| Webster's Online Dictionary |
| Expressions | Domain | Definition | |
| Holy wars | Computing | Holy wars [Usenet, but may predate it] flame wars over religious issues. The paper by Danny Cohen that popularized the terms big-endian and little-endian was entitled "On Holy Wars and a Plea for Peace". Other perennial Holy Wars have included Emacs vs.vi, my personal computer vs.everyone else's personal computer, ITS vs. Unix, Unix vs. VMS, BSD Unix vs. USG Unix, C vs. Pascal, C vs. Fortran, etc., ad nauseam. The characteristic that distinguishes holy wars from normal technical disputes is that in a holy wars most of the participants spend their time trying to pass off personal value choices and cultural attachments as objective technical evaluations. See also theology. [Jargon File]. Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing.. | |
| Holy wars | Computing | Holy wars n. [from Usenet, but may predate it; common] n. flame wars over religious issues. The paper by Danny Cohen that popularized the terms big-endian and little-endian in connection with the LSB-first/MSB-first controversy was entitled "On Holy Wars and a Plea for Peace". Great holy wars of the past have included {ITS vs. {Unix, {Unix vs. VMS, BSD Unix vs. System V, C vs. {Pascal, C vs. FORTRAN, etc. In the year 2000, popular favorites of the day are KDE vs, GNOME, vim vs.elvis, Linux vs. [Free|Net|Open]BSD. Hardy perennials include EMACS vs.vi, my personal computer vs.everyone else's personal computer, ad nauseam. The characteristic that distinguishes holy wars from normal technical disputes is that in a holy war most of the participants spend their time trying to pass off personal value choices and cultural attachments as objective technical evaluations. This happens precisely because in a true holy war, the actual substantive differences between the sides are relatively minor. See also theology. Source: Jargon File.. | |
| Holy Wars | Literature | Are to extirpate "heresy," or to extend what the state supposes to be the one true religion. The Crusades, the Thirty-Years' War, the wars against the Albigenses, etc., were so called. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | Top | ||
