implement payroll packages in RPG and other such unspeakable
horrors. In its native habitat, the code grinder often removes the
suit jacket to reveal an underplumage consisting of button-down
shirt (starch optional) and a tie. In times of dire stress, the
sleeves (if long) may be rolled up and the tie loosened about half
an inch. It seldom helps. The {code grinder}'s milieu is about
as far from hackerdom as one can get and still touch a computer;
the term connotes pity. See {Real World}, {suit}. 2. Used
of or to a hacker, a really serious slur on the person's creative
ability; connotes a design style characterized by primitive
technique, rule-boundedness, {brute force}, and utter lack of
imagination. Compare {card walloper}; contrast {hacker},
{Real Programmer}.

:Code of the Geeks: /n./ see {geek code}.

:code police: /n./ [by analogy with George Orwell's `thought
police'] A mythical team of Gestapo-like storm troopers that might
burst into one's office and arrest one for violating programming
style rules. May be used either seriously, to underline a claim
that a particular style violation is dangerous, or ironically, to
suggest that the practice under discussion is condemned mainly by
anal-retentive {weenie}s. "Dike out that goto or the code
police will get you!" The ironic usage is perhaps more common.

:codes: /n./ [scientific computing] Programs. This usage is common
in people who hack supercomputers and heavy-duty
{number-crunching}, rare to unknown elsewhere (if you say
"codes" to hackers outside scientific computing, their
first association is likely to be "and cyphers").