munching squares

2 definitions found

munching squares - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  munching squares
  
     A display hack dating back to the PDP-1 (ca. 1962,
     reportedly discovered by Jackson Wright), which employs a
     trivial computation (repeatedly plotting the graph Y = X XOR T
     for successive values of T - see HAKMEM items 146--148) to
     produce an impressive display of moving and growing squares
     that devour the screen.  The initial value of T is treated as
     a parameter, which, when well-chosen, can produce amazing
     effects.  Some of these, later (re)discovered on the LISP Machine
     , have been christened "munching triangles" (try AND
     for XOR and toggling points instead of plotting them),
     "munching w's", and "munching mazes".  More generally, suppose
     a graphics program produces an impressive and ever-changing
     display of some basic form, foo, on a display terminal, and
     does it using a relatively simple program; then the program
     (or the resulting display) is likely to be referred to as
     "munching foos".  [This is a good example of the use of the
     word foo as a metasyntactic variable.]
  

munching squares - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  munching squares
   n.
  
     A display hack dating back to the PDP-1 (ca. 1962, reportedly
     discovered by Jackson Wright), which employs a trivial computation
     (repeatedly plotting the graph Y = X XOR T for successive values of T
     -- see HAKMEM items 146--148) to produce an impressive display of
     moving and growing squares that devour the screen. The initial value
     of T is treated as a parameter, which, when well-chosen, can produce
     amazing effects. Some of these, later (re)discovered on the LISP
     machine, have been christened munching triangles (try AND for XOR and
     toggling points instead of plotting them), munching w's, and munching
     mazes. More generally, suppose a graphics program produces an
     impressive and ever-changing display of some basic form, foo, on a
     display terminal, and does it using a relatively simple program; then
     the program (or the resulting display) is likely to be referred to as
     munching foos. [This is a good example of the use of the word foo
  as
     a metasyntactic variable.]