evil
As used by a hacker, implies that some system, program, person, or institution
is sufficiently maldesigned as to be not worth the bother of dealing with.
Unlike the adjectives in the cretinous, losing, brain-damaged series, "evil"
does not imply incompetence or bad design, but rather a set of goals or design
criteria fatally incompatible with the speaker's. This usage is more an
aesthetic and engineering judgment than a moral one in the mainstream sense. "We
thought about adding a Blue Glue interface but decided it was too evil to deal
with." "TECO is neat, but it can be pretty evil if you're prone to typos." Often
pronounced with the first syllable lengthened, as /eeee'vil/.
Compare evil and rude.
[Jargon File]
(1994-12-12)
Nearby terms:
event « event-driven « EVGA « evil » evil and
rude » evolutionary algorithm » evolutionary
computation
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