handle: n. 1. [from CB slang] An electronic pseudonym; a `nom
de guerre' intended to conceal the user's true identity. Network
and BBS handles function as the same sort of simultaneous
concealment and display one finds on Citizen's Band radio, from
which the term was adopted. Use of grandiose handles is
characteristic of warez d00dz, crackers, weenies, spods, and
other lower forms of network life; true hackers travel on their own
reputations rather than invented legendry. Compare nick, screen
name. 2. A magic cookie, often in the form of a numeric index
into some array somewhere, through which you can manipulate an
object like a file or window. The form `file handle' is especially
common. 3. [Mac] A pointer to a pointer to dynamically-allocated
memory; the extra level of indirection allows on-the-fly memory
compaction (to cut down on fragmentation) or aging out of unused
resources, with minimal impact on the (possibly multiple) parts of
the larger program containing references to the allocated memory.
Compare snap (to snap a handle would defeat its purpose); see also
aliasing bug, dangling pointer.
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