Finally, note that many words in hacker jargon have to be
understood as members of sets of comparatives. This is especially
true of the adjectives and nouns used to describe the beauty and
functional quality of code. Here is an approximately correct
spectrum:
monstrosity brain-damage screw bug lose
misfeature
crock kluge hack win feature elegance perfection
The last is spoken of as a mythical absolute, approximated but
never actually attained. Another similar scale is used for
describing the reliability of software:
broken flaky dodgy fragile brittle
solid robust bulletproof armor-plated
Note, however, that `dodgy' is primarily Commonwealth Hackish
(it is rare in the U.S.) and may change places with `flaky' for
some speakers.
Coinages for describing lossage
seem to call forth the very finest in hackish linguistic
inventiveness; it has been truly said that hackers have even more
words for equipment failures than Yiddish has for obnoxious
people.
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