meaning of green card
1. green card [after the "IBM System/360 Reference Data" card] A summary of an assembly language, even if the colour is not green. Less frequently used now because of the decrease in the use of assembly language. "Ill go get my green card so I can check the addressing mode for that instruction. " Some green cards are actually booklets. The original green card became a yellow card when the System/370 was introduced, and later a yellow booklet. An anecdote from IBM refers to a scene that took place in a programmers terminal room at Yorktown in 1978. A luser overheard one of the programmers ask another "Do you have a green card?" The other grunted and passed the first a thick yellow booklet. At this point the luser turned a delicate shade of olive and rapidly left the room, never to return. [Jargon File] green lightning [IBM] 1. Apparently random flashing streaks on the face of 3278-9 terminals while a new symbol set is being downloaded. This hardware bug was left deliberately unfixed, as some genius within IBM suggested it would let the user know that "something is happening". That, it certainly does. Later microprocessor-driven IBM colour graphics displays were actually *programmed* to produce green lightning! 2. [proposed] Any bug perverted into an alleged feature by adroit rationalisation or marketing. "Motorola calls the CISC cruft in the 88000 architecture "compatibility logic", but I call it green lightning". See also feature. green machine A computer or peripheral device that has been designed and built to military specifications for field equipment that is, to withstand mechanical shock, extremes of temperature and humidity, and so forth. Comes from the olive-drab "uniform" paint used for military equipment. [Jargon File] green monitor Advanced Power Management Greens Theorem
2. a card that identifies the bearer as an alien with permanent resident status in the United States; "he was surprised to discover that green cards are no longer
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