WhatIs

/ˌpiːˈsiː/

History of PC: From Home Computers to Ubiquitous Devices

PC, short for "Personal Computer," is a ubiquitous term in the world of computing. The history of PC dates back to the 1970s when the concept of a personal computer was born. These early PCs were often DIY kits, empowering enthusiasts and hobbyists to build and program their computers. In the 1980s, the introduction of iconic models like the IBM PC and Apple Macintosh brought personal computing to homes and businesses, revolutionizing the way people interacted with technology.

/P-B-D/

n. Applied to bug reports revealing places where the program was obviously broken by an incompetent or short-sighted programmer.

Compare UBD; see also brain-damaged.

/pā-wer/

n. Commercial software.

Oppose shareware or freeware.

/pa-thə-lä-ji-kəl/

adj. 1. [scientific computation] Used of a data set that is grossly atypical of normal expected input, esp. one that exposes a weakness or bug in whatever algorithm one is using. An algorithm that can be broken by pathological inputs may still be useful if such inputs are very unlikely to occur in practice.

/päth/

n. 1. A bang path or explicitly routed Internet address; a node-by-node specification of a link between two machines.

2. [UNIX] A filename, fully specified relative to the root directory (as opposed to relative to the current directory; the latter is sometimes called a 'relative path'). This is also called a 'pathname'.

/pach spās/

n. An unused block of bits left in a binary so that it can later be modified by insertion of machine-language instructions there (typically, the patch space is modified to contain new code, and the superseded code is patched to contain a jump or call to the patch space). The widening use of HLLs has made this term rare; it is now primarily historical outside IBM shops.

See patch (sense 4), zap (sense 4), hook.

Algorithms define the proper set of rules or procedures to follow in order to function properly. An algorithm is a step-by-step procedure or formula for solving a problem or performing a task. It is a clear set of instructions that takes an input and produces an output, aiming to complete a specific goal or function effectively. Algorithms are crucial to programming and software development as they determine how tasks are executed by a computer system.

/pach/

1. n. A temporary addition to a piece of code, usually as a quick-and-dirty remedy to an existing bug or misfeature. A patch may or may not work, and may or may not eventually be incorporated permanently into the program.

/pä-skäl/

n. An Algol-descended language designed by Niklaus Wirth on the CDC 6600 around 1967--68 as an instructional tool for elementary programming. This language, designed primarily to keep students from shooting themselves in the foot and thus extremely restrictive from a general-purpose-programming point of view, was later promoted as a general-purpose tool and, in fact, became the ancestor of a large family of languages including Modula-2 and Ada (see also bondage-and-discipline language).

/pärs/

[from linguistic terminology]

vt. 1. To determine the syntactic structure of a sentence or other utterance (close to the standard English meaning).

"That was the one I saw you."

"I can't parse that."

2. More generally, to understand or comprehend.

"It's very simple; you just kretch the glims and then aos the zotz."

"I can't parse that."

3. Of fish, to have to remove the bones yourself.