Often adduced as the reason or motivation for expending effort toward
a seemingly useless goal, the point being that the accomplished goal
is a hack. For example, MacLISP had features for reading and printing
Roman numerals, which were installed purely for hack value. See
{display hack} for one method of computing hack value, but this
cannot really be explained, only experienced. As Louis Armstrong once
said when asked to explain jazz: "Man, if you gotta ask you'll never
know." (Feminists please note Fats Waller's explanation of rhythm:
"Lady, if you got to ask, you ain't got it.")
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {display hack}{hacker}{retrocomputing}]