Dictionaries & Language/Dictionaries and Language (Chestnut CD-ROM) (1993).iso/gloss/jargn298/jargon-w.txt

Text File | 1991-09-07 | 30.3 KB | 570 lines

= W =
=====

wabbit: /wab'it/ [almost certainly from Elmer Fudd's immortal
   line "You wascawwy wabbit!"] n. 1. A legendary early hack
   reported on a System/360 at RPI and elsewhere around 1978.  The
   program would make two copies of itself every time it was run,
   eventually crashing the system.  2. By extension, any hack that
   includes infinite self-replication but is not a {virus} or
   {worm}.  See also {cookie monster}.

WAITS:: /wayts/ n. The mutant cousin of {{TOPS-10}} used on a
   handful of systems at {{SAIL}} up to 1990.  There was never an
   `official' expansion of WAITS (the name itself having been arrived
   at by a rather sideways process), but it was frequently glossed as
   `West-coast Alternative to ITS'.  Though WAITS was less visible
   than ITS, there was frequent exchange of people and ideas between
   the two communities, and innovations pioneered at WAITS exerted
   enormous indirect influence.  The early screen modes of {EMACS},
   for example, were directly inspired by WAITS's `E' editor --- one
   of a family of editors that were the first to do `real-time
   editing', in which the editing commands were invisible and where
   one typed text at the point of insertion/overwriting.  The modern
   style of multi-region windowing is said to have originated there,
   and WAITS alumni at XEROX PARC and elsewhere played major roles in
   the developments that led to the XEROX Star, the Macintosh, and the
   Sun workstations.  {Bucky bits} were also invented there ---
   thus, the ALT key on every IBM PC is a WAITS legacy.  One notable
   WAITS feature seldom duplicated elsewhere was a news-wire interface
   that allowed WAITS hackers to read, store, and filter AP and UPI
   dispatches from their terminals; the system also featured a
   still-unusual level of support for what is now called `multimedia'
   computing, allowing analog audio and video signals to be switched
   to programming terminals.

waldo: /wol'doh/ [From Robert A. Heinlein's story "Waldo"]
   1. A mechanical agent, such as a gripper arm, controlled by a human
   limb.  When these were developed for the nuclear industry in the
   mid-1940s they were named after the invention described by Heinlein
   in the story, which he wrote in 1942.  Now known by the more
   generic term `telefactoring', this technology is of intense
   interest to NASA for tasks like space station maintenance.  2. At
   Harvard (particularly by Tom Cheatham and students), this is used
   instead of {foobar} as a meta-syntactic variable and general
   nonsense word.  See {foo}, {bar}, {foobar}, {quux}.

walk: n.,vt. Traversal of a data structure, especially an array or
   linked-list data structure in {core}.  See also {codewalker},
   {silly walk}, {clobber}.

walk off the end of: vt. To run past the end of an array, list, or      medium after stepping through it --- a good way to land in trouble.
   Often the result of an {off-by-one error}.  Compare
   {clobber}, {roach}, {smash the stack}.

walking drives: n. An occasional failure mode of magnetic-disk
   drives back in the days when they were huge, clunky {washing
   machine}s.  Those old {dinosaur} parts carried terrific angular
   momentum; the combination of a misaligned spindle or worn bearings
   and stick-slip interactions with the floor could cause them to
   `walk' across a room, lurching alternate corners forward a couple
   of millimeters at a time.  There is a legend about a drive that
   walked over to the only door to the computer room and jammed it
   shut; the staff had to cut a hole in the wall in order to get at
   it!  Walking could also be induced by certain patterns of drive
   access (a fast seek across the whole width of the disk, followed by
   a slow seek in the other direction).  Some bands of old-time
   hackers figured out how to induce disk-accessing patterns that
   would do this to particular drive models and held disk-drive races.

wall: [WPI] interj. 1. An indication of confusion, usually spoken
   with a quizzical tone:  "Wall??"  2. A request for further
   explication.  Compare {octal forty}.

