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)
Nearby terms:
line eater « line editor « line feed « line noise
» line printer » line probing » lines of code
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