18 lines
3.0 KiB
HTML
18 lines
3.0 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<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
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by forces beyond the control of the hackers at a site. Like
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<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
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connotes that the thing described is not just an irritation but an active
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menace to health and sanity. “<span class="quote">Mostly we code new stuff in C, but
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they pay us to maintain one big FORTRAN II application from
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nineteen-sixty-X that's a real crawling horror....</span>” Compare
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<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
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H.P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft may never have used the exact phrase
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“<span class="quote">crawling horror</span>” in his writings, but one of the fearsome
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Elder Gods that he wrote extensively about was Nyarlethotep, who had as an
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epithet “<span class="quote">The Crawling Chaos</span>”. Certainly the extreme, even
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melodramatic horror of his characters at the weird monsters they encounter,
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even to the point of going insane with fear, is what hackers are referring
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to with this phrase when they use it for horribly bad code. Compare
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<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>
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