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random numbers) and why the winningest chess program of 1990 was called 'Deep Thought'. |
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The Tao of Programming
James Geoffrey
Infobooks, 1987
ISBN 0-931137-07-1 |
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This gentle, funny spoof of the Tao Te Ching contains much that is illuminating about the hacker way of thought. "When you have learned to snatch the error code from the trap frame, it will be time for you to leave." |
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Hackers
Steven Levy
Anchor/Doubleday 1984
ISBN 0-385-19195-2 |
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Levy's book is at its best in describing the early MIT hackers at the Model Railroad Club and the early days of the microcomputer revolution. He never understood Unix or the networks, though, and his enshrinement of Richard Stallman as "the last true hacker" turns out (thankfully) to have been quite misleading. Numerous minor factual errors also mar the text; for example, Levy's claim that the original Jargon File derived from the TMRC Dictionary (the File originated at Stanford and was brought to MIT in 1976; the co-authors of the first edition had never seen the dictionary in question). There are also numerous misspellings in the book that inflame the passions of old-timers; as Dan Murphy, the author of TECO, once said: "You would have thought he'd take the trouble to spell the name of a winning editor right." Nevertheless, this remains a useful and stimulating book that captures the feel of several important hackish subcultures. |
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The Computer Contradictionary
Stan Kelly-Bootle
MIT Press, 1995
ISBN 0-262-61112-0 |
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This pastiche of Ambrose Bierce's famous work is similar in format to the Jargon File (and quotes several entries from TNHD-2) but somewhat different in tone and intent. It is more satirical and less anthropological, and is largely a product of the author's literate and quirky imagination. For example, it defines 'computer science' as "a study akin to numerology and astrology, but lacking the precision of the former and the success of the latter" and 'implementation' as "The fruitless struggle by the talented and underpaid |
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