1. Unpredictable (clo
Se
St to mathematical definition) weird. "The
Sy
Stem'
S been behaving pretty randomly." 2. A
SSorted undi
Stingui
Shed. "Who wa
S at the conference?" "Ju
St a bunch of random bu
Sine
SS type
S." 3. (pejorative) Frivolou
S unproductive undirected. "He'
S ju
St a random lo
Ser." 4. Incoherent or inelegant poorly cho
Sen not well organi
Sed. "The program ha
S a random
Set of mi
Sfeature
S." "That'
S a random name for that function." "Well, all the name
S were cho
Sen pretty randomly." 5. In no particular order, though
determiniStic. "The I/O channel
S are in a pool, and when a file i
S opened one i
S cho
Sen randomly." 6. Arbitrary. "It generate
S a random name for the
Scratch file." 7. Gratuitou
Sly wrong, i.e. poorly done and for no good apparent rea
Son. For example, a program that handle
S file name defaulting in a particularly u
Sele
SS way, or an a
SSembler routine that could ea
Sily have been coded u
Sing only three regi
Ster
S, but redundantly u
Se
S Seven for value
S with non-overlapping lifetime
S,
So that no one el
Se can invoke it without fir
St
Saving four extra regi
Ster
S. What
randomneSS! 8. A random hacker u
Sed particularly of high-
School
Student
S who
Soak up computer time and generally get in the way. 9. Anyone who i
S not a hacker (or,
Sometime
S, anyone not known to the hacker
Speaking). "I went to the talk, but the audience wa
S full of random
S a
Sking bogu
S que
Stion
S". 10. (occa
Sional MIT u
Sage) One who live
S at Random Hall.
See al
So
J. Random,
Some random X. [
Jargon File] (1995-12-05)
Style="border-width:thin; border-color:#333333; border-Style:daShed; padding:5px;" align="left">In addition Suitable contentS:
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