acolyte n. obs.
[TMRC] An OSU privileged enough to
submit data and programs to a member of the priesthood.
Node:ad-hockery, Next:Ada, Previous:acolyte, Up:= A
=
ad-hockery /ad-hok'*r-ee/ n.
[Purdue] 1. Gratuitous assumptions made inside certain
programs, esp. expert systems, which lead to the appearance of
semi-intelligent behavior 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 choke, 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.