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

tmrc /tmerk'/ n. the tech model railroad club at mit, one of the
   wellsprings of hacker culture. the 1959 "dictionary of the tmrc
   language" compiled by peter samson included several terms that became
   basics of the hackish vocabulary see esp. foo, mung, and frob.

   by 1962, tmrc's legendary layout was already a marvel of complexity
   and has grown in the years since. all the features described here were
   still present when the old layout was decomissioned in 1998 just before
   the demolition of mit building 20, and will almost certainly be retained
   when the old layout is rebuilt expected in 2003. the control system
   alone featured about 1200 relays. there were scram switches located at
   numerous places around the room that could be thwacked if something
   undesirable was about to occur, such as a train going full-bore at an
   obstruction. another feature of the system was a digital clock on the
   dispatch board, which was itself something of a wonder in those bygone
   days before cheap leds and seven-segment displays. when someone hit a
   scram switch the clock stopped and the display was replaced with the
   word `foo'; at tmrc the scram switches are therefore called `foo
   switches'.

   steven levy, in his book "hackers" see the bibliography in appendix
   c, gives a stimulating account of those early years. tmrc's signals and
   power committee included many of the early pdp-1 hackers and the people
   who later became the core of the mit ai lab staff. thirty years later
   that connection is still very much alive, and this lexicon accordingly
   includes a number of entries from a recent revision of the tmrc
   dictionary.

   tmrc has a web page at `http://tmrc-www.mit.edu'. the tmrc dictionary
   is available there, at `http://tmrc-www.mit.edu/dictionary.html'.


see also:
foo mung frob scram switch bibliography 

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

tmrc
     
        /tmerk'/ the tech model railroad club at mit, one of the
        wellsprings of hacker culture.  the 1959 "dictionary of the
        tmrc language" compiled by peter samson included several terms
        that became basics of the hackish vocabulary see especially
        foo, mung, and frob.
     
        by 1962, tmrc's legendary layout was already a marvel of
        complexity and has grown in the thirty years since; all the
        features described here are still present.  the control
        system alone featured about 1200 relays.  there were scram
        switches located at numerous places around the room that
        could be thwacked if something undesirable was about to occur,
        such as a train going full-bore at an obstruction.  another
        feature of the system was a digital clock on the dispatch
        board, which was itself something of a wonder in those bygone
        days before cheap leds and seven-segment displays.  when
        someone hit a scram switch the clock stopped and the display
        was replaced with the word "foo"; at tmrc the scram switches
        are therefore called "foo switches".
     
        steven levy, in his book "hackers", gives a stimulating
        account of those early years.  tmrc's power and signals group
        included most of the early pdp-1 hackers and the people who
        later bacame the core of the mit ai lab staff.  thirty
        years later that connection is still very much alive, and this
        dictionary accordingly includes a number of entries from a
        recent revision of the tmrc dictionary via the hacker jargon
        file.
     
        jargon file
     
     
see also:
mit hacker foo mung frob scram switch 
pdp-1 ai lab jargon file 

Tmrc >> T Words
Tmrc, definition of term: Tmrc
tmrc_pag1.html