[Chapter 51] 51.8 Type Bang Splat. Don't Forget the Rabbit Ears
Author: Jerry Peek, Tim O'Reilly & Mike Loukides
Date: 1998-08-04T21:57:26Z

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| Chapter 51 Miscellaneous Useful Programs and Curiosities |

## 51.8 Type Bang Splat. Don't Forget the Rabbit Ears

You don't need to be smart and rich and powerful for people to think that you are. Just dress that way. The same goes for UNIX. If you talk like an expert, people will think that you are one. UNIX gurus have their own secret code for the special characters they're always typing. Because knowing how to speak correctly is a real Power Tool `:-)`, here's a brief introduction to "hackerese":

What | Traditional Term | Enlightened Terms
--- | --- | ---
`!` | Exclamation Point | Bang, Shriek, Ball-Bat
`"` | Quotation Mark | Double Quote, Rabbit Ears
`*` | Asterisk | Splat, Star
`'` | Apostrophe | Single Quote, Tick
`.` | Period | Dot, Point

If this isn't enough to disgust - errr, satisfy your curiosity, get a copy of The Hacker's Dictionary by Eric S. Raymond. It's based on the Jargon File, an online collection of hackerspeak, which is on the World Wide Web at (as of this printing) http://www.ccil.org/jargon/jargon.html. The Jargon File started as a list of terms used by early Artificial Intelligence hackers at MIT, Stanford University, and CMU. It has since grown to include many terms from the Internet and UNIX communities.

- JP

51.7 When You Get Impatient |  | 51.9 Making a "Login" Shell