RTFS
/R-T-F-S/ [UNIX] 1. imp. Acronym for `Read The Fucking
Source'. Stronger form of
RTFM, used when the problem
at hand is not necessarily obvious and not available from
the manuals --- or the manuals are not yet written and maybe
never will be. For even more tricky situations, see
RTFB.
2. imp. `Read The Fucking Standard;' this oath can only be used when
the problem area (e.g. a language or operating system interface) has
actually been codified in a ratified standards document. The
existence of these standards documents (and the technically
inappropriate but politically mandated compromises which they
inevitably contain, and the stifling language in which they are
invariably written, and the unbelievably tedious bureaucratic process
by which they are produced) can be unnerving to hackers, who are used
to a certain amount of ambiguity in the specifications of the systems
they use. (Hackers feel that such ambiguities are acceptable as long
as the
Right Thing to do is obvious to any thinking observer;
sadly, this casual attitude towards specifications becomes unworkable
when a system becomes popular in the
real world.) Since a hacker
is likely to feel that a standards document is both unnecessary and
technically deficient, the deprecation inherent in this term may be
directed as much against the standard as against the person who ought
to read it.
