ADA | Countess of Lovelace. c1840. |
Adabas | Database software developed c 1970. |
ALGOL | Algorithmic Language. 1960. |
APL | A Progamming Language. Array processing. Ken Iverson. |
ASCII | Universal format for text files. Cheap & effective. |
Assembler | Symbolic machine code. For nerds only... |
AT&T | Bell Research labs in New Jersy is home of UNIX. |
AVI | Video file format. |
Babbage | Designer of analytic engine. c1840 |
BASIC | Beginners' All purpose Symbolic. |
BCPL | Forerunner of C. |
Bison | GNU version of Yacc. |
Bool | Wrote 'Laws of Thought'. c1850 |
Bourne | Early UNIX pioneer. 'bash' is the Bourne shell. |
Browser Wars | Internet Explorer verses Netscape. |
buffer overflow | Loophole exploited by early hackers. |
bus | hardware term. |
bytesex | Big endian or little endian. |
C | System programming language for UNIX. Pronounce See. |
C++ | Evolution of C |
C# | Evolution of C++ and JAVA. Microsoft. |
CGI | Common gateway interface. Server to HTML forms. |
Chomsky N. | Language theoretician. Radical left politics. |
client | Guest. |
COBOL | Capitalist verbosity. |
crack | Crack a password. A library. |
D4 | dialect of APL with ideas stolen from UNIX shell. |
daemon | Background program. Often a server. |
demon | Short for Demonstration. 'Demon with Sound'. |
DEC | Digital Equipment Corporation. Also DEC |
DES | Data encryption standard. |
DJGPP | Excellent C Compiler for DOS/WINDOWS |
e-mail | Electronic mail. Also E-commerce. |
emacs | Editor based on Lisp. From M.I.T. |
Euler | Solved 100 year old factorisation problem. 2^32+1. |
expect | Simple event driven scripting language. |
FascistCheck | Part of cracklib. |
FAT | File allocation table. |
FORTRAN | Formula Translator. 1950s language used today. |
fry | to 'Sautee' a string is to permute its elements. |
GIF | Graphic Image Format. Uses LZH |
GNOME | Windows manager. |
GNU | Genuinely not UNIX. Public domain software project. |
Godel | Designed a code to express all logic statements. |
GUI | Graphic user interface. Eats up resources. Expensive. |
Heisenbug | Bug that dissapears when debugging is turned on. |
Hilbert | Set the problem solved by Turing. c1905. |
HTML | Hypertext Markup Language. |
HSV | Hue Saturation Value colour encoding. |
Hacker | Sort of programmer. Often anti-capitalist. |
Huffman codes | Stochastic data compression technique. c1950 |
Illegal Instruction | Program obeys data. Equal scores in browser wars. |
Installer | Program to put other programs on the computer. |
J | Evolution of APL. Iverson. |
Java | C++ like programming language for active content. |
JPEG | Joint Picture Group. Image compression. |
K | Database language. |
K&R | Kernigan and Ritchie. Writers of first book on C. |
KDE | Popular Linux desktop. |
Knuth, D.E. | Creator of opus: Art of Computer Programming. |
Lab | Colour co-ordinate system. |
LINUX | Clone of UNIX implemented by Linus Torvalds. |
LZH | Lev-Zimple Huffman compression technique. |
M.I.T. | Massachusts institute of technology. |
macro | Canned text, often used to save typing. |
magic | Signature used to identify file type |
Magick | Esoteric arts. see witchcraft |
Maple | A popular maths programming language. |
MPEG | Video encoding. Motion Picture Group. |
MUD | Multi User Dungeon. |
NeXT | Black box computer. Evolution of Apple Mac. |
OLE | Object Linked Environment. |
Open System | System where full explanations are given to user. |
P=NP | Conjecture about algorithms. |
PDF | 'Portable document format'. Needs Adobe Acrobat. |
perl | Pathologically eclectic rubbish lister. Larry Wall. |
PINE | Easy to use mailing program. Public domain. |
pod | Plain ordinary documentation. |
PostScript | Image processing language. Used in printers. |
python | Scripting language. CWI. |
Reverse engineering | Unfortunate necessity in capitalist system. |
Ramanujan | Invented modern methods for computing 'Pi'. |
RGB | Red Green Blue. Colour co-ordinates. |
RTF | Rich text format. For those with resources to waste. |
Russel B | Logician -> radical left politics. |
salt | Sprinkle this on your DES. |
sanity check | Can be put in programs. Needs thought. |
Segment Violation | Attempt to access data out of range |
semaphore | Queue discipline method. Dijkstra. |
setuid | Upwards mobility in UNIX permissions heirarchy |
signal | Form of interprocess communication. |
Shell | Command interface. Cheaper to implement than GUI. |
Sloane N.J.A. | AT&T researcher. Integer sequence database. |
strip | Strip symbols from binaries. |
tar | File archive format. 'Let them eat tar'. |
Tcl | Scripting language for X. Berkeley. |
TeX | Pronounce as Tecch. WISAWYG document praparation |
TIFF | Tagged Image Format |
TIN | Easy to use news reading program. |
Turing | Computer scientist in early twentieth century. |
UNIX | Computer operating system invented by AT&T |
vi | Visual intereactive editor. |
virus | Sometimes malignant program or script. |
Von Neumann | Inventor of logical model for modern computers. |
VB | Visual Basic. Embedded in Microsoft Office. |
VRML | Virtual Reality modelling language. |
VT100 | DEC terminal. Immortalised by emulation programs. |
Winzip | Popular Windows archiver. Blocking Copyright message. |
witchcraft | Term used to describe what people don't understand. |
WISAWYG | What I see ain't what you get. |
wizard | Directed help text for programs. |
worm | Sometimes malignant installer. |
WYSIWYG | What you see is what you get. |
X | Unix windows server. |
XYZ | Transformed colour encoding. |
yacc | Yet another compiler compiler |
zip | Data compression/decompression techniques. |
zombie | An undead process. To kill it, close the pipe. |