   It is said that "Wall?" really came from `like talking to a
   blank wall'.  It was initially used in situations where, after you
   had carefully answered a question, the questioner stared at you
   blankly, clearly having understood nothing that was explained.  You
   would then throw out a "Hello, wall?" to elicit some sort of
   response from the questioner.  Later, confused questioners began
   voicing "Wall?" themselves.

wall follower: n. A person or algorithm that compensates for lack
   of sophistication or native stupidity by efficiently following some
   simple procedure shown to have been effective in the past.  Used of
   an algorithm, this is not necessarily pejorative; it recalls
   `Harvey Wallbanger', the winning robot in an early AI contest
   (named, of course, after the cocktail).  Harvey successfully solved
   mazes by keeping a `finger' on one wall and running till it came
   out the other end.  This was inelegant, but it was mathematically
   guaranteed to work on simply-connected mazes --- and, in fact,
   Harvey outperformed more sophisticated robots that tried to
   `learn' each maze by building an internal representation of it.
   Used of humans, the term *is* pejorative and implies an
   uncreative, bureaucratic, by-the-book mentality.  See also {code
   grinder}, {droid}.

wall time: n. (also `wall clock time') 1. `Real world' time (what
   the clock on the wall shows), as opposed to the system clock's idea
   of time.  2. The real running time of a program, as opposed to the
   number of {clocks} required to execute it (on a timesharing
   system these will differ, as no one program gets all the
   {clocks}, and on multiprocessor systems with good thread support
   one may get more processor clocks than real-time clocks).

wallpaper: n. 1. A file containing a listing (e.g., assembly
   listing) or a transcript, esp. a file containing a transcript of
   all or part of a login session.  (The idea was that the paper for
   such listings was essentially good only for wallpaper, as evidenced
   at Stanford, where it was used to cover windows.)  Now rare,
   esp. since other systems have developed other terms for it (e.g.,
   PHOTO on TWENEX).  However, the UNIX world doesn't have an
   equivalent term, so perhaps {wallpaper} will take hold there.
   The term probably originated on ITS, where the commands to begin
   and end transcript files were `:WALBEG' and `:WALEND',
   with default file `WALL PAPER' (the space was a path
   delimiter).  2. The background pattern used on graphical
   workstations (this is techspeak under the `Windows' graphical user
   interface to MS-DOS).  3. `wallpaper file' n. The file that
   contains the wallpaper information before it is actually printed on
   paper.  (Even if you don't intend ever to produce a real paper copy
   of the file, it is still called a wallpaper file.)

wango: /wang'goh/ n. Random bit-level {grovel}ling going on in
   a system during some unspecified operation.  Often used in
   combination with {mumble}.  For example: "You start with the `.o'
   file, run it through this postprocessor that does mumble-wango ---
   and it comes out a snazzy object-oriented executable."

wank: /wangk/ [Columbia University: prob. by mutation from
   Commonwealth slang v. `wank', to masturbate] n.,v. Used much as
   {hack} is elsewhere, as a noun denoting a clever technique or
   person or the result of such cleverness.  May describe (negatively)
   the act of hacking for hacking's sake ("Quit wanking, let's go get
   supper!")  or (more positively) a {wizard}.  Adj.  `wanky'
   describes something particularly clever (a person, program, or
   algorithm).  Conversations can also get wanky when there are too
   many wanks involved.  This excess wankiness is signalled by an
   overload of the `wankometer' (compare {bogometer}).  When the
   wankometer overloads, the conversation's subject must be changed,
   or all non-wanks will leave.  Compare `neep-neeping' (under
   {neep-neep}).  Usage: U.S. only.  In Britain and the Commonwealth
   this word is *extremely* rude and is best avoided unless one
   intends to give offense.

wannabee: /won'*-bee/ (also, more plausibly, spelled `wannabe')
   [from a term recently used to describe Madonna fans who dress,
   talk, and act like their idol; prob. originally from biker slang]
   n. A would-be {hacker}.  The connotations of this term differ
   sharply depending on the age and exposure of the subject.  Used of
   a person who is in or might be entering {larval stage}, it is
   semi-approving; such wannabees can be annoying but most hackers
   remember that they, too, were once such creatures.  When used of
   any professional programmer, CS academic, writer, or {suit}, it is
   derogatory, implying that said person is trying to cuddle up to the
   hacker mystique but doesn't, fundamentally, have a prayer of
   understanding what it is all about.  Overuse of terms from this lexicon
   is often an indication of the {wannabee} nature.  Compare
   {newbie}.

