OT: Meaning of "monkey"

[Krister Svanlund]

On Mon, Mar 29, 2010 at 3:09 PM, djc <slais-www at ucl.ac.uk> wrote:
> Mensanator wrote:
>> On Mar 26, 2:44 pm, Phlip <phlip2... at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On Mar 26, 6:14 am, Luis M. González <luis... at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Webmonkey, Greasemonkey, monkey-patching, Tracemonkey, Jägermonkey,
>>>> Spidermonkey, Mono (monkey in spanish), codemonkey, etc, etc, etc...
>>>> Monkeys everywhere.
>>>> Sorry for the off topic question, but what does "monkey" mean in a
>>>> nerdy-geek context??
>>>> Luis
>>> Better at typing than thinking.
>>
>> Really? I thought it was more of a reference to Eddington, i.e., given
>> enough time even a monkey can type out a program.
>
>
> Precisely, given infinite typing and zero thinking...
>
> Note also the expression 'talk to the organ  grinder not the monkey'
>
> and 'a trained monkey could do it'
>
> and then there are monkey wrenches, and monkey bikes...
>
> and never call the Librarian a monkey
>

The monkeys comes from different places... for example:
"The term monkey patch was first used as guerrilla patch, [...], which
was referred to as the patches engaging in battle with each other.
Since the word guerrilla and gorilla are near-homophones, people
started using the incorrect term gorilla patch instead of guerrilla
patch. When a developer then created a guerrilla patch they tried very
hard to avoid any battles that may ensue due to the patch and the term
monkey patch was coined to make the patch sound less forceful."

And then there is, as said, monkey wrenches which is utility tools.
Codemonkeys, i believe, comes from the infinite monkeys theory.