unpleasant substance. The dust that gathers under your bed is
cruft; the TMRC Dictionary correctly noted that attacking it with a
broom only produces more. 2. /n./ The results of shoddy
construction. 3. /vt./ [from `hand cruft', pun on `hand craft']
To write assembler code for something normally (and better) done by
a compiler (see {hand-hacking}). 4. /n./ Excess; superfluous
junk; used esp. of redundant or superseded code. 5. [University
of Wisconsin] /n./ Cruft is to hackers as gaggle is to geese; that
is, at UW one properly says "a cruft of hackers".

:cruft together: /vt./ (also `cruft up') To throw together
something ugly but temporarily workable. Like /vt./ {kluge up},
but more pejorative. "There isn't any program now to reverse all
the lines of a file, but I can probably cruft one together in about
10 minutes." See {hack together}, {hack up}, {kluge up},
{crufty}.

:cruftsmanship: /kruhfts'm*n-ship / /n./ [from {cruft}]
The antithesis of craftsmanship.

:crufty: /kruhf'tee/ /adj./ [origin unknown; poss. from
`crusty' or `cruddy'] 1. Poorly built, possibly over-complex.
The {canonical} example is "This is standard old crufty
{DEC} software". In fact, one fanciful theory of the origin of
`crufty' holds that was originally a mutation of `crusty'
applied to DEC software so old that the `s' characters were tall
and skinny, looking more like `f' characters. 2. Unpleasant,
especially to the touch, often with encrusted junk. Like spilled
coffee smeared with peanut butter and catsup. 3. Generally
unpleasant. 4. (sometimes spelled `cruftie') /n./ A small crufty