JargonFile/original/html/W/WOMBAT.html
2014-03-27 18:54:56 +00:00

12 lines
2.5 KiB
HTML
Raw Blame History

This file contains invisible Unicode characters

This file contains invisible Unicode characters that are indistinguishable to humans but may be processed differently by a computer. If you think that this is intentional, you can safely ignore this warning. Use the Escape button to reveal them.

This file contains Unicode characters that might be confused with other characters. If you think that this is intentional, you can safely ignore this warning. Use the Escape button to reveal them.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>WOMBAT</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="../W.html" title="W"/><link rel="previous" href="womb-box.html" title="womb box"/><link rel="next" href="womble.html" title="womble"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">WOMBAT</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="womb-box.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">W</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="womble.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="WOMBAT"/><dt xmlns="" id="WOMBAT"><b>WOMBAT</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="pronunciation">/wom´bat/</span>, <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">adj.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> [acronym: Waste Of Money, Brains, And Time] Applied to problems
which are both profoundly <a href="../U/uninteresting.html"><i class="glossterm">uninteresting</i></a> in
themselves and unlikely to benefit anyone interesting even if solved.
Often used in fanciful constructions such as <span class="firstterm">wrestling with a wombat</span>. See also
<a href="../C/crawling-horror.html"><i class="glossterm">crawling horror</i></a>, <a href="../S/SMOP.html"><i class="glossterm">SMOP</i></a>. Also
note the rather different usage as a metasyntactic variable in
<a href="../C/Commonwealth-Hackish.html"><i class="glossterm">Commonwealth Hackish</i></a>.</p><p>Users of the <a href="../P/PDP-11.html"><i class="glossterm">PDP-11</i></a> database program
DATATRIEVE adopted the wombat as their notional mascot; the program's help
file responded to &#8220;<span class="quote">HELP WOMBAT</span>&#8221; with factual information about
Real World wombats.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="womb-box.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../W.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="womble.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">womb box </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> womble</td></tr></table></div></body></html>