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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>crawling horror</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="crash-and-burn.html" title="crash and burn"/><link rel="next" href="CRC-handbook.html" title="CRC handbook"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">crawling horror</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="crash-and-burn.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">C</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="CRC-handbook.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="crawling-horror"/><dt xmlns="" id="crawling-horror"><b>crawling horror</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> Ancient crufty hardware or software that is kept obstinately alive
by forces beyond the control of the hackers at a site. Like
<a href="../D/dusty-deck.html"><i class="glossterm">dusty deck</i></a> or <a href="../G/gonkulator.html"><i class="glossterm">gonkulator</i></a>, but
connotes that the thing described is not just an irritation but an active
menace to health and sanity. &#8220;<span class="quote">Mostly we code new stuff in C, but
they pay us to maintain one big FORTRAN II application from
nineteen-sixty-X that's a real crawling horror....</span>&#8221; Compare
<a href="../W/WOMBAT.html"><i class="glossterm">WOMBAT</i></a>.</p></dd><dd><p>This usage is almost certainly derived from the fiction of
H.P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft may never have used the exact phrase
&#8220;<span class="quote">crawling horror</span>&#8221; in his writings, but one of the fearsome
Elder Gods that he wrote extensively about was Nyarlethotep, who had as an
epithet &#8220;<span class="quote">The Crawling Chaos</span>&#8221;. Certainly the extreme, even
melodramatic horror of his characters at the weird monsters they encounter,
even to the point of going insane with fear, is what hackers are referring
to with this phrase when they use it for horribly bad code. Compare
<a href="cthulhic.html"><i class="glossterm">cthulhic</i></a>.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="crash-and-burn.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../C.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="CRC-handbook.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">crash and burn </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> CRC handbook</td></tr></table></div></body></html>