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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>whack</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../W.html" title="W"/><link rel="previous" href="wetware.html" title="wetware"/><link rel="next" href="whack-a-mole.html" title="whack-a-mole"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">whack</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="wetware.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><th width="60%" align="center">W</th><td width="20%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="whack-a-mole.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="whack"/><dt xmlns="" id="whack"><b>whack</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">v.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> According to arch-hacker James Gosling (designer of
<a href="../N/NeWS.html"><i class="glossterm">NeWS</i></a>, <a href="../G/GOSMACS.html"><i class="glossterm">GOSMACS</i></a> and Java), to
&#8220;<span class="quote">...modify a program with no idea whatsoever how it works.</span>&#8221;
(See <a href="whacker.html"><i class="glossterm">whacker</i></a>.) It is actually possible to do this
in nontrivial circumstances if the change is small and well-defined and you
are very good at <a href="../G/glark.html"><i class="glossterm">glark</i></a>ing things from context. As a
trivial example, it is relatively easy to change all <b class="command">stderr</b> writes to <b class="command">stdout</b> writes in a piece of C filter code which
remains otherwise mysterious.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="wetware.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../W.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="whack-a-mole.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">wetware<EFBFBD></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"><EFBFBD>whack-a-mole</td></tr></table></div></body></html>