Amiga ISO Collection/AmigaDemoCD2.iso/ASCII/TEXTE/SCENE/HPA/HACKING/HACKLIFE.LZH/HACKLIFE.TXT

Text File | 1990-12-12 | 3.7 KB | 70 lines

            THE LIFE AND TIMES OF A HACKER
           -------------------------------
                  By DARRELL INCE

One of the most striking software phenomenons of the 1960s was the
disappearance of hackers - software staff with ingenious minds, who
knew every software trick and technique associated with a particular
operating system or application system.
The term has been hijacked ever since the 1970s to refer to those who
break into computer systems. But the original hacker were used to speed
up application programs, to track down subtle errors and to fit large
programs into limited memory space.
Two recent developments in software technology promise to provide the
conditions for a renaissance in this sort of legitmate HACKING. They are
the increasing use of prototyping tend to be only understanding by
staff with convoluted minds and a propensity of puzzle solving.
Unix is a good example of this - the techniques used to access some
of its facilities are arcane, to say the very least.
Developers are now finding that although their analysts are competent
in using prototypes and liasing with the customer, the actual building
of them depends on one or two talented programming staff - old style
hackers. The second development is the EEC law, which comes into force
next year, that makes it easier for an aggrieved customer to sue
a software developer who produces a system with a defect.
Currently, if a litigant wants to demonstrate the incompetence of a
software developer he would need to establish that a software task,
such as programming, has been badly carried out.
Next year the only fact that the litigant will have to establish, is
that there was an error in a software system, This is a much easier
undertaking and, consequently, has led to worries being expressed by
insurance companies.
Some have even said that they doubt whether they would be able to
issue product liability insurance for a year or two, until case
history is established.
The problem with producing software with no errors is that,
subsconsciously, the team that produces the software has a deep
attachment to it. Producing a software system is almost like fathering
a child. Even if your child is precocious, has no social graces and
is regarded by your friends as a danger area, you will hear no
criticism. Similarly, with software systems, there is often a major
block which prevents the development team responsible for software
systems from discovering serious errors.
One of the most successful ways of finding errors in a system is to
use, adversary teams. These are a motley collection of misfits and
hackers whose only function is to find errors, and who regard success
as finding test data which crashes a system.
These teams are modelled on the legendary black teams at IBM, who
would reduce programmers to tears and project managers to drink.
No software system was allowed out to a customer until it had been
tested by a black team. There merely presence in a building sharpened
up the error-detecting skills of development teams.
Hackers disappeared in the seventies for two reasons - software
projects became more disciplined and the social ineptitude of many
hackers prevented them from fitting in with colleagues.
However, the problems being encountered in finding out what a
customer requires from a system, and the even greater problems that
will emerge next year with product liability should ensure that
software developers will increasingly have to make a virtue out of the
skills and personality of the hacker.

The author is professor of computer science at the Open University



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