[Unix/C hackers, from the Iberian dance] In C, a wild pointer that
runs out of bounds, causing a {core dump}, or corrupts the malloc(3)
{arena} in such a way as to cause mysterious failures later on, is
sometimes said to have `done a fandango on core'. On low-end personal
machines without an MMU (or Windows boxes, which have an MMU but use
it incompetently), this can corrupt the OS itself, causing massive
lossage. Other frenetic dances, such as the cha-cha or the watusi,
may be substituted. See {aliasing bug}, {precedence lossage}, {smash
the stack}, {memory leak}, {memory smash}, {overrun screw}, {core}.
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {aliasing bug}{C Programmer's Disease}{heisenbug}{memory leak}{memory smash}{nuke}{overrun screw}{precedence lossage}{secondary damage}{silly walk}{smash the stack}]