RTFS

RTFS /R-T-F-S/  [UNIX] 1. imp. Acronym for `Read The
   Fucking Source'.  Variant form of {RTFM}, used when the problem
   at hand is not necessarily obvious and not answerable from the
   manuals -- or the manuals are not yet written and maybe never will
   be.  For even trickier situations, see {RTFB}.  Unlike RTFM, the
   anger inherent in RTFS is not usually directed at the person asking
   the question, but rather at the people who failed to provide
   adequate documentation.  2. imp. `Read The Fucking Standard'; this
   oath can only be used when the problem area (e.g., a language or
   operating system interface) has actually been codified in a
   ratified standards document.  The existence of these standards
   documents (and the technically inappropriate but politically
   mandated compromises that they inevitably contain, and the
   impenetrable {legalese} in which they are invariably written,
   and the unbelievably tedious bureaucratic process by which they are
   produced) can be unnerving to hackers, who are used to a certain
   amount of ambiguity in the specifications of the systems they use.
   (Hackers feel that such ambiguities are acceptable as long as the
   {Right Thing} to do is obvious to any thinking observer; sadly,
   this casual attitude towards specifications becomes unworkable when
   a system becomes popular in the {Real World}.)  Since a hacker
   is likely to feel that a standards document is both unnecessary and
   technically deficient, the deprecation inherent in this term may be
   directed as much against the standard as against the person who
   ought to read it.



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