From: Stephen M Jones
Subject: ESR is still losing
Date:
Message-ID: <DLt2Bv.BGz@cirr.com>
Apparently ESR subscribed this poor LISP hacker to his "jargon-helpers"
mailing list. I feel that the guy's message carries an even important
theme that we all should be aware of. And that is, you should NEVER
spell TECO tico. I do agree that there are absolutely no HACKS in UNIX.
How could there be since any UNIX kernel is a kludge to begin with.
-----------------
From: Daniel Finster <··@SDF.LONESTAR.ORG>
To: ···@LOCKE.CCIL.ORG
Subject: TNHD III is coming
Character-Type-Mappings: (1 0 (NIL 0) (:FIX :ITALIC :NORMAL) "CPTFONTI")
Fonts: CPTFONT, CPTFONTI
I don't know why I received this, or by what circumstance I was added
to JARGON-HELPERS, but since this mail is here, I'll go ahead and reply to
it.
From: "Eric S. Raymond" <···@locke.ccil.org>
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 1996 00:54:11 -0500 (EST)
I hope those of you with an editorial interest in the File will take some
time to review the new and changed entries since the Second Edition. If
you have jargon you've had mentally batched up to send me, now would be
a good time to do it.
I hope you have corrected the myriad errors, inaccuracies, and
distortions that can be found on almost every single page of TNHDII.
I threw away my copy in disgust quite a while back, so I can only give
you as examples the few things I remember clearly:
1/ The entry on Multics is completely wrong, except for the
(correct) definition of the acronym at the very top.
2/ All of the entries re: ITS, PDP-10's etc that were not copied
from _The Hackers Dictionary_ are wrong and/or misleading.
3/ The one or two entries that relate to LispM's are wrong.
It's obvious that under your supervision, the Jargon File has gone
from a bastion of 36-bitness to the degraded confusion of Eunuchs and
other disgusting 32-bit systems; its past glory has been shredded
away, and now it lies as a wretched, regurgitated corpse (just like the
computer systems it now relates to).
There is no such thing as a "Unix Hacker", because, under eunuchs all
you can do is LOSE LOSE LOSE! Not possible to hack in that
environment.
The incessant fawning over RMS and his communistic FSF is also
extremely annoying.
I and many other 36-bitters are disgusted by what the Jargon File has
become.
--
···@egsner.cirr.com (Stephen M. Jones)
BUGHLT KPALVH
Yeah, I have to agree, he hasn't changed one bit. He denies that he's
power-tripping, yet he threatens to kick me off his rubber-stamp mailing
list if I criticize him again. I'm calling his bluff, and am waiting to
see if he carries out his threat.
Reasoning with him doesn't seem to work. He's convinced that he, and he
alone, is the only one who can be trusted with control of the source file.
He claims it to be his "responsibility". What was once done by a
voluntary (as in "you want to join, welcome") collective of hackers has
become a one-man show.
By golly, he's convinced that he's on this lonely mission to do something
that nobody else wants to do, that he saved this "dead, abandoned
property", and that the whole world is on his side except for a "few
disgruntled losers" who torment him for no reason. He won't admit to
having done the slightest thing wrong or improper.
Now I know how the Xerox PARC guys felt about the Macintosh. ;-(
Or maybe how the Native Americans feel...fortunately, the loss of the
jargon file is nothing compared to the loss of your land, but it hurts
nonetheless.
-- Mark --
DoD #0105, R90/6 pilot, FAX: (206) 685-4045 ICBM: N 47 39'35" W 122 18'39"
Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate.
> Apparently ESR subscribed this poor LISP hacker to his "jargon-helpers"
> mailing list. I feel that the guy's message carries an even important
> theme that we all should be aware of. And that is, you should NEVER
> spell TECO tico. I do agree that there are absolutely no HACKS in UNIX.
> How could there be since any UNIX kernel is a kludge to begin with.
>
> -----------------
>
> From: Daniel Finster <··@SDF.LONESTAR.ORG>
> To: ···@LOCKE.CCIL.ORG
> Subject: TNHD III is coming
> Character-Type-Mappings: (1 0 (NIL 0) (:FIX :ITALIC :NORMAL) "CPTFONTI")
> Fonts: CPTFONT, CPTFONTI
>
[*snip*]
>
> I hope you have corrected the myriad errors, inaccuracies, and
> distortions that can be found on almost every single page of TNHDII.
[snipppety snip]
Is this true - is the new jargon file that inaccurate ? Or is it just
discontentment of a Lisp-hacker about the Unix/slant of TNHDII ? I recently
started reading the jargon file, but my hacking experience isn't that huge, so
I have no way of checking the truth. And if TNHDII is so wildly inaccurate, up
to what version is the jargon file accurate ? Enquiring Minds Want To Know.
PhA
----
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* Philip Arickx * Tax The Rat Farms *
* Consultant - CTG Belgium * - Lord Vetinari *
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