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 assaying "I' d rather write programs to write programs than write programs". [Jargon File]