Archive for the ‘esr’ Category
Why I like Eric S. Raymond
I first came across the name Eric S. Raymond around 4 years back when I came across
this quiz question : “Who is the author of ‘The cathedral and the bazaar’ and ‘Homesteading the Noosphere’ ?” The first reaction was – “What author names his works with such fuzzy-brained names?” And the answer was, a Genius. That’s what he is. Not in the sense that the word conjures
up – of a bespectacled, hunching, hirsute monomaniac as that portrayed by the movie ‘A beautiful Mind’. No. The first thing I realized about ESR ( as he is commonly known ) is that he is a ‘cool’ hacker. One who was fortunate to have actually experienced the Hacker Revolution first hand and who actually has no fear of speaking out his mind. Take one look at this blog http://esr.ibiblio.org/ and you will need no further explanation.
The first work that I read ( and enjoyed tremendously ) had ESR’s involvement was the Jargon File ( also known as the Jargon Lexicon ). It made me sure of the fact
that ESR is indeed the historian of the Hacking Commununity. Officially maybe not, but his works such as The Cathedral and the Bazaar and Homesteading the Noosphere illustrate this fact clearly and also the fact that he is a very lucid thinker who can present his ideas in a most direct and forceful manner.
Plus he is a veteran Lisp hacker ( or LISP as he calls it, being part of that old tradition ). So my respect for him grows even more! I highly recommend a thorough reading of the aforementioned essays to any serious student of the Hacker and UNIX cultures. I just finished my second reading
today!
