<humour, programming> (UTSL) (A pun on Obi-Wan Kenobi's "Use
the Force, Luke!" in "Star Wars") A more polite version of
RTFS. This is a common way of suggesting that someone would
be better off reading the source code that supports whatever
feature is causing confusion, rather than making yet another
futile pass through the manuals, or broadcasting questions on
Usenet that haven't attracted wizards to answer them.
Once upon a time in Elder Days, everyone running Unix had
source. After 1978, AT&T's policy tightened up, so this
objurgation was in theory appropriately directed only at
associates of some outfit with a Unix source licence. In
practice, bootlegs of Unix source code (made precisely for
reference purposes) were so ubiquitous that one could utter it
at almost anyone on the network without concern.
Nowadays, free Unix clones are becoming common enough that
almost anyone can read source legally. The most widely
distributed is probably Linux. FreeBSD, NetBSD,
386BSD, jolix also have their followers. Cheap commercial
Unix implementations with source such as BSD/OS from BSDI
are accelerating this trend.
(1996-01-02)
Nearby terms:
User Network Interface « user-obsequious « user-unctuous « Use the Source Luke » USG Unix » usim » USL
