holy wars

	This is the JargonFile ^(V4.00) entry for holy wars - Next: home box, Prev: hollised
:holy wars: /n./ [from Usenet, but may predate it] /n./ flame wars over religious issues. The paper by Danny Cohen that popularized the terms big-endian and little-endian in connection with the LSB-first/MSB-first controversy was entitled "On Holy Wars and a Plea for Peace". Other perennial Holy Wars have included EMACS vs. vi, my personal computer vs. everyone elses personal computer, [[ITS]] vs. [[[[Unix]]]], [[[[Unix]]]] vs. VMS, BSD Unix vs. [[USG Unix]], C vs. [[Pascal]], C vs. FORTRAN, etc., ad nauseam. The characteristic that distinguishes holy wars from normal technical disputes is that in a holy war most of the participants spend their time trying to pass off personal value choices and cultural attachments as objective technical evaluations. See also theology.
* (text is auto-included via JargonExtension by mutante using jargon with VERSION 4.0.0, 24 JUL 1996 - JargonFile by Eric S. Raymond is in the public domain)