Skip to Main Content
Idaho State University home

Glossary

Filter:
# A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z All
L
LAN
LDB
LER
LKG
LLC
LMD
LME
LMI
Log
LOS
LP
LPC
LPD
LPI
LPT
Ls
LSI
Line Noise
  • n. [techspeak] Spurious characters due to electrical noise in a communications link, especially an RS-232 serial connection. Line noise may be induced by poor connections, interference or crosstalk from other circuits, electrical storms, cosmic rays, or (notionally) birds crapping on the phone wires.
  • Any chunk of data in a file or elsewhere that looks like the results of line noise in sense 1.
  • Text that is theoretically a readable text or program source but employs syntax so bizarre that it looks like line noise in senses 1 or 2. Yes, there are languages this ugly. The canonical example is TECO; it is often claimed that "TECO's input syntax is indistinguishable from line noise. " Other non-WYSIWYG editors, such as Multics `qed' and Unix `ed', in the hands of a real hacker, also qualify easily, as do deliberately obfuscated languages such as INTERCAL.