magic cookie n.
[Unix; common] 1. Something passed
between routines or programs that enables the receiver to perform
some operation; a capability ticket or opaque identifier.
Especially used of small data objects that contain data encoded in
a strange or intrinsically machine-dependent way. E.g., on
non-Unix OSes with a non-byte-stream model of files, the result of
ftell(3) may be a magic cookie rather than a byte offset; it
can be passed to fseek(3), but not operated on in any
meaningful way. The phrase `it hands you a magic cookie' means
it returns a result whose contents are not defined but which can be
passed back to the same or some other program later. 2. An in-band
code for changing graphic rendition (e.g., inverse video or
underlining) or performing other control functions (see also
cookie). Some older terminals would leave a blank on the
screen corresponding to mode-change magic cookies; this was also
called a glitch (or occasionally a `turd'; compare mouse droppin
[Unix; common] 1. Something passed
between routines or programs that enables the receiver to perform
some operation; a capability ticket or opaque identifier.
Especially used of small data objects that contain data encoded in
a strange or intrinsically machine-dependent way. E.g., on
non-Unix OSes with a non-byte-stream model of files, the result of
ftell(3) may be a magic cookie rather than a byte offset; it
can be passed to fseek(3), but not operated on in any
meaningful way. The phrase `it hands you a magic cookie' means
it returns a result whose contents are not defined but which can be
passed back to the same or some other program later. 2. An in-band
code for changing graphic rendition (e.g., inverse video or
underlining) or performing other control functions (see also
cookie). Some older terminals would leave a blank on the
screen corresponding to mode-change magic cookies; this was also
called a glitch (or occasionally a `turd'; compare mouse droppin
Related:
- magic cookie: [UNIX] n. 1. Something passed between routines or
programs that enables the receiver to perform some operation;
a capability ticket or opaque identifier. Especially... - magic number n.
[Unix/C; common] 1. In source code,
some non-obvious constant whose value is significant... - cookie n.
A handle, transaction ID, or other token of
agreement between cooperating programs.
"I give him a packet, he gives me back a cookie... - glitch /glich/
[very common; from German `glitschig' to
slip,
via Yiddish `glitshen', to slide or skid] 1. n. A ... - glitch: /glich/ [from German `glitschen' to slip, via Yiddish
`glitshen',
to slide or skid] 1. n. A sudden interruption in ... - cookie: n. A handle, transaction ID, or other token of agreement
between cooperating programs.
"I give him a packet, he gives me back a cookie... - vaxocentrism /vak`soh-sen'trizm/ n.
[analogy with
`ethnocentrism'] A notional disease said to afflict C programmers
who persist in coding according to certain assumptions that are
valid (esp.
under Unix) on VAXen but false elsewhere. Among ... - magic
1. adj. As yet unexplained, or too complicated to
explain;
compare automagically and (Arthur C.) Clarke's Third... - filter n.
[very common; orig. Unix, now also in
MS-DOS] A program that processes an input data stream into an
output data stream in some well-defined way,
and does no I/O to anywhere else except possibly...
From the same category:
- pubic directory /pyoob'ik d*-rek't*-ree/) n.
[NYU]
(also `pube directory' /pyoob' d*-rek't*-ree/) The `pub'
(public) directory on a machine that allows FTP access.
So called because it... - wired n.
See hardwired... - baroque adj.
[common] Feature-encrusted; complex;
gaudy; verging on excessive. Said of hardware or (esp... - hungus /huhng'g*s/ adj.
[perhaps related to slang
`humongous'] Large,
unwieldy, usually unmanageable. "TCP is a hungus... - banana problem 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...
