The Jargon File, Version 4.2.2, 20 Aug 2000 by Various
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page 75 of 1403 (05%)
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acolyte n. obs. [TMRC] An [341]OSU privileged enough to submit data and programs to a member of the [342]priesthood. _________________________________________________________________ Node:ad-hockery, Next:[343]Ada, Previous:[344]acolyte, Up:[345]= A = ad-hockery /ad-hok'*r-ee/ n. [Purdue] 1. Gratuitous assumptions made inside certain programs, esp. expert systems, which lead to the appearance of semi-intelligent behavior but are in fact entirely arbitrary. For example, fuzzy-matching of input tokens that might be typing errors against a symbol table can make it look as though a program knows how to spell. 2. Special-case code to cope with some awkward input that would otherwise cause a program to [346]choke, presuming normal inputs are dealt with in some cleaner and more regular way. Also called `ad-hackery', `ad-hocity' (/ad-hos'*-tee/), `ad-crockery'. See also [347]ELIZA effect. _________________________________________________________________ Node:Ada, Next:[348]address harvester, Previous:[349]ad-hockery, Up:[350]= A = Ada n. A [351]Pascal-descended language that was at one time made mandatory for Department of Defense software projects by the Pentagon. Hackers |
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