15 lines
2.8 KiB
HTML
15 lines
2.8 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>line noise</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="../L.html" title="L"/><link rel="previous" href="line-eater--the.html" title="line eater, the"/><link rel="next" href="linearithmic.html" title="linearithmic"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">line noise</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="line-eater--the.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">L</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="linearithmic.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="line-noise"/><dt xmlns="" id="line-noise"><b>line noise</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> 1. [techspeak] Spurious characters due to electrical noise in a
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communications link, especially an RS-232 serial connection. Line noise
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may be induced by poor connections, interference or crosstalk from other
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circuits, electrical storms, <a href="../C/cosmic-rays.html"><i class="glossterm">cosmic rays</i></a>, or
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(notionally) birds crapping on the phone wires. </p></dd><dd><p> 2. Any chunk of data in a file or elsewhere that looks like the
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results of line noise in sense 1. </p></dd><dd><p> 3. Text that is theoretically a readable text or program source but
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employs syntax so bizarre that it looks like line noise in senses 1 or 2.
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Yes, there are languages this ugly. The canonical example is
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<a href="../T/TECO.html"><i class="glossterm">TECO</i></a>; it is often claimed that “<span class="quote">TECO's input
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syntax is indistinguishable from line noise.</span>” Other
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non-<a href="../W/WYSIWYG.html"><i class="glossterm">WYSIWYG</i></a> editors, such as Multics <b class="command">qed</b> and Unix <b class="command">ed</b>, in
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the hands of a real hacker, also qualify easily, as do deliberately
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obfuscated languages such as <a href="../I/INTERCAL.html"><i class="glossterm">INTERCAL</i></a>.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="line-eater--the.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../L.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="linearithmic.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">line eater, the </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> linearithmic</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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