JargonFile/original/html/F/fred.html
2014-03-27 18:54:56 +00:00

16 lines
2.7 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.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>fred</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="../F.html" title="F"/><link rel="previous" href="Frankenputer.html" title="Frankenputer"/><link rel="next" href="Fred-Foobar.html" title="Fred Foobar"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">fred</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="Frankenputer.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">F</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="Fred-Foobar.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="fred"/><dt xmlns="" id="fred"><b>fred</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> 1. The personal name most frequently used as a
<a href="../M/metasyntactic-variable.html"><i class="glossterm">metasyntactic variable</i></a> (see
<a href="foo.html"><i class="glossterm">foo</i></a>). Allegedly popular because it's easy for a
non-touch-typist to type on a standard QWERTY keyboard. In Great Britain,
&#8216;fred&#8217;, &#8216;jim&#8217; and &#8216;sheila&#8217; are common
metasyntactic variables because their uppercase versions were
<span class="emphasis"><em>official</em></span> names given to the 3 memory areas that held
I/O status registers on the lovingly-remembered BBC Microcomputer! (It is
reported that SHEILA was poked the most often.) Unlike
<a href="../J/J--Random-Hacker.html"><i class="glossterm">J. Random Hacker</i></a> or <span class="firstterm">J. Random Loser</span>, the name &#8216;fred&#8217;
has no positive or negative loading (but see <a href="../D/Dr--Fred-Mbogo.html"><i class="glossterm">Dr. Fred
Mbogo</i></a>). See also <a href="../B/barney.html"><i class="glossterm">barney</i></a>. </p></dd><dd><p> 2. An acronym for &#8216;Flipping Ridiculous Electronic
Device&#8217;; other F-verbs may be substituted for
&#8216;flipping&#8217;.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="Frankenputer.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../F.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="Fred-Foobar.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">Frankenputer </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> Fred Foobar</td></tr></table></div></body></html>