NetNews Offline 2/NetNews Offline Volume 2.iso/news/comp/lang/c++-part2/11998

Text File | 1996-08-05 | 4.5 KB | 110 lines

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From: [e-mail] (gregg jennings)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.eiffel,comp.lang.c,comp.object,comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Beware of "C" Hackers -- A rebuttal to Bertrand Meyer
Date: 17 Mar 1996 17:31:44 GMT
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In article <4ieue9$[e-mail]>, [e-mail]┌ says...
>
>While agree with Meyer on this point, it's important to note that not all
>C programmers are bad hackers.  Due to the low level aspects of C it is
>going to attract those who place project implementation above its logical
>side, those whom worship the computer, etc.  But it also attracts
>programmers who practice good and even greaat analysis, design and
>implementation.
>

This term, "Hackers", has been changing over the years, mostly,
I think, due to people writing about "Hackers" in newspapers
when they really mean "Crackers".  But someone who equates
hackers with poor C programming is just plain ignorant about
the history of technology.

The "Hacker ethic" is as old as technology itself although the
word is a modern one.  The hacker in computer terms derived,
I think, from the early days a MIT.  Read the book "Hackers"
by Steven Levy, 1984.  Later references to hackers and hacking
have changed the meaning.  Bruce Sterling says in his book
"The Hacker Crackdown" (1992); "This book ... has little to
say about `hacking' in it's finer, original sense."

Another change in the meaning is due to "self-called hackers"
(real hackers don't call themselves that) roaming BBS's and
computer internetworks declaring that all computers and infor-
mation should be free and open.

From there, to force this free and open ethic, came the crackers.

That someone thinks of hackers as hacks is just shows a that
they have a complete lack of knowledge of technological history.

Here are some great "hackers" of history:

   Leonardo da Vinci
   Benjamin Franklin
   Thomas Edison
   Nikola Tesla
   Alan Turing

There are thousands more.

Here's an example (based on the book "Appointment on the Moon"
by Richard S. Lewis):

In the early 1950's, the U.S. embarked on a project to launch a
satellite.  There were two projects.  The Army "Project Orbiter"
headed up by Wernher Von Braun and many German emigres.  And the
Navy "Vangaurd Project".

The Army rocket, the Jupiter C, was done mostly "in house"; the
desgin and manufacturing was done mostly by the scientists
themselves.  It was a four-stage design; the second and third
stages where spin stabilized, they actually rotated before and
during flight.  It would have a 10 pound satellite.

The Naval rocket was done by large corporations such as Martin Co.
and General Electric.  It was a three-stage design with a 20
pound payload.

Due to an Ad Hoc Committee's recomendation, based on "technical
reccommendations of the Advisory Group", the Vangaurd project
was chosen to be first.  The Jupiter C was considered to be a
"messy design", although "it was quick enough and efficient
enough to do the job".  The Vangaurd appeared to be "less
inherently complex."

The first 3 tests of the Jupiter C, all before the Sputnik,
where not allowed to actually carry a payload (they were launched
before the Vangaurd) but proved successful -- the third flight
could have put up a satellite if they where allowed to.

The Vangaurd had not had any real tests before Sputnik.  After
Sputnik, the two Vangaurds both blew up -- to the ridicule of
the world.

The Jupiter C was then given the go ahead.  When the German
scientists saw the concrete platforms at Cape Canaveral, they
shook their heads in wonder and said they would just use portable
steel platforms and cool them with liquid oxygen.

It was again successful and launched a satellite.  The telemetry
was late in coming in.  When Von Braun was given the news when it
did come in, he looked at his watch, and said in a flat voice,
"She is eight minutes late. Interesting."  Hacker mentality to the
end.

If the "messy" design was allowed to go first by the "Committee",
perhaps 20 years of the "duck and cover" paranoid brainwashing of
the american people could have been prevented.

The hacker ethic is NOT just C programming.