lines) with minimal if any interference with devices further down
the line -- this innovation was necessary to allow daisy-chained
dongles for multiple pieces of software. The devices are still not
widely used, as the industry has moved away from copy-protection
schemes in general. 2. By extension, any physical electronic key
or transferable ID required for a program to function. Common
variations on this theme have used parallel or even joystick ports.
See {dongle-disk}.

[Note: in early 1992, advertising copy from Rainbow Technologies (a
manufacturer of dongles) included a claim that the word derived
from "Don Gall", allegedly the inventor of the device. The
company's receptionist will cheerfully tell you that the story is a
myth invented for the ad copy. Nevertheless, I expect it to haunt
my life as a lexicographer for at least the next ten years. :-(
--ESR]

:dongle-disk: /don'gl disk/ /n./ A special floppy disk that
is required in order to perform some task. Some contain special
coding that allows an application to identify it uniquely, others
*are* special code that does something that normally-resident
programs don't or can't. (For example, AT&T's "Unix PC" would
only come up in {root mode} with a special boot disk.) Also
called a `key disk'. See {dongle}.

:donuts: /n. obs./ A collective noun for any set of memory bits.
This usage is extremely archaic and may no longer be live jargon;
it dates from the days of ferrite-{core} memories in which each
bit was implemented by a doughnut-shaped magnetic flip-flop.