pike

n 1: a broad highway designed for high-speed traffic [syn: {expressway},

{freeway}, {motorway}, {state highway}, {superhighway},

{throughway}, {thruway}]

2: highly valued lean-fleshed northern fish

3: a sharp point (as on the end of a spear)

4: medieval weapon consisting of a spearhead attached to a long

pole or pikestaff; superseded by the bayonet

5: any of several elongate long-snouted freshwater game and

food fishes widely distributed in cooler parts of the

northern hemisphere

dike

To remove or disable a portion of something, as a wire from a

computer or a subroutine from a program. A standard slogan is

"When in doubt, dike it out". (The implication is that it is

usually more effective to attack software problems by reducing

complexity than by increasing it.) The word "dikes" is widely

used among mechanics and engineers to mean "diagonal cutters",

especially the heavy-duty metal-cutting version, but may also

refer to a kind of wire-cutters used by electronics

technicians. To "dike something out" means to use such

cutters to remove something. Indeed, the TMRC Dictionary

defined dike as "to attack with dikes". Among hackers this

term has been metaphorically extended to informational objects

such as sections of code.

[{Jargon File}]