> It was the thing programmers namechecked as the kind of thing you couldn't do on these newfangled cheap home computers. You need a 'real' computer to do it.
When I first read the Jargon File in '96 or so, I remember being uncharacteristically annoyed by its terse, dismissive attitude towards affordable home computers ("bitty boxes"). That particular sort of elitism seemed very much at odds with the challenge-loving, egalitarian hacker spirit that the rest of the document extols. One could argue that ESR was just faithfully documenting the usage at the time, but he frequently editorializes in other entries; I think one can assume that he didn't disagree, which was a bit disappointing.
When I first read the Jargon File in '96 or so, I remember being uncharacteristically annoyed by its terse, dismissive attitude towards affordable home computers ("bitty boxes"). That particular sort of elitism seemed very much at odds with the challenge-loving, egalitarian hacker spirit that the rest of the document extols. One could argue that ESR was just faithfully documenting the usage at the time, but he frequently editorializes in other entries; I think one can assume that he didn't disagree, which was a bit disappointing.