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T /T/. 1. [from LISP terminology for 'true'] Yes. Used in reply to a question (particularly one asked using The -P convention). In LISP, the constant T means 'true', among other things. Some Lisp hackers use 'T' and 'NIL' instead of 'Yes' and 'No' almost reflexively. This sometimes causes misunderstandings. When a waiter or flight attendant asks whether a hacker wants coffee, he may absently respond 'T', meaning that he wants coffee; but of course he will be brought a cup of tea instead. Fortunately, most hackers (particularly those who frequent Chinese restaurants) like tea at least as well as coffee -- so it is not that big a problem. 2. See {time T} (also {since time T equals minus infinity}). 3. [techspeak] In transaction-processing circles, an abbreviation for the noun 'transaction'. 4. [Purdue] Alternate spelling of {tee}. 5. A dialect of {LISP} developed at Yale. (There is an intended allusion to NIL, "New Implementation of Lisp", another dialect of Lisp developed for the {VAX})
tail recursion n. If you aren't sick of it already, see {tail recursion}.
talk mode n. A feature supported by Unix and some other OSes that allows two or more logged-in users to set up a real-time on-line conversation. It combines the immediacy of talking with all the precision (and verbosity) that written language entails. It is difficult to communicate inflection, though conventions have arisen for some of these (see the section on writing style in the Prependices for details). Talk mode has a special set of jargon words, used to save typing, which are not used orally. Some of these are identical to (and probably derived from) Morse-code jargon used by ham-radio amateurs since the 1920s. AFAIAC as far as I am concerned AFAIK as far as I know BCNU be seeing you BTW by the way BYE? are you ready to unlink? (this is the standard way to end a talk-mode conversation; the other person types BYE to confirm, or else continues the conversation) CUL see you later ENQ? are you busy? (expects ACK or NAK in return) FOO? are you there? (often used on unexpected links, meaning also "Sorry if I butted in &ellipsis;" (linker) or "What's up?" (linkee)) FWIW for what it's worth FYI for your information FYA for your amusement GA go ahead (used when two people have tried to type simultaneously; this cedes the right to type to the other) GRMBL grumble (expresses disquiet or disagreement) HELLOP hello? (an instance of the '-P' convention) IIRC if I recall correctly JAM just a minute (equivalent to SEC.... ) MIN same as JAM NIL no (see {NIL}) NP no problem O over to you OO over and out / another form of "over to you" (from x/y as "x over y") lambda (used in discussing LISPy things) OBTW oh, by the way OTOH on the other hand R U THERE? are you there? SEC wait a second (sometimes written SEC... ) SYN Are you busy? (expects ACK, SYN|ACK, or RST in return; this is modeled on the TCP/IP handshake sequence) T yes (see the main entry for {T}) TNX thanks TNX 1.0E6 thanks a million (humorous) TNXE6 another form of "thanks a million" TTBOMK to the best of my knowledge WRT with regard to, or with respect to. WTF the universal interrogative particle; WTF knows what it means? WTH what the hell? When the typing party has finished, he/she types two newlines to signal that he/she is done; this leaves a blank line between 'speeches' in the conversation, making it easier to reread the preceding text. YHTBT You Had To Be There. Used of a situation which loses significant meaning in the telling, usually because it's difficult to convey tone and timing. : When three or more terminals are linked, it is conventional for each typist to {prepend} his/her login name or handle and a colon (or a hyphen) to each line to indicate who is typing (some conferencing facilities do this automatically). The login name is often shortened to a unique prefix (possibly a single letter) during a very long conversation. /// A giggle or chuckle. On a MUD, this usually means 'earthquake fault'. grin grinning, ducking, and running BBL be back later BRB be right back HHOJ ha ha only joking HHOK ha ha only kidding HHOS {ha ha only serious} IMHO in my humble opinion (see {IMHO}) LOL laughing out loud NHOH Never Heard of Him/Her (often used in {initgame}) ROTF rolling on the floor ROTFL rolling on the floor laughing AFK away from keyboard b4 before CU l8tr see you later MORF male or female? TTFN ta-ta for now TTYL talk to you later OIC oh, I see rehi hello again Most of these are not used at universities or in the Unix world, though ROTF and TTFN have gained some currency there and IMHO is common; conversely, most of the people who know these are unfamiliar with FOO?, BCNU, HELLOP, {NIL}, and {T}. The {MUD} community uses a mixture of Usenet/Internet emoticons, a few of the more natural of the old-style talk-mode abbrevs, and some of the 'social' list above; specifically, MUD respondents report use of BBL, BRB, LOL, b4, BTW, WTF, TTFN, and WTH. The use of rehi is also common; in fact, mudders are fond of re- compounds and will frequently rehug or rebonk (see {bonk/oif}) people. The word re by itself is taken as 'regreet'. In general, though, MUDders express a preference for typing things out in full rather than using abbreviations; this may be due to the relative youth of the MUD cultures, which tend to include many touch typists and to assume high-speed links. The following uses specific to MUDs are reported: CU l8er see you later (mutant of CU l8tr) FOAD fuck off and die (use of this is generally OTT) OTT over the top (excessive, uncalled for) ppl abbrev for "people" THX thanks (mutant of TNX; clearly this comes in batches of 1138 (the Lucasian K)). UOK? are you OK? Some {B1FF}isms (notably the variant spelling d00d) appear to be passing into wider use among some subgroups of MUDders. One final note on talk mode style: neophytes, when in talk mode, often seem to think they must produce letter-perfect prose because they are typing rather than speaking. This is not the best approach. It can be very frustrating to wait while your partner pauses to think of a word, or repeatedly makes the same spelling error and backs up to fix it. It is usually best just to leave typographical errors behind and plunge forward, unless severe confusion may result; in that case it is often fastest just to type "xxx" and start over from before the mistake. See also {hakspek}, {emoticon}.
talker system n. British hackerism for software that enables real-time chat or {talk mode}.
TAN adj. [Usenet, particularly rec.arts.sf.written.robert-jordan] Abbrev. of 'tangent', as in "off on a tangent", and synonym for {OT}. A number of hacker-humor synonyms are used for TAN in some newsgroups. Instances such as BEIGE, OFF-WHITE, BROWNISH-GRAY, and LIGHT BROWN have been observed. It is generally understood on newsgroups with this convention that any color descriptor is a TAN synonym if (a) used as the first word(s) of the topic of a Usenet post, (b) written in ALL CAPS, and (c) followed immediately by a colon. Usage: "OFF-WHITE: 2000 Presidential candidates" on an SF newsgroup.
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