Jargon File

Jargon File

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payware /pay'weir/ n. Commercial software. Oppose shareware or freeware.
PBD /P-B-D/ n. [abbrev. of `Programmer Brain Damage'] Applied to bug reports revealing places where the program was obviously broken by an incompetent or short-sighted programmer.
Compare...
PC-ism /P-C-izm/ n. A piece of code or coding technique that takes advantage of the unprotected single-tasking environment in IBM PCs and the like running DOS, e.
g., by busy-waiting on a h...
PD /P-D/ adj. [common] Abbreviation for `public domain', applied to software distributed over Usenet and from Internet archive sites.
Much of this software is not in fact public domain i...
PDL /P-D-L/, /pid'l/, /p*d'l/ or /puhd'l/ 1. n. `Program Design Language'.
PDP-10 n. [Programmed Data Processor model 10] The machine that made timesharing real.
PDP-20 n. The most famous computer that never was.
PDP-10 computers running the TOPS-10 operating system were labeled `DECsystem-10' as a way of differentiating them from the PDP-11....
PEBKAC /peb'kak/ [Abbrev., "Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair"] Used by support people, particularly at call centers and help desks.
Not used with the public. Denotes pilot erro...
peek n.,vt. (and poke) The commands in most microcomputer BASICs for directly accessing memory contents at an absolute addre
often extended to mean the corresponding constructs in any H...
pencil and paper n. An archaic information storage and transmission device that works by depositing smears of graphite on bleached wood pulp.
More recent developments in paper-based tech...

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