| clocks
= C =
clone-and-hack coding
clone n.
1. An exact duplicate: "Our product is a clone
of their product." Implies a legal reimplementation from
documentation or by reverse-engineering. Also connotes lower
price. 2. A shoddy, spurious copy: "Their product is a clone of
our product." 3. A blatant ripoff, most likely violating
copyright, patent, or trade secret protections: "Your product is a
clone of my product." This use implies legal action is pending.
4. [obs] `PC clone:' a PC-BUS/ISA or EISA-compatible 80x86-based
microcomputer (this use is sometimes spelled `klone' or
`PClone'). These invariably have much more bang for the buck
than the IBM archetypes they resemble. This term fell out of use in
the 1990s; the class of machines it describes are now simply
`PCs' or `Intel machines'. 5. [obs.] In the construction
`Unix clone': An OS designed to deliver a Unix-lookalike
environment without Unix license fees, or with additional
`mission-critical' features such as support for real-time
programming. Linux and the free BSDs killed off this product
category and the term with it. 6. v. To make an exact copy of
something. "Let me clone that" might mean "I want to borrow
that paper so I can make a photocopy" or "Let me get a copy of
that file before you mung it".
--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.
| 
