nailing jelly

from Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003)
nailing jelly
 vi.

   See {like nailing jelly to a tree}.
    
from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
like nailing jelly to a tree
nailing jelly

   <jargon, humour> Used to describe a task thought to be
   impossible, especially one in which the difficulty arises from
   poor specification or inherent slipperiness in the problem
   domain.  "Trying to display the "prettiest" arrangement of
   nodes and arcs that diagrams a given graph is like nailing
   jelly to a tree, because nobody's sure what "prettiest" means
   algorithmically."

   [{Jargon File}]

   (1997-12-23)
    

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