DDT /D-D-T/ n.
[from the insecticide
para-dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethene] 1. Generic term for a
program that assists in debugging other programs by showing
individual machine instructions in a readable symbolic form and
letting the user change them. In this sense the term DDT is now
archaic, having been widely displaced by `debugger' or names of
individual programs like adb, sdb, dbx, or
gdb. 2. [ITS] Under MIT's fabled ITS operating system,
DDT (running under the alias HACTRN, a six-letterism for `Hack
Translator') was also used as the shell or top level command
language used to execute other programs. 3. Any one of several
specific DDTs (sense 1) supported on early DEC hardware and
CP/M. The PDP-10 Reference Handbook (1969) contained a footnote on
the first page of the documentation for DDT that illuminates the
origin of the term:
Historical footnote: DDT was developed at MIT for the PDP-1
computer in 1961. At that time DDT stood for "DEC Debugging
Tape". Since then, the idea of an on-line debugging program has
propagated throughout the computer industry. DDT programs are now
available for all DEC computers. Since media other than tape are
now frequently used, the more descriptive name "Dynamic Debugging
Technique" has been adopted, retaining the DDT abbreviation. Confusion
between DDT-10 and another well known pesticide,
dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane
(C14-H9-Cl5)
should be minimal since each attacks a
different, and apparently mutually exclusive, class of bugs.
(The `tape' referred to was, incidentally, not magnetic but paper.)
Sadly, this quotation was removed from later editions of the
handbook after the suits took over and DEC became much more
`businesslike'.
The history above is known to many old-time hackers. But there's
more: Peter Samson, compiler of the original TMRC lexicon,
reports that he named `DDT' after a similar tool on the TX-0
computer, the direct ancestor of the PDP-1 built at MIT's Lincoln
Lab in 1957. The debugger on that ground-breaking machine (the
first transistorized computer) rejoiced in the name FLIT
(FLexowriter Interrogation Tape).
[from the insecticide
para-dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethene] 1. Generic term for a
program that assists in debugging other programs by showing
individual machine instructions in a readable symbolic form and
letting the user change them. In this sense the term DDT is now
archaic, having been widely displaced by `debugger' or names of
individual programs like adb, sdb, dbx, or
gdb. 2. [ITS] Under MIT's fabled ITS operating system,
DDT (running under the alias HACTRN, a six-letterism for `Hack
Translator') was also used as the shell or top level command
language used to execute other programs. 3. Any one of several
specific DDTs (sense 1) supported on early DEC hardware and
CP/M. The PDP-10 Reference Handbook (1969) contained a footnote on
the first page of the documentation for DDT that illuminates the
origin of the term:
Historical footnote: DDT was developed at MIT for the PDP-1
computer in 1961. At that time DDT stood for "DEC Debugging
Tape". Since then, the idea of an on-line debugging program has
propagated throughout the computer industry. DDT programs are now
available for all DEC computers. Since media other than tape are
now frequently used, the more descriptive name "Dynamic Debugging
Technique" has been adopted, retaining the DDT abbreviation. Confusion
between DDT-10 and another well known pesticide,
dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane
(C14-H9-Cl5)
should be minimal since each attacks a
different, and apparently mutually exclusive, class of bugs.
(The `tape' referred to was, incidentally, not magnetic but paper.)
Sadly, this quotation was removed from later editions of the
handbook after the suits took over and DEC became much more
`businesslike'.
The history above is known to many old-time hackers. But there's
more: Peter Samson, compiler of the original TMRC lexicon,
reports that he named `DDT' after a similar tool on the TX-0
computer, the direct ancestor of the PDP-1 built at MIT's Lincoln
Lab in 1957. The debugger on that ground-breaking machine (the
first transistorized computer) rejoiced in the name FLIT
(FLexowriter Interrogation Tape).
Related:
- PDP-10 n.
[Programmed Data Processor model 10] The
machine that made timesharing real.
It looms large in hacker folklore because of its... - PDP-10: [Programmed Data Processor model 10] n. The machine that
made timesharing real.
It looms large in hacker folklore because of its... - TECO /tee'koh/ n.,v. obs.
1. [originally an acronym for
`[paper] Tape Editor and COrrector';
later, `Text Editor and COrrector'] n. A text editor... - foo /foo/
1. interj. Term of disgust. 2. [very
common] Used very generally as a sample name for absolutely
anything,
esp. programs and files (esp. scratch files). 3. First... - boot v.,n.
[techspeak; from `by one's bootstraps'] To
load and initialize the operating system on a machine.
This usage is no longer jargon (having passed into... - flavor: n. 1. Variety, type, kind. "DDT commands come in two
flavors." "These lights come in two flavors,
big red ones and small green ones." See {vanilla}... - flavor n.
1. [common] Variety, type, kind. "DDT
commands come in two flavors." "These lights come in two
flavors,
big red ones and small green ones." "Linux is a flavor... - moby /moh'bee/
[MIT: seems to have been in use among
model railroad fans years ago.
Derived from Melville's "Moby Dick" (some say from... - bug n.
An unwanted and unintended property of a program or
piece of hardware,
esp. one that causes it to malfunction. Antonym...
