toolsmith

The software equivalent of a tool-and-die specialist; one who

specialises in making the tools with which other programmers

create applications. Many hackers consider this more fun than

applications per se; to understand why, see uninteresting.

Jon Bentley, in the "Bumper-Sticker Computer Science" chapter

of his book "More Programming Pearls", quotes Dick Sites from

DEC as saying "I'd rather write programs to write programs

than write programs".

[Jargon File]