WhatIs

/grok/, var. /grohk/

[from the novel Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert A. Heinlein, where it is a Martian word meaning literally to drink and metaphorically to be one with]

vt. 1. To understand, usually in a global sense. Connotes intimate and exhaustive knowledge. Contrast zen, similar supernal understanding as a single brief flash.

See also glark.

2. Used of programs, may connote merely sufficient understanding.

/grich/

1. n. A complaint (often caused by a glitch).

2. vi. To complain. Often verb-doubled: "Gritch gritch".

3. A synonym for glitch (as verb or noun).

/grīnd kraŋk/

n. A mythical accessory to a terminal. A crank on the side of a monitor, which when operated makes a zizzing noise and causes the computer to run faster. Usually one does not refer to a grind crank out loud, but merely makes the appropriate gesture and noise.

See grind and wugga wugga.

/grīnd/

vt. 1. [MIT and Berkeley] To format code, especially LISP code, by indenting lines so that it looks pretty. This usage was associated with the MacLISP community and is now rare; prettyprint was and is the generic term for such operations.

2. [UNIX] To generate the formatted version of a document from the nroff, troff, TeX, or Scribe source. The BSD program 'vgrind(1)' grinds code for printing on a Versatec bitmapped printer.

/grep/

[from the qed/ed editor idiom g/re/p , where re stands for a regular expression, to Globally search for the Regular Expression and Print the lines containing matches to it, via UNIX 'grep(1)']

vt. To rapidly scan a file or file set looking for a particular string or pattern. By extension, to look for something by pattern.

"Grep the bulletin board for the system backup schedule, would you?"

See also vgrep.

/grēn's thē-ə-rəm/

prov. For any story, in any group of people there will be at least one person who has not heard the story. [The name of this theorem is a play on a fundamental theorem in calculus. -- ESR]

/grēn mə-ˈshēn/

n. A computer or peripheral device that has been designed and built to military specifications for field equipment (that is, to withstand mechanical shock, extremes of temperature and humidity, and so forth). Comes from the olive-drab uniform paint used for military equipment.

/grēn līt-niŋ/

[IBM]

n. 1. Apparently random flashing streaks on the face of 3278-9 terminals while a new symbol set is being downloaded. This hardware bug was left deliberately unfixed, as some genius within IBM suggested it would let the user know that 'something is happening'. That, it certainly does. Later microprocessor-driven IBM color graphics displays were actually *programmed* to produce green lightning!

2. [proposed] Any bug perverted into an alleged feature by adroit rationalization or marketing.

/grēn kärd/

n. [after the 'IBM System/360 Reference Data' card]

This is used for any summary of an assembly language, even if the color is not green. Less frequently used now because of the decrease in the use of assembly language.

"I'll go get my green card so I can check the addressing mode for that instruction."

Some green cards are actually booklets.

/grēn bīts/

n. 1. Meta-information embedded in a file, such as the length of the file or its name; as opposed to keeping such information in a separate description file or record. The term comes from an IBM user's group meeting (ca. 1962) at which these two approaches were being debated and the diagram of the file on the blackboard had the 'green bytes' drawn in green.

2. By extension, the non-data bits in any self-describing format. "A GIF file contains, among other things, green bytes describing the packing method for the image."