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Jargon File: Difference between revisions
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The ''[[Jargon File]]'' (also called ''The Hacker's Jargon File'') is a dictionary of computer slang which was originally in plaintext format and is now available as [[HTML]]. It also includes a lot of computer hacker folklore, both in the appendixes and as part of the main text of the entries. The file originated in 1975, at a time when computers were only used by a few specialists. It was originally published in book form as ''The Hacker's Dictionary'' in 1983, edited by Guy L. Steele Jr.
At that time, the university AI labs that spawned the Jargon File were dying, and the Jargon File fell into disuse. It was picked up again by Eric Raymond in 1990; he maintained the file, adding new Internet-related material, and published several revisions in 1991, 1993 and 1996 as ''The New Hacker's Dictionary'', though not without controversy. ([http://slashdot.org/articles/03/06/08/1534249.shtml Raymond was accused of writing material that's more true of himself than of hackers in general]
The file is still around, but maintenance abruptly stopped in 2004, and the file is heavily subject to [[Technology Marches On]], having never been fully adapted to the omnipresent Web-based Internet of modern times.
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Every so often someone tries to make the file live again. No attempt has yet succeeded.
The last version, now
{{tropenamer}}
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* [[Astroturf]]: Source of one of the [http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/A/astroturfing.html earliest definitions] of the sense in which we present it.
* [[Black Box]]: The File is rife with terms describing programming Black Boxes, most notably [http://catb.org/esr/jargon/html/magic-story.html Black Magic].
* [[Blinkenlights]]: Of ''course'' the file has [http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/B/blinkenlights.html an entry], tracing the trope farther back than we do, to a WWII-vintage machine shop notice (of which they have a photo).
* [[CamelCase]]: The Jargon File definition varies from modern usage -- what ATT and many others recognize as "CamelCase", the File calls [http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/B/BiCapitalization.html BiCapitalization]. According to the File, "true" [http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/C/camelCase.html camelCase] requires the first letter be lowercase, so as to provide a "hump" in the middle of the word.
* [[Canon]]: Source of the [http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/C/canonical.html canonical definition] of "canonical", as used in most non-religious contexts today.
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:{{spoiler|It helps if you wait five or more seconds.}} (It also plays on the absurdity that understanding alone is enough to make the exact same behavior work.)
* [[If I Wanted X, I Would Y]]: A slight [http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/I/If-you-want-X--you-know-where-to-find-it-.html variation]: "If you want PL/I, you know where to find it."
* [[The Internet Oracle]]: Has a [http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/O/Oracle--the.html brief entry].
* [[Layman's Terms]]: Despite being written by hackers for hackers, its definitions very often present abstruse or obscure tech concepts in plan, simple-to-understand terms.
* [[Logic Bomb]]: Provides the [http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/L/logic-bomb.html correct definition] of the concept, unlike us.
* [[Metasyntactic Variable]]: There is an [http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/M/metasyntactic-variable.html extensive entry] on the subject that documents not just terms used by American and British programmers but those used by programmers from continental Europe and New Zealand.
* [[Muggles]]: Provides a [http://catb.org/jargon/html/M/muggle.html definition] for the hackish use, which was inspired by the [[Harry Potter|Trope Namer]] -- someone who doesn't know about or how to use the magic of computers.
* [[Names Given to Computers]]: The real-life [[Cthulhu Mythos|Shub-Internet]] was named after a joke in the Jargon File and operated as a server in the Pentagon for a number of years. Obviously a very silly type-6, relating to the Internet's origins as a US Defense Department project.
* [[Neologism]]: The source or earliest documentation of many terms that later entered widespread use.
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* [[Older Than They Think]]: Some of the terms in the File which have become pretty much standard usage in computing (both professional and hobby), like such as ''frob'', ''foo'' and ''mung'', are believed to date back to the early 1950s and the Tech Model Railroad Club at MIT.
* [[Perplexing Plurals]]: Documents the classic hacker usages of Vax/Vaxen and box/boxen (both by analogy to ox/oxen), among others.
* [[Puff of Logic]]: [http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/S/schroedinbug.html Schroedinbugs], in which a program works fine until someone looking at the source code realizes it shouldn't work, at which point it stops working.
* [[Read the Freaking Manual]]: The File has a surprisingly detailed [http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/R/RTFM.html entry] for the acronym RTFM, although it is by no means the origination of the term.
* [[Recursive Acronym]]: Contains possibly the earliest definition of the concept, along with examples.
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