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X /X/ n. 1. Used in various speech and writing contexts (also in lowercase) in roughly its algebraic sense of 'unknown within a set defined by context' (compare N). Thus, the abbreviation 680×0 stands for 68000, 68010, 68020, 68030, or 68040, and 80×86 stands for 80186, 80286 80386 or 80486 (note that a Unix hacker might write these as 680[0-4]0 and 80[14]86 or 680?0 and 80?86 respectively; see glob). 2. [after the name of an earlier window system called 'W'] An over-sized, over-featured, over-engineered and incredibly over-complicated window system developed at MIT and widely used on Unix systems. |
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XEROX PARC /zee'roks park'/ n. The famed Palo Alto Research Center. For more than a decade, from the early 1970s into the mid-1980s, PARC yielded an astonishing volume of groundbreaking hardware and software innovations. The modern mice, windows, and icons style of software interface was invented there. So was the laser printer and the local-area network; and PARC's series of D machines anticipated the powerful personal computers of the 1980s by a decade. Sadly, the prophets at PARC were without honor in their own company, so much so that it became a standard joke to describe PARC as a place that specialized in developing brilliant ideas for everyone else. |
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The stunning shortsightedness and obtusity of XEROX's top-level suits has been well anatomized in Fumbling The Future: How XEROX Invented, Then Ignored, the First Personal Computer by Douglas K. Smith and Robert C. Alexander (William Morrow & Co., 1988, ISBN 0-688-09511-9). |
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XOFF /X-of/ n. Syn. control-S. |
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XON /X-on/ n. Syn. control-Q. |
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xor /X'or/, /kzor/ conj. Exclusive or. 'A xor B' means 'A or B, but not both'. "I want to get cherry pie xor a banana split." This derives from the technical use of the term as a function on truth-values that is true if exactly one of its two arguments is true. |
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xref /X'ref/ v.,n. Hackish standard abbreviation for 'cross-reference'. |
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XXX /X-X-X/ n. A marker that attention is needed. Commonly used in program comments to indicate areas that are kluged up or need to be. Some hackers liken 'XXX' to the notional heavy-porn movie rating. Compare FIXME. |
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