(University of Waterloo) 1. Partial corruption of a text
file or input stream by some bug or consistent glitch, as
opposed to random events like line noise or media failures.
Might occur, for example, if one bit of each incoming
character on a tty were stuck, so that some characters were
correct and others were not.
See terminak for a historical example.
2. By extension, accidental display of text in a mode where
the output device emits special symbols or mnemonics rather
than conventional ASCII. This often happens, for example,
when using a terminal or comm program on a device like an IBM
PC with a special "high-half" character set and with the
bit-parity assumption wrong. A hacker sufficiently familiar
with ASCII bit patterns might be able to read the display
anyway.
[Jargon File]
Nearby terms:
frobnicate « frobnitz « Frobozz Magic Programming Language « frogging » Frolic » front end » front-end processor
