A {display hack} dating back to the PDP-1 (ca. 1962, reportedly
discovered by Jackson Wright), which employs a trivial computation
(repeatedly plotting the graph Y = X XOR T for successive values of T
-- see {HAKMEM} items 146--148) to produce an impressive display of
moving and growing squares that devour the screen. The initial value
of T is treated as a parameter, which, when well-chosen, can produce
amazing effects. Some of these, later (re)discovered on the LISP
machine, have been christened munching triangles (try AND for XOR and
toggling points instead of plotting them), munching w's, and munching
mazes. More generally, suppose a graphics program produces an
impressive and ever-changing display of some basic form, foo, on a
display terminal, and does it using a relatively simple program; then
the program (or the resulting display) is likely to be referred to as
munching foos. [This is a good example of the use of the word {foo}
as a {metasyntactic variable}.]
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {display hack}]