May 15, 2003

say

vt.

1. To type to a terminal. To list a directory verbosely, you have to say ls -l. Tends to imply a newline-terminated command (a ‘sentence’).

2. A computer may also be said to ‘say’ things to you, even if it doesn't have a speech synthesizer, by displaying them on a terminal in response to your commands. Hackers find it odd that this usage confuses mundanes.

Posted by Jargon File at May 15, 2003 10:31 AM

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