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From: inc@fluke.UUCP (Gary Benson)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: Hacking
Message-ID: <299@tpvax.fluke.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 14-Jun-84 13:27:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: tpvax.299
Posted: Thu Jun 14 13:27:56 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 16-Jun-84 03:49:57 EDT
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Organization: John Fluke Mfg. Co., Everett, WA
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Judy may not "hack" for a living according to the New Collegiate
Dictionary's definition, but I stand on the side of dynamism in language.
Latin is a dead language precisely because it was unable to change in
response to people's need to express new concepts. There is nothing at all
wrong with having a word serve two (or several) purposes.

I object to this word for two reasons: first, because it connotes all of the
other things in the traditional definitions. There is a difference in a
words "meaning" and its connotations. Words have flavors, sometimes subtle.
I really don't care how the media chooses to define "hacker", because I
believe in the right of all of us to be self-defining. The other thing I
find objectionable is that if it is used to refer to a profesional
programmer, it is probably the wrong word. A professional police officer
doesn't like being called a flat-foot, but he doesn't post endless articles
to his colleagues saying how much he doesn't like it. My point is that
*lots* of professions have such terms attached to them, and it really
doesn't hurt anybody. 

My own feeling is that when the dust settles there will be a new definition
added to the word hacker, viz:

hacker, n.  An inexperienced or unskillful computer programmer. Sometimes
	    also used to describe one who uses a computer for the
	    prepertration of crime or pranks.


As an aside, I would like to introduce a term I invented for my good friend,
Rick Chinn, the most accomplished hacker on the planet:  progbot.
(For "programming robot".) He seems to wear that badge with pride. And when
he calls *me* that, I feel like I've been admitted to a cozy little club. I
am not a programmer, but a technical writer, so it is often necessary for me to
throw together a quick hack to see how the software I'm documenting works.
Before any of my "programs" get published, however, they *always* are
proofread by a pro, and usually improved. My forte is the stuff to the right
of the comment marker. :-)

A good day to all you Progbots and Hackers! (and you too, Judy - say hi to
all your Professional Programmer friends!)


-- 
From the ever smiling,			 .).
ever happy fingers of:		          V

 Gary Benson		     +				+
 John Fluke Mfg. Co.	      ILLEGITIMI NON CARBORUNDUM
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