On Monday 12 March 2001 13:05, Faisal Gillani wrote:

Hackers what does this mean i thaught it was a people who break other people systems in other words bad peoples but not what i read on this list .... so can you explain please ?????

anovo@friedman anovo > dict hacker 4 definitions found

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:

Hacker \Hack"er\, n. One who, or that which, hacks. Specifically: A cutting instrument for making notches; esp., one used for notching pine trees in collecting turpentine; a hack.

From WordNet (r) 1.6 [wn]:

hacker n 1: someone who plays golf poorly 2: a programmer for whom computing is its own reward; may enjoy the challenge of breaking into other computers 3: one who works hard at boring tasks [syn: {hack}, {drudge}]

From Jargon File (4.2.3, 23 NOV 2000) [jargon]:

hacker n. [originally, someone who makes furniture with an axe] 1. A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary. 2. One who programs enthusiastically (even obsessively) 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. 5. An expert at a particular program, or one who frequently does work using it or on it; as in `a Unix hacker'. (Definitions 1 through 5 are correlated, and people who fit them congregate.) 6. An expert or enthusiast of any kind. One might be an astronomy hacker, for example. 7. One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming or circumventing limitations. 8. [deprecated] A malicious meddler who tries to discover sensitive information by poking around. Hence `password hacker', `network hacker'. The correct term for this sense is {cracker}. The term `hacker' also tends to connote membership in the global community defined by the net (see {the network} and {Internet address}). For discussion of some of the basics of this culture, see the How To Become A Hacker (http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html) FAQ. It also implies that the person described is seen to subscribe to some version of the hacker ethic (see {hacker ethic}). It is better to be described as a hacker by others than to describe oneself that way. Hackers consider themselves something of an elite (a meritocracy based on ability), though one to which new members are gladly welcome. There is thus a certain ego satisfaction to be had in identifying yourself as a hacker (but if you claim to be one and are not, you'll quickly be labeled {bogus}). See also {wannabee}. This term seems to have been first adopted as a badge in the 1960s by the hacker culture surrounding TMRC and the MIT AI Lab. We have a report that it was used in a sense close to this entry's by teenage radio hams and electronics tinkerers in the mid-1950s.

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (19 Jan 01) [foldoc]:

hacker (Originally, someone who makes furniture with an axe) 1. A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary. 2. One who programs enthusiastically (even obsessively) 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. 5. An expert at a particular program, or one who frequently does work using it or on it; as in "a {Unix} hacker". (Definitions 1 through 5 are correlated, and people who fit them congregate.) 6. An expert or enthusiast of any kind. One might be an astronomy hacker, for example. 7. One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming or circumventing limitations. 8. (Deprecated) A malicious meddler who tries to discover sensitive information by poking around. Hence "password hacker", "network hacker". The correct term is {cracker}. The term "hacker" also tends to connote membership in the global community defined by the net (see {The Network} and {Internet address}). It also implies that the person described is seen to subscribe to some version of the {hacker ethic}. It is better to be described as a hacker by others than to describe oneself that way. Hackers consider themselves something of an elite (a meritocracy based on ability), though one to which new members are gladly welcome. Thus while it is gratifying to be called a hacker, false claimants to the title are quickly labelled as "{bogus}" or a "{wannabee}". 9. (University of Maryland, rare) A programmer who does not understand proper programming techniques and principles and doesn't have a Computer Science degree. Someone who just bangs on the keyboard until something happens. For example, "This program is nothing but {spaghetti code}. It must have been written by a hacker". [{Jargon File}] (1996-08-26) Hope it helps, _____________ Alvaro Novo SuSE 7.1 -=- Kernel 2.4.2-4 -=- KDE 2.1 12:08am up 2 days, 6:06, 3 users, load average: 0.31, 0.14, 0.10

On Monday 12 March 2001 14:05, Faisal Gillani wrote:

Hackers what does this mean i thaught it was a people who break other people systems in other words bad peoples but not what i read on this list .... so can you explain please ????? Faisal,

This is from the _XEmacs Internals Manual_ http://www.xemacs.org "XEmacs is a powerful, customizable text editor and development environment. It began as Lucid Emacs, which was in turn derived from GNU Emacs, a program written by Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation. GNU Emacs dates back to the 1970's, and was modelled after a package called \Emacs", written in 1976, that was a set of macros on top of TECO, an old, old text editor written at MIT on the DEC PDP 10 under one of the earliest time-sharing operating systems, ITS (Incompatible Timesharing System). (ITS dates back well before Unix.) ITS, TECO, and Emacs were products of a group of people at MIT who called themselves \hackers", who shared an idealistic belief system about the free exchange of information and were fanatical in their devotion to and time spent with computers. (The hacker subculture dates back to the late 1950's at MIT and is described in detail in Steven Levy's book Hackers. This book also includes a lot of information about Stallman himself and the development of Lisp, a programming language developed at MIT that underlies Emacs.)" Hacker can also mean a person who drives a taxi cab. The term hacking in its original sense means to cut with a tool such as a hatchet, ax, or heavy knife. How writing code, especially when it is done for fun, became known as hacking is not clear to me. I had Levy's book in my hand yesterday, but I didn't buy it because I didn't think I'd have time to read it. I have more pressing issues, such as getting this stupid XEmacs to compile! #$%^^#$^ Steve