SOS /S-O-S/ N.,obs. An Infamously Losing Text Editor.

HomeFortune CookiesJargon File

SOS /S-O-S/

n.,obs. An infamously losing text
editor. Once, back in the 1960s, when a text editor was needed for
the PDP-6, a hacker crufted together a quick-and-dirty
`stopgap editor' to be used until a better one was written.
Unfortunately, the old one was never really discarded when new ones
came along. SOS is a descendant (`Son of Stopgap') of that editor,
and many PDP-10 users gained the dubious pleasure of its
acquaintance. Since then other programs similar in style to SOS
have been written, notably the early font editor BILOS
/bye'lohs/, the Brother-In-Law Of Stopgap (the alternate
expansion `Bastard Issue, Loins of Stopgap' has been proposed).

Related: