Published June 14, 2000
Kludge—Grep—Cruft—Widget: These and many others like them are scientific computer slang words creeping into our everyday usage.
A random read for the meanings of terms at Eric Raymond’s Jargon File <http://www.tuxido.com/> invites a captivating hyperlink journey through related words, familiar and unfamiliar. What are these: chomp, flame, hack, crock, bork?
Parallel to the language of jazz musicians and some artists, the specialists who manipulate computer bits express their shared consciousness with word-play of wit, humor, and thoughtfulness. To be conversant, coalesced by its common terminology, all of us should possess a general familiarity sufficient to nod in appropriate places.
To amuse—and never at the expense of clarity—words in hacker jargon are to be understood as sets of comparatives. Their plural of mongoose is polygoose, of mouse is meeces, and of caboose is cabeese, a standard joke among railfans (railroad enthusiasts).
A startling expression, angry fruit salad is “n. A visual design that uses too many colors, without regard to eye-appeal. Too often interface designers use flashy and attention-getting color window systems, but uncomfortable for long-term use.”
Crock is “n. An awkward feature or programming technique that works acceptably, but which is prone to failure if only slightly disturbed.” Then, what’s the difference of an elegant solution and a kludge?
Kludge [UK], kluge [US] is “n. A crock that works for the wrong reason. An ill-assorted collection of poorly matching parts, forming a distressing whole. A clever programming trick used to repair bugs in an expedient, if not clear, manner.
“In 1947, the New York Folklore Quarterly reported kluge was a complex and puzzling artifact with a trivial function. From other sources kluge was common Navy slang in the WWII era for any piece of electronics that worked well on shore but consistently failed at sea.
“This word appears to have derived from Scots kludge or kludgie, via British military slang, to mean a common toilet.
“v. To use a kludge is to circumvent a problem. ‘I’ve kludged around it for now, but I’ll fix it properly later.’ Compare to workaround.”
Convenience, clarity and brevity is the incubator for new words with meanings that replace long descriptions. A common condition these days is finding things. So much information is stored and networked that looking for specifics has a special meaning.
Grep is “vi. To rapidly scan a file or set of files looking for a particular string or pattern; grepping around. By extension, to look for something by pattern. Grep the bulletin board for the work schedule.” vgrep is “v,n. optical scanning of files for patterns rather than digitally.”
Cruft is “n. Excess, superfluous junk, redundant or superseded code. Cruft is to hackers as gaggle is to geese. The dust that gathers under your bed is cruft; attacking it with a broom only makes it appear to increase. Antonym, clean.”
“To cruft together is a quick-n-dirty temporary solution to a problem. ‘There isn’t any program to reverse all the lines of a file, but I can probably cruft one together in about ten minutes.’
“There is a Cruft Hall at Harvard University which is part of the old physics building; it’s said to have been the physics department’s radar lab during WWII.”
The government/military is notably the most prolific source for pronounced acronyms as words. R.A.D.A.R, is RAdio Detection And Ranging, now just radar. Here is a computer term similar to SNAFU; if you’ve been in the military, its meaning is understood:
Foo is used as “interj. A term of disgust [very common]. In connection with bar (WWII-era Army slang acronym) FUBAR meant F___ U_ Beyond All Repair, also from German furchtbar (terrible). Military also uses FOO as Forward Observation Officer.
“The lion-dog guardians flanking the steps of many Chinese restaurants are properly called fu dogs. The Chinese word fu (translated foo) can mean “happiness” when spoken with the proper tone. In English, fooey is influenced by Yiddish, feh.
“In 1944-45, the term foo fighters was in use by radar operators for the kind of mysterious or spurious trace that would later be called a UFO.
Here’s one that needs redefining. Voice is “vt. To telephone someone, as opposed to the more common practice of communicating by email. ‘I’m busy now; I’ll voice you later.’”
So there you are. Intriguing, isn’t it? See also baz, qux, quux, corge, grault, garply, waldo, fred, plugh, xyzzy, thud.