<
communications> 1. Spurious characters due to electrical
noise in a communications link, especially an
EIA-232
serial connection. Line
noise may be induced by poor
connections, interference or
crosstalk from other circuits,
electrical storms,
cosmic rays, or (notionally) birds
crapping on
the phone wires.
2. Any chunk of data in a file or elsewhere that looks like
the results of electrical line
noise.
3. Text that is theoretically a readable text or program
source but employs
syntax so bizarre that it looks like line
noise. Yes, there are languages this ugly.
The canonical
example is
TECO, whose input syntax is often said to be
indistinguishable from line
noise. Other non-
WYSIWYG
editors, such as
Multics "
qed" and
Unix "
ed", in
the
hands of a real hacker, also qualify easily, as do
deliberately
obfuscated languages such as
INTERCAL.
[
Jargon File]
(1994-12-22)