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From: CHIASSON@DREA-XX.ARPA (Don Chiasson)
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Hackers
Message-ID: <879@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 22-Aug-85 07:22:31 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.879
Posted: Thu Aug 22 07:22:31 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 24-Aug-85 19:21:34 EDT
Sender: news@brl-tgr.ARPA
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     There has been some discussion on this bulletin board about the
meaning of the word 'hacker'.  When in doubt about the meaning of a
word, look it up in the dictionary:

From: "The Hacker's Dictionary" by Steele, Woods, Finkel,
      Crispin, Stallman, and Goodfellow; published by Harper
      and Row, 1983.

HACKER, noun
   1.   A person who enjoys learning the details of computer systems
        and how to stretch their capabilities--as opposed to most
        users of computers, who prefer to learn only the minimum 
        amount necessary.
   2.   One who programs enthusiastically, or who enjoys programming
        rather than just theorizing about programming.
   3.   A person capable of appreciating HACK VALUE.
   4.   A person who is good at programming quickly.  (By the way, 
        not everything a hacker produces is a hack.)
   5.   An expert on a particular program, or one who frequently
        does work on it.  Example: "A SAIL hacker."  (This 
        definition and the preceding ones are correlated, and people
        who fit them congregate.)
   6.   An expert of any kind.  One might be an astronomy
        hacker, for example.
   7.   A malicious or inquisitive meddler who tries to discover 
        information by poking around.  For example, a "password 
        hacker" is one who tries, possibly by deceptive or illegal
        means, to discover other people's computer passwords.  A
        "network hacker" is one who tries to learn about the
        computer network (possibly because he wants to improve
        it or possibly because he wants to interfere--one can
        tell the difference only by context and tone of voice).

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