The New Hacker's Dictionary

fix // n., v.

What one does when a problem has been reported too many times to be ignored.

FIXME // imp.

[common] A standard tag often put in C comments near a piece of code that needs work. The point of doing so is that a grep or a similar pattern-matching tool can find all such places quickly.

/* FIXME: note this is common in GNU code. */

Compare XXX.

flag // n.

[very common] A variable or quantity that can take on one of two values; a bit, particularly one that is used to indicate one of two outcomes or is used to control which of two things is to be done. "This flag controls whether to clear the screen before printing the message." "The program status word contains several flag bits." Used of humans analogously to bit. See also hidden flag, mode bit.

flag day // n.

A software change that is neither forward- nor backward-compatible, and which is costly to make and costly to reverse. "Can we install that without causing a flag day for all users?" This term has nothing to do with the use of the word flag to mean a variable that has two values. It came into use when a massive change was made to the Multics timesharing system to convert from the short-lived 1965 version of the ASCII code to the 1967 version (in draft at the time); this was scheduled for Flag Day (a U.S. holiday), June 14, 1966. The actual change moved the code point for the ASCII newline character; this required that all of the Multics source code, documentation, and device drivers be changed simultaneously. See also []backward combatability.

flaky // adj.

(var sp. 'flakey') Subject to frequent lossage. This use is of course related to the common slang use of the word to describe a person as eccentric, crazy, or just unreliable. A system that is flaky is working, sort of -- enough that you are tempted to try to use it -- but fails frequently enough that the odds in favor of finishing what you start are low. Commonwealth hackish prefers dodgy or wonky.