WhatIs

/ber me-tᵊl/

n. 

/bär/

n. 1. The second metasyntactic variable, after foo and before baz.

"Suppose we have two functions: FOO and BAR. FOO calls BAR..."

2. Often appended to foo to produce foobar.

/ba-nər/

n. 1. The title page added to printouts by most print spoolers (see spool). Typically includes user or account ID information in very large character-graphics capitals. Also called a 'burst page', because it indicates where to burst (tear apart) fanfold paper to separate one user's printout from the next.

2. A similar printout generated (typically on multiple pages of fan-fold paper) from user-specified text, e.g., by a program such as UNIX's 'banner({1,6})'.

/baŋ päth/

n. An old-style UUCP electronic-mail address specifying hops to get from some assumed-reachable location to the addressee, so called because each hop is signified by a bang sign. Thus, for example, the path ...!bigsite!foovax!barbox!me directs people to route their mail to machine bigsite (presumably a well-known location accessible to everybody) and from there through the machine foovax to the account of user me on barbox.

/baŋ ȯn/

vt. To stress-test a piece of hardware or software: "I banged on the new version of the simulator all day yesterday and it didn't crash once. I guess it is ready to release." The term pound on is synonymous.

/baŋ/

1. n. Common spoken name for '!' (ASCII 0100001), especially when used in pronouncing a bang path in spoken hackish. In elder days this was considered a CMUish usage, with MIT and Stanford hackers preferring excl or shriek; but the spread of UNIX has carried 'bang' with it (esp. via the term bang path) and it is now certainly the most common spoken name for '!'.

/band-ˌwidth/

n. 1. Used by hackers in a generalization of its technical meaning as the volume of information per unit time that a computer, person, or transmission medium can handle.

"Those are amazing graphics, but I missed some of the detail -- not enough bandwidth, I guess."

Compare low-bandwidth.

2. Attention span.

3. On USENET, a measure of network capacity that is often wasted by people complaining about how items posted by others are a waste of bandwidth.

/bə-ˈna-nə prä-bləm/

n. [from the story of the little girl who said "I know how to spell 'banana', but I don't know when to stop"]. Not knowing where or when to bring a production to a close (compare fencepost error).

/bə-ˈna-nə lā-bəl/

n. The labels often used on the sides of macrotape reels, so called because they are shaped roughly like blunt-ended bananas. This term, like macrotapes themselves, is still current but visibly headed for obsolescence.

/bamf/

1. [from old X-Men comics] interj. Notional sound made by a person or object teleporting in or out of the hearer's vicinity. Often used in virtual reality (esp. MUD) electronic fora when a character wishes to make a dramatic entrance or exit.

2. The sound of magical transformation, used in virtual reality fora like sense 1.