2014-04-26 10:52:28 -04:00
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forked
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2014-04-26 11:54:15 -04:00
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adj.,vi. 1. [common after 1997, esp. in the Linux community] An open-source
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software project is said to have forked or be forked when the project group
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fissions into two or more parts pursuing separate lines of development (or,
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less commonly, when a third party unconnected to the project group begins
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its own line of development). Forking is considered a Bad Thing not merely
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because it implies a lot of wasted effort in the future, but because forks
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tend to be accompanied by a great deal of strife and acrimony between the
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successor groups over issues of legitimacy, succession, and design
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direction. There is serious social pressure against forking. As a result,
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major forks (such as the Gnu-Emacs/XEmacs split, the fissionings of the
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386BSD group into three daughter projects, and the short-lived GCC/EGCS
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split) are rare enough that they are remembered individually in hacker
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folklore. 2. [Unix; uncommon; prob.: influenced by a mainstream expletive]
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Terminally slow, or dead. Originated when one system was slowed to a snail's
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pace by an inadvertent fork bomb.
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