double bucky

Using both the CTRL and META keys. "The command to burn all LEDs is double bucky F."

This term originated on the Stanford extended-ASCII keyboard, and was later taken up by users of the space-cadet keyboard at MIT. A typical MIT comment was that the Stanford bucky bits (control and meta shifting keys) were nice, but there weren't enough of them; you could type only 512 different characters on a Stanford keyboard. An obvious way to address this was simply to add more shifting keys, and this was eventually done; but a keyboard with that many shifting keys is hard on touch-typists, who don't like to move their hands away from the home position on the keyboard. It was half-seriously suggested that the extra shifting keys be implemented as pedals; typing on such a keyboard would be very much like playing a full pipe organ. This idea is mentioned in a parody of a very fine song by Jeffrey Moss called "Rubber Duckie", which was published in "The Sesame Street Songbook" (Simon and Schuster 1971, ISBN 0-671-21036-X). These lyrics were written on May 27, 1978, in celebration of the Stanford keyboard: 

                  Double Bucky

  Double bucky, you're the one!
  You make my keyboard lots of fun.
      Double bucky, an additional bit or two:
  (Vo-vo-de-o!)
  Control and meta, side by side,
  Augmented ASCII, nine bits wide!
      Double bucky!  Half a thousand glyphs, plus a few!
          Oh,
          I sure wish that I
          Had a couple of
              Bits more!
          Perhaps a
          Set of pedals to
          Make the number of
              Bits four:
          Double double bucky!
  Double bucky, left and right
  OR'd together, outta sight!
      Double bucky, I'd like a whole word of
      Double bucky, I'm happy I heard of
      Double bucky, I'd like a whole word of you!

  - The Great Quux
(With apologies to Jeffrey Moss. This, by the way, is an excellent example of computer filk --- ESR).

See also meta bit, cokebottle, and quadruple bucky.

[Jargon File]

Last updated: 1994-12-07

double-click

<operating system>

Two clicks of a mouse button made in rapid succession without moving the mouse. A double-click often combines the actions of selecting, and then activating an object in a GUI, e.g. selecting and opening a document. Some text editors use double-click to select the word under the mouse pointer.

When used as a verb it is often written as two words with a space instead of a hyphen.

Last updated: 2006-07-09

Double Data Rate Random Access Memory

<storage>

(DDR-RAM, DDR-SDRAM ...Synchronous...) RAM that transfers data on both 0-1 and 1-0 clock transitions, theoretically yielding twice the data transfer rate of normal RAM or SDRAM.

DDR-RAM Article.

DDR-SDRAM Article.

Last updated: 2001-05-24

Double Data Rate Synchronous Random Access Memory

Double Data Rate Random Access Memory

double DECkers

<jargon>

Married couples in which both partners work for Digital Equipment Corporation.

[Jargon File]

Last updated: 1994-12-07

double density

floppy disk

doubled sig

A sig block that has been included twice in a Usenet article or, less commonly, in an electronic mail message. An article or message with a doubled sig can be caused by improperly configured software. More often, however, it reveals the author's lack of experience in electronic communication.

See BIFF, pseudo.

[Jargon File]

Last updated: 1994-12-07

double-duplex

<communications>

(From telegraphy) A full-duplex link with two telegraphers (a sender and a receiver) at each end, to simultaneously transmit in both directions.

Compare: single-duplex.

Last updated: 2000-03-30

double-ended queue

<algorithm>

/dek/ (deque) A queue which can have items added or removed from either end[?].

The Knuth reference below reports that the name was coined by E. J. Schweppe.

[D. E. Knuth, "The Art of Computer Programming. Volume 1: Fundamental Algorithms", second edition, Sections 2.2.1, 2.6, Addison-Wesley, 1973].

Silicon Graphics.

[Correct definition? Example use?]

Last updated: 2003-12-17

double quote

<character>

'"' ASCII character 34. Often used in programming languages to delimit strings. In Unix shells and Perl it delimits a string inside which variable substitution may occur.

Common names: quote. Rare: literal mark; double-glitch; ITU-T: quotation marks; ITU-T: dieresis; dirk; INTERCAL: rabbit-ears; double prime.

Last updated: 1995-03-28

Nearby terms:

dotted quad ♦ double bucky ♦ double-click ♦ Double Data Rate Random Access Memory

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