kluge

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 fart}s 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.
    

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)