How do you tell a wizard?

[Tom Christiansen]

In article <955 at umb.umb.edu> campbell at umb.edu (Jim Campbell) writes:
>Some years ago, I saw a description of how to tell the
>level of the individual with respect ot their UNIX knowledge.
>ie:  NOVICE:
>     Calls vi vye
>     etc

First a minor flame, then the answer to this man's query.

I would say that a rose by any other name would still smell
as sweet.  Do we not live in a pluralistic society?  Judging
someone's education, intelligence, or technical expertise 
based upon their particular accent is, although not atypical,
hinging upon bigoted and narrow-minded.  What does it matter
if /etc/fsck is called 'fuzz-check', 'effess-check', 'fisk',
or 'effessceekay', except that some of those choices are slightly
more expedient than others?  In the case of those people who
call /bin/ed "ed" and /usr/ucb/vi "vye" and /etc/fsck "fisk", 
it would appear that they've chosen the path of expediency, 
a common theme in natural language evolution.  There is no
Royal Academy of the English Language, as exists for most of
the Romance tongues.  This is a feature, not a bug.  There
is no One True Way of pronouncing the words "route", "rout",
and "root"; few people not of the same geographic region
will agree on this, and to judge them as sub-intelligent because
of this is simply wrong.

There, that said, I present you with what may be the text
you are looking for.

--tom

.po 1i
.he ''Unix Hierarchy''
.sz 10
.lp
.nf
.na
.b "NAME		DESCRIPTION AND FEATURES"

beginner	- insecure with the concept of a terminal
		- has yet to learn the basics of \fIvi\fR
		- has not figured out how to get a directory
		- still has trouble with typing <RETURN> after each line of input

novice		- knows that \fIls\fP will produce a directory
		- uses the editor, but calls it `vye'
		- has heard of \fIC\fR but never used it
		- has had his first bad experience with \fIrm\fR
		- is wondering how to read his mail
		- is wondering why the person next to him seems to like Unix so very much

user		- uses \fIvi\fR and \fInroff\fR, but inexpertly
		- has heard of regular-expressions but never seen one.
		- has figured out that `-' precedes options
		- has attempted to write a \fIC\fR program and has decided to stick with pascal
		- is wondering how to move a directory
		- thinks that \fIdbx\fR is a brand of stereo component
		- knows how to read his mail and is wondering how to read the news

knowledgable	- uses \fInroff\fR with no trouble, and is beginning
user		  to learn \fItbl\fR and \fIeqn\fR
		- uses grep to search for fixed strings
		- has figured out that \fImv\fR will move directories
		- has learned that \fIlearn\fR doesn't help
		- somebody has shown him how to write C programs
		- once used \fIsed\fR to do some text substitution
		- has seen \fIdbx\fR used but does not use it himself
		- thinks that \fImake\fR is only for wimps

expert		- uses \fIsed\fR when necessary
		- uses macros in \fIvi,\fR uses \fIex\fR when neccesary
		- posts news at every possible opportunity
		- write \fIcsh\fR scripts occasionally
		- write \fIC\fR programs using \fIvi\fR and compiles with \fIcc\fR
		- has figured out what `&&' and `||' are for
		- thinks that human history started with '!h'

hacker		- uses \fIsed\fR and \fIawk\fR with comfort
		- uses undocumented features of \fIvi\fR
		- write \fIC\fR code with `cat >' and compiles with '!cc'
		- uses \fIadb\fR because he doesn't trust source debuggers
		- can answer questions about the user environment
		- writes his own \fInroff\fR macros to supplement std. ones
		- write scripts for Bourne shell (/bin/sh)
		- knows how to install bug fixes

guru		- uses \fIm4\fR and \fIlex\fR with comfort
		- writes assembly code with `cat >'
		- uses \fIadb\fR on the kernel while system is loaded
		- customizes utilities by patching the source
		- reads device driver source with his breakfast
		- can answer any unix question after a little thought
		- uses \fImake\fR for anything that requires two or more distinct commands to achieve
		- has learned how to breach security but no longer needs to try

wizard		- writes device drivers with `cat >'
		- fixes bugs by patching the binaries
		- can answer any question before you ask
		- writes his own \fItroff\fR macro packages
		- is on first-name basis with Dennis, Bill, and Ken


    Tom Christiansen                       {uunet,uiucdcs,sun}!convex!tchrist 
    Convex Computer Corporation                            tchrist at convex.COM
		 "EMACS belongs in <sys/errno.h>: Editor too big!"