Mung
Encyclopedia
Mung is computer
jargon
for "to make repeated changes which individually may be reversible, yet which ultimately result in an unintentional, irreversible destruction of large portions of the original item." It was coined in 1958 in the Tech Model Railroad Club
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
. In 1960 the backronym
"Mash Until No Good" was created to describe Mung, and a while after it was revised to "Mung Until No Good", making it one of the first recursive acronym
s. It lived on as a recursive command in the editing language TECO
.
Munging implies destruction—to make large-scale and irrevocable changes to a file and to destroy it. Hence in the early text-adventure game Zork
, also known as Dungeon, the user could mung an object and thereby destroy it (making it impossible to finish the game if the object was an important item).
Munging may also describe the constructive operation of tying together systems and interfaces that were not specifically designed to interoperate (often using the Perl
programming language). Munging can also describe the processing or filtering of raw data into another form.
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
jargon
Jargon
Jargon is terminology which is especially defined in relationship to a specific activity, profession, group, or event. The philosophe Condillac observed in 1782 that "Every science requires a special language because every science has its own ideas." As a rationalist member of the Enlightenment he...
for "to make repeated changes which individually may be reversible, yet which ultimately result in an unintentional, irreversible destruction of large portions of the original item." It was coined in 1958 in the Tech Model Railroad Club
Tech Model Railroad Club
The Tech Model Railroad Club is a student organization at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , and one of the most celebrated model railroad clubs in the world, because of its historic role as a wellspring of hacker culture...
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
. In 1960 the backronym
Backronym
A backronym or bacronym is a phrase constructed purposely, such that an acronym can be formed to a specific desired word. Backronyms may be invented with serious or humorous intent, or may be a type of false or folk etymology....
"Mash Until No Good" was created to describe Mung, and a while after it was revised to "Mung Until No Good", making it one of the first recursive acronym
Recursive acronym
A recursive acronym is an acronym or initialism that refers to itself in the expression for which it stands...
s. It lived on as a recursive command in the editing language TECO
Text Editor and Corrector
TECO is a text editor originally developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1960s, after which it was modified by 'just about everybody'...
.
Munging implies destruction—to make large-scale and irrevocable changes to a file and to destroy it. Hence in the early text-adventure game Zork
Zork
Zork was one of the first interactive fiction computer games and an early descendant of Colossal Cave Adventure. The first version of Zork was written in 1977–1979 on a DEC PDP-10 computer by Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling, and implemented in the MDL programming language...
, also known as Dungeon, the user could mung an object and thereby destroy it (making it impossible to finish the game if the object was an important item).
Munging may also describe the constructive operation of tying together systems and interfaces that were not specifically designed to interoperate (often using the Perl
Perl
Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall in 1987 as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone many changes and revisions and become widely popular...
programming language). Munging can also describe the processing or filtering of raw data into another form.
See also
- MungeMungeIn computing, the term munge means to attempt to create a strong, secure password through character substitution. "Munge" is sometimes backronymmed as Modify Until Not Guessed Easily...
– to create a strong, secure password through character substitution. - Jargon FileJargon FileThe Jargon File is a glossary of computer programmer slang. The original Jargon File was a collection of terms from technical cultures such as the MIT AI Lab, the Stanford AI Lab and others of the old ARPANET AI/LISP/PDP-10 communities, including Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Carnegie Mellon...
– a glossary of hacker slang.