ad-hockery
Free On-line Dictionary of Computing
<jargon> /ad-hok'*r-ee/ (Purdue) 1. Gratuitous assumptions made inside certain programs, especially expert systems, which lead to the appearance of semi-intelligent behaviour 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 fail, 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. [Jargon File]
(1995-01-05)
The Jargon File
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. [73-10-31]
This is ad-hockery in action.