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1. [common] Said of a computer system with
excessive or annoying security barriers, usage limits, or access
policies. The implication is that said policies are preventing
hackers from getting interesting work done. The variant
`fascistic' seems to have been preferred at MIT, poss. by analogy
with `touristic' (see tourist or under the influence of
German/Yiddish `faschistisch'). 2. In the design of languages
and other software tools, `the fascist alternative' is the most
restrictive and structured way of capturing a particular function;
the implication is that this may be desirable in order to simplify
the implementation or provide tighter error checking. Compare
bondage-and-discipline language, although that term is global
rather than local.
