19 lines
2.8 KiB
HTML
19 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>hook</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="../H.html" title="H"/><link rel="previous" href="honey-pot.html" title="honey pot"/><link rel="next" href="hop.html" title="hop"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">hook</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="honey-pot.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">H</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="hop.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="hook"/><dt xmlns="" id="hook"><b>hook</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> A software or hardware feature included in order to simplify later
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additions or changes by a user. For example, a simple program that prints
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numbers might always print them in base 10, but a more flexible version
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would let a variable determine what base to use; setting the variable to 5
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would make the program print numbers in base 5. The variable is a simple
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hook. An even more flexible program might examine the variable and treat a
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value of 16 or less as the base to use, but treat any other number as the
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address of a user-supplied routine for printing a number. This is a
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<a href="hairy.html"><i class="glossterm">hairy</i></a> but powerful hook; one can then write a
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routine to print numbers as Roman numerals, say, or as Hebrew characters,
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and plug it into the program through the hook. Often the difference
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between a good program and a superb one is that the latter has useful hooks
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in judiciously chosen places. Both may do the original job about equally
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well, but the one with the hooks is much more flexible for future expansion
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of capabilities (<a href="../E/EMACS.html"><i class="glossterm">EMACS</i></a>, for example, is
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<span class="emphasis"><em>all</em></span> hooks). The term <span class="firstterm">user
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exit</span> is synonymous but much more formal and less hackish.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="honey-pot.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../H.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="hop.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">honey pot </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> hop</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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