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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!gatech!gitpyr!robert
From: robert@gitpyr.UUCP (Robert Viduya)
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Re: hackers
Message-ID: <416@gitpyr.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 13-Dec-84 01:22:29 EST
Article-I.D.: gitpyr.416
Posted: Thu Dec 13 01:22:29 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 14-Dec-84 07:11:12 EST
References: <361@wxlvax.UUCP> <17762@lanl.ARPA>
Organization: Georgia Tech, Atlanta
Lines: 34

><
> 
> I still can't figure out why any legitimate computer user would use the
> term 'hacker' to describe himself (herself).  'Hacker' has ALWAYS been
> a derogatory term in the computer industry; refering, as it does, to
> a computer trickster who is not interested in learning the discipline
> or techniques required to program professionally.
>

I disagree.  The word 'Hacker' has not always been a derogatory term.
When I first learned the word, it meant someone who spent most of his
time on a computer just for the hell of it.  It was not a derogatory
term.  That was the definition I learned and it's the definition I'll
stick by.  I consider myself to be a hacker, and I assure you that
I have been, and currently am, a legitimate computer user.

As for learning the discipline and techniques required to program prof-
essionally, I can honestly say that I've learned more of both of them
from my own work than from any class I've attended.  I've been coding
now for about 4 years (a babe in the woods compared to some people out
there) and I can look back at the programs I've written over those 4
years and see how my programming style has changed.  I've learned the
necessity of clean, well-structured and well-commented code from de-
buging both my own and other people's code.

			robert
-- 
Robert Viduya
Office of Computing Services
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta GA 30332
Phone:  (404) 894-4669

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