Forus,probablythemostpertinentdistinctionisbetweenprogrammersandhackers.Inorbysayingsomethingincodeperformsbothillocutionaryandperlocutionaryacts.
The difference between programmers and hackers is, however, the effects of their acts, which have dramatically changed over time. Programmers are those— either employed by software companies or working independently—who make a living by writing code, which includes anything between snippets (short code) and apps. Hackers may also program code in this fashion, but the culture that gives them the name emanates from a distinct set of ethical and aesthetic values that combine to create a different kind of politics than programming does. This difference is hard to express, but it is also the difference that is of interest to us. It is hard to express perhaps because so much has been said and written about hackers—mostly negative. As a consequence, a unified, typically clandestine, selfish, young, male, and outlaw image has become dominant, which more recent studies have shown is grotesquely simplified. We want to argue that hackers are those whose acts break conventions of programming.
Smith’s New Map of London, 1809, showing the Palace between the Mall and Pall Mall


