Crackers, phone phreaks, and warez d00dz (mostly teenagers running PC-clones from their bedrooms) have developed their own characteristic jargon, heavily influenced by skateboard lingo and underground-rock slang.

Here is a brief guide to cracker and warez d00dz usage:

Misspell frequently. The substitutions

phone => fone

freak => phreak are obligatory.

Always substitute `z's for `s's. (i.e. "codes" -> "codez").

Type random emphasis characters after a post line (i.e. "Hey Dudes!#!$#$!#!$").

Use the emphatic `k' prefix ("k-kool", "k-rad", "k-awesome") frequently.

Abbreviate compulsively ("I got lotsa warez w/ docs").

Substitute `0' for `o' ("r0dent", "l0zer").

TYPE ALL IN CAPS LOCK, SO IT LOOKS LIKE YOU'RE YELLING ALL THE TIME.

`*’ signifies multiplication but two asterisks in a row are a shorthand for exponentiation (this derives from FORTRAN). Thus, one might write 2 ** 8 = 256.

Another notation for exponentiation one sees more frequently uses the caret (^, ASCII 1011110); one might write instead `2^8 = 256’.

In on-line exchanges, hackers tend to use decimal forms or improper fractions (`3.5’ or `7/2’) rather than `typewriter style’ mixed fractions (`3-1/2’). The major motive here is probably that the former are more readable, together with a desire to avoid the risk that the latter might be read as `three minus one-half’. The decimal form is definitely preferred for fractions with a terminating decimal representation; there may be some cultural influence here from the high status of scientific notation.

Another on-line convention, used especially for very large or very small numbers, is taken from C (which derived it from FORTRAN). This is a form of `scientific notation’ using `e’ to replace `*10^’; for example, one year is about 3e7 seconds long.

The tilde (~) is commonly used in a quantifying sense of `approximately’; that is, `~50’ means `about fifty’.

On USENET common logical and relational operators such as `|’, `&’, `||’, `&&’, `!’, `==’, `!=’, `>’, `<’, `>=’, and `=<’ are often combined with English. The use of prefix `!’ as a loose synonym for `not-‘ or `no-‘ is particularly common; thus, `!clue’ is read `no-clue’ or `clueless’.

A related practice borrows syntax from preferr oday’s

net volumes?

#endif /* FLAME */

I guess they figured the price premium for true

frame-based semantic analysis was too high.

Unfortunately, it’s also the only workable approach.

I wouldn’t recommend purchase of this product unless

you’re on a very tight budget.

#include

--

== Frank Foonly (Fubarco Systems)

In the above, the `#ifdef’ / `#endif’ pair is a conditional compilation syntax from C; here, it implies that the text between (which is a ) should be evaluated only if you have turned on (or defined on) the switch FLAME. The `#include’ at the end is C for «include standard disclaimer here»; the `standard disclaimer’ is understood to read, roughly, «These are my personal opinions and not to be construed as the official position of my employer.»

The top section in the example, with > at the left margin, is an example of an inclusion convention we’ll discuss below.

Hackers also mix letters and numbers more freely than in mainstream usage. In particular, it is good hackish style to write a digit sequence where you intend the reader to understand the text string that names that number in English. So, hackers prefer to write `1970s’ rather than `nineteen-seventies’ or `1970’s’ (the latter looks like a possessive).

It should also be noted that hackers exhibit much less reluctance to use multiply nested parentheses than is normal in English. Part of this is almost certainly due to influence from LISP (which uses deeply nested parentheses (like this (see?)) in its syntax a lot), but it has also been suggested that a more basic hacker trait of enjoying playing with complexity and pushing systems to their limits is in operation.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that many studies of on-line communication have shown that electronic links have a de-inhibiting effect on people. Deprived of the body-language cues through which emotional state is expressed, people tend to forget everything about other parties except what is presented over that ASCII link. This has both good and bad effects. A good one is that it encourages honesty and tends to break down hierarchical authority relationships; a bad one is that it may encourage depersonalization and gratuitous rudeness. Perhaps in response to this, experienced netters often display a sort of conscious formal politesse in their writing that has passed out of fashion in other spoken and written media (for example, the phrase «Well said, sir!» is not uncommon).

Many introverted hackers who are next to inarticulate in person communicate with considerable fluency over the net, perhaps precisely because they can forget on an unconscious level that they are dealing with people and thus don’t feel stressed and anxious as they would face to face.

Though it is considered gauche to publicly criticize posters for poor spelling or grammar, the network places a premium on literacy and clarity of expression. It may well be that future historians of literature will see in