crock n.
[from the American scatologism `crock of shit'] 1. An awkward
feature or programming technique that ought to be made cleaner.
For example, using small integers to represent error codes
without the program interpreting them to the user (as in, for
example, Unix make(1), which returns code 139 for a
process that dies due to segfault). 2. A technique that works
acceptably, but which is quite prone to failure if disturbed in
the least. For example, a too-clever programmer might write an
assembler which mapped instruction mnemonics to numeric opcodes
algorithmically, a trick which depends far too intimately on the
particular bit patterns of the opcodes. (For another example of
programming with a dependence on actual opcode values, see The Story of Mel in
Appendix A.) Many crocks have a tightly woven, almost completely
unmodifiable structure. See kluge,
brittle. The adjectives `crockish'
and `crocky', and the nouns `crockishness' and `crockitude', are
also used.
Node:cross-post, Next:crossload, Previous:crock, Up:= C
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cross-post vi.
[Usenet; very common] To post a single article simultaneously
to several newsgroups. Distinguished from posting the article
repeatedly, once to each newsgroup, which causes people to see it
multiple times (which is very bad form). Gratuitous cross-posting
without a Followup-To line directing responses to a single
followup group is frowned upon, as it tends to cause followup articles to go to inappropriate
newsgroups when people respond to only one part of the original
posting.