from
Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003)
glitch
/glich/
[very common; from German `glitschig' slippery, via Yiddish
`glitshen', to slide or skid]
1. n. A sudden interruption in electric service, sanity, continuity,
or program function. Sometimes recoverable. An interruption in
electric service is specifically called a power glitch (also {power
hit}), of grave concern because it usually crashes all the computers.
In jargon, though, a hacker who got to the middle of a sentence and
then forgot how he or she intended to complete it might say, "Sorry, I
just glitched".
2. vi. To commit a glitch. See {gritch}.
3. vt. [Stanford] To scroll a display screen, esp. several lines at a
time. {WAITS} terminals used to do this in order to avoid continuous
scrolling, which is distracting to the eye.
4. obs. Same as {magic cookie}, sense 2.
All these uses of glitch derive from the specific technical meaning
the term has in the electronic hardware world, where it is now
techspeak. A glitch can occur when the inputs of a circuit change, and
the outputs change to some {random} value for some very brief time
before they settle down to the correct value. If another circuit
inspects the output at just the wrong time, reading the random value,
the results can be very wrong and very hard to debug (a glitch is one
of many causes of electronic {heisenbug}s).
from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
glitch
/glich/ [German "glitschen" to slip, via Yiddish "glitshen",
to slide or skid] 1. (Electronics) When the inputs of a
circuit change, and the outputs change to some {random} value
for some very brief time before they settle down to the
correct value. If another circuit inspects the output at just
the wrong time, reading the random value, the results can be
very wrong and very hard to debug (a glitch is one of many
causes of electronic {heisenbugs}).
2. A sudden interruption in electric service, sanity,
continuity, or program function. Sometimes recoverable. An
interruption in electric service is specifically called a
"power glitch" (or {power hit}), of grave concern because it
usually crashes all the computers. See also {gritch}.
2. [Stanford] To scroll a display screen, especially several
lines at a time. {WAITS} terminals used to do this in order
to avoid continuous scrolling, which is distracting to the
eye.
4. Obsolete. Same as {magic cookie}.
[{Jargon File}]