hackathon

noun

Etymology: From hack + -athon.

1. An event where programmers and others meet for collaborative software development, usually over several days.

   “If these are opinions I'm sure that it happens to have something to do with the immense amounts of caffeine and sugar that I've ingested over the course of his 50hr hackathon.”

   “Just after the Hack-A-Thon. A little tired, but it's still early, just after 3 a.m. I log onto^([sic]) the Vax and find that two of the people from the Hack-A-Thon are already on. I VMSphone RJLEWIS, a hacker and the president of our computer club, to ask him why he left the 'thon early. He answers after quite a few rings - no surprise, he was probably doing some hacking. He answers, "This isn't Crash." Hmm...probably one of his roommates. Another person joins the conversation - RLCOLLINS, one of his roommates - saying "This is Crash." Ok, I'm confused. "Why?," I ask. RJLEWIS responds that this is a person named Debbie and it's her first time on the computer.”