Jargon File

Jargon File

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zero-content adj. Syn. content-free.
Zero-One-Infinity Rule prov. "Allow none of foo, one of foo, or any number of foo.
zeroth /zee'rohth/ adj. First. Among software designers, comes from C's and LISP's 0-based indexing of arrays.
Hardware people also tend to start counting at 0 instead of 1; this is natu...
zigamorph /zig'*-morf/ n. 1. Hex FF (11111111) when used as a delimiter or fence character.
Usage: primarily at IBM shops. 2. [proposed] n....
zip vt. [primarily MS-DOS] To create a compressed archive from a group of files using PKWare's PKZIP or a compatible archiver.
Its use is spreading now that portable implementations of th...
zipperhead n. [IBM] A person with a closed mind.
zombie n. [Unix] A process that has died but has not yet relinquished its process table slot (because the parent process hasn't executed a wait(2) for it yet).
These can be seen in ps(1)...
zorch /zorch/ 1. [TMRC] v. To attack with an inverse heat sink.
2. [TMRC] v. To travel, with v approaching c [that is, with velocity approaching lightspeed --ESR]....
Zork /zork/ n. The second of the great early experiments in computer fantasy gaming
ee ADVENT....
zorkmid /zork'mid/ n. The canonical unit of currency in hacker-written games.
This originated in Zork but has spread to nethack and is referred to in several other games....

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