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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>Easter egg</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="../E.html" title="E"/><link rel="previous" href="../E.html" title="E"/><link rel="next" href="Easter-egging.html" title="Easter egging"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">Easter egg</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="../E.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">E</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="Easter-egging.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="Easter-egg"/><dt xmlns="" id="Easter-egg"><b>Easter egg</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> [from the custom of the Easter Egg hunt observed in the U.S. and
many parts of Europe] </p></dd><dd><p> 1. A message hidden in the object code of a program as a joke,
intended to be found by persons disassembling or browsing the code.
</p></dd><dd><p> 2. A message, graphic, or sound effect emitted by a program (or, on
a PC, the BIOS ROM) in response to some undocumented set of commands or
keystrokes, intended as a joke or to display program credits. One
well-known early Easter egg found in a couple of OSes caused them to
respond to the command <b class="command">make love</b> with
<b class="command">not war?</b>. Many personal computers have
much more elaborate eggs hidden in ROM, including lists of the developers'
names, political exhortations, snatches of music, and (in one case)
graphics images of the entire development team.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="../E.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../E.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="Easter-egging.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">E </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> Easter egging</td></tr></table></div></body></html>