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bells and whistles: n. [common] Features added to a program or system to make it more
flavorful from a hacker's point of view, without
necessarily adding to its utility for its primary function. Distinguished
from chrome, which is intended to attract users.
“Now that we've got the basic program working, let's go back and add
some bells and whistles.” No one seems to know what distinguishes a
bell from a whistle. The recognized emphatic form is “bells,
whistles, and gongs”. It used to be thought that this term derived from the toyboxes on
theater organs. However, the “and gongs” strongly suggests a
different origin, at sea. Before powered horns, ships routinely used
bells, whistles, and gongs to signal each other over longer distances than
voice can carry.
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