From: esr@snark.thyrsus.com (Eric S. Raymond)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Where is the Jargon file?
Date: 23 Dec 92 11:44:37 GMT
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In <1992Dec21.055531.14277@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au> Andrew Bulhak wrote:
> Is there an ftp site containing the said file?

I guess it's time to post this again...

Here comes everything you always wanted to know about access to the
Jargon File and its book version, _The_New_Hacker's_Dictionary_.  And,
at the bottom, a small peroration about why *you* want the book to sell
many, many copies...

			FTP ACCESS

   The Jargon File 2.9.10 can be snarfed via FTP from:

   prep.ai.mit.edu (18.71.0.38)		as pub/gnu/jargon2910.ascii.Z

   You can unpack this file with the standard `uncompress' command.

   You will also find a file called jargon-changes.Z there.  This
file holds all new and changed entries introduced since the book version,
2.9.6.

   These same sites carry a hypertext viewer written by Ray Gardner
and myself with which you can browse the File conveniently.  Look
for vh.tar.Z near the File.

		WHY THERE ARE NO DIFF FILES

   Many people have asked why I don't release diff files for new versions, so
people can avoid having to FTP or uucp-fetch the whole thing each time.  It's
because diffs tend to lose the actual semantic changes in a lot of noise
resulting from very low-level tweaks (typo fixes, re-justifications, etc.).
This bulks the diffs up to the point where I don't think they're enough smaller
than the File itself to justify the hassle costs of issuing or using them.

		WHY YOU SHOULD BUY THE BOOK

   The ftpable version is flat ASCII.  The original is marked up in
Texinfo; an info version may be made available for on-line browsing if
there is sufficient interest.  The Texinfo source involves sufficient
custom hackery for things like schwa and Palatino fonts that it wouldn't do
anybody but the author much good even if publishing it weren't in violation
of the book contract.  There is no nroff, Scribe or Postscript version.

   Besides nice typography, the book gives you prefaces by Guy Steele and
Eric Raymond, a cover by Duane Bibby (he of the TeX lion and the Metafont
kitty), and the infamous Crunchly cartoons by Guy Steele as interior illos.

   No one can stop you from adding your own markup to the flat-ASCII
version and laser-printing the result, and the coauthors have legally
relinquished the right to even try in order to respect hackish traditions
of information sharing.  We do *ask* you not to do this; widespread
`pirating' of a typeset version would ruin anyone else's future chances of
cooperating with a publisher on a project involving both free and
commercial distribution.

   You should buy this book because, if it does well, it will encourage
future projects that combine free and commercial distribution channels.
This would be a Good Thing, because it would both promote free electronic
access to information and reward people in the marketplace for putting
it together and making it accessible.

		HOW TO FIND IT IN BOOKSTORES

   The nice typeset book version (_The_New_Hacker's_Dictionary_, ISBN
ISBN 0-262-68069-6) is being carried by all major U.S. book chains ---
B. Dalton's, Waldenbooks, Barnes & Noble, Brentano's, etc.  (The
D.C.-area Crown chain is an exception; they don't like the Press's
discount structure.)

   It will also be in many college bookstores and the more cerebral
sort of independent bookseller (especially SF and technical
bookstores).  Many stores will feature a big cardboard pop-up display
featuring art by Duane Bibby.

   If you don't see it at your favorite bookstore, ask for it by name.
Sometimes lesser branches of the chains won't actually order copies in
from the chain's warehouses until they have someone order it.  The
good side of this ids that your single request may cause them to order
ten or more copies, which would be good for reasons I go into below.

		DIRECT ORDERING INFORMATION

    The book can be ordered now in the U.S. directly through MIT
Press.  The mailing address is:

	The MIT Press
	55 Hayward Street
	Cambridge, MA 02142 

   You may also order through MIT Press's FAX number (617)-258-6779 or
by toll-free voice phone from within the U.S. at (800)-356-0343.  If
you're outside the U.S., use the customer service line: (617)-625-8481.

    Price: US$10.95 (Canadians add 7% g.s.t.) plus
postage and handling as follows:

	U.S./Canada Book Rate:			$2.75
   	International priority airmail:		$8.00
	International airmail printed matter:	$5.00
	International surface book rate:	$3.00

   The Press will accept VISA, MasterCard, a bank or postal money
order, or a dollar-denominated check drawn on a U.S. bank.

	IN THE BRITISH ISLES, SCANDINAVIA AND EUROPE

Copies should be available through MIT Press's London office:

The MIT Press, Ltd.
14 Bloomsbury Square
London WC1A 2LP
U.K.

Tel:  (071) 404 0712
Fax:  (071) 404 0601

But anyone anywhere in the world can order through our
domestic office here in Cambridge.  Fax:  617/258.6779.

	WHAT THE PUBLIC AND REVIEWERS ARE SAYING

   In its first year TNHD has gone through three printings and sold
over 22,000 copies.  This is stellar performance for a technical trade
paperback with no significant mainstream advertising.

   Hackerdom has already taken this book to its collective heart.  

   William Safire's December 8th 1991 "On Language" column in the
_New_York_Times_ mentioned TNHD as one of his picks for gift-giving
that Christmas.  _Byte_ ran an unabashed rave in their January 1992
issue.  Laudatory reviews have also appeared in _PC_Magazine_
_IEEE_Spectrum_, _PC_World_ and the _SF_Weekly_.  The December 1991
issue of _Computing_Reviews_ ran TNHD's definition of `creationism' on
its cover.  More recently, the British journal _New_Scientist_,
_Sciences_, and _Mondo_2000_ have all praised the book.  In
mid-October 1992 it made "On Lamguage" again and was cited by name on
the front page of the _Wall_Street_Journal_.

	WHY YOU WANT THIS BOOK TO SELL 1e6 COPIES

   One of my (this is Eric Raymond writing) several objectives in
seeing this book published on paper is to help the general public to get a
truer and more positive image of hackers than they have now.  

   Right now, our society is in a phase of reforming its attitudes and
laws about information privacy, intellectual property, hacking, and
First Amendment issues in electronic networking.  It is not a good
thing for this process that many in the public think of hackers as a
potential conspiracy of dangerous nerds, that the very term "hacker"
is now considered by many ignorant people to be a synonym for
"computer criminal".  We must reclaim the word "hacker" for our own!

   There is a real danger to hackers that restrictive, wrong-headed
information laws and strict licensing requirements for "software
professionals" might kill our open, free-spirited culture.  This would
be a tragedy not just for us but for the whole world that benefits from
our creativity.

   Groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation have been formed to
fight for hackerdom on the legal and political level.  To support
that, though, the public needs to be re-educated about all the
positive aspects of hackerdom.  We need them to see our sense of
humor, our dedication, our playfulness, our idealism; we need to
communicate the excitement, challenge and promise of the new worlds
we're exploring.  We need the man in the street to see us as an ally,
not a threat.

   I think this book can be a big help with that.  If it sells a
million copies, that's a million people who will learn something of
our traditions, and our dreams, and (perhaps most importantly) how to
laugh with us.  That's a million friends.  I think we need those
friends, and I think we're going to need them a lot more before
society completes its adaptation to the new computing technologies.

   This is why I hope you will want _The_New_Hacker's_Dictionary_ to
sell a million copies.  I think there's a significant chance for it to
sell at that order of magnitude and make a significant impact on the
public's consciousness, in the same way Cliff Stoll's _Cuckoo's_Egg_
did in 1990 --- by becoming everybody's idea of the perfect gift
book for the technologically hip and semi-hip.

   Soooo...tell your friends about this book.  The freedom you help
save may be your own.
-- 
					Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com>
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