pnambic
/p▫-nam'bik/ (From the scene in the film, "The Wizard of Oz"
in which the true nature of the wizard is first discovered:
"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain"). A term
coined by Daniel Klein for a stage of
development of a process or function that, owing to incomplete
implementation or to the complexity of the system, requires
human interaction to simulate or replace some or all of its
actions, inputs or outputs. The term may also be applied to a
process or function whose apparent operations are wholly or
partially falsified or one requiring {prestidigitization}.
The ultimate pnambic product was "Dan Bricklin's Demo", a
program which supported flashy user-interface design
prototyping.
There is a related maxim among hackers: "Any sufficiently
advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo."
See {magic} for illumination of this point.
["Open Channel", IEEE "Computer", November 1981].
[{Jargon File}]
(1994-11-01)