"Hacker" is a process, not a destination. Being a Perl Hacker means that you hack at Perl. It doesn't imply any great grace at the use of Perl. Usually once you've been a Perl Hacker for a while, you also aquire quite a bit of Perl skill.

So you can know almost nothing about Perl when you first become a Perl Hacker (though usually the decision to hack Perl comes from a liking of the language which usually requires some knowledge of it).

I'm inclined to agree. "Hacker" is somewhat like "artist"; it is sometimes complimentary, sometimes not, depending on how you use it. I often will identify myself as a hacker, by which I mean that I do this stuff (primarily) for enjoyment, and that I identify with the "hacker community". Certainly not that I'm the baddest coder on my block.

I similarly have no problem calling myself a Perl Hacker. "Just another Perl Hacker", though, has taken on a more distinct connotation. While I am literally "just another Perl hacker", I'm not sure I'm "Just another Perl Hacker", if you take my meaning. The phrase carries some irony, being the signatory title of one of the community's leaders.

It's a judgement call. Personally, I like to append the title, "Boy Hacker" to my name sometimes... which has its own pleasant irony, as it suggests youth. ;-)

It's an old thread, but I'll forever associate JAPH with the definition of Hacker as defined in the "The Seven Levels"

As such, until I submit a working patch, JAPH will not be joining the other alphabetti which might be associated with my name.
CD, reasonably Adept.


---

Butlerian Jihad now!

print "Just another Perl hacker,"

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

The phrase "just another Perl hacker" fits better with saint Larry's third virtue of community (humility) than with the third virtue of a programmer (hubris).   Dunno if that was intentional, but it makes sense to me.

    cheers,
    ybiC

A sig is a personal thing, I personally won't ever sign with a JAPH because it just ain't me. You should pick one that "feels good" to ya. Don't think you are forced into JAPH just because that is what the other saints do, find your own way to spiritual sig bliss.

In my case, I have a nice Certificate from Mark-Jason Dominus from Perl Conference 2.0 with "Perl Pimp" on it. I beat up Perl till it does horrible things for me and keep all the money. Still working on a giant, furry, yellow and green tiger-striped pimp hat tho. =)

--
$you = new YOU;
honk() if $you->love(perl)

Yes... a little observed secret that I'll let the monks in on...

The canonical JAPH is:

print "Just another Perl hacker,";
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Notice 25 characters, including the comma, and with the first and third words capitalized.

Accept no imitations.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

But...but...the ; is unnecessary since it's a one-liner! :-)

- Zoogie

7. One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming 
or circumventing limitations.
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2;0 juerd@ouranos:~$ perl -e'undef christmas'
Segmentation fault
2;139 juerd@ouranos:~$
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