Categories of UNIX Users
UNIX User Categories BEGINNER: - insecure with the concept of a terminal - has yet to learn the basics of vi - has not figured out how to get a directory - still has trouble with typing RETURN after each line NOVICE: - knows that ls will produce a directory - uses the screen editor but calls it "vie" - has heard of C but never used it - has had his first bad experience with rm - is wondering how to read his mail - wonders why the person next to him likes UNIX so much USER: - uses vi and nroff but inexpertly - has heard of regular expressions but never seen one - has figured out that - precedes options - has attempted to write a C program and decided to stick with Pascal - is wondering how to move a directory - knows how to read his mail and wonders how to read news KNOWLEDGEABLE USER: - uses nroff with no trouble and is learning tbl and eqn - uses grep to search for fixed strings - has figured out that mv will move directories - has learned that learn(1) doesn't help - somebody has shown him how to write C programs - once used sed to do some text substitution - thinks make is only for wimps EXPERT: - uses sed when necessary - uses macro's in vi, uses ex when necessary - posts news at every possible opportunity - write C programs with vi and compiles with cc - has figured out what && and || are for - thinks that human history started with !h HACKER: - uses sed and awk with comfort - uses undocumented features of vi - writes C code with cat >foo.c and compiles with !cc - uses adb because he doesn't trust source debuggers - can answer questions about the user environment - writes his own nroff macros to supplement standard ones - writes scripts for Bourne shell (/bin/sh) - knows how to install bug fixes GURU: - writes m4 and lex with comfort - writes assembly code with cat >foo.s - uses adb on the kernel while system is loaded - customizes utilities by patching the source - reads device driver source with breakfast - can answer any unix question after a little thought - uses make for anything that requires two or more commands - has learned to breach security but no longer needs to WIZARD: - writes device drivers with cat >foo.o - fixes bugs by patching the binaries - can answer any question before you ask - writes his own troff macro packages - is on first-name basis with Dennis, Bill, and Ken - Paul S. R. Chisholm