crufty
crufty: /kruhf'tee/ adj. [very common; origin unknown; poss.
from `crusty' or `cruddy'] 1. Poorly built, possibly over-complex.
The canonical example is "This is standard old crufty DEC
software". In fact, one fanciful theory of the origin of `crufty'
holds that was originally a mutation of `crusty' applied to DEC
software so old that the `s' characters were tall and skinny,
looking more like `f' characters. 2. Unpleasant, especially to the
touch, often with encrusted junk. Like spilled coffee smeared with
peanut butter and catsup. 3. Generally unpleasant. 4. (sometimes
spelled `cruftie') n. A small crufty object (see frob); often one
that doesn't fit well into the scheme of things. "A LISP property
list is a good place to store crufties (or, collectively, random
cruft)."
This term is one of the oldest in the jargon and no one is sure of
its etymology, but it is suggestive that there is a Cruft Hall at
Harvard University which is part of the old physics building; it's
said to have been the physics department's radar lab during WWII.
To this day (early 1993) the windows appear to be full of random
techno-junk. MIT or Lincoln Labs people may well have coined the
term as a knock on the competition.
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