:troff: /tee'rof/ or /trof/ [UNIX] n. The gray eminence of UNIX text processing; a formatting and phototypesetting program, written originally in PDP-11 assembler and then in barely-structured early C by the late Joseph Ossana, modeled after the earlier ROFF which was in turn modeled after Multics' RUNOFF. A companion program, `nroff', formats output for terminals and line printers.
In 1979, Brian Kernighan modified TROFF so that it could drive phototypesetters other than the Graphic Systems CAT. His paper describing that work ("A Typesetter-independent TROFF," AT&T CSTR #97) explains `troff''s durability. After discussing the program's "obvious deficiencies —- a rebarbative input syntax, mysterious and undocumented properties in some areas, and a voracious appetite for computer resources" and noting the ugliness and extreme hairiness of the code and internals, Kernighan concludes:
None of these remarks should be taken as denigrating Ossana's accomplishment with TROFF. It has proven a remarkably robust tool, taking unbelievable abuse from a variety of preprocessors and being forced into uses that were never conceived of in the original design, all with considerable grace under fire.
The success of TeX and desktop publishing systems have reduced `troff''s relative importance, but this tribute perfectly captures the strengths that secured `troff' a place in hacker folklore; indeed, it could be taken more generally as an indication of those qualities of good programs which, in the long run, hackers most admire.
:troglodyte: [Commodore] n. 1. A hacker who never leaves his cubicle. The term `Gnoll' (from Dungeons & Dragons) is also reported. 2. A curmudgeon attached to an obsolescent computing environment. The combination `ITS troglodyte' was flung around some during the USENET and email wringle-wrangle attending the 2.x.x revision of the Jargon File; at least one of the people it was intended to describe adopted it with pride.
:troglodyte mode: [Rice University] n. Programming with the lights
turned off, sunglasses on, and the terminal inverted (black on
white) because you've been up for so many days straight that your
eyes hurt (see {raster burn}). Loud music blaring from a stereo
stacked in the corner is optional but recommended. See {larval
stage}, {hack mode}.
:Trojan horse: [coined by MIT-hacker-turned-NSA-spook Dan Edwards]
n. A program designed to break security or damage a system that is
disguised as something else benign, such as a directory lister,
archiver, a game, or (in one notorious 1990 case on the Mac) a
program to find and destroy viruses! See {back door}, {virus},
{worm}.
:tron: [NRL, CMU; prob. fr. the movie `Tron'] v. To become
inaccessible except via email or `talk(1)', especially when
one is normally available via telephone or in person. Frequently
used in the past tense, as in: "Ran seems to have tronned on us
this week" or "Gee, Ran, glad you were able to un-tron
yourself". One may also speak of `tron mode'.
:true-hacker: [analogy with `trufan' from SF fandom] n. One who
exemplifies the primary values of hacker culture, esp. competence
and helpfulness to other hackers. A high compliment. "He spent
6 hours helping me bring up UUCP and netnews on my FOOBAR 4000
last week —- manifestly the act of a true-hacker." Compare
{demigod}, oppose {munchkin}.
:tty: /T-T-Y/ [UNIX], /tit'ee/ [ITS, but some UNIX people say it this way as well; this pronunciation is not considered to have sexual undertones] n. 1. A terminal of the teletype variety, characterized by a noisy mechanical printer, a very limited character set, and poor print quality. Usage: antiquated (like the TTYs themselves). See also {bit-paired keyboard}. 2. [especially UNIX] Any terminal at all; sometimes used to refer to the particular terminal controlling a given job. 3. [UNIX] Any serial port, whether or not the device connected to it is a terminal; so called because under UNIX such devices have names of the form tty*. Ambiguity between senses 2 and 3 is common but seldom bothersome.