1. [techspeak] Executable code, esp. a `pure
code' portion shared between multiple instances of a program
running in a multitasking OS. Compare English. 2. Textual
material in the mainstream sense; data in ordinary ASCII or
EBCDIC representation (see flat-ASCII). "Those are
text files; you can review them using the editor." These two
contradictory senses confuse hackers, too.
magic number n.
[Unix/C; common] 1. In source code
some non-obvious constant whose value is significant to the
operation of a program and that is inserted inconspicuously in-line
(hardcoded), rather than expanded in by a symbol set by a
commented #define....