互联网与文化stallman.org编辑精选
论黑客
On Hacking
2009 — 2013，它一次次回到首页
黑点是上首页（≥ 50 分）的那次投稿，空心点是没冲上去的投稿，点越大分数越高。
导读
这是 Richard Stallman 的经典短文《On Hacking》，为“hacker（黑客）”一词的正名辩护：他解释 hacker 在黑客文化中原指聪明巧妙的解法与对技术的热爱，而非媒体所渲染的入侵行为，并以“三根筷子”等生活化的 hack 为例说明 hack 的精神。文章多年来反复登上 HN 首页，也引发了对词语含义演变与语言规范化的持续争论。
为什么经久不衰：它触及 hacker 一词的本义之争——语言如何演变、谁有权定义——这一话题在技术社区历久弥新，每次重读都能引发新讨论。
HN 评论精选
RMS 想改变词语用法，却不用 hack 的思路去做，策略自相矛盾。
要让人们说“GNU/Linux”、正确使用“自由软件”和“hacker”这些词，本身就需要一个 hack。光告诉别人该怎么用词是没用的，你得设计出一个让他们愿意这样用的 hack。这正是我觉得奇怪的地方：RMS 的策略只是告诉人们他们错了，而巧妙的营销去改变认知，本身也和他的三根筷子一样配得上“hack”之名，可他似乎从不往这个方向想。
gfodor查看英文原文
To get people to say "GNU/Linux", use "Free Software" in the right sense, and use the word "hacker" properly, you need to come up with a hack on its own. Just telling people how to use words doesn't do it. You need to come up with a hack to get them to want to use them in the way you intended. This is why I find it so strange that RMS's strategy has been to just tell people they're wrong. Clever marketing to change perception of these things would be just as worthy a hack as his three chopsticks, yet he somehow doesn't even seem to think on this wavelength.
词义由社会决定，与其纠正旧词不如另造新词。
对词义较真的问题在于，词义会随时间和社会的喜好而变化，就像 dude 和 gay 的含义早已不同。个人或团体若想对抗社会主流的用法，是无法左右定义的。与其费力推广“cracking”来指代大众所说的 hacking，不如造个新词来指 Stallman 心中的 hacking；坚持旧义只是出于情感依恋，而决定语言演变的是社会。
PakG1查看英文原文
The problem with being pedantic about word definitions is that definitions change with time and according to society's whims. This is why dude and gay today don't really mean what they used to mean. Individuals or even groups don't really have influence over what a definition should be if their desired definition goes against the flow of society's definition. Rather than creating the term cracking and attempting to get that in the public mind to refer to what they currently refer to as hacking is a waste of time. It's far easier to create a new word to refer to what is known to folks like Stallman as hacking. The only reason to not do so is due to sentimental value and emotional attachment to a definition that is not accepted by society, and it is society that sets a language's evolution. As such, such sentimental value is moot in the grand scheme of things.
词义本就因语境而异，只要交流顺畅，何必纠正别人。
我知道 RMS 和 ESR 总爱写这类关于词语“真正含义”的文章，但我实在不懂。在朋友眼里我是黑客，因为我会修电脑、会用快捷键编辑文档；在大众媒体眼里，Max Vision 是黑客，因为他入侵了计算机；在 RMS 眼里，Linus Torvalds 是黑客，因为他写了内核。我没必要向前两类人布道——他们用这个词时，我完全明白他们想表达什么。
atmosx查看英文原文
I know RMS and ESR write this kind of stuff about words and true meaning all the time, but I don't get it really. * For my friends, I am a hacker because I can fix their computer and I can easily edit a word document using keyboard shortcuts. They don't know or care about anything else. * For others (the mass media), Max Vision is a hacker because he broke into computers. * For RMS Linus Torvalds is a hacker because he wrote a kernel for GNU and made it Open Source. I don't see why I need to lecture the first two groups about a word which clearly states the meaning they have in mind and by that I mean: When they use it, I totally understand what they are trying to say.
hack 也有“凑合的补丁”的贬义，未必值得自豪。
hack 是对某物聪明而出人意料的用法，也指用权宜但笨拙、有缺陷的方式解决问题——即聪明的“凑合方案”。正是第二种含义让我不愿自称 hacker：在我看来，hacker 产出的是拼凑出来的、粗糙的软件。作为程序员，我们应该为 hack 感到羞愧并去修正它，而不是引以为豪。
millstone查看英文原文
A hack is a clever, unanticipated use or repurposing of something. It's also solving a problem via a method which is expedient and clever, but inelegant or otherwise flawed: a hack as a clever kludge. It's that second definition that makes me reluctant to self-identify as a hacker. To my mind, hackers produce hacked-together software, which is unpolished and jury-rigged. As programmers, we should be sheepish about our hacks, and seek to correct them - not wear them proudly.
早在 80 年代 hacking 就已指入侵，夺回词义不现实。
我从 80 年代就开始写代码，据我所知 hacking 一直就是指入侵安全系统，直到 90 年代才听到有人试图“夺回”这个词。显然某些技术圈子更早地在内部这样用，但语言是演变的，指望全世界改用别的词太傲慢了。
mtkd查看英文原文
I've been coding since the 80s and as far back as I can remember hacking has always meant breaching security, it wasn't until the 90s that I started hearing people trying to 'reclaim' the use. Clearly some tech communities were using it earlier amongst themselves, but language evolves, expecting the world to use another term is just arrogant. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=-VsrAAAAIBAJ&sjid=4tgEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2665,4768784&dq=hacker&hl=en
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