pith

n 1: soft spongelike central cylinder of the stems of most

flowering plants

2: the choicest or most essential or most vital part of some

idea or experience: "the gist of the prosecutor's

argument"; "the nub of the story" [syn: {kernel}, {substance},

{core}, {center}, {essence}, {gist}, {heart}, {inwardness},

{marrow}, {meat}, {nub}, {sum}, {nitty-gritty}]

path

1. A {bang path} or explicitly routed {Internet

address}; a node-by-node specification of a link between two

machines.

2. {pathname}.

3. The list of directories the kernel

(under {Unix}) or the command interpreter (under {MS-DOS})

searches for {executables}. It is stored as part of the

{environment} in both operating systems.

Other, similar constructs abound under Unix; the {C}

{preprocessor}, for example, uses such a search path to locate

"#include" files.

[{Jargon File}]

(1996-11-21)