demigod
:demigod: n. A hacker with years of experience, a world-wide reputation,
and a major role in the development of at least one design, tool, or
game used by or known to more than half of the hacker community. To
qualify as a genuine demigod, the person must recognizably identify with
the hacker community and have helped shape it. Major demigods include
Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie (co-inventors of Unix
} and C
,
Richard M. Stallman (inventor of EMACS
, Larry Wall (inventor of
Perl
), Linus Torvalds (inventor of Linux
, and most recently James
Gosling (inventor of Java, NeWS
, and GOSMACS
and Guido van Rossum
(inventor of Python
. In their hearts of hearts, most hackers dream of
someday becoming demigods themselves, and more than one major software
project has been driven to completion by the author's veiled hopes of
apotheosis. See also net.god
, true-hacker
Jargon File Version 4.3.1, 29 JUN 2001 =
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