/tmerk' / The Tech Model Railroad Club at
MIT, one of the wellsprings of
hacker culture. The 1959 "Dictionary of the TMRC Language" compil
ed by Peter Samson includ
ed several terms that became basics of the hackish vocabulary (see especially
foo,
mung, and
frob). By 1962, TMRC' s legendary layout was already a marvel of complexity (and has grown in the thirty years since all the features describ
ed here are still present). The control system alone featur
ed about 1200 relays. There were {scram switch}es locat
ed at numerous places around the room that could be thwack
ed if something undesirable was about to occur, such as a train going full-bore at an obstruction. Another feature of the system was a digital clock on the dispatch board, which was itself something of a wonder in those bygone days before cheap L
edS and seven-segment displays. When someone hit a scram switch the clock stopp
ed and the display was replac
ed with the word "FOO" at TMRC the scram switches are therefore call
ed "foo switches". Steven Levy, in his book "Hackers", gives a stimulating account of those early years. TMRC' s Power and Signals group includ
ed most of the early
PDP-1 hackers and the people who later bacame the core of the
MIT AI Lab staff. Thirty years later that connection is still very much alive, and this dictionary accordingly includes a number of entries from a recent revision of the TMRC dictionary (via the Hacker Jargon File). [
Jargon File]
In addition suitable contents:
[ 2 ] [ = ] [ ad ] [ af ] [ ag ] [ AI ] [ ai ] [ al ] [ am ] [ an ] [ ar ] [ arc ] [ arg ] [ as ] [ at ] [ B ] [ b ] [ ba ] [ be ] [ bo ] [ boa ] [ board ] [ bs ] [ by ] [ C ] [ ca ] [ cat ] [ cc ] [ ch ] [ ci ] [ ck ] [ cl ] [ clock ] [ co ] [ com ] [ complexity ] [ con ] [ connect ] [ control ] [ core ] [ cr ] [ cu ] [ D ] [ de ] [ digit ] [ digital ] [ ding ] [ display ] [ DP ] [ du ] [ E ] [ ec ] [ ed ] [ edS ] [ ee ] [ eg ] [ er ] [ era ] [ es ] [ et ] [ feature ] [ fi ] [ file ] [ fo ] [ for ] [ fr ] [ frob ] [ ge ] [ gen ] [ gi ] [ gl ] [ gm ] [ gn ] [ gr ] [ group ] [ gs ] [ gu ] [ h ] [ hack ] [ hacker ] [ hackish ] [ hat ] [ heap ] [ hing ] [ hit ] [ hose ] [ hr ] [ id ] [ ie ] [ il ] [ in ] [ inc ] [ include ] [ io ] [ ir ] [ is ] [ IT ] [ it ] [ J ] [ Jargon File ] [ ke ] [ ki ] [ la ] [ ld ] [ Led ] [ Lex ] [ li ] [ lr ] [ ls ] [ lt ] [ lu ] [ lub ] [ ly ] [ M ] [ ma ] [ MIT ] [ mo ] [ mod ] [ Mode ] [ module ] [ mp ] [ ms ] [ mu ] [ mung ] [ na ] [ nc ] [ ne ] [ ng ] [ nn ] [ no ] [ nu ] [ O ] [ om ] [ OO ] [ op ] [ pa ] [ PD ] [ PDP ] [ pe ] [ ph ] [ pl ] [ pr ] [ query ] [ rc ] [ re ] [ revision ] [ rl ] [ ro ] [ room ] [ row ] [ ru ] [ S ] [ sc ] [ scram switch ] [ se ] [ segment ] [ sh ] [ si ] [ Sig ] [ so ] [ spec ] [ st ] [ struct ] [ su ] [ switch ] [ sy ] [ system ] [ T ] [ tc ] [ th ] [ this dictionary ] [ TM ] [ tm ] [ to ] [ tr ] [ ua ] [ um ] [ up ] [ us ] [ ve ] [ vi ] [ word ] [ ye ]