WhatIs

/mā-liŋ list/

n. (often shortened in context to 'list') 1. An email address that is an alias (or macro, though that word is never used in this connection) for many other email addresses. Some mailing lists are simple 'reflectors', redirecting mail sent to them to the list of recipients. Others are filtered by humans or programs of varying degrees of sophistication; lists filtered by humans are said to be 'moderated'.

2. The people who receive your email when you send it to such an address.

/ma-jik smōk/

n. A substance trapped inside IC packages that enables them to function (also called 'blue smoke'; this is similar to the archaic 'phlogiston' hypothesis about combustion). Its existence is demonstrated by what happens when a chip burns up -- the magic smoke gets let out, so it doesn't work any more.

See smoke test, let the smoke out.

USENETter Jay Maynard tells the following story:

/ma-jik nəm-bər/

[UNIX/C]

n. 

/ma-jik ku̇-kē/

[UNIX]

/ma-jik/

adj. 1. As yet unexplained, or too complicated to explain; compare automagically and (Arthur C.) Clarke's Third Law:

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

"TTY echoing is controlled by a large number of magic bits."

"This routine magically computes the parity of an 8-bit byte in three instructions."

/mag'*t-boks/

n. See Macintrash. This is even more derogatory.

/ma'kroh-tayp/

n. An industry-standard reel of tape, as opposed to a microtape.

/mak-rol'*-jee/

n. 1. Set of usually complex or crufty macros, e.g., as part of a large system written in LISP, TECO, or (less commonly) assembler.

2. The art and science involved in comprehending a macrology in sense 1. Sometimes studying the macrology of a system is not unlike archeology, ecology, or theology, hence the sound-alike construction.

See also boxology.

/mak'roh/

[techspeak]

1. n. A name (possibly followed by a formal ARG list) that is equated to a text or symbolic expression to which it is to be expanded (possibly with the substitution of actual arguments) by a macro expander. This definition can be found in any technical dictionary; what those won't tell you is how the hackish connotations of the term have changed over time.

/mak'in-trash'/

n. The Apple Macintosh, as described by a hacker who doesn't appreciate being kept away from the *real computer* by the interface. The term maggotbox has been reported in regular use in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina.

Compare Macintoy.

See also beige toaster, WIMP environment, drool-proof paper, user-friendly.