17 lines
2.8 KiB
HTML
17 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>fool</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="../F.html" title="F"/><link rel="previous" href="foobar.html" title="foobar"/><link rel="next" href="fool-file.html" title="fool file"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">fool</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="foobar.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">F</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="fool-file.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="fool"/><dt xmlns="" id="fool"><b>fool</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> As used by hackers, specifically describes a person who habitually
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reasons from obviously or demonstrably incorrect premises and cannot be
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persuaded by evidence to do otherwise; it is not generally used in its
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other senses, i.e., to describe a person with a native incapacity to reason
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correctly, or a clown. Indeed, in hackish experience many fools are
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capable of reasoning all too effectively in executing their errors. See
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also <a href="../C/cretin.html"><i class="glossterm">cretin</i></a>, <a href="../L/loser.html"><i class="glossterm">loser</i></a>,
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<a href="fool-file.html"><i class="glossterm">fool file</i></a>.</p></dd><dd><p>The Algol 68-R compiler used to initialize its storage to the
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character string "F00LF00LF00LF00L..." because as a pointer or as a
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floating point number it caused a crash, and as an integer or a character
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string it was very recognizable in a dump. Sadly, one day a very senior
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professor at Nottingham University wrote a program that called him a fool.
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He proceeded to demonstrate the correctness of this assertion by lobbying
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the university (not quite successfully) to forbid the use of Algol on its
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computers. See also <a href="../D/DEADBEEF.html"><i class="glossterm">DEADBEEF</i></a>.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="foobar.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../F.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="fool-file.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">foobar </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> fool file</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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