Mumps

MUMPS is an acronym for Massachusettes General Hospital Utility Multi-Programming System. First developed in 1967, MUMPS is a database management system and programming language designed to process character based data. The data is stored in sparse hierarchical arrays called Globals.
The programming language, commonly referred to as M (or Open M), encourages very compact code. Each of the basic commands can be written as a single letter and intrinsic functions are called with a dollar sign followed by one or two letters. It is also fussy about spaces,sometimes one is need sometimes two. So if I wanted to print the contents of a simple Global (which are prefixed with a carat ^) called TEST the code would look something like this:

F  S A=$O(^TEST(A)) Q:A=""  D  ;
.S X=^TEST(A)
.W X,!

Debugging this stuff is laugh a minute. MUMPS mainly exists in legacy systems but there is a new product from InterSystems called Cache which is a web ready object oriented system based on MUMPS.

Mumps - Infectious Parotitis

Mumps is an acute viral disease that usually causes acute swelling and increased sensitivity of one or more of the saliva glands. I remember when I caught mumps as a young child: My cheeks became very tender and they were so swollen that I looked like a hampster storing food!

Mumps is most common during winter and spring and is spread by contact with the saliva or mucus of the infected person. An infected person is contagious for around a week and half when the symptoms first appear.

Mumps is most often found in young children, although cases of adult infection sometimes happen. Once recovered from the virus, the person is normally immune to further infection. In some adult male cases, infection with the mumps virus can lead to testicular swelling and even sterility.

Mumps is also linked to other afflictions such as (full or partial) temporary deafness, pancreatitis and disorders of the central nervous system, such as meningitis and encephalitis.

Young children are usually innoculated against mumps around their first birthday, usually in the form of the combined MMR 'jab'.

Mumps (?), n. [Prov. E. mump to be sulky. Cf. Mump, Mumble, and Mum.]

1. pl.

Sullenness; silent displeasure; the sulks.

Skinner.

2. [Prob. so called from the patient's appearance.] Med.

A specific infectious febrile disorder characterized by a nonsuppurative inflammation of the parotid glands; epidemic or infectious parotitis.

 

© Webster 1913.