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The Jargon File, Version 4.0.0, 24 Jul 1996 by Various
page 81 of 773 (10%)
:boustrophedon: /n./ [from a Greek word for turning like an ox
while plowing] An ancient method of writing using alternate
left-to-right and right-to-left lines. This term is actually
philologists' techspeak and typesetters' jargon. Erudite hackers
use it for an optimization performed by some computer typesetting
software and moving-head printers. The adverbial form
`boustrophedonically' is also found (hackers purely love
constructions like this).

:box: /n./ 1. A computer; esp. in the construction `foo
box' where foo is some functional qualifier, like
`graphics', or the name of an OS (thus, `Unix box', `MS-DOS
box', etc.) "We preprocess the data on Unix boxes before handing
it up to the mainframe." 2. [IBM] Without qualification but
within an SNA-using site, this refers specifically to an IBM
front-end processor or FEP /F-E-P/. An FEP is a small computer
necessary to enable an IBM {mainframe} to communicate beyond the
limits of the {dinosaur pen}. Typically used in expressions
like the cry that goes up when an SNA network goes down: "Looks
like the {box} has fallen over." (See {fall over}.) See also
{IBM}, {fear and loathing}, {fepped out}, {Blue Glue}.

:boxed comments: /n./ Comments (explanatory notes attached to
program instructions) that occupy several lines by themselves; so
called because in assembler and C code they are often surrounded by
a box in a style something like this:

/*************************************************
*
* This is a boxed comment in C style
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