dblack / wobblini.net wrote:
> Hi --
> 
> On Sun, 16 Jul 2006, why the lucky stiff wrote:

>>
>> The term "hacking" used to have a negative slant on it, too.  It's not 
>> the term,
>> though, it's the slant that matters.  The term can't be taken back, 
>> you know?
>> So what exactly does it mean?

Being called a hacker was a badge of honor, an still is among certain 
groups, but the word has been corrupted for general use.

I read that Wikipedia article on the origins of the term monkey 
patching; I don't think anyone ever saw it as something to be proud of.


>>
>> Well, because it's derogatory in origin, it's also ambiguous.  It's 
>> got a nested
>> image of primates performing informal needlework.  Conversely, there's 
>> an image
>> of crafty and agile treeswingers going up into the lofts, the places 
>> where the
>> rigid, upright (sticky and pale) homosapien fails.

Or not.


>>
>> Plus, I like the irony of Rubyists monkeypatching the word 
>> monkeypatching:
>> gutting it, redefining it, and dangerously executing it in public.
> 

A public execution of the term would be a Good Thing.

> 
> But why dance, in the first place, to the tune of whoever says
> whatever about Ruby and/or other scripting languages?  No nuance of
> "monkeypatching" resonates with anything in or about Ruby -- so why
> act under an imperative to enter into a relationship with it?
> 

Agreed.  People will use whatever terms they think appropriate in the 
context of their culture, experience, and expectations.   That's not a 
reason to encourage all behavior or just assume all expression deserve 
equal footing.



> I know, I know -- my vision of Ruby's design as unified and not split
> into programming/metaprogramming, or good/3vi1, or [whatever the
> opposite of monkeypatching is]/monkeypatching, is hopelessly Utopian.
> I plead guilty.
> 
> (Can someone please follow up with a witticism about the Scopes
> ("monkey") trial? :-)

Well, monkey patching may be an appropriate term for Python, but given 
that Ruby is more evolved, we need to call the technique  "evolutionary 
enhancement".



-- 
James Britt

"In physics the truth is rarely perfectly clear, and that is certainly
  universally the case in human affairs. Hence, what is not surrounded by
  uncertainty cannot be the truth."
  - R. Feynman