Automagically...not automatically?

I came across this  blog entry and to me at least, it just seems wrong?

To quote:

"These are two very different uses of the term that I've heard
and both are explicitly not "automatically" in the true sense of
that word. The point of automagically is when its not automatic at
all and either you don't care (case one) or its a lie (case two).
Now if people agree I'll update the wiki entry but I thought I'd
first check what others had seen.
"

Perhaps I've been misinterpreting the use of the word, but In development circles I've always taken it to mean a process that does work automatically, as if by magic - potentially with a hint that there is definitely "magic" involved, i.e. perhaps what's
happening automatically is not deterministic or a little dodgy (a hack), or is is in some way cool/extraordinary i.e. table names being pluralized automagically from their associated entity class names in an ORM, which when I first saw it done many years ago was "magic" by comparison to having to specify the pluralized names by hand.

Is this really a negative term suggesting that somethings not automatic at all? Is my whole life a lie? (Don't answer the second one ;o)

Written on November 27, 2007