If the spirit of the original Jargon file was to be a living document, alas, it failed to keep with the times.
Hackers at large have moved away from Lisp despite Paul Graham and other evangelists, Linux ate Unix, and there have been several bright subcultures which have no meaningful presence in either edition of the Jargon file. Considering self-professed tribalism of the original authors, it’s hardly surprising.
Hackers also have moved away from academia at large, and 9-5 jobs at tech behemoths are more natural habitats for them, which also shaped the lingo. I mean, there’s a whole layer of slang usually pertinent to outsourcing agencies and to cubicle farms.
It would be interesting to have a compilation of jargon as it evolved through the 1990s and 2000s too.
Originally it was a document for MIT and Stanford University's AI labs, it was not supposed to keep up with the "hackers at large". Eric Raymond, who was not one of the original authors of the jargon file, decided to appropriate it as his definition of the whole existing hackerdom, which is rather controversial. People from later communities could have written their own jargon files.
> People from later communities could have written their own jargon files.
There is the IBM Jargon File compiled by Mike Cowlishaw at the IBM UK Laboratories in Hursley. The most recent edition is from 1990. As you might expect, it has more about company traditions and workplace politics than the Guy Steele jargon file or its successors.
Hackers at large have moved away from Lisp despite Paul Graham and other evangelists, Linux ate Unix, and there have been several bright subcultures which have no meaningful presence in either edition of the Jargon file. Considering self-professed tribalism of the original authors, it’s hardly surprising.
Hackers also have moved away from academia at large, and 9-5 jobs at tech behemoths are more natural habitats for them, which also shaped the lingo. I mean, there’s a whole layer of slang usually pertinent to outsourcing agencies and to cubicle farms.
It would be interesting to have a compilation of jargon as it evolved through the 1990s and 2000s too.