The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003):
heavy wizardry
n.
Code or designs that trade on a particularly intimate knowledge or
experience of a particular operating system or language or complex
application interface. Distinguished from deep magic, which trades more
on arcane theoretical knowledge. Writing device drivers is heavy wizardry;
so is interfacing to X (sense 2) without a toolkit. Esp.: found in
source-code comments of the form ?Heavy wizardry begins here?. Compare
voodoo programming.
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):
heavy wizardry
Code or designs that trade on a particularly intimate
knowledge or experience of a particular operating system or
language or complex application interface. Distinguished from
deep magic, which trades more on arcane *theoretical*
knowledge. Writing device drivers is heavy wizardry; so is
interfacing to X (sense 2) without a toolkit. Especially
found in source-code comments of the form "Heavy wizardry
begins here".
Compare voodoo programming.
[Jargon File]