line noise

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)