[1] : Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (Version 1.9, June 2002)

tanstaafl
     there ain't no such thing as a free lunch telecommunication-slang,
     usenet
     
     

[2] : Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001)

tanstaafl /tan'stah-fl/ acronym, from robert heinlein's classic sf
   novel "the moon is a harsh mistress". "there ain't no such thing as a
   free lunch", often invoked when someone is balking at the prospect of
   using an unpleasantly heavyweight technique, or at the poor quality of
   some piece of software, or at the signal-to-noise ratio of unmoderated
   usenet newsgroups. "what? don't tell me i have to implement a database
   back end to get my address book program to work" "well, tanstaafl you
   know." this phrase owes some of its popularity to the high concentration
   of science-fiction fans and political libertarians in hackerdom see
   appendix b for discussion.

   outside hacker circles the variant tinstaafl "there is no such
   thing..." is apparently more common, and can be traced back to 1952 in
   the writings of ethicist alvin hansen. tanstaafl may well have arisen
   from it by mutation.


see also:
heavyweight signal-to-noise ratio appendix b 

[3] : The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)

tanstaafl
     
        /tan'stah-fl/ from robert heinlein's classic "the
        moon is a harsh mistress" "there ain't no such thing as a
        free lunch".
     
        often invoked when someone is balking at the prospect of using
        an unpleasantly heavyweight technique, or at the poor
        quality of some piece of free software, or at the
        signal-to-noise ratio of unmoderated usenet newsgroups.
        "what? don't tell me i have to implement a database back end
        to get my address book program to work"  "well, tanstaafl you
        know."  this phrase owes some of its popularity to the high
        concentration of science-fiction fans and political
        libertarians in hackerdom.
     
        jargon file
     
        1995-02-28
     
     
see also:
heavyweight free software signal-to-noise ratio usenet database jargon file 

Tanstaafl >> T Words
Tanstaafl, definition of term: Tanstaafl
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