Crufty

1 definition found

From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:

  crufty /kruhf'tee/ adj. [very common; origin unknown; poss. from
     `crusty' or `cruddy'] 1. Poorly built, possibly over-complex. The
     {canonical} example is "This is standard old crufty {DEC} software". In
     fact, one fanciful theory of the origin of `crufty' holds that was
     originally a mutation of `crusty' applied to DEC software so old that
     the `s' characters were tall and skinny, looking more like `f'


     characters. 2. Unpleasant, especially to the touch, often with encrusted
     junk. Like spilled coffee smeared with peanut butter and catsup. 3.
     Generally unpleasant. 4. (sometimes spelled `cruftie') n. A small crufty
     object (see {frob}); often one that doesn't fit well into the scheme of
     things. "A LISP property list is a good place to store crufties (or,
     collectively, {random} cruft)."
  
     This term is one of the oldest in the jargon and no one is sure of its
     etymology, but it is suggestive that there is a Cruft Hall at Harvard
     University which is part of the old physics building; it's said to have
     been the physics department's radar lab during WWII. To this day (early
     1993) the windows appear to be full of random techno-junk. MIT or
     Lincoln Labs people may well have coined the term as a knock on the
     competition.