marbles
<jargon>
(From the mainstream "lost his marbles") The minimum needed to build your way further up some hierarchy of tools or abstractions. After a bad system crash, you need to determine if the machine has enough marbles to come up on its own, or enough marbles to allow a rebuild from backups, or if you need to rebuild from scratch. "This compiler doesn't even have enough marbles to compile hello, world."
[Jargon File]Last updated: 1998-05-21
Marc Andreessen
<person>
The man who founded Netscape Communications Corporation in April 1994 with Dr. James H. Clark. Andreessen has been a director since September 1994.
As an undergraduate at the University of Illinois in Champaign, Andreessen created the Mosaic web browser prototype with a team of students and staff at the university's National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). With a friendly, point-and-click method for navigating the Internet and free distribution to network users, NCSA Mosaic gained an estimated two million users worldwide in just over one year. Andreessen earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science at the University of Illinois in 1993. Home.Last updated: 1999-04-12
Margaret Hamilton
<person>
(born 1936-08-17) A computer scientist, systems engineer and business owner, credited with coining the term software engineering.
Margaret Hamilton published over 130 papers, proceedings and reports about the 60 projects and six major programs in which she has been involved. In 1965 she became Director of Software Programming at MIT's Charles Stark Draper Laboratory and Director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, which developed on-board flight software for the Apollo space program. At NASA, Hamilton pioneered the Apollo on-board guidance software that navigated to and landed on the Moon and formed the basis for software used in later missions. At the time, programming was a hands-on, engineering descipline; computer science and software engineering barely existed. Hamilton produced innovations in system design and software development, enterprise and process modelling, development paradigms, formal systems modelling languages, system-oriented objects for systems modelling and development, automated life-cycle environments, software reliability, software reuse, domain analysis, correctness by built-in language properties, open architecture techniques for robust systems, full life-cycle automation, quality assurance, seamless integration, error detection and recovery, man-machine interface systems, operating systems, end-to-end testing and life-cycle management. She developed concepts of asynchronous software, priority scheduling and Human-in-the-loop decision capability, which became the foundation for modern, ultra-reliable software design. The Apollo 11 moon landing would have aborted when spurious data threatened to overload the computer, but thanks to the innovative asynchronous, priority based scheduling, it eliminated the unnecessary processing and completed the landing successfully. In 1986, she founded Hamilton Technologies, Inc., developed around the Universal Systems Language and her systems and software design paradigm of Development Before the Fact (DBTF).Last updated: 2015-03-08
marginal
<jargon>
1. Extremely small. "A marginal increase in core can decrease GC time drastically." In everyday terms, this means that it is a lot easier to clean off your desk if you have a spare place to put some of the junk while you sort through it.
2. Of extremely small merit. "This proposed new feature seems rather marginal to me." 3. Of extremely small probability of winning. "The power supply was rather marginal anyway; no wonder it fried." [Jargon File]Last updated: 1994-10-21
Marginal Hacks
<humour>
Margaret Jacks Hall, a building into which the Stanford AI Lab was moved near the beginning of the 1980s (from the D.C. Power Lab).
[Jargon File]Last updated: 1998-05-21
Maril
Machine description language used by the Marion code generator. ["The Marion System for Retargetable Instruction Scheduling", D.G. Bradlee et al, SIGPLAN Notices 26(6):229-240 (June 1991)].marketroid
/mar'k*-troyd/ (Or "marketing slime", "marketeer", "marketing droid", "marketdroid") A member of a company's marketing department, especially one who promises users that the next version of a product will have features that are not actually scheduled for inclusion, are extremely difficult to implement, and/or are in violation of the laws of physics; and/or one who describes existing features (and misfeatures) in ebullient, buzzword-laden adspeak. Derogatory. [Jargon File]Last updated: 1995-02-23
Mark I
<computer>
(Or "Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator", "ASCC") A first generation computer that was designed by Howard Aiken of Harvard University, taking inspiration from Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine. The Mark I, as the Harvard University staff called it, was built by IBM between 1939 to 1944. It was delivered to Harvard University and became operational in March 1944.
The Mark I is considered to be the first full-sized digital computer. It was built from clutches, relays, rotating shafts and switches. It read its instructions from one paper tape and data from another. It could store 72 numbers, each of 23 decimal digits. It weighed about 4500 Kg, had 800 Km of wiring, was used only for numeric calculations, and took three seconds to carry out one multiplication. The IBM archives call it the, "...industry's largest electromechanical calculator." One of the Mark I's first programers was John von Neumann. The Mark I was retired in 1959, and disassembled. Parts are archived at Harvard in the Science Center. It was followed by the Mark II.Last updated: 1996-11-24
Markov
See Andrei Markov, Markov chain, Markov model, Markov process.Last updated: 1995-02-23
Markov chain
(Named after Andrei Markov) A model of sequences of events where the probability of an event occurring depends upon the fact that a preceding event occurred.
A Markov process is governed by a Markov chain. In simulation, the principle of the Markov chain is applied to the selection of samples from a probability density function to be applied to the model. Simscript II.5 uses this approach for some modelling functions. [Better explanation?]Last updated: 1995-02-23
Markov model
A model or simulation based on Markov chains.
Last updated: 2000-10-29
Markov process
A process in which the sequence of events can be described by a Markov chain.
