddle № : Synonym for tilde (-). John Wedgwood, author of geoFile, only recently discovered that the symbol is in fact called a tilde and not a twiddle. Twiddle І : To manipulate or alter the state of, as in "twiddle a bit". (See also Bit-twiddler.) U Uncle Parser: The name Imps have given to the special version of the parser, used in Introductory level games like Seastalker. It is extremely userfriendly, and the responses never include multi-syllabic words. Undocumented feature: A positiveacting bug. User-hostile: Self-explanatory. V Vaporware : Software that is advertised heavily, but never appears. Vector pipeline processing: Functiontagging of data objects resulting from data normalization and procedure vectorization. Virtual : False, fake. (i.e., virtual memory, virtual screen). VLIR (Variable Length Indexed Record): A GEOS-specific file type composed of up to 127 records of varying length and an index table. The index table contains pointers to the first disk block of each record. W Wally : Name given to person asking questions of a very fundamental nature. (e.g., Wally: I can't save my data. Customer support: Did you format your disk? Wally: What's "format"? Weekend : The time when you work on your own programs; not necessarily a Saturday or Sunday. Wimp interface: An acronym for Window, Icons, Mouse and Pulldowns. Wizard : Since much of what Infocom does is steeped in the fantasy genre, many terms from our own and other companies' fantasy games have crept into the InfoLingo: For example, it is common to refer to any expert as a "Wizard." Example: "I have to speak to one of the wizards about this parser bug." Wodge : This word entered the InfoVocabulary while Douglas Adams and Steve Meretzky were collaborating on Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. After an initial trip to Massa- chusetts, Douglas did most fo his work in England, sending material to Steve via electronic mail. After a long period without any new material, Douglas said, "I worked for three solid days, and I'm sending over a huge wodge of stuff". Wodge quickly caught on as a term meaning a great deal of work, or more generally, a large amount of anything. Y "Y"Code : Brian Fargo tells me that most of the people at Interplay Prouctions program in C, but one person does things in a very unusual manner (especially when he's tired). They claim this individual programs in Y. Z Zombieware : Product that have been previously announced, both publicly and in catalogs, but will not be released due to circumstances beyond the company's control. (Also see Vaporware.) Reformatted by: Inge Vabekk. |