1. A person who knows how a complex piece of software or
hardware works (that is, who
groks it); especially 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. A person who is permitted to do things forbidden to
ordinary people; one who has
wheel privileges on a system.
3. A Unix expert, especially a Unix systems programmer. This
usage is well enough established that "Unix Wizard" is a
recognised job title at some corporations and to most
headhunters.
4. An interactive help utility that guides the user through a
potentially complex task, such as configuring a
PPP driver
to work with a new
modem. Wizards are often implemented as
and backward through, filling in the details required. The
implication is that the expertise of a human wizard in one of
the above senses is encapsulated in the software wizard,
allowing the average user to perform expertly.
(1998-09-07)