Date: Mon, 3 Nov 1997 10:41:09 +0200 (IST) From: Eli Zaretskii To: Kris Heidenstrom cc: djgpp AT delorie DOT com Subject: Re: Some comments and questions In-Reply-To: <199711030544.SAA04894@atlantis.actrix.gen.nz> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Precedence: bulk On Mon, 3 Nov 1997, Kris Heidenstrom wrote: > What does 'grok' mean? Is it a neologism like 'kludge'? grok == understand, can handle. Here's a quote from the jargon.info file: :grok: /grok/, var. /grohk/ /vt./ [from the novel "Stranger in a Strange Land", by Robert A. Heinlein, where it is a Martian word meaning literally `to drink' and metaphorically `to be one with'] The emphatic form is `grok in fullness'. 1. To understand, usually in a global sense. Connotes intimate and exhaustive knowledge. Contrast {zen}, which is similar supernal understanding experienced as a single brief flash. See also {glark}. 2. Used of programs, may connote merely sufficient understanding. "Almost all C compilers grok the `void' type these days."