kluge
2 definitions found
kluge - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :
kluge
<jargon> /klooj/, /kluhj/ (From German "klug" /kloog/ - clever
and Scottish "kludge") 1. A Rube Goldberg (or Heath
Robinson) device, whether in hardware or software.
The spelling "kluge" (as opposed to "kludge") was used in
connection with computers as far back as the mid-1950s and, at
that time, was used exclusively of *hardware* kluges.
2. <programming> A clever programming trick intended to solve
a particular nasty case in an expedient, if not clear, manner.
Often used to repair bugs. Often involves ad-hockery and
verges on being a crock. In fact, the TMRC Dictionary
defined "kludge" as "a crock that works".
3. Something that works for the wrong reason.
4. (WPI) A feature that is implemented in a rude manner.
In 1947, the "New York Folklore Quarterly" reported a classic
shaggy-dog story "Murgatroyd the Kluge Maker" then current in
the Armed Forces, in which a "kluge" was a complex and
puzzling artifact with a trivial function. Other sources
report that "kluge" was common Navy slang in the WWII era for
any piece of electronics that worked well on shore but
consistently failed at sea.
However, there is reason to believe this slang use may be a
decade older. Several respondents have connected it to the
brand name of a device called a "Kluge paper feeder" dating
back at least to 1935, an adjunct to mechanical printing
presses. The Kluge feeder was designed before small, cheap
electric motors and control electronics; it relied on a
fiendishly complex assortment of cams, belts, and linkages to
both power and synchronise all its operations from one motive
driveshaft. It was accordingly tempermental, subject to
frequent breakdowns, and devilishly difficult to repair - but
oh, so clever! One traditional folk etymology of "klugen"
makes it the name of a design engineer; in fact, "Kluge" is a
surname in German, and the designer of the Kluge feeder may
well have been the man behind this myth.
TMRC and the MIT hacker culture of the early 1960s seems to
have developed in a milieu that remembered and still used some
WWII military slang (see also foobar). It seems likely that
"kluge" came to MIT via alumni of the many military
electronics projects run in Cambridge during the war (many in
MIT's venerable Building 20, which housed TMRC until the
building was demolished in 1999).
[Jargon File]
(2002-10-02)
kluge - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :
kluge
/klooj/
[from the German `klug', clever; poss. related to Polish & Russian
`klucz' (a key, a hint, a main point)]
1. n. A Rube Goldberg (or Heath Robinson) device, whether in hardware
or software.
2. n. A clever programming trick intended to solve a particular nasty
case in an expedient, if not clear, manner. Often used to repair
bugs.
Often involves ad-hockery and verges on being a crock.
3. n. Something that works for the wrong reason.
4. vt. To insert a kluge into a program. "I've kluged this routine to
get around that weird bug, but there's probably a better way."
5. [WPI] n. A feature that is implemented in a rude manner.
Nowadays this term is often encountered in the variant spelling
`kludge'. Reports from old farts are consistent that `kluge' was
the
original spelling, reported around computers as far back as the
mid-1950s and, at that time, used exclusively of hardware kluges. In
1947, the New York Folklore Quarterly reported a classic shaggy-dog
story `Murgatroyd the Kluge Maker' then current in the Armed Forces,
in which a `kluge' was a complex and puzzling artifact with a trivial
function. Other sources report that `kluge' was common Navy slang in
the WWII era for any piece of electronics that worked well on shore
but consistently failed at sea.
However, there is reason to believe this slang use may be a decade
older. Several respondents have connected it to the brand name of a
device called a "Kluge paper feeder", an adjunct to mechanical
printing presses. Legend has it that the Kluge feeder was designed
before small, cheap electric motors and control electronics; it
relied
on a fiendishly complex assortment of cams, belts, and linkages to
both power and synchronize all its operations from one motive
driveshaft. It was accordingly temperamental, subject to frequent
breakdowns, and devilishly difficult to repair -- but oh, so clever!
People who tell this story also aver that `Kluge' was the name of a
design engineer.
There is in fact a Brandtjen & Kluge Inc., an old family business
that
manufactures printing equipment -- interestingly, their name is
pronounced /kloo'gee/! Henry Brandtjen, president of the firm, told
me
(ESR, 1994) that his company was co-founded by his father and an
engineer named Kluge /kloo'gee/, who built and co-designed the
original Kluge automatic feeder in 1919. Mr. Brandtjen claims,
however, that this was a simple device (with only four cams); he says
he has no idea how the myth of its complexity took hold. Other
correspondents differ with Mr. Brandtjen's history of the device and
his allegation that it was a simple rather than complex one, but
agree
that the Kluge automatic feeder was the most likely source of the
folklore.
TMRC and the MIT hacker culture of the early '60s seems to have
developed in a milieu that remembered and still used some WWII
military slang (see also foobar). It seems likely that `kluge' came
to MIT via alumni of the many military electronics projects that had
been located in Cambridge (many in MIT's venerable Building 20, in
which TMRC is also located) during the war.
The variant `kludge' was apparently popularized by the Datamation
article mentioned under kludge; it was titled How to Design a
Kludge
(February 1962, pp. 30, 31). This spelling was probably imported from
Great Britain, where kludge has an independent history (though this
fact was largely unknown to hackers on either side of the Atlantic
before a mid-1993 debate in the Usenet group alt.folklore.computers
over the First and Second Edition versions of this entry; everybody
used to think kludge was just a mutation of kluge). It now
appears
that the British, having forgotten the etymology of their own
`kludge'
when `kluge' crossed the Atlantic, repaid the U.S. by lobbing the
`kludge' orthography in the other direction and confusing their
American cousins' spelling!
The result of this history is a tangle. Many younger U.S. hackers
pronounce the word as /klooj/ but spell it, incorrectly for its
meaning and pronunciation, as `kludge'. (Phonetically, consider huge,
refuge, centrifuge, and deluge as opposed to sludge, judge, budge,
and
fudge. Whatever its failings in other areas, English spelling is
perfectly consistent about this distinction.) British hackers mostly
learned /kluhj/ orally, use it in a restricted negative sense and are
at least consistent. European hackers have mostly learned the word
from written American sources and tend to pronounce it /kluhj/ but
use
the wider American meaning!
Some observers consider this mess appropriate in view of the word's
meaning.
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