V.E.R.A. -- Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (February 2016):

DWIM
       Do What I Mean (telecommunication, Usenet, IRC)


The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003):

DWIM
 /dwim/

    [acronym, ?Do What I Mean?]

    1. adj. Able to guess, sometimes even correctly, the result intended when
    bogus input was provided.

    2. n. obs. The BBNLISP/INTERLISP function that attempted to accomplish this
    feat by correcting many of the more common errors. See hairy.

    3. Occasionally, an interjection hurled at a balky computer, esp. when one
    senses one might be tripping over legalisms (see legalese).

    4. Of a person, someone whose directions are incomprehensible and vague,
    but who nevertheless has the expectation that you will solve the problem
    using the specific method he/she has in mind.

    Warren Teitelman originally wrote DWIM to fix his typos and spelling
    errors, so it was somewhat idiosyncratic to his style, and would often make
    hash of anyone else's typos if they were stylistically different. Some
    victims of DWIM thus claimed that the acronym stood for ?Damn Warren?s
    Infernal Machine!'.

    In one notorious incident, Warren added a DWIM feature to the command
    interpreter used at Xerox PARC. One day another hacker there typed delete
    *$ to free up some disk space. (The editor there named backup files by
    appending $ to the original file name, so he was trying to delete any
    backup files left over from old editing sessions.) It happened that there
    weren't any editor backup files, so DWIM helpfully reported *$ not found,
    assuming you meant 'delete *'. It then started to delete all the files on
    the disk! The hacker managed to stop it with a Vulcan nerve pinch after
    only a half dozen or so files were lost.

    The disgruntled victim later said he had been sorely tempted to go to
    Warren's office, tie Warren down in his chair in front of his workstation,
    and then type delete *$ twice.

    DWIM is often suggested in jest as a desired feature for a complex program;
    it is also occasionally described as the single instruction the ideal
    computer would have. Back when proofs of program correctness were in vogue,
    there were also jokes about DWIMC (Do What I Mean, Correctly). A related
    term, more often seen as a verb, is DTRT (Do The Right Thing); see Right
    Thing.


The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):

DWIM

   /dwim/ [acronym, "Do What I Mean" (not what I say)] 1. Able to
   guess, sometimes even correctly, the result intended when
   bogus input was provided.

   2. The BBNLISP/INTERLISP function that attempted to accomplish
   this feat by correcting many of the more common errors.  See
   hairy.

   3. Occasionally, an interjection hurled at a balky computer,
   especially when one senses one might be tripping over
   legalisms (see legalese).

   Warren Teitelman originally wrote DWIM to fix his typos and
   spelling errors, so it was somewhat idiosyncratic to his
   style, and would often make hash of anyone else's typos if
   they were stylistically different.  Some victims of DWIM thus
   claimed that the acronym stood for "Damn Warren's Infernal
   Machine!'.

   In one notorious incident, Warren added a DWIM feature to the
   command interpreter used at Xerox PARC.  One day another
   hacker there typed "delete *$" to free up some disk space.
   (The editor there named backup files by appending "$" to the
   original file name, so he was trying to delete any backup
   files left over from old editing sessions.)  It happened that
   there weren't any editor backup files, so DWIM helpfully
   reported "*$ not found, assuming you meant 'delete *'".  It
   then started to delete all the files on the disk!  The hacker
   managed to stop it with a Vulcan nerve pinch after only a
   half dozen or so files were lost.

   The disgruntled victim later said he had been sorely tempted
   to go to Warren's office, tie Warren down in his chair in
   front of his workstation, and then type "delete *$" twice.

   DWIM is often suggested in jest as a desired feature for a
   complex program; it is also occasionally described as the
   single instruction the ideal computer would have.  Back when
   proofs of program correctness were in vogue, there were also
   jokes about "DWIMC" (Do What I Mean, Correctly).  A related
   term, more often seen as a verb, is DTRT (Do The Right Thing);
   see Right Thing.

   [Jargon File]