Related:

• gensym /jen'sim/ [from MacLISP for `generated symbol'] 1.
  v. To invent a new name for something temporary, in such a way that the name is almost certainly not in conflict with one already in use....
• BUAF: // [abbreviation, from alt.fan.warlord] n. Big Ugly ASCII Font -- a special form of {ASCII art}.
  Various programs exist for rendering text strings into block, bloob, and pseudo-script fonts in cells between four and six character cells on a side...
• hand-hacking: n. 1. The practice of translating {hot spot}s from an {HLL} into hand-tuned assembler, as opposed to trying to coerce the compiler into generating better code.
  Both the term and the practice are becoming uncommon....
• BNF /B-N-F/ n. 1. [techspeak] Acronym for `Backus Normal Form' (often incorrectly expanded as `Backus-Naur Form')
  a metasyntactic notation used to specify the syntax of programming languages, command sets, and the like....
• crufty: /kruhf'tee/ [origin unknown; poss. from `crusty'] adj.
  1. Poorly built, possibly over-complex. The {canonical} example is "This is standard old crufty {DEC} software"....
• oot: [UNIX] n. 1. The {superuser} account (with user name `root') that ignores permission bits, user number 0 on a UNIX system.
  The term {avatar} is also used. 2. The top node of the system directory structure (home directory of the root user)....
• cray: /kray/ n. 1. (properly, capitalized) One of the line of supercomputers designed by Cray Research.
  2. Any supercomputer at all. 3. The {canonical} {number-crunching} machine....
• accumulator: n. 1. Archaic term for a register. On-line use of it as a synonym for `register' is a fairly reliable indication that the user has been around for quite a while and/or that the architecture under discussion is quite old.
  The term in full is almost never used of microprocessor registers, for example, though symbolic names for arithmetic registers beginning in `A' derive from historical use of the term `accumulator' (and not, actually, from `arithmetic')....
• awk: 1. n. [UNIX techspeak] An interpreted language for massaging text data developed by Alfred Aho, Peter Weinberger, and Brian Kernighan (the name derives from their initials).
  It is characterized by C-like syntax, a declaration-free approach to variable typing and declarations, associative arrays, and field-oriented text processing....