Hexspeak
Hexspeak (from hexadecimal and English to speak = to speak) are numbers in hexadecimal notation, which can also be read as words in the mostly English language , for example the decimal number 57005
in hexadecimal representation is DEAD
( dead ). German-speaking developers also use German word combinations such as BADEAFFE
.
Hexspeak was invented by programmers who needed a magic number as a unique identifier to mark data or memory areas . In the hexadecimal representation, in addition to Arabic numerals and the letters from the Latin alphabet are used, some numbers may look like readable English words, with the numeric occasionally according Leetspeak represent letters (eg. As the digit the letters represent ).
0123456789
ABCDEF
5
S
Common Hexspeak Numbers
Currently (2010) the more frequently used hex-peak numbers have a length of 32 bits (corresponding to 8 hexadecimal digits) due to the 32-bit architecture widespread in today's computer systems . With the increasing emergence of 64-bit systems, hex-peak numbers with 64-bit are also more common, but they are still rather rare, as are hex-peak numbers with 16-bit.
Well-known Hexspeak numbers are for example:
Hexadecimal number | English | German (roughly) |
---|---|---|
0xDEADBEEF
|
dead beef | dead beef |
0xDECAFBAD
|
decaf bath | decaffeinated (is) bad |
0xCAFEBABE
|
cafe babe | Cafe hearts |
0xC001CAFE
|
cool cafe | cold coffee |
0xBAADF00D
|
bad food | bad food |
0xBAADFEED
|
bad feed | bad feed |
0xC0EDBABE
|
coed babe | beautiful student |
0x1FEDBEEF
|
one fed beef | a fed cattle |
0xBADCAB1E
|
bad cable | bad cable |
0xBADC0DED
|
bad coded | badly programmed |
0xC001D00D
|
cool dood | cool guy |
0xDEADC0DE
|
dead code | dead code |
0xDEADDA7A
|
dead data | dead data |
0x1BADBABE
|
one bad babe | a lousy babe |
0xC0CAC01A 0xADD511FE
|
coca cola adds life | Coca-Cola refreshes |
0xC0DEBA5E
|
codebase | Codebase (complete source code of an application) |
0xABAD1DEA
|
a bad idea | a bad idea |
0xBA55
|
bass | bass |
0xBADA55
|
bad ass | crass guy |
0xB16B00B5
|
big boobs | big boobs |
0xBADEAFFE
|
Bathing monkey | |
0xAFFED00F
|
Monkey stupid | |
0xBADB007
|
bad boat | Bad loading process ( booting ) |
Hexspeak numbers as magic numbers
Many processors , operating systems, and debuggers make use of magic numbers ; Hexspeak numbers are often chosen for quick identification.
Well-known examples:
-
0xABADBABE
(a bad babe) is the magic number for the Boot Zero Block at Apple . -
0xBAADF00D
(bad food) is used in Microsoft's functionLocalAlloc(LMEM_FIXED)
to identify unused heap memory. -
0xDEADBEEF
(dead beef) is used as the magic debug number on IBM's RS / 6000 systems and on computers with Mac OS on 32-bit PowerPC processors . -
0xFEE1DEAD
(feel dead) is the Linux - system callreboot()
used. -
0xCAFEBABE
(cafe babe) is the magic number of all Java class files. -
0xBADCAB1E
(bad cable) is used in Embedded Visual Studio by the on-device debugger if the connection from the debugger to the device was interrupted during debugging. -
0xFEEDC0DE
(feed code) was used in the OS-9 operating system as an initialization value for unused memory. -
0xDEADFACE
In the OS-9 operating system, (dead face) was a magic number at the beginning of the heading of a module.
Other notations
As in the examples above, the C programming language also uses the prefix to identify a character string as a hexadecimal number. This prefix is usually ignored when interpreting a hexspeak number as English text. A counterexample is the network management system CA Spectrum , which uses the TCP port for communication between server and client systems, which is read in C notation as , i.e. Ox beef (German: Ochsenfleisch ). Since this port specification is often required when programming your own applications, an easy-to-remember donkey bridge was created here.
0x
48879
0xbeef
Such markings can also be part of the English text in other notations. Examples:
- In x86 - Assembler hexadecimal numbers with a suffix
h
marked. For example, here would be a Hexspeak number0FEEDADEADF15h
( feed a dead fish ). - In the Pascal programming language and other assemblers, hexadecimal numbers are
$
preceded by a. This means that hex-peak numbers are possible like$EED
( seed , the default value of a pseudo-random number generator ).
Web links
- HexOddities - a collection of Hexspeak numbers
- DEADBEEF . Jargon File
- Why CAFEBABE? Newsgroup discussion
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dean Howell: Dear Microsoft, Thanks For The 0xB16B00B5 ( Memento of the original from April 12, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved July 21, 2012.
- ^ Dave Falkenburg, Brian Topping: Debugging on PowerPC. Retrieved April 18, 2008 .
- Jump up ↑ man page for reboot (2). Retrieved April 18, 2008 .
- ↑ VM Spec: The class File Format. In: The Java Virtual Machine Specification. Retrieved September 8, 2015 .