from
Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003)
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 {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 {ELIZA effect}.
from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
ad-hockery
<jargon> /ad-hok'*r-ee/ (Purdue) 1. Gratuitous assumptions
made inside certain programs, especially {expert systems},
which lead to the appearance of semi-intelligent behaviour 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 fail, 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 {ELIZA effect}.
[{Jargon File}]
(1995-01-05)