Odd/Funny/Wacky/Gore Acronyms

[vladb]

What kind of acronyms a mortal perl hacker trips across at his immediate/past work place(s)? Are there any that are exceptionally clever? Amusing? Odd? Ugly? Or hard to pronounce?

Although lists of every imaginable acronym on the planet have already been compiled and made available on the Internet (like this one URL: http://www.delorie.com/gnu/docs/vera/vera_11.html), it would be interesting to find out your list of favourite (or not so :) acronyms and the how/when/why you came up with one, or simply the place you found it and why you liked it.

Of course, to begin with, let me share with own list:

• YEAH – YEt Another Hack.
  
  In my Perl code, I used to denote any chunk of code that I felt uncomfortable with by simply including a comment like so:

  # HACK:
  #
    … hack code follows…
  

  Not so long ago, I thought of coming up with a replacement for the word ‘HACK’. I had considered switching back to ‘TODO’, but couldn’t then fit it in all cases as with most ‘hack’ code, there wasn’t much ‘to do’ with it other than replace/rewrite it. So, there somehow came the word ‘YEAH’. It was simply a play on the JAPH acronym and quite frankly I was bemused to discover that it does sound like a common utterance ‘yeah!’.
  
  
• JAPH - Just Another PERL Hacker
  
  Hey, I guess this comes from merlyn?
  
  
• BUG - Bust yoUr Guts (hey, this may fall under the 'Gore' category, don't you think? ;-)
  
  
• GUMS - Groups’n’User Management System.
  
  I came up with this acronym while working on a new user management tool at my current job.

_____________________

# Under Construction

[tadman]

Maybe you can come up with a acronym for 'XXX', which my happy-go-lucky Vim 6.0 is eager to highlight for me, along with things like 'TODO'. Must be some sort of anachronism, like 'nasal demons'.

Just a totally random observation: HTTP - Hurts To Think Properly

[mirod]

XXX: eXhilarating Xml eXperiment of course!
Or in my case XXXX: eXtremely eXcited Xml eXpert!

[robsv]

AMFYOYO - Adios My Friend, You're On Your Own

Very useful when you've completed a system and are handing it over to others.
(in less-than-polite company, the "My Friend" can be be replaced with another two word phrase abbreviated to "MF" that starts with "Mother"...)

There's also TARFU (Things Are Really F*cked Up) which fits nicely in between SNAFU and FUBAR.

- robsv

[gumby]

Well, there's always the classic's SNAFU and FUBAR: I have my own acronym for another windows security hole AWISH, but I admit that's poor...

[thelenm]

My wife used to work at Intel, where they had BUMs (Business Update Meetings, I think) They had a ton of TLAs (Three-Letter Acronyms), but for some reason I can't remember any of the others.

-- Mike

--
just,my${.02}

[jplindstrom]

How about the ETLA -- Extended Three Letter Acronym? :)

/J

[FoxtrotUniform]

Or if that acronym space isn't big enough, you can upgrade to DETLAs: Double-Extended Three Letter Acronyms.

One who is annoyed with hackerdom's propensity towards acronyms might think of the DETLA as a SAPFU: an idea that Surpasses All Previous Fuckups.

--
The hell with paco, vote for Erudil!
:wq

[Rex(Wrecks)]

A couple I ran across:
• RFN - Right F'ing Now
• UFBARP - Unreachable FoosBAll Relocation Protocol (we have a table here at work)
• TWAIN - (my all time favorite) Technology Without An Interesting Name :)
• PMS - Perky Morning Syndrom, my girlfriend has itt...ugh!
  
  "Nothing is sure but death and taxes" I say combine the two and its death to all taxes!

[ajdelore]

My personal favorite has always been TIMTOWTDI (There Is More Than One Way To Do It).

In fact, in a double sense this acronym represents everything I like about perl: first, the fact that the language isn't as strict as others and allows for a lot of personal idiom and expression in code; and second, the fact that perl has a great and fun-loving community behind it. I mean, really, who else would come up with such a ridiculous acronym...

FWIW, I just searched google groups and TIMTOWTDI was used in 24 threads in comp.lang.perl.misc over the past year... I would have guessed more.

</ajdelore>

[Aristotle]

Just a proposition - rather than YEAH you could use Another UGly Hack, AUGH. :)

Makeshifts last the longest.

[hossman]

At work, our Dev, PMA, QA, Stage, and Live environments now have a new brother: DIE (Development Integration Environment -- where multiple large systems can make sure they play nice together). This has led to interesting comments like: "Is your code ready to DIE?"

your comments about HACK and TODO sound familiar. i also find myself putting just "NOOP" (NO OPeration) as a comment in places where it really is a No Op.

[simon.proctor]

Theres the one I used to get hit with in my earlier days - NMFP. The politer way of saying this is Not My Problem. Of course the F is for those times when you felt someone should have tried harder :)

[dthacker]

The hospitality industry is full of 'em:

If a hotel is experiencing PMS problems, you should look at the Property Management System. Many hotel chains use a RMS (Revenue Management System) to make sure they're getting the highest possible rate. So in this case RMS makes sure that things are not free! A VIP is a VIP, and you better be nice to them. If the party next door is too loud, you may need to MODify their behavior by summoning the Manager on Duty.

Dave

---

Code On!

[theorbtwo]

There are, of course, all sorts of real perlish abbreviations, like LoL, HoH, et al, and P::RD and suchlike. Don't forget POD. I'm afraid I'm being boring and literal this morning. <shrug>

---

We are using here a powerful strategy of synthesis: wishful thinking. -- The Wizard Book

[Abigail-II]

JAPH - Just Another PERL Hacker

JAPH may be an acronym, Perl certainly isn't. We use Perl when we talk about the language, and perl when we talk about the binary. Only managers, newbies and cluefree people use PERL.

Abigail

[simon.proctor]

Well in fairness it is an easy (so altogether too common) mistake to make, after all in Programming Perl:

To those who merely like it, Perl is the Practical Extraction and Report Language. To those who love it, Perl is the Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister. And to the minimalists in the crowd, Perl seems like a pointless exercise in redundancy.....

So I guess some people didn't see the joke and think its a misspelled acronym (not all caps) :P.