A person, usually an experienced or senior software engineer,
who is intimately familiar with many or most of the numerous
restrictions and features (both useful and esoteric)
applicable to one or more computer programming languages. A
language lawyer is distinguished by the ability to show you
the five sentences scattered through a 200-page manual that
together imply the answer to your question "if only you had
thought to look there".
Compare wizard, legal, legalese.
[Jargon File]
(1995-02-15)
Nearby terms:
Language for Communicating Systems « Language for the On-Line Investigation and Transformation of Abstractions « Language H « language lawyer » Language Of Temporal Ordering Specification » Language Sensitive Editor » language-sensitive editor