29 Mar
2005
29 Mar
'05
8:54 p.m.
From _ENCYCLOPEDIA OF COMPUTER SCIENCE_(Van
Nostrand), 1976:
KLUDGE
The word "kludge" is a term coined by Jackson Granholm in an
article "How to design a kludge" in _DATAMATION_ (February 1962).
The definition is given as "an ill-sorted collection of poorly
matched parts, forming a distressing whole". The design of every
computer contains some anomalies that prove to be annoying to the
users and wghich the designer wishes he had done differently. If
there are enough of these, the machine is called a "kludge".
By extention, the term has come to be applied to programs,
documentation, and even computer centers, so that the definition
is not "an ill-conceiverd and hence unreliable system that has
accumulated through patchwork, expediancy, and poor planning".
As others have mentioned, the origin much older. There was a long
thread on this someplace, maybe in Datamation, about the origin. It was
certainly in use before WWII by maintainers of the punched card devices.
It showed up in writing in a few articles during the '50's.
The first kludge article triggered five others
("How to maintain a
kludge", etc) in subsequent issues of _DATAMATION_. Four of the
articles may be found in the book _FAITH, HOPE AND PARITY_ edited
by Josh Moshman, Thompson Book Company, 1966.
-- F. Gruenberger
I shall certainly try to find the book. I loved those articles.
Read all of them when they came out. I still have two of them that
I tore out of Datamation.
Scans of them would be perfect for the readers of this list.
I especially remember "How To Maintain A Kludge" subtitled
"Craftily!"
Paraphrasing, they had a hall of fame maintenance engineer who talked a
customer into using a Kludge Komputer for 6 months even though it had a
broken power on switch.
Billy