22 lines
3.4 KiB
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22 lines
3.4 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>magic</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="../M.html" title="M"/><link rel="previous" href="maggotbox.html" title="maggotbox"/><link rel="next" href="magic-cookie.html" title="magic cookie"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">magic</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="maggotbox.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">M</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="magic-cookie.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="magic"/><dt xmlns="" id="magic"><b>magic</b></dt></dt><dd><p> 1. <span class="grammar">adj.</span> As yet unexplained, or
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too complicated to explain; compare <a href="../A/automagically.html"><i class="glossterm">automagically</i></a>
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and (Arthur C.) Clarke's Third Law: “<span class="quote">Any sufficiently advanced
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technology is indistinguishable from magic.</span>” “<span class="quote">TTY echoing is
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controlled by a large number of magic bits.</span>” “<span class="quote">This routine
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magically computes the parity of an 8-bit byte in three
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instructions.</span>” </p></dd><dd><p> 2. <span class="grammar">adj.</span> Characteristic of
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something that works although no one really understands why (this is
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especially called <a href="../B/black-magic.html"><i class="glossterm">black magic</i></a>). </p></dd><dd><p> 3. <span class="grammar">n.</span> [Stanford] A feature not
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generally publicized that allows something otherwise impossible, or a
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feature formerly in that category but now unveiled. </p></dd><dd><p> 4. <span class="grammar">n.</span> The ultimate goal of all
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engineering & development, elegance in the extreme; from the first
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corollary to Clarke's Third Law: “<span class="quote">Any technology distinguishable from
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magic is insufficiently advanced</span>”.</p></dd><dd><p>Parodies playing on these senses of the term abound; some have made
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their way into serious documentation, as when a MAGIC directive was
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described in the Control Card Reference for GCOS c.1978. For more about
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hackish ‘magic’, see <a href="../appendixa.html" title="Appendix A. Hacker Folklore">Appendix
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A</a>. Compare <a href="../B/black-magic.html"><i class="glossterm">black magic</i></a>,
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<a href="../W/wizardly.html"><i class="glossterm">wizardly</i></a>, <a href="../D/deep-magic.html"><i class="glossterm">deep magic</i></a>,
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<a href="../H/heavy-wizardry.html"><i class="glossterm">heavy wizardry</i></a>.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="maggotbox.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../M.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="magic-cookie.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">maggotbox </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> magic cookie</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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