Cargo Culture and Majic numbers
Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2012 10:31 pm
Cargo cult science
Cargo cult science refers to practices that have the semblance of being scientific, but do not in fact follow the scientific method The term was first used by the physicist Richard Feynman during his commencement address at the California Institute of Technology, United States, in 1974.
Cargo cults—the religious practice that has appeared in many traditional tribal societies in the wake of interaction with technologically advanced cultures—focus on obtaining the material wealth (the "cargo") of the advanced culture by building mock aircraft, landing strips, and the like.
Cargo cult science refers to practices that have the semblance of being scientific, but do not in fact follow the scientific method The term was first used by the physicist Richard Feynman during his commencement address at the California Institute of Technology, United States, in 1974.
Cargo cults—the religious practice that has appeared in many traditional tribal societies in the wake of interaction with technologically advanced cultures—focus on obtaining the material wealth (the "cargo") of the advanced culture by building mock aircraft, landing strips, and the like.
Cargo cult programming
Cargo cult programming is a style of computer programming that is characterized by the ritual inclusion of code or program structures that serve no real purpose.
Cargo cult programming is typically symptomatic of a programmer not understanding either a bug he or she was attempting to solve or the apparent solution (compare shotgun debugging, voodoo programming). The term cargo cult programmer may also apply when an unskilled or novice computer programmer (or one not experienced with the problem at hand) copies some program code from one place and pastes it into another place, with little or no understanding of how the code works, or whether it is required in its new position.
Cargo cult programming is a style of computer programming that is characterized by the ritual inclusion of code or program structures that serve no real purpose.
Cargo cult programming is typically symptomatic of a programmer not understanding either a bug he or she was attempting to solve or the apparent solution (compare shotgun debugging, voodoo programming). The term cargo cult programmer may also apply when an unskilled or novice computer programmer (or one not experienced with the problem at hand) copies some program code from one place and pastes it into another place, with little or no understanding of how the code works, or whether it is required in its new position.