wall follower

wall follower
 n.

   A person or algorithm that compensates for lack of sophistication or
   native stupidity by efficiently following some simple procedure shown
   to have been effective in the past. Used of an algorithm, this is not
   necessarily pejorative; it recalls `Harvey Wallbanger', the winning
   robot in an early AI contest (named, of course, after the cocktail).
   Harvey successfully solved mazes by keeping a `finger' on one wall and
   running till it came out the other end. This was inelegant, but it was
   mathematically guaranteed to work on simply-connected mazes -- and, in
   fact, Harvey outperformed more sophisticated robots that tried to
   `learn' each maze by building an internal representation of it. Used
   of humans, the term is pejorative and implies an uncreative,
   bureaucratic, by-the-book mentality. See also {code grinder}; compare
   {droid}.
    

wall follower

   <robotics> A person or {algorithm} that compensates for lack
   of sophistication or native stupidity by efficiently following
   some simple procedure shown to have been effective in the
   past.  Used of an algorithm, this is not necessarily
   pejorative; it recalls "Harvey Wallbanger", the winning robot
   in an early AI contest (named, of course, after the cocktail).
   Harvey successfully solved mazes by keeping a "finger" on one
   wall and running till it came out the other end.  This was
   inelegant, but it was mathematically guaranteed to work on
   simply-connected mazes - and, in fact, Harvey outperformed
   more sophisticated robots that tried to "learn" each maze by
   building an internal representation of it.  Used of humans,
   the term *is* pejorative and implies an uncreative,
   bureaucratic, by-the-book mentality.

   See also {code grinder}.

   [{Jargon File}]

   (2003-02-03)