Jargon File

Jargon File

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Parkinson's Law of Data prov. "Data expands to fill the space available for storage
buying more memory encourages the use of more memory-intensive techniques....
parm /parm/ n. Further-compressed form of param.
This term is an IBMism, and written use is almost unknown outside IBM shop...
parse [from linguistic terminology] vt. 1. To determine the syntactic structure of a sentence or other utterance (close to the standard English meaning).
That was the one I saw you." "I ...
Pascal n. An Algol-descended language designed by Niklaus Wirth on the CDC 6600 around 1967-68 as an instructional tool for elementary programming.
This language, designed primarily to ke...
pastie /pay'stee/ n. An adhesive-backed label designed to be attached to a key on a keyboard to indicate some non-standard character which can be accessed through that key.
Pasties are li...
patch 1. n. A temporary addition to a piece of code, usually as a quick-and-dirty remedy to an existing bug or misfeature.
A patch may or may not work, and may or may not eventually be i...
patch pumpkin n. [Perl hackers] A notional token passed around among the members of a project.
patch space n.
path n. 1. A bang path or explicitly routed Internet addre
a node-by-node specification of a link between two machines....
pathological adj. 1. [scientific computation] Used of a data set that is grossly atypical of normal expected input, esp.
one that exposes a weakness or bug in whatever algorithm one is u...

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