13 lines
2.4 KiB
HTML
13 lines
2.4 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>juggling eggs</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../J.html" title="J"/><link rel="previous" href="joe-job.html" title="joe-job"/><link rel="next" href="juice.html" title="juice"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">juggling eggs</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="joe-job.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">J</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="juice.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="juggling-eggs"/><dt xmlns="" id="juggling-eggs"><b>juggling eggs</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">vi.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> Keeping a lot of <a href="../S/state.html"><i class="glossterm">state</i></a> in your head while
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modifying a program. “<span class="quote">Don't bother me now, I'm juggling
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eggs</span>”, means that an interrupt is likely to result in the program's
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being scrambled. In the classic 1975 first-contact SF novel <i class="citetitle">The
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Mote in God's Eye</i>, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, an alien
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describes a very difficult task by saying “<span class="quote">We juggle priceless eggs
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in variable gravity.</span>” It is possible that this was intended as
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tribute to a less colorful use of the same image in Robert Heinlein's
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influential 1961 novel <i class="citetitle">Stranger in a Strange
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Land</i>. See also <a href="../H/hack-mode.html"><i class="glossterm">hack mode</i></a> and
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<a href="../O/on-the-gripping-hand.html"><i class="glossterm">on the gripping hand</i></a>.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="joe-job.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../J.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="juice.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">joe-job </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> juice</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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