hack value


hack value

Often adduced as the reason or motivation for expending efforttoward a seemingly useless goal, the point being that theaccomplished goal is a hack. For example, MacLISP hadfeatures for reading and printing Roman numerals, which wereinstalled purely for hack value. See display hack for onemethod of computing hack value, but this cannot really beexplained, only experienced. As Louis Armstrong once saidwhen asked to explain jazz: "Man, if you gotta ask you'llnever know." (Feminists please note Fats Waller's explanationof rhythm: "Lady, if you got to ask you ain't got it.")