1. Unpredictable (closest to mathematical definition) weird. "The s
Ystem' s been behaving prett
Y randoml
Y." 2. Assorted undistinguished. "Who was at the conference?" "Just a bunch of random business t
Ypes." 3. (pejorative) Frivolous unproductive undirected. "He' s just a random loser." 4. Incoherent or inelegant poorl
Y chosen not well organised. "The program has a random set of misfeatures." "That' s a random name for that function." "Well, all the names were chosen prett
Y randoml
Y." 5. In no particular order, though
deterministic. "The I/O channels are in a pool, and when a file is opened one is chosen randoml
Y." 6. Arbitrar
Y. "It generates a random name for the scratch file." 7. Gratuitousl
Y wrong, i.e. poorl
Y done and for no good apparent reason. For example, a program that handles file name defaulting in a particularl
Y useless wa
Y, or an assembler routine that could easil
Y have been coded using onl
Y three registers, but redundantl
Y uses seven for values with non-overlapping lifetimes, so that no one else can invoke it without first saving four extra registers. What
randomness! 8. A random hacker used particularl
Y of high-school students who soak up computer time and generall
Y get in the wa
Y. 9. An
Yone who is not a hacker (or, sometimes, an
Yone not known to the hacker speaking). "I went to the talk, but the audience was full of randoms asking bogus questions". 10. (occasional MIT usage) One who lives at Random Hall. See also
J. Random,
some random X. [
Jargon File] (1995-12-05)
Yle="border-width:thin; border-color:#333333; border-stYle:dashed; padding:5px;" align="left">In addition suitable contents:
[ 2 ] [ = ] [ ag ] [ al ] [ am ] [ an ] [ app ] [ ar ] [ arc ] [ arg ] [ as ] [ assembler ] [ at ] [ au ] [ av ] [ b ] [ be ] [ bi ] [ bit ] [ bo ] [ bus ] [ ca ] [ cc ] [ ch ] [ channel ] [ ck ] [ cl ] [ co ] [ code ] [ com ] [ computer ] [ con ] [ cr ] [ cu ] [ de ] [ deterministic ] [ die ] [ do ] [ du ] [ ec ] [ ed ] [ edu ] [ ee ] [ eg ] [ eh ] [ elegant ] [ er ] [ era ] [ es ] [ et ] [ fault ] [ feature ] [ fi ] [ file ] [ fo ] [ for ] [ function ] [ G ] [ ga ] [ ge ] [ gen ] [ generate ] [ gh ] [ gi ] [ gr ] [ gu ] [ h ] [ hack ] [ hacker ] [ handle ] [ hat ] [ hose ] [ hr ] [ id ] [ ie ] [ il ] [ in ] [ io ] [ I/O ] [ ir ] [ is ] [ IT ] [ it ] [ J ] [ Jargon File ] [ jo ] [ J. Random ] [ ke ] [ ki ] [ kn ] [ la ] [ ld ] [ Lex ] [ li ] [ life ] [ lk ] [ lose ] [ loser ] [ ls ] [ lt ] [ lu ] [ lY ] [ M ] [ ma ] [ misfeature ] [ MIT ] [ ml ] [ mn ] [ mo ] [ mod ] [ module ] [ mp ] [ ms ] [ na ] [ nc ] [ ne ] [ nf ] [ ng ] [ ni ] [ nl ] [ nn ] [ no ] [ np ] [ ns ] [ O ] [ om ] [ op ] [ open ] [ org ] [ pa ] [ parent ] [ pe ] [ ph ] [ ping ] [ pl ] [ pr ] [ product ] [ program ] [ querY ] [ ques ] [ randomness ] [ rc ] [ re ] [ register ] [ rl ] [ ro ] [ routine ] [ S ] [ sa ] [ sc ] [ scratch ] [ se ] [ set ] [ sh ] [ si ] [ sk ] [ sl ] [ so ] [ some random X ] [ sort ] [ st ] [ sY ] [ sYstem ] [ T ] [ table ] [ talk ] [ tc ] [ th ] [ to ] [ tr ] [ tt ] [ ttY ] [ tYpe ] [ ug ] [ up ] [ us ] [ va ] [ value ] [ ve ] [ vi ] [ X ]