program n.

1. A magic spell cast over a computer allowing it to turn one's input into error messages. 2. An exercise in experimental epistemology. 3. A form of art, ostensibly intended for the instruction of computers, which is nevertheless almost inevitably a failure if other programmers can't understand it.

--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.

A printed program is used at a variety of functions including, but not limited to: weddings, sporting events, meetings, and conventions. Programs can include lineups, as is the case with weddings and sports. The lineup at a wedding would be the bride, groom, bridesmaids, groomsmen, ushers, and family of the bride and groom. The lineup at a sporting event can include names of all the players, photographs of them, and maybe their stats. A program of conventions and meetings (this can also hold true for weddings) would hold a schedule of events or the order in which everything will play out.

A program in this context is, basically, not unlike a computer program, in that it is like a list of variables or instructions that dictate how something will play out when it is executed.

Pro"gram (?), n.

Same as Programme.

© Webster 1913.