1. Someone doing `real work' with the computer, using it as a means
rather than an end. Someone who pays to use a computer. See {real
user}.
2. A programmer who will believe anything you tell him. One who asks
silly questions. [GLS observes: This is slightly unfair. It is true
that users ask questions (of necessity). Sometimes they are
thoughtful or deep. Very often they are annoying or downright stupid,
apparently because the user failed to think for two seconds or look
in the documentation before bothering the maintainer.] See {luser}.
3. Someone who uses a program from the outside, however skillfully,
without getting into the internals of the program. One who reports
bugs instead of just going ahead and fixing them.
The general theory behind this term is that there are two classes of
people who work with a program: there are implementors (hackers) and
{luser}s. The users are looked down on by hackers to some extent
because they don't understand the full ramifications of the system in
all its glory. (The few users who do are known as real winners.) The
term is a relative one: a skilled hacker may be a user with respect
to some program he himself does not hack. A LISP hacker might be one
who maintains LISP or one who uses LISP (but with the skill of a
hacker). A LISP user is one who uses LISP, whether skillfully or not.
Thus there is some overlap between the two terms; the subtle
distinctions must be resolved by context.
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {hardcoded}{luser}{real user}{winner}]