   Historical note: The wannabee phenomenon has a slightly different
   flavor now (1991) than it did ten or fifteen years ago.  When the
   people who are now hackerdom's tribal elders were in {larval
   stage}, the process of becoming a hacker was largely unconscious
   and unaffected by models known in popular culture --- communities
   formed spontaneously around people who, *as individuals*, felt
   irresistibly drawn to do hackerly things, and what wannabees
   experienced was a fairly pure, skill-focused desire to become
   similarly wizardly.  Those days of innocence are gone forever;
   society's adaptation to the advent of the microcomputer after 1980
   included the elevation of the hacker as a new kind of folk hero,
   and the result is that some people semi-consciously set out to
   *be hackers* and borrow hackish prestige by fitting the
   popular image of hackers.  Fortunately, to do this really well, one
   has to actually become a wizard.  Nevertheless, old-time hackers
   tend to share a poorly articulated disquiet about the change; among
   other things, it gives them mixed feelings about the effects of
   public compendia of lore like this one.

warm boot: n. See {boot}.

wart: n. A small, {crock}y {feature} that sticks out of an
   otherwise {clean} design.  Something conspicuous for localized
   ugliness, especially a special-case exception to a general rule.
   For example, in some versions of `csh(1)', single quotes
   literalize every character inside them except `!'.  In ANSI C,
   the `??' syntax used obtaining ASCII characters in a foreign
   environment is a wart.  See also {miswart}.

washing machine: n. Old-style 14-inch hard disks in floor-standing
   cabinets.  So called because of the size of the cabinet and the
   `top-loading' access to the media packs --- and, of course, they
   were always set on `spin cycle'.  The washing-machine idiom
   transcends language barriers; it is even used in Russian hacker
   jargon.  See also {walking drives}.  The thick channel cables
   connecting these were called `bit hoses' (see {hose}).

water MIPS: n. (see {MIPS}, sense 2) Large, water-cooled
   machines of either today's ECL-supercomputer flavor or yesterday's
   traditional {mainframe} type.


wave a dead chicken: v. To perform a ritual in the direction of
   crashed software or hardware that one believes to be futile but
   is nevertheless necessary so that others are satisfied that an
   appropriate degree of effort has been expended.  "I'll wave a dead
   chicken over the source code, but I really think we've run into an
   OS bug."  Compare {voodoo programming}, {rain dance}.

weasel: n. [Cambridge] A na"ive user, one who deliberately or
   accidentally does things that are stupid or ill-advised.  Roughly
   synonymous with {loser}.

wedged: [from a common description of recto-cranial inversion] adj.
   1. To be stuck, incapable of proceeding without help.  This is
   different from having crashed.  If the system has crashed, then it
   has become totally non-functioning.  If the system is wedged, it is
   trying to do something but cannot make progress; it may be capable
   of doing a few things, but not be fully operational.  For example,
   a process may become wedged if it {deadlock}s with another (but
   not all instances of wedging are deadlocks).  Being wedged is
   slightly milder than being {hung}.  See also {gronk}, {locked
   up}, {hosed}.  Describes a {deadlock}ed condition.  2. Often
   refers to humans suffering misconceptions.  "He's totally wedged
   --- he's convinced that he can levitate through meditation."
   3. [UNIX] Specifically used to describe the state of a TTY left in
   a losing state by abort of a screen-oriented program or one that
   has messed with the line discipline in some obscure way.

wedgie: [Fairchild] n. A bug.  Prob. related to {wedged}.

wedgitude: /wedj'i-t[y]ood/ n. The quality or state of being
   {wedged}.

