Wizard

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The Jargon File Parts of this article are based on the Jargon File, v. 4.4.7, a public domain document of hacker jargon.

wizard

Usage: n. See Also: guru, lord high fixer, deep magic, heavy wizardry, incantation, magic, mutter, rain dance, voodoo programming, wave a dead chicken

wizard: n.

1. Transitively, a person who knows how a complex piece of software or hardware works (that is, who groks it); esp. someone who can find and fix bugs quickly in an emergency. Someone is a hacker if he or she has general hacking ability, but is a wizard with respect to something only if he or she has specific detailed knowledge of that thing. A good hacker could become a wizard for something given the time to study it.
2. The term `wizard' is also used intransitively of someone who has extremely high-level hacking or problem-solving ability.
3. A person who is permitted to do things forbidden to ordinary people; one who has wheel privileges on a system.
4. A Unix expert, esp. a Unix systems programmer. This usage is well enough established that `Unix Wizard' is a recognized job title at some corporations and to most headhunters.

See guru, lord high fixer. See also deep magic, heavy wizardry, incantation, magic, mutter, rain dance, voodoo programming, wave a dead chicken.

Sources

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