Workaround

2 definitions found

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

  workaround n. 1. A temporary {kluge} used to bypass, mask, or otherwise
     avoid a {bug} or {misfeature} in some system. Theoretically, workarounds
     are always replaced by {fix}es; in practice, customers often find
     themselves living with workarounds for long periods of time. "The code
     died on NUL characters in the input, so I fixed it to interpret them as
     spaces." "That's not a fix, that's a workaround!" 2. A procedure to be


     employed by the user in order to do what some currently non-working
     feature should do. Hypothetical example: "Using META-F7 {crash}es the
     4.43 build of Weemax, but as a workaround you can type CTRL-R, then
     SHIFT-F5, and delete the remaining {cruft} by hand."
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  workaround
       
           A temporary {kluge} used to bypass, mask
          or otherwise avoid a {bug} or {misfeature} in some system.
          Customers often find themselves living with workarounds for
          long periods of time rather than getting a {bug fix}.
       
          [{Jargon File}]
       
          (1998-06-25)