The Jargon File, Version 4.2.2, 20 Aug 2000

"The Jargon File, Version 4.2.2, 20 Aug 2000" by Eric S. Raymond and Guy L. Steele is a glossary published in 2000. Born from MIT's AI Lab and early hacker communities of the 1950s, this dictionary captures the colorful slang and technical terminology of computer programmers. Through decades of evolution—from handwritten files to published books—it documents a vanishing culture of innovation, becoming a legendary chronicle of hacker tradition and the language that defined programming's pioneering era.

The Jargon File, Version 4.2.2, 20 Aug 2000, from the public domain. Republished by OpenStories from Project Gutenberg eBook #3008.