<jargon> /ad-hok'*r-ee/ (Purdue) 1. Gratuitous assumptions
made inside certain programs, especially expert systems,
which lead to the appearance of semi-intelligent behaviour but
are in fact entirely arbitrary. For example, fuzzy-matching
of input tokens that might be typing errors against a symbol
table can make it look as though a program knows how to spell.
2. Special-case code to cope with some awkward input that
would otherwise cause a program to fail, presuming normal
inputs are dealt with in some cleaner and more regular way.
Also called "ad-hackery", "ad-hocity" (/ad-hos'*-tee/),
"ad-crockery".
See also ELIZA effect.
[Jargon File]
(1995-01-05)
Nearby terms:
ADELE « ADES « ad hoc « ad-hockery » ad-hoc polymorphism » Aditi » adjacency
