[no subject]

1. /n./ Originally, a quick job that produces what is needed, but not well. 

2. /n./ An incredibly good, and perhaps very time-consuming, piece of work that
produces exactly what is needed. 

3. /vt./ To bear emotionally or physically. "I can't hack this heat!" 

4. /vt./ To work on something (typically a program). In an immediate
sense: "What are you doing?" "I'm hacking TECO." In a general
(time-extended) sense: "What do you do around here?" "I hack TECO." More
generally, "I hack `foo"' is roughly equivalent to "`foo' is my major
interest (or project)". "I hack solid-state physics." See Hacking X for Y.


5. /vt./ To pull a prank on. See sense 2 and hacker (sense 5). 

6. /vi./ To interact with a computer in a playful and exploratory rather
than goal-directed way. "Whatcha up to?" "Oh, just hacking." 

7. /n./ Short for hacker. 

8. See nethack. 

9. [MIT] /v./ To explore the basements, roof ledges, and steam tunnels of
a large, institutional building, to the dismay of Physical Plant workers
and (since this is usually performed at educational institutions) the
Campus Police. This activity has been found to be eerily similar to
playing adventure games such as Dungeons and Dragons and Zork. See also
vadding. 

Constructions on this term abound. They include `happy hacking' (a
farewell), `how's hacking?' (a friendly greeting among hackers) and `hack,
hack' (a fairly
content-free but friendly comment, often used as a temporary farewell).
For more on this totipotent term see "The Meaning of `Hack'". See also
neat hack, real
hack. 

When used to describe software, as you've seen it, "hack" is probably used
in the first sense.

   -Jon

--
jon@bway.net
Spammers will be dealt with.