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SOS


SOS: n.,obs. /S-O-S/ 1. An infamously losing text editor.
   Once, back in the 1960s, when a text editor was needed for the
   PDP-6, a hacker crufted together a quick-and-dirty `stopgap
   editor' to be used until a better one was written.  Unfortunately,
   the old one was never really discarded when new ones (in
   particular, TECO) came along.  SOS is a descendant (`Son of
   Stopgap') of that editor, and many PDP-10 users gained the dubious
   pleasure of its acquaintance.  Since then other programs similar in
   style to SOS have been written, notably the early font editor BILOS
   /bye'lohs/, the Brother-In-Law Of Stopgap (the alternate expansion
   `Bastard Issue, Loins of Stopgap' has been proposed).  2. /sos/
   vt. To decrease; inverse of AOS, from the PDP-10 instruction
   set.