mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate) (03/05/86)
Once again, spring is upon us, and it's time for the annual dirge said over hacking. No one is producing hackers anymore, they say. Well, I have a case to make against hacking. First let me identify what I mean when I use the word. I don't mean people who spend their time trying to break into systems (although a large proportion of these people do hack in sense that I use the word). Nor do I mean it simply as a label for someone who programs well. Hacking to me denotes a certain brilliant but somewhat erratic sort of programming style. It implies a certain lack of discipline. Now, I have nothing against a person who prefers to work more or less alone; nor do I disdain brilliance and flair. Cultivating a certain amount of personal eccentricity is, I feel, good for the soul. But there are many people out there who call themselves hackers who cannot really work cooperatively with others, who cannot document their work at any stage, and who seem to feel that programming requires a personality which combines the tact of a standup comic with the humility of an operatic diva. These people may write a lot of code, but they cause a lot of debugging, too. Hacking is like any other line of work in which people refuse to take any precautions. The only difference is that people don't usually get physically hurt in the process of software failure; but the elimination of this risk-taking would improve the world greatly when it comes to the torment of failed code and insufficient documentation. C. Wingate