WhatIs

/krōm/

[from automotive slang via wargaming]

n. Showy features added to attract users but contributing little or nothing to the power of a system.

"The 3D icons in Motif are just chrome, but they certainly are *pretty* chrome!"

Distinguished from bells and whistles by the fact that the latter are usually added to gratify developers' own desires for featurefulness. Often used as a term of contempt.

/kris-məs trē pa-kət/

n. A packet with every single option set for whatever protocol is in use.

See kamikaze packet, Chernobyl packet.

The term doubtless derives from a fanciful image of each little option bit being represented by a different-colored light bulb, all turned on.

/kris-məs trē/

n. A kind of RS-232 line tester or breakout box featuring rows of blinking red and green LEDs suggestive of Christmas lights.

/chȯmp'r/

n. Someone or something that is chomping; a loser.

See loser, bagbiter, chomp.

/{chämp, ˈchȯmp}/

vi. To lose; specifically, to chew on something of which more was bitten off than one can. Probably related to gnashing of teeth.

See bagbiter.

/chōk/

v. To reject input, often ungracefully.

"Nuls make System V's 'lpr(1)' choke."

"I tried building an EMACS binary to use X, but 'cpp(1)' choked on all those '#define's."

See barf, gag, vi.

/chī-ˈnēz är-mē tek-ˈnēk/

n. Syn. Mongolian Hordes Technique.

/sheen'yu-*l/

[MIT]

n.,obs. The Lisp Machine Manual, so called because the title was wrapped around the cover so only those letters showed on the front.

/chə̇ˈkēt kē-ˌbȯrd/

n. A keyboard with small rectangular or lozenge-shaped rubber or plastic keys that look like pieces of chewing gum. (Chiclets is the brand name of a variety of chewing gum that does in fact resemble the keys of chiclet keyboards.) Used esp. to describe the original IBM PCjr keyboard. Vendors unanimously liked these because they were cheap, and a lot of early portable and laptop products got launched using them. Customers rejected the idea with almost equal unanimity, and chiclets are not often seen on anything larger than a digital watch any more.

/chi-kᵊn hed/

[Commodore]

n. The Commodore Business Machines logo, which strongly resembles a poultry part. Rendered in ASCII as 'C='. With the arguable exception of the Amiga (see amoeba), Commodore's machines are notoriously crocky little bitty boxes (see also PETSCII). Thus, this usage may owe something to Philip K. Dick's novel 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' (the basis for the movie 'Blade Runner'), in which a 'chickenhead' is a mutant with below-average intelligence.