Last updated: 1995-02-23
Markowitz
The author of the original Simscript language.mark-sweep garbage collection
Each cell has a bit reserved for marking which is clear initially. During garbage collection all active cells are traced from the root and marked. Then all cells are examined. Unmarked cells are freed.markup
<text>
In computerised document preparation, a method of adding information to the text to indicate the logical components of a document, instructions for layout of the text on the page or other information which can be interpreted by some automatic system.
For example, HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) adds tags to the text to indicate the appearance and behaviour it should have when displayed by a web browser. E.g.:<b>This is bold text.</b> <a href="http://foldoc.org/">This is a link to FOLDOC</a>.Other examples of markup languages are troff, SGML (on which HTML was based) and XML.
Last updated: 2012-12-14
Marlais
<language>
A simple-minded interpreter by Brent Benson at Harris for a programming language strongly resembling Dylan. Marlais version 0.2a is a "hackers release" for education, experimentation, porting, extension, and bug fixing.
It has been ported to Sun-3, Sun-4, VAX/BSD, OS/2, Linux, Sequent Symmetry, Encore, HP-UX, Ultrix, SGI, Sony News, and A/UX. ftp://travis.csd.harris.com/pub/marlais-0.2a.tar.gz.Last updated: 1993-09-23
Mars
A legendary tragic failure, the archetypal Hacker Dream Gone Wrong. Mars was the code name for a family of PDP-10 compatible computers built by Systems Concepts (now, The SC Group): the multi-processor SC-30M, the small uniprocessor SC-25M, and the never-built superprocessor SC-40M. These machines were marvels of engineering design; although not much slower than the unique Foonly F-1, they were physically smaller and consumed less power than the much slower DEC KS10 or Foonly F-2, F-3, or F-4 machines. They were also completely compatible with the DEC KL10, and ran all KL10 binaries (including the operating system) with no modifications at about 2--3 times faster than a KL10. When DEC cancelled the Jupiter project in 1983, Systems Concepts should have made a bundle selling their machine into shops with a lot of software investment in PDP-10s, and in fact their spring 1984 announcement generated a great deal of excitement in the PDP-10 world. TOPS-10 was running on the Mars by the summer of 1984, and TOPS-20 by early fall. Unfortunately, the hackers running Systems Concepts were much better at designing machines than at mass producing or selling them; the company allowed itself to be sidetracked by a bout of perfectionism into continually improving the design, and lost credibility as delivery dates continued to slip. They also overpriced the product ridiculously; they believed they were competing with the KL10 and VAX 8600 and failed to reckon with the likes of Sun Microsystems and other hungry startups building workstations with power comparable to the KL10 at a fraction of the price. By the time SC shipped the first SC-30M to Stanford in late 1985, most customers had already made the traumatic decision to abandon the PDP-10, usually for VMS or Unix boxes. Most of the Mars computers built ended up being purchased by CompuServe. This tale and the related saga of Foonly hold a lesson for hackers: if you want to play in the Real World, you need to learn Real World moves. [Jargon File]Marseille Prolog
<language>
One of the two main dialects of Prolog, the other being Edinburgh Prolog. The difference is largely syntax. The original Marseille Interpreter (1973) was written in Fortran.
[Developed by?]Last updated: 1998-03-16
marshaling
<spelling>
Alternative US spelling of "marshalling".
Last updated: 1998-03-16
marshalling
(US -ll- or -l-) The process of packing one or more items of data into a message buffer, prior to transmitting that message buffer over a communication channel. The packing process not only collects together values which may be stored in non-consecutive memory locations but also converts data of different types into a standard representation agreed with the recipient of the message.
Last updated: 2000-06-09
MARSYAS
MARshall SYstem for Aerospace Simulation. A software system for digital simulation of large physical systems. ["MARSYAS - A Software System for the Digital Simulation of Physical Systems", H. Trauboth et al, Proc SJCC, 36 (1970)].Last updated: 1994-12-02
Martian
Packets that turn up unexpectedly on the wrong network because of bogus routing entries. Also a packet which has an altogether bogus (non-registered or ill-formed) internet address, such as the test loopback interface [127.0.0.1]. Such a packet will come back labelled with a source address that is clearly not of this earth. "The domain server is getting lots of packets from Mars. Does that gateway have a martian filter?" [Jargon File]Martin Marietta Laboratories Moorestown
http://atlgw.atl.ge.com/. Address: Building 145, Moorestown Corporate Center, Moorestown, NJ 08057, USA.Last updated: 1995-02-06
MARVIN
U Dortmund, 1984. Applicative language based on Modula-2, enhanced by signatures (grammars) terms (trees) and attribute couplings (functions on trees). Used for specification of language translators. ["MARVIN - A Tool for Applicative and Modular Compiler Specification", H. Ganziger et al, Forsch 220, U Dortmund, Jul 1986].Mary
<language>
An extensible, machine-oriented superset of ALGOL68 developed by Mark Rain.
Mary is maintained (and used) by Kvatro Telecom AS. Although dated, it still offers a nice strongly typed 3GL with macros but without most of C's flaws. It runs on SPARC and x86 computers. Hidden on the back cover of the manual: MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB - COERCION IMPOSSIBLE. ["Mary Programmer's Reference Manual", M. Rain et al, R Unit, Trondheim Norway, 1974]. ["Operator Expressions in Mary", M. Rain, SIGPLAN Notices 8(1), Jan 1973].Last updated: 1998-11-10
Nearby terms:
Maple ♦ mapping ♦ marbles ♦ Marc Andreessen ♦ Margaret Hamilton ♦ marginal
Try this search on Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Google, OneLook.
