2014-04-26 10:52:28 -04:00
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cargo cult programming
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2014-04-26 11:54:15 -04:00
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n. A style of (incompetent) programming dominated by ritual inclusion of
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code or program structures that serve no real purpose. A cargo cult
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programmer will usually explain the extra code as a way of working around
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some bug encountered in the past, but usually neither the bug nor the reason
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the code apparently avoided the bug was ever fully understood (compare
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shotgun debugging , voodoo programming ). The term cargo cult is a reference
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to aboriginal religions that grew up in the South Pacific after World War
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II. The practices of these cults center on building elaborate mockups of
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airplanes and military style landing strips in the hope of bringing the
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return of the god-like airplanes that brought such marvelous cargo during
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the war. Hackish usage probably derives from Richard Feynman's
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characterization of certain practices as cargo cult science in his book
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Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (W. W. Norton Co, New York 1985, ISBN
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0-393-01921-7).
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