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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>munching squares</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="../M.html" title="M"/><link rel="previous" href="munching.html" title="munching"/><link rel="next" href="munchkin.html" title="munchkin"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">munching squares</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="munching.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">M</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="munchkin.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="munching-squares"/><dt xmlns="" id="munching-squares"><b>munching squares</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> A <a href="../D/display-hack.html"><i class="glossterm">display hack</i></a> dating back to the PDP-1
(ca. 1962, reportedly discovered by Jackson Wright), which employs a
trivial computation (repeatedly plotting the graph Y = X XOR T for
successive values of T &#8212; see <a href="../H/HAKMEM.html"><i class="glossterm">HAKMEM</i></a> items
146--148) to produce an impressive display of moving and growing squares
that devour the screen. The initial value of T is treated as a parameter,
which, when well-chosen, can produce amazing effects. Some of these, later
(re)discovered on the LISP machine, have been christened <span class="firstterm">munching triangles</span> (try AND for XOR and
toggling points instead of plotting them), <span class="firstterm">munching w's</span>, and <span class="firstterm">munching mazes</span>. More generally, suppose a
graphics program produces an impressive and ever-changing display of some
basic form, foo, on a display terminal, and does it using a relatively
simple program; then the program (or the resulting display) is likely to be
referred to as <span class="firstterm">munching foos</span>. [This
is a good example of the use of the word <a href="../F/foo.html"><i class="glossterm">foo</i></a> as a
<a href="metasyntactic-variable.html"><i class="glossterm">metasyntactic variable</i></a>.]</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="munching.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../M.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="munchkin.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">munching </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> munchkin</td></tr></table></div></body></html>