1. <
character> /enkw/ or /enk/ ENQuire. The
mnemonic for
ASCII character 5.
2. <
chat> An on-line convention for querying someone's
availability. After opening a
chat connection to someone
apparently in heavy hack mode, one might type "SYN SYN
ENQ?"
(the SYNs representing notional synchronisation bytes), and
expect a return of
ACK or
NAK depending on whether or not
the person felt interruptible.
Compare
ping,
finger.
[
Jargon File]
(1998-01-18)