toy

A computer system; always used with qualifiers.

1. "nice toy": One that supports the speaker's hacking style

adequately.

2. "just a toy": A machine that yields insufficient

computrons for the speaker's preferred uses. This is not

condemnatory, as is bitty box; toys can at least be fun. It

is also strongly conditioned by one's expectations; Cray XMP

users sometimes consider the Cray-1 a "toy", and certainly all

RISC boxes and mainframes are toys by their standards. See

also Get a real computer!.

[Jargon File]