2003/09/22 magic number, automagically, magic cookie, pfm
© September 2003 Tony Lawrence
A magic number and a magic cookie are closely related. The "magic" part is a sequence of bytes that is otherwise meaningless but has some signifigance to a particular program or programs. I use a magic cookie to separate these definitions in the raw data file I keep them in. It's just a string of letters and numbers that I'd never type, so it can separate entries.
Magic numbers are also used in the the first few bytes of executables to help loaders determine what needs to be done, and often in data files to help apps figure out how to handle them.
A magic cookie is similar, but it's something passed between programs, perhaps for authentication or session tracking purposes. It's exactly the same purpose as a web cookie that helps the site know your preferences when you return for another visit.
When something is done automagically, it means that you either don't know the mechanics behind it or it's too obviously trivial to bother describing. It can also be used in a sarcastic sense to describe something that can't actually happen, or is bloody unlikely. You can also use it when you desparately need to fill in some gap in the chain of hoped for events you are building, but at the moment have no idea how to do that. In this sense it's almost interchangeable with "and then a miracle happens".
Related to that thought is "pfm", which is the polite abbreviation of "pure effing magic", which can be an expression of how some unlikely task will be accomplished or could be an honest expression of admiration. It's also sometimes used as a replacement for "that part is none of your business".
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"A magic cookie is similar, but it's something passed between programs, perhaps for authentication or session tracking purposes."
Magic cookie has also been used to refer to the behavior of some ancient dumb terminals when encountering an escape sequence meant to change a character attribute. The attribute change consumed a physical screen position -- the cursor actually moved, the visual result being the "magic cookie." It was a real hassle to produce a reasonably attractive display with such a terminal. Therefore, I had a much less polite way to describe this effect.
"Related to that thought is 'pfm', which is the polite abbreviation of 'pure effing magic'..."
I first heard that expression in the mid-1960's, while in the U.S. Navy. At my alma mater (the Great Lakes Training Center north of Chicago), there was a humongous vacuum tube computer that could perform ballistics calculations. The machine was quite cranky and didn't always do as it was told (one time it said to depress the guns a couple of degrees below the horizon in order to hit a target 15 miles out -- definitely a good way to kill some whales). When that sort of nonsense occurred, it was "fm," no 'p' being used. Non-technical types who heard us say "fm" thought we were referring to radio broadcasting.
--BigDumbDinosaur
---January 3, 2005
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pfm Copyright © September 2003 Tony Lawrence
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