buzz
1. Of a program, to run with no indication of progress and perhaps without
guarantee of ever finishing; especially said of programs thought to be executing
a tight loop of code. A program that is buzzing appears to be catatonic, but
never gets out of catatonia, while a buzzing loop may eventually end of its own
accord. "The program buzzes for about 10 seconds trying to sort all the names
into order." See spin; see also grovel.
2. [ETA Systems] To test a wire or printed circuit trace for continuity by
applying an AC rather than DC signal. Some wire faults will pass DC tests but
fail a buzz test.
3. To process an array or list in sequence, doing the same thing to each
element. "This loop buzzes through the tz array looking for a terminator type."
[Jargon File]
Nearby terms:
Butterfly Common LISP « Butterfly Scheme « button «
buzz
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