[common] A general state, usually used with an adjective describing
the state. Use of the word ‘mode’ rather than
‘state’ implies that the state is extended over time, and
probably also that some activity characteristic of that state is being
carried out. No time to hack; I'm in thesis mode.
In its
jargon sense, ‘mode’ is most often attributed to people, though
it is sometimes applied to programs and inanimate objects. In particular,
see hack mode, day mode,
night mode, demo mode,
fireworks mode, and
yoyo mode; also talk mode.
One also often hears the verbs enable and disable used in connection with jargon modes.
Thus, for example, a sillier way of saying I'm going to
crash
is I'm going to enable crash mode now
. One
might also hear a request to disable flame mode,
please
.
In a usage much closer to techspeak, a mode is a special state that
certain user interfaces must pass into in order to perform certain
functions. For example, in order to insert characters into a document in
the Unix editor vi
, one must type the
i
key, which invokes the Insert
command. The
effect of this command is to put vi into insert mode
, in
which typing the i
key has a quite different effect (to wit,
it inserts an i
into the document). One must then hit
another special key, ESC
, in order to leave insert
mode
. Nowadays, modeful interfaces are generally considered
losing but survive in quite a few widely used tools
built in less enlightened times.