Evil: Adj. As Used By Hackers, Implies That Some System, Program,
Person, Or Institution Is Sufficiently Maldesigned As To Be Not
Worth The Bother Of Dealing With.
:evil: adj. As used by hackers, implies that some system, program,
person, or institution is sufficiently maldesigned as to be not
worth the bother of dealing with. Unlike the adjectives in the
{cretinous}/{losing}/{brain-damaged} series, `evil' does
not imply incompetence or bad design, but rather a set of goals or
design criteria fatally incompatible with the speaker's. This
usage is more an esthetic and engineering judgment than a moral one
in the mainstream sense. "We thought about adding a {Blue
Glue} interface but decided it was too evil to deal with."
"{TECO} is neat, but it can be pretty evil if you're prone to
typos." Often pronounced with the first syllable lengthened, as
/eeee'vil/. Compare {evil and rude}.
-- The AI Hackers Dictionary
