Re: What is a "hack"?

[mairsil@my-dejanews.com]

In article <7acnmh$s4o@post.gsfc.nasa.gov>,
  Geraldine.A.Wright.1@gsfc.nasa.gov (Geraldine Wright) wrote:
> I don't mean to sound stupid, but...
>
> At one time I thought a hack was an attempt to illegally access a computer
> network which you were not authorized to be on. Now I see it used to
> describe software, but I'm not quite sure what is wrong with the software
> that it's used to describe.

Well, here's the story I heard: back in the dark ages, when the only way to
get access to a computer was to attend college at MIT, there were programmers
who likend programming to the people who used to use chainsaws to make
furniture, and called it hacking. "Hacking out code" was what a programmer
called what he was doing. A good "hack" was a program that did what the end
user wanted, in as little code as possible. At some point, certain professors
felt that only they should be allowed to use certain terminals, and kept them
in a locked room. Some students didn't like that idea, so they found ways of
getting into those locked rooms, and letting the professor know (without
giving out who they were) that access to the computer should NOT be
restricted.

Later on, somewhere down the line, the media picked up on the term "hacking"
and applied it to any illegal break-in to a mainframe computer, which is what
most people think hacking is these days.

Having said all that, I'm sure someone will come along and say this part or
that part is all wrong, or I've gotten something screwed up, so I'm going to
say that what I just told you isn't some kind of dogma, it's just what I
remembered hearing back when I was in college.



Ralph Glatt

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