Loosely used to mean "in accordance with all the relevant rules", especially in connection with some set of constraints defined by software. "The older =+ alternate for += is no longer legal syntax in ANSI C." "This parser processes each line of legal input the moment it sees the trailing linefeed." Hackers often model their work as a sort of game played with the environment in which the objective is to maneuver through the thicket of "natural laws" to achieve a desired objective. Their use of "legal" is flavoured as much by this game-playing sense as by the more conventional one having to do with courts and lawyers. Compare language lawyer, legalese. [Jargon File]

In addition suitable contents:
[ = ] [ ag ] [ ai ] [ al ] [ alt ] [ am ] [ an ] [ ANS ] [ ANSI ] [ ANSI C ] [ ar ] [ arc ] [ arg ] [ as ] [ at ] [ av ] [ aw ] [ b ] [ bj ] [ by ] [ C ] [ cc ] [ ch ] [ ci ] [ ck ] [ co ] [ con ] [ connect ] [ cons ] [ constraint ] [ de ] [ do ] [ du ] [ ec ] [ ed ] [ ee ] [ eg ] [ environment ] [ er ] [ es ] [ et ] [ fi ] [ file ] [ flavour ] [ fo ] [ for ] [ ga ] [ ge ] [ gh ] [ gu ] [ h ] [ hr ] [ id ] [ ie ] [ il ] [ in ] [ input ] [ int ] [ io ] [ ir ] [ iron ] [ is ] [ it ] [ J ] [ Jargon File ] [ ke ] [ la ] [ language ] [ language lawyer ] [ law ] [ ld ] [ legalese ] [ Lex ] [ li ] [ line ] [ lt ] [ ly ] [ ma ] [ man ] [ mo ] [ mod ] [ mode ] [ model ] [ module ] [ mp ] [ mu ] [ N ] [ na ] [ nc ] [ ne ] [ ng ] [ nn ] [ no ] [ np ] [ ns ] [ NSI ] [ object ] [ om ] [ pa ] [ parser ] [ pe ] [ ph ] [ pl ] [ pr ] [ process ] [ query ] [ rc ] [ re ] [ ro ] [ ru ] [ S ] [ se ] [ set ] [ SI ] [ si ] [ so ] [ software ] [ sort ] [ spec ] [ st ] [ sy ] [ syntax ] [ T ] [ th ] [ thicket ] [ to ] [ tr ] [ tw ] [ ua ] [ ug ] [ us ] [ va ] [ ve ] [ vi ] [ ws ] [ ye ]