The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Noddy \Nod"dy\, n.; pl. Noddies. [Prob. fr. nod to incline the
head, either as in assent, or from drowsiness.]
1. A simpleton; a fool. --L'Estrange.
Syn: tomnoddy.
[1913 Webster]
2. (Zool.)
(a) Any tern of the genus Anous, as Anous stolidus.
(b) The arctic fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis). Sometimes
also applied to other sea birds.
[1913 Webster]
3. An old game at cards. --Halliwell.
[1913 Webster]
4. A small two-wheeled one-horse vehicle.
[1913 Webster]
5. An inverted pendulum consisting of a short vertical flat
spring which supports a rod having a bob at the top; --
used for detecting and measuring slight horizontal
vibrations of a body to which it is attached.
[1913 Webster]
The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003):
noddy
/nod'ee/, adj.
[UK: from the children's books]
1. Small and un-useful, but demonstrating a point. Noddy programs are often
written by people learning a new language or system. The archetypal noddy
program is hello world. Noddy code may be used to demonstrate a feature
or bug of a compiler. May be used of real hardware or software to imply
that it isn't worth using. ?This editor's a bit noddy.?
2. A program that is more or less instant to produce. In this use, the term
does not necessarily connote uselessness, but describes a hack
sufficiently trivial that it can be written and debugged while carrying on
(and during the space of) a normal conversation. ?I'll just throw together
a noddy awk script to dump all the first fields.? In North America this
might be called a mickey mouse program. See toy program.
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):
noddy
/nod'ee/ [UK: from the children's books] 1. Small and
un-useful, but demonstrating a point. Noddy programs are
often written by people learning a new language or system.
The archetypal noddy program is hello, world. Noddy code
may be used to demonstrate a feature or bug of a compiler.
May be used of real hardware or software to imply that it
isn't worth using. "This editor's a bit noddy."
2. A program that is more or less instant to produce. In this
use, the term does not necessarily connote uselessness, but
describes a hack sufficiently trivial that it can be written
and debugged while carrying on (and during the space of) a
normal conversation. "I'll just throw together a noddy awk
script to dump all the first fields." In North America this
might be called a mickey mouse program. See toy program.
3. A simple (hence the name) language to handle text and
interaction on the Memotech home computer. Has died with
the machine.
[Jargon File]