weeble: /weeb'l/ [Cambridge] interj. Used to denote frustration,
   usually at amazing stupidity.  "I stuck the disk in upside down."
   "Weeble...." Compare {gurfle}.

weeds: n. 1. Refers to development projects or algorithms that have
   no possible relevance or practical application.  Comes from `off in
   the weeds'.  Used in phrases like "lexical analysis for microcode
   is serious weeds...."  2. At CDC/ETA before its demise, the
   phrase `go off in the weeds' was equivalent to IBM's {branch to
   Fishkill} and mainstream hackerdom's {jump off into never-never
   land}.

weenie: n. 1. When used with a qualifier (for example, as in
   {UNIX weenie}, VMS weenie, IBM weenie) this can be either an
   insult or a term of praise, depending on context, tone of voice,
   and whether or not it is applied by a person who considers
   him or herself to be the same sort of weenie.  Implies that the weenie
   has put a major investment of time, effort, and concentration into
   the area indicated; whether this is positive or negative depends on
   the hearer's judgment of how the speaker feels about that area.
   See also {bigot}.  2. The semicolon character, `;' (ASCII
   0111011).

Weenix: /wee'niks/ [ITS] n. A derogatory term for {{UNIX}},
   derived from {UNIX weenie}.  According to one noted ex-ITSer, it
   is "the operating system preferred by Unix Weenies: typified by
   poor modularity, poor reliability, hard file deletion, no file
   version numbers, case sensitivity everywhere, and users who believe
   that these are all advantages".  Some ITS fans behave as though
   they believe UNIX stole a future that rightfully belonged to them.
   See {{ITS}}, sense 2.

well-behaved: adj. 1. [primarily {{MS-DOS}}] Said of software
   conforming to system interface guidelines and standards.
   Well-behaved software uses the operating system to do chores such
   as keyboard input, allocating memory and drawing graphics.  Oppose
   {ill-behaved}.  2. Software that does its job quietly and
   without counterintuitive effects.  Esp. said of software having
   an interface spec sufficiently simple and well-defined that it can
   be used as a {tool} by other software. See {cat}.

well-connected: adj. Said of a computer installation, this means
   that it has reliable email links with {the network} and/or that
   it relays a large fraction of available {USENET} newsgroups.
   `Well-known' can be almost synonymous, but also implies that the
   site's name is familiar to many (due perhaps to an archive service
   or active USENET users).

wetware: /wet'weir/ [prob. from the novels of Rudy Rucker] n.
   1. The human nervous system, as opposed to computer hardware or
   software.  "Wetware has 7 plus or minus 2 temporary registers."
   2. Human beings (programmers, operators, administrators) attached
   to a computer system, as opposed to the system's hardware or
   software.  See {liveware}, {meatware}.

whacker: [University of Maryland: from {hacker}] n. 1. A person,
   similar to a {hacker}, who enjoys exploring the details of
   programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities.
   Whereas a hacker tends to produce great hacks, a whacker only ends
   up whacking the system or program in question.  Whackers are often
   quite egotistical and eager to claim {wizard} status,
   regardless of the views of their peers.  2. A person who is good at
   programming quickly, though rather poorly and ineptly.

whales: n. See {like kicking dead whales down the beach}.

wheel: [from slang `big wheel' for a powerful person] n. A
   person who has an active a {wheel bit}.  "We need to find a
   wheel to un{wedge} the hung tape drives."

wheel bit: n. A privilege bit that allows the possessor to perform
   some restricted operation on a timesharing system, such as read or
   write any file on the system regardless of protections, change or
   look at any address in the running monitor, crash or reload the
   system, and kill or create jobs and user accounts.  The term was
   invented on the TENEX operating system, and carried over to
   TOPS-20, XEROX-IFS, and others.  The state of being in a privileged
   logon is sometimes called `wheel mode'.  This term entered the
   UNIX culture from TWENEX in the mid-1980s and has been gaining
   popularity there (esp. at university sites).  See also {root}.

wheel wars: [Stanford University] A period in {larval stage}
   during which student hackers hassle each other by attempting to log
   each other out of the system, delete each other's files, and
   otherwise wreak havoc, usually at the expense of the lesser users.

