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Anybody use the term 'kludge?'

Used it a lot at work when building prototypes by mix-mashing technologies that weren't designed to be used together, or when devising an emergency repair when appropriate spares were not available. The act was called 'kludging' and the result was a 'kludge'.
 
Sure. Heard it quite a lot around the turn of the century, when I worked for a software gaming publisher/developer as a website designer. Ten times the code it should take to work, but hey...if it does works, so what? Yeah....kludge.

Especially associated with any code involving Microsoft's Active Server Pages. Oh my...:rolleyes:
 
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I do all the time. In the sense that @Cryptid said, as well as just in general when something is done in a non-standard way.
 
We used in military as did civilian military workers (Electronics fields). We used it in the sense of mockups put together to test/troubleshoot something. We might even make it a permanent test device if it worked well. I used to make them from time to time. Often very rough and rudimentary looking things cobbled together.
 
@Aspychata
That was Captain Kruge, played by Christopher Loyd in "The Search for Spock".

iu

"Say the wrong thing!!"
​
 
Oh heavens. Back when I worked in aerospace, we'd kludge together proof-of-concept demonstrators whatever pieces we happened to have in the parts cabinet. Didn't have a 500-ohm resistor? Stick in two 1000 ohm resistors in parallel. Don't have the right gasket? Quick, grab the silicone calking compound! They'll never notice. Always kept duct tape and super glue close to hand.

IMHO, a functional kludge is high art.
 
I was always amused by how the term seemed to be used in both a good and bad way. But when it's for high stakes and you're under the gun with a time-sensitive situation, if and when it works that may be all that counted.

Reminds me too of the division between those developers who appreciated good clean validated code, and those who didn't care in the least, as long as it rendered *reasonably well* in most web browsers.

LOL...."culture wars".
 
Kludge fixes are some of the best fixes. I got a radio once that had been kludged--it came with 2A3H tubes, a pair of them. They are phenomenally expensive tubes and even replicas are $100 each. Back in the 1940s when the radio was repaired someone swapped those out for 45's, and changed the power transformer to allow the cheaper Type 45 tubes to do the work of the 2A3H's.

The typewriter on my desk right now has a shoelace for a drawband, and a bicycle tire tube for the platen. Good old 1912 engineering but it does wear out. The 1850s pump organ in my bedroom has been resealed with silicone caulk (not by me!) and my 1966 bicycle has a speedometer from a vintage exercise bike kludged onto the front axle where the light from the box headlamp can shine on the dial, illuminating it at night. The typewriter on my dining room table, currently getting restored, has one key held on with melted solder because it got damaged, and my Underwood 5 has rubber stoppers replacing missing feet which are expensive unobtanium.


My car has egg carton and epoxy holding the trip-odometer together, and the only way I could get my phone working (it's a little phone from the 1930s and therefore landline) was to patch a bluetooth box into the cord.
Got to love a good "DIY job."
 
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