1. [common] Abbreviation
for the phrase "Birds Of a Feather" (flocking together), an
informal discussion group and/or bull session scheduled on a
conference program. It is not clear where or when this term
originated, but it is now associated with the USENIX conferences
for Unix techies and was already established there by 1984. It was
used earlier than that at DECUS conferences and is reported to have
been common at SHARE meetings as far back as the early 1960s.
2. Acronym, `Beginning of File'.
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....