White Book: n. Syn. {K&R}.

whizzy: [Sun] adj. (alt. `wizzy') Describes a {cuspy} program;
   one that is feature-rich and well presented.

WIBNI: // [Bell Labs: Wouldn't It Be Nice If] n. What most
   requirements documents and specifications consist entirely of.
   Compare {IWBNI}.

widget: n. 1. A meta-thing.  Used to stand for a real object in
   didactic examples (especially database tutorials).  Legend has it
   that the original widgets were holders for buggy whips.  "But
   suppose the parts list for a widget has 52 entries...."
   2. [poss. evoking `window gadget'] A user interface object in
   {X} graphical user interfaces.

wiggles: n. [scientific computation] In solving partial differential
   equations by finite difference and similar methods, wiggles are
   sawtooth (up-down-up-down) oscillations at the shortest wavelength
   representable on the grid.  If an algorithm is unstable, this is
   often the most unstable waveform, so it grows to dominate the
   solution.  Alternatively, stable (though inaccurate) wiggles can be
   generated near a discontinuity by a Gibbs phenomenon.

WIMP environment: n. [acronymic from `Window, Icon, Menu, Pointing
   device (or Pull-down menu)'] A graphical-user-interface-based
   environment such as {X} or the Macintosh interface, as described
   by a hacker who prefers command-line interfaces for their superior
   flexibility and extensibility.  See {menuitis},
   {user-obsequious}.

win: [MIT] 1. vi. To succeed.  A program wins if no unexpected
   conditions arise, or (especially) if it sufficiently {robust} to
   take exceptions in stride.  2. n. Success, or a specific instance
   thereof.  A pleasing outcome.  A {feature}.  Emphatic forms:
   `moby win', `super win', `hyper-win' (often used
   interjectively as a reply).  For some reason `suitable win' is
   also common at MIT, usually in reference to a satisfactory solution
   to a problem.  Oppose {lose}; see also {big win}, which isn't
   quite just an intensification of `win'.

win big: vi. To experience serendipity.  "I went shopping and won
   big; there was a 2-for-1 sale." See {big win}.

win win: interj. Expresses pleasure at a {win}.

Winchester:: n. Informal generic term for `floating-head'
   magnetic-disk drives in which the read-write head planes over the
   disk surface on an air cushion.  The name arose because the
   original 1973 engineering prototype for what later became the
   IBM 3340 featured two 30-megabyte volumes; 30--30 became
   `Winchester' when somebody noticed the similarity to the common
   term for a famous Winchester rifle (in the latter, the first 30
   referred to caliber and the second to the grain weight of the
   charge).

winged comments: n. Comments set on the same line as code, as
   opposed to {boxed comments}.  In C, for example:

     d = sqrt(x*x + y*y);  /* distance from origin */

   Generally these refer only to the action(s) taken on that line.

winkey: n. (alt. `winkey face')  See {emoticon}.

winnage: /win'*j/ n. The situation when a lossage is corrected, or
   when something is winning.

winner: 1. n. An unexpectedly good situation, program, programmer,
   or person.  "So it turned out I could use a {lexer} generator
   instead of hand-coding my own pattern recognizer.  What a win!"
   2. `real winner': Often sarcastic, but also used as high praise
   (see also the note under {user}). "He's a real winner --- never
   reports a bug till he can duplicate it and send in an
   example."

winnitude: /win'*-t[y]ood/ n. The quality of winning (as opposed
   to {winnage}, which is the result of winning).  "Guess what?
   They tweaked the microcode and now the LISP interpreter runs twice
   as fast as it used to." "That's really great!  Boy, what
   winnitude!" "Yup. I'll probably get a half-hour's winnage on the
   next run of my program."  Perhaps curiously, the obvious antonym
   `lossitude' is rare.

wired: n. See {hardwired}.

