22 lines
3.3 KiB
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22 lines
3.3 KiB
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>crufty</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../C.html" title="C"/><link rel="previous" href="cruftsmanship.html" title="cruftsmanship"/><link rel="next" href="crumb.html" title="crumb"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">crufty</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="cruftsmanship.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><th width="60%" align="center">C</th><td width="20%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="crumb.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="crufty"/><dt xmlns="" id="crufty"><b>crufty</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="pronunciation">/kruhf<68>tee/</span>, <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">adj.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> [very common; origin unknown; poss. from ‘crusty’ or
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‘cruddy’] </p></dd><dd><p> 1. Poorly built, possibly over-complex. The
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<a href="canonical.html"><i class="glossterm">canonical</i></a> example is “<span class="quote">This is standard old
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crufty <a href="../D/DEC.html"><i class="glossterm">DEC</i></a> software</span>”. In fact, one fanciful
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theory of the origin of <span class="firstterm">crufty</span> holds
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that was originally a mutation of ‘crusty’ applied to DEC
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software so old that the ‘s’ characters were tall and skinny,
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looking more like ‘f’ characters.</p></dd><dd><p> 2. Unpleasant, especially to the touch, often with encrusted junk.
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Like spilled coffee smeared with peanut butter and catsup.</p></dd><dd><p> 3. Generally unpleasant. </p></dd><dd><p> 4. (sometimes spelled <span class="firstterm">cruftie</span>)
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<span class="grammar">n.</span> A small crufty object (see
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<a href="../F/frob.html"><i class="glossterm">frob</i></a>); often one that doesn't fit well into the
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scheme of things. “<span class="quote">A LISP property list is a good place to store
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crufties (or, collectively, <a href="../R/random.html"><i class="glossterm">random</i></a>
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cruft).</span>”</p></dd><dd><p>This term is one of the oldest in the jargon and no one is sure of
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its etymology, but it is suggestive that there is a Cruft Hall at Harvard
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University which is part of the old physics building; it's said to have
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been the physics department's radar lab during WWII. To this day (early
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1993) the windows appear to be full of random techno-junk. MIT or Lincoln
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Labs people may well have coined the term as a knock on the
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competition.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="cruftsmanship.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../C.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="crumb.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">cruftsmanship<EFBFBD></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"><EFBFBD>crumb</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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