bomb
1. General synonym for {crash} except that it is
not used as a noun. Especially used of software or {OS}
failures. "Don't run Empire with less than 32K stack, it'll
bomb".
2. {Atari ST} and {Macintosh} equivalents
of a {Unix} "{panic}" or {Amiga} {guru}, in which {icon}s of
little black-powder bombs or mushroom clouds are displayed,
indicating that the system has died. On the {Macintosh}, this
may be accompanied by a decimal (or occasionally
{hexadecimal}) number indicating what went wrong, similar to
the {Amiga} {guru meditation} number. {MS-DOS} computers tend
to {lock up} in this situation.
3. A piece of code embedded in a program that
remains dormant until it is triggered. Logic bombs are
triggered by an event whereas time bombs are triggered either
after a set amount of time has elapsed, or when a specific
date is reached.
[{Jargon File}]
(1996-12-08)