A hacker with years of experience, a
world-wide reputation, and a major role in the development of at
least one design, tool, or game used by or known to more than half
of the hacker community. To qualify as a genuine demigod, the
person must recognizably identify with the hacker community and
have helped shape it. Major demigods include Ken Thompson and
Dennis Ritchie (co-inventors of Unix and C), Richard
M. Stallman (inventor of EMACS), Larry Wall (inventor of
Perl), Linus Torvalds (inventor of Linux), and most recently
James Gosling (inventor of Java). In their hearts of hearts, most
hackers dream of someday becoming demigods themselves, and more
than one major software project has been driven to completion by
the author's veiled hopes of apotheosis. See also net.god,
true-hacker.
