/feep/ 1. The soft electronic "bell" sound of a display
terminal (except for a VT-52); a beep (in fact, the
microcomputer world seems to prefer beep).
2. To cause the display to make a feep sound. ASR-33s (the
original TTYs) do not feep; they have mechanical bells that
ring. Alternate forms: beep, "bleep", or just about
anything suitably onomatopoeic. (Jeff MacNelly, in his comic
strip "Shoe", uses the word "eep" for sounds made by computer
terminals and video games; this is perhaps the closest written
approximation yet.) The term "breedle" was sometimes heard at
SAIL, where the terminal bleepers are not particularly soft
(they sound more like the musical equivalent of a raspberry or
Bronx cheer; for a close approximation, imagine the sound of a
Star Trek communicator's beep lasting for five seconds). The
"feeper" on a VT-52 has been compared to the sound of a '52
Chevy stripping its gears. See also ding.
