[very common; back-formation from {crufty}]
1. n. An 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 of redundant or superseded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".
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {C++}{compact}{cruftsmanship}{drunk mouse syndrome}{dumpster diving}{gensym}{hand cruft}{hand-hacking}{prowler}{workaround}]