Hackers (was Is General Kind)

[breland@mcc.com (Mark A. Breland)]

In article 1pirdgINNs48@shelley.u.washington.edu, bketcham@stein2.u.washington.edu (Benjamin Ketcham) writes:
>
>Since nobody else has spoken up about this yet, I may as well mention it:
>
>The term "hacker" describes a culture of programmers who program for
>enjoyment, as well as, often, for work.  The hacker culture espouses the
>values of robustness and quality in software, and eschews kluge artistry.
>
>The term "hacker" has been imprecisely applied by the media to refer to
>persons who break security on shared computer systems, and/or write and
>disseminate software viruses.  The true hacker culture has nothing but
>contempt for these people.

While I would agree with your latter point of the media misapplying the
term "hacker" to e-burglars, I am in diametrical opposition to your
assertion that a true hacker "eschews kluge artistry."  Without igniting
any language flame wars, the definition of hacker that I am familiar with
(and have sadly had to experience in previous incarnations) more closely
adheres to the following:

  "What's the problem?  OK.  Gotta spec?  Great...I'll get back to ya."

  [...six weeks later...]

  "Here, how's this look?...great graphics, huh?!...oh, wrong functionality?
   OK,...I'll get back to ya."

  [...eight weeks later...]

   "Alright, everythings cool now.  What?...it crashed?  Well, it only
    handles the left mouse button.  ALRIGHT ALREADY...I'll FIX it!"

  [...four weeks later...]

   "Put an exception handler in every routine so it won't crash...but the
   performance may require more cycles and I/O channels.  Oh, there are
   no more available resources?  Hmmmm.  What?...a design document?...
   traceability?...capacity and throughput analysis?...what are those?
   Aren't ya supposed to just code to fit the spec?...oh, by the way,
   I'll get to those inline comments after I finish this next project..."

---
Mark A. Breland - Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC)
Ada Fault Tolerance                               | voice:    (512) 338-3509
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