32 lines
3.9 KiB
HTML
32 lines
3.9 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>logical</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="logic-bomb.html" title="logic bomb"/><link rel="next" href="loop-through.html" title="loop through"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">logical</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="logic-bomb.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">L</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="loop-through.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="logical"/><dt xmlns="" id="logical"><b>logical</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">adj.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> [from the technical term <span class="firstterm">logical
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device</span>, wherein a physical device is referred to by an arbitrary
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‘logical’ name] Having the role of. If a person (say, Les
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Earnest at SAIL) who had long held a certain post left and were replaced,
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the replacement would for a while be known as the <span class="firstterm">logical</span> Les Earnest. (This does not imply any
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judgment on the replacement.) Compare
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<a href="../V/virtual.html"><i class="glossterm">virtual</i></a>.</p><p>At Stanford, ‘logical’ compass directions denote a
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coordinate system relative to El Camino Real, in which ‘logical
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north’ is always toward San Francisco and ‘logical south’
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is always toward San Jose--in spite of the fact that El Camino Real runs
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physical north/south near San Francisco, physical east/west near San Jose,
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and along a curve everywhere in between. (The best rule of thumb here is
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that, by definition, El Camino Real always runs logical
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north-south.)</p><p>In giving directions, one might say: “<span class="quote">To get to Rincon Tarasco
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restaurant, get onto <a href="../E/El-Camino-Bignum.html"><i class="glossterm">El Camino Bignum</i></a> going logical
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north.</span>” Using the word ‘logical’ helps to prevent the
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recipient from worrying about that the fact that the sun is setting almost
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directly in front of him. The concept is reinforced by North American
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highways which are almost, but not quite, consistently labeled with logical
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rather than physical directions. A similar situation exists at MIT: Route
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128 (famous for the electronics industry that grew up along it) wraps
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roughly 3 quarters around Boston at a radius of 10 miles, terminating near
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the coastline at each end. It would be most precise to describe the two
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directions along this highway as ‘clockwise’ and
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‘counterclockwise’, but the road signs all say
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“<span class="quote">north</span>” and “<span class="quote">south</span>”, respectively. A hacker
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might describe these directions as <span class="firstterm">logical
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north</span> and <span class="firstterm">logical south</span>,
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to indicate that they are conventional directions not corresponding to the
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usual denotation for those words.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="logic-bomb.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="loop-through.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">logic bomb </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> loop through</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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