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1. The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003)
kluge
 /klooj/

    [from the German ?klug?, clever; poss. related to Polish & Russian ?klucz?
    (a key, a hint, a main point)]

    1. n. A Rube Goldberg (or Heath Robinson) device, whether in hardware or
    software.

    2. n. A clever programming trick intended to solve a particular nasty case
    in an expedient, if not clear, manner. Often used to repair bugs. Often
    involves ad-hockery and verges on being a crock.

    3. n. Something that works for the wrong reason.

    4. vt. To insert a kluge into a program. ?I've kluged this routine to get
    around that weird bug, but there's probably a better way.?

    5. [WPI] n. A feature that is implemented in a rude manner.

    Nowadays this term is often encountered in the variant spelling ?kludge?.
    Reports from old farts are consistent that ?kluge? was the original
    spelling, reported around computers as far back as the mid-1950s and, at
    that time, used exclusively of hardware kluges. In 1947, the New York
    Folklore Quarterly reported a classic shaggy-dog story ?Murgatroyd the
    Kluge Maker? then current in the Armed Forces, in which a ?kluge? was a
    complex and puzzling artifact with a trivial function. Other sources report
    that ?kluge? was common Navy slang in the WWII era for any piece of
    electronics that worked well on shore but consistently failed at sea.

    However, there is reason to believe this slang use may be a decade older.
    Several respondents have connected it to the brand name of a device called
    a ?Kluge paper feeder?, an adjunct to mechanical printing presses. Legend
    has it that the Kluge feeder was designed before small, cheap electric
    motors and control electronics; it relied on a fiendishly complex
    assortment of cams, belts, and linkages to both power and synchronize all
    its operations from one motive driveshaft. It was accordingly
    temperamental, subject to frequent breakdowns, and devilishly difficult to
    repair ? but oh, so clever! People who tell this story also aver that
    ?Kluge? was the name of a design engineer.

    There is in fact a Brandtjen & Kluge Inc., an old family business that
    manufactures printing equipment ? interestingly, their name is pronounced /
    kloo'gee/! Henry Brandtjen, president of the firm, told me (ESR, 1994) that
    his company was co-founded by his father and an engineer named Kluge /
    kloo'gee/, who built and co-designed the original Kluge automatic feeder in
    1919. Mr. Brandtjen claims, however, that this was a simple device (with
    only four cams); he says he has no idea how the myth of its complexity took
    hold. Other correspondents differ with Mr. Brandtjen's history of the
    device and his allegation that it was a simple rather than complex one, but
    agree that the Kluge automatic feeder was the most likely source of the
    folklore.

    TMRC and the MIT hacker culture of the early '60s seems to have developed
    in a milieu that remembered and still used some WWII military slang (see
    also foobar). It seems likely that ?kluge? came to MIT via alumni of the
    many military electronics projects that had been located in Cambridge (many
    in MIT's venerable Building 20, in which TMRC is also located) during the
    war.

    The variant ?kludge? was apparently popularized by the Datamation article
    mentioned under kludge; it was titled How to Design a Kludge (February
    1962, pp. 30, 31). This spelling was probably imported from Great Britain,
    where kludge has an independent history (though this fact was largely
    unknown to hackers on either side of the Atlantic before a mid-1993 debate
    in the Usenet group alt.folklore.computers over the First and Second
    Edition versions of this entry; everybody used to think kludge was just a
    mutation of kluge). It now appears that the British, having forgotten the
    etymology of their own ?kludge? when ?kluge? crossed the Atlantic, repaid
    the U.S. by lobbing the ?kludge? orthography in the other direction and
    confusing their American cousins' spelling!

    The result of this history is a tangle. Many younger U.S. hackers pronounce
    the word as /klooj/ but spell it, incorrectly for its meaning and
    pronunciation, as ?kludge?. (Phonetically, consider huge, refuge,
    centrifuge, and deluge as opposed to sludge, judge, budge, and fudge.
    Whatever its failings in other areas, English spelling is perfectly
    consistent about this distinction.) British hackers mostly learned /kluhj/
    orally, use it in a restricted negative sense and are at least consistent.
    European hackers have mostly learned the word from written American sources
    and tend to pronounce it /kluhj/ but use the wider American meaning!

    Some observers consider this mess appropriate in view of the word's
    meaning.


2. The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018)
kluge

    /klooj/, /kluhj/ (From German "klug" /kloog/ - clever
   and Scottish "kludge") 1. A Rube Goldberg (or Heath
   Robinson) device, whether in hardware or software.

   The spelling "kluge" (as opposed to "kludge") was used in
   connection with computers as far back as the mid-1950s and, at
   that time, was used exclusively of *hardware* kluges.

   2.  A clever programming trick intended to solve
   a particular nasty case in an expedient, if not clear, manner.
   Often used to repair bugs.  Often involves ad-hockery and
   verges on being a crock.  In fact, the TMRC Dictionary
   defined "kludge" as "a crock that works".

   3. Something that works for the wrong reason.

   4. (WPI) A feature that is implemented in a rude manner.

   In 1947, the "New York Folklore Quarterly" reported a classic
   shaggy-dog story "Murgatroyd the Kluge Maker" then current in
   the Armed Forces, in which a "kluge" was a complex and
   puzzling artifact with a trivial function.  Other sources
   report that "kluge" was common Navy slang in the WWII era for
   any piece of electronics that worked well on shore but
   consistently failed at sea.

   However, there is reason to believe this slang use may be a
   decade older.  Several respondents have connected it to the
   brand name of a device called a "Kluge paper feeder" dating
   back at least to 1935, an adjunct to mechanical printing
   presses.  The Kluge feeder was designed before small, cheap
   electric motors and control electronics; it relied on a
   fiendishly complex assortment of cams, belts, and linkages to
   both power and synchronise all its operations from one motive
   driveshaft.  It was accordingly tempermental, subject to
   frequent breakdowns, and devilishly difficult to repair - but
   oh, so clever!  One traditional folk etymology of "klugen"
   makes it the name of a design engineer; in fact, "Kluge" is a
   surname in German, and the designer of the Kluge feeder may
   well have been the man behind this myth.

   TMRC and the MIT hacker culture of the early 1960s seems to
   have developed in a milieu that remembered and still used some
   WWII military slang (see also foobar).  It seems likely that
   "kluge" came to MIT via alumni of the many military
   electronics projects run in Cambridge during the war (many in
   MIT's venerable Building 20, which housed TMRC until the
   building was demolished in 1999).

   [Jargon File]

   (2002-10-02)


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