wirehead: /wi:r'hed/ n. [prob. from SF slang for an
   electrical-brain-stimulation addict] 1. A hardware hacker,
   especially one who concentrates on communications hardware.  2. An
   expert in local-area networks.  A wirehead can be a network
   software wizard too, but will always have the ability to deal with
   network hardware, down to the smallest component.  Wireheads are
   known for their ability to lash up an Ethernet terminator from
   spare resistors, for example.

wish list: n. A list of desired features or bug fixes that probably
   won't get done for a long time, usually because the person
   responsible for the code is too busy or can't think of a clean way
   to do it.  "OK, I'll add automatic filename completion to the wish
   list for the new interface." Compare {tick-list features}.

within delta of: adj. See {delta}.

within epsilon of: adj. See {epsilon}.

wizard: n. 1. A person who knows how a complex piece of software
   or hardware works (that is, who {grok}s it); esp. someone who
   can find and fix bugs quickly in an emergency.  Someone is a
   {hacker} if he or she has general hacking ability, but is a wizard
   with respect to something only if he or she has specific detailed
   knowledge of that thing.  A good hacker could become a wizard for
   something given the time to study it.  2. A person who is permitted
   to do things forbidden to ordinary people; one who has {wheel}
   privileges on a system.  3. A UNIX expert, esp. a UNIX systems
   programmer.  This usage is well enough established that `UNIX
   Wizard' is a recognized job title at some corporations and to most
   headhunters.  See {guru}, {lord high fixer}.  See also
   {deep magic}, {heavy wizardry}, {incantation}, {magic},
   {mutter}, {rain dance}, {voodoo programming}, {wave a
   dead chicken}.

Wizard Book: n. Hal Abelson and Jerry Sussman's `Structure
   and Interpretation of Computer Programs' (MIT Press, 1984; ISBN
   0-262-01077-1, an excellent computer science text used in
   introductory courses at MIT.  So called because of the wizard on
   the jacket.  One of the {bible}s of the LISP/Scheme
   world.

wizard mode: [from {rogue}] n. A special access mode of a program or
   system, usually passworded, that permits some users godlike
   privileges.  Generally not used for operating systems themselves
   (`root mode' or `wheel mode' would be used instead).

wizardly: adj. Pertaining to wizards.  A wizardly {feature} is one
   that only a wizard could understand or use properly.

womb box: n. 1. [TMRC] Storage space for equipment.  2. [proposed]
   A variety of hard-shell equipment case with heavy interior padding
   and/or shaped carrier cutouts in a foam-rubber matrix; mundanely
   called a `flight case'.  Used for delicate test equipment,
   electronics, and musical instruments.

WOMBAT: [Waste Of Money, Brains, And Time] adj. Applied to problems
   which are both profoundly {uninteresting} in themselves and
   unlikely to benefit anyone interesting even if solved.  Often used
   in fanciful constructions such as `wrestling with a wombat'.  See
   also {crawling horror}, {SMOP}.  Also note the rather different
   usage as a meta-syntactic variable in {{Commonwealth Hackish}}.

wonky: /wong'kee/ [from Australian slang] adj. Yet another
   approximate synonym for {broken}.  Specifically connotes a
   malfunction that produces behavior seen as crazy, humorous, or
   amusingly perverse.  "That was the day the printer's font logic
   went wonky and everybody's listings came out in Tengwar."  Also in
   `wonked out'.  See {funky}, {demented}, {bozotic}.

workaround: n. A temporary {kluge} inserted in a system under
   development or test in order to avoid the effects of a {bug} or
   {misfeature} so that work can continue.  Theoretically,
   workarounds are always replaced by {fix}es; in practice,
   customers often find themselves living with workarounds in the
   first couple of releases.  "The code died on NUL characters in the
   input, so I fixed it to interpret them as spaces."  "That's not a
   fix, that's a workaround!"

working as designed: [IBM] adj. 1. In conformance to a wrong or
   inappropriate specification; useful, but misdesigned.
   2. Frequently used as a sardonic comment on a program's utility.
   3. Unfortunately also used as a bogus reason for not accepting a
   criticism or suggestion.  At {IBM}, this sense is used in
   official documents!  See {BAD}.

