<jargon> A common rhetorical maneuver at MIT is to use any
of the canonical random numbers as placeholders for
variables. "The max function takes 42 arguments, for
arbitrary values of 42". "There are 69 ways to leave your
lover, for 69 = 50". This is especially likely when the
speaker has uttered a random number and realises that it was
not recognised as such, but even "non-random" numbers are
occasionally used in this fashion. A related joke is that pi
equals 3 - for small values of pi and large values of 3.
This usage probably derives from the programming language MAD
(Michigan Algorithm Decoder), an ALGOL-like language that
was the most common choice among mainstream (non-hacker) users
at MIT in the mid-1960s. It had a control structure FOR
VALUES OF X = 3, 7, 99 DO ... that would repeat the indicated
instructions for each value in the list (unlike the usual FOR
that generates an arithmetic sequence of values). MAD is
long extinct, but similar for-constructs still flourish
(e.g. in Unix's shell languages).
[Jargon File]
(1994-12-16)
Nearby terms:
FORTRUNCIBLE « fortune cookie « forum « for values of » forward » forward analysis » forward chaining
