Re: Teaching Python

Date	2011-04-21 17:11 +0100
From	MRAB <python@mrabarnett.plus.com>
Subject	Re: Teaching Python
References	(1 earlier) <BANLkTimG8Ed_cV6TKaNx4FCV23mcd3upNQ@mail.gmail.com> <mailman.587.1303255452.9059.python-list@python.org> <87d3kheqgs.fsf@benfinney.id.au> <iooa80$qc3$1@dough.gmane.org> <20110421135810.GA9878@Smoke>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.python
Message-ID	<mailman.707.1303402302.9059.python-list@python.org> (permalink)

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On 21/04/2011 14:58, Westley Martínez wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 06:02:08AM +0200, Stefan Behnel wrote:
>> Ben Finney, 20.04.2011 02:06:
>>> Dan Stromberg writes:
>>>
>>>> On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 4:03 PM, geremy condra wrote:
>>>>> When you say 'hacking', you mean.... ?
>>>>
>>>> Presumably he meant the real meaning of the word, not what the press
>>>> made up and ran with.
>>>
>>> To be fair, the press already had its own pejorative meaning of “hack”
>>> before the engineering and computing term
>>
>> Not anywhere outside of the English language that I'm aware of,
>> though. In German, it's a computing-only term that's used in both
>> contexts by those who understand why the pointer is moving over the
>> screen when moving the mouse, and almost exclusively in a bad
>> context by those who write news paper articles (and, consequently,
>> by those who innocently read them).
>>
>> Stefan
>>
>> --
>> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
>
> O Lord, I'd hope we'd be speaking for English here.  But really, hack
> has always been a negative term.  It's original definition is chopping,
> breaking down, kind of like chopping down the security on someone elses
> computer.  Now I don't know where the term originally came from, but the
> definition the media uses is quite a fair use.  Why should we call
> ourselves hackers anyways?  I don't smoke.  I'm no different from anyone
> else, I just happen to know a lot about computers.  Should we call
> people who know a lot about the economy hackers, too, or perhaps we
> should call them economists....

As I understand it, "hacking" is about not doing the job "properly".
When trying to make something, a hacker will use the equivalent of duct
tape to hold things together.

A computer hacker doesn't write the requirements of the software or
draw Jackson Structured Programming diagrams, etc, but just thinks
about what's needed and starts writing the code.

Thread

Teaching Python Passiday <passiday@gmail.com> - 2011-04-19 15:42 -0700
  Re: Teaching Python geremy condra <debatem1@gmail.com> - 2011-04-19 16:03 -0700
    Re: Teaching Python Sourav <souravmishra26@gmail.com> - 2011-04-19 20:48 -0700
      Re: Teaching Python Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-04-20 14:09 +1000
        Re: Teaching Python harrismh777 <harrismh777@charter.net> - 2011-04-20 22:38 -0500
  Re: Teaching Python Dan Stromberg <drsalists@gmail.com> - 2011-04-19 16:24 -0700
    Re: Teaching Python Ben Finney <ben+python@benfinney.id.au> - 2011-04-20 10:06 +1000
      Re: Teaching Python Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com> - 2011-04-19 21:01 -0700
      Re: Teaching Python Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2011-04-20 10:17 +0000
        Re: Teaching Python Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2011-04-20 18:04 -0400
        Re: Teaching Python Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-04-20 21:27 +1000
      Re: Teaching Python Stefan Behnel <stefan_ml@behnel.de> - 2011-04-21 06:02 +0200
      Re: Teaching Python Westley Martínez <anikom15@gmail.com> - 2011-04-21 06:58 -0700
      Re: Teaching Python MRAB <python@mrabarnett.plus.com> - 2011-04-21 17:11 +0100
        Re: Teaching Python harrismh777 <harrismh777@charter.net> - 2011-04-22 00:49 -0500
      Re: Teaching Python Westley Martínez <anikom15@gmail.com> - 2011-04-21 15:36 -0700
        Re: Teaching Python harrismh777 <harrismh777@charter.net> - 2011-04-22 01:04 -0500
          Re: Teaching Python Westley Martínez <anikom15@gmail.com> - 2011-04-22 06:49 -0700
      Re: Teaching Python MRAB <python@mrabarnett.plus.com> - 2011-04-22 01:25 +0100
        Re: Teaching Python harrismh777 <harrismh777@charter.net> - 2011-04-22 00:40 -0500
      Re: Teaching Python Westley Martínez <anikom15@gmail.com> - 2011-04-21 18:39 -0700
  Re: Teaching Python Dan Stromberg <drsalists@gmail.com> - 2011-04-19 16:26 -0700
  Re: Teaching Python geremy condra <debatem1@gmail.com> - 2011-04-19 16:35 -0700
  Re: Teaching Python John Bokma <john@castleamber.com> - 2011-04-19 20:25 -0500
    Re: Teaching Python Alec Taylor <alec.taylor6@gmail.com> - 2011-04-20 11:59 +1000
      Re: Teaching Python Sourav <souravmishra26@gmail.com> - 2011-04-19 20:49 -0700
  Re: Teaching Python harrismh777 <harrismh777@charter.net> - 2011-04-19 23:46 -0500

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