worm: [from `tapeworm' in John Brunner's novel `The
   Shockwave Rider', via XEROX PARC] n. A program that propagates
   itself over a network, reproducing itself as it goes.  Compare
   {virus}.  Nowadays the term has negative connotations, as it is
   assumed that only {cracker}s write worms.  Perhaps the
   best-known example was Robert T. Morris's `Internet Worm' of 1988,
   a `benign' one that got out of control and hogged hundreds of
   Suns and VAXen across the U.S.  See also {cracker}, {RTM},
   {Trojan horse}, {ice}.

wound around the axle: adj. In an infinite loop.  Often used by older
   computer types.

wrap around: vi. (also n. `wraparound' and v. shorthand `wrap')
   1. [techspeak] The action of a counter that starts over at zero or at
   `minus infinity' (see {infinity}) after its maximum value has
   been reached, and continues incrementing, either because it is
   programmed to do so or because of an overflow (as when a car's
   odometer starts over at 0).  2. To change {phase} gradually and
   continuously by maintaining a steady wake-sleep cycle somewhat
   longer than 24 hours, e.g., living six long (28-hour) days in a week
   (or, equivalently, sleeping at the rate of 10 microhertz).

write-only code: [a play on `read-only memory'] n. Code so
   arcane, complex, or ill-structured that it cannot be modified or
   even comprehended by anyone but its author, and possibly not even
   by him/her.  A {Bad Thing}.

write-only language: n. A language with syntax (or semantics)
   sufficiently dense and bizarre that any routine of significant size
   is {write-only code}.  A sobriquet applied occasionally to C and
   often to APL, though {INTERCAL} and {TECO} certainly deserve it
   more.

write-only memory: n. The obvious antonym to `read-only
   memory'.  Out of frustration with the long and seemingly useless
   chain of approvals required of component specifications, during
   which no actual checking seemed to occur, an engineer at Signetics
   once created a specification for a write-only memory and included
   it with a bunch of other specifications to be approved.  This
   inclusion came to the attention of Signetics {management} only
   when regular customers started calling and asking for pricing
   information.  Signetics published a corrected edition of the data
   book and requested the return of the `erroneous' ones.  Later,
   around 1974, Signetics bought a double-page spread in `Electronics'
   magazine's April issue and used the spec as an April Fools' Day
   joke.  Instead of the more conventional characteristic curves, the
   25120 "fully encoded, 9046 x N, Random Access, write-only-memory"
   data sheet included diagrams of "bit capacity vs. Temp.",
   "Iff vs. Vff", "Number of pins remaining vs. number of socket
   insertions", and "AQL vs. selling price".  The 25120 required a
   6.3 VAC VFF supply, a +10V VCC, and VDD of 0V,
   +/- 2%.

Wrong Thing: n. A design, action, or decision that is clearly
   incorrect or inappropriate.  Often capitalized; always emphasized
   in speech as if capitalized.  The opposite of the {Right Thing};
   more generally, anything that is not the Right Thing.  In cases
   where `the good is the enemy of the best', the merely good --- although
   good --- is nevertheless the Wrong Thing. "In C, the default is for
   module-level declarations to be visible everywhere, rather than
   just within the module.  This is clearly the Wrong Thing."

wugga wugga: /wuh'g* wuh'g*/ n. Imaginary sound that a computer
   program makes as it labors with a tedious or difficult task.
   Compare {cruncha cruncha cruncha}, {grind} (sense 4).

WYSIWYG: /wiz'ee-wig/ adj. Describes a user interface under which
   "What You See Is What You Get", as opposed to one that uses
   more-or-less obscure commands which do not result in immediate
   visual feedback.  The term can be mildly derogatory, as it is often
   used to refer to dumbed-down {user-friendly} interfaces targeted
   at non-programmers; a hacker has no fear of obscure commands.
   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, this term has already made it into the OED. --- ESR]