hit the key, kill the program, fatal error, bomb out, etc.

[Steve Owens <uso01 -at- EAGLE -dot- UNIDATA -dot- COM>]

> *On the topic of kill, there exist terms in multi-tasking operating systems
> like UNIX where parent processes kill their children and so forth.
> If a parent process dies without killing its children processes, these
> children processes become orphans.  I have seen an online jargon
> dictionary once before, and I will tell you how to get to it once I find
> it again.*

        The Jargon File is available at prep.ai.mit.edu, along with
some freeware viewer programs and the GNU project archives.  Pick up a
copy, it's worth reading.  You can also pick it up at tech book stores
and the like under the title "The New Hacker's Dictionary", from MIT
Press.

        The Jargon File is a collection of, well, jargon, from the
computer field and computer networks, along with history and usages
and several interesting essays.  Besides being fascinating reading
(try looking up "magic") and giving you some handle on the subtler,
cultural connotations of various pieces of jargon, it can give you
some insight into the whole computer culture.  The essays at the back
are particularly interesting.

        This is *not* a trivial file, by the way.  I printed out a
copy on 8.5x11 and it's an inch or three thick.  The file is well
organized, with some simple text-based conventions (like placing
{braces} around a word used in a definition, to indicate that it is a
jargon term and you can find an explanation of it elsewhere in the
Jargon File) that make it a simple sort of hypertext (I believe the
interactive viewers take advantage of this, cross-linking things.
I haven't used them, though, so I can't really say).

Steven J. Owens
uso01 -at- unidata -dot- com