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noddy |
3 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Noddy \Nod"dy\, n.; pl {Noddies}. [Prob. fr nod to incline the head, either as in assent, or from drowsiness.] 1. A simpleton; a fool. --L'Estrange. 2. (Zo["o]l.) a Any tern of the genus {Anous}, as {A. stolidus}. b The arctic fulmar ({Fulmarus glacialis}). Sometimes also applied to other sea birds. 3. An old game at cards. --Halliwell. 4. A small two-wheeled one-horse vehicle. 5. An inverted pendulum consisting of a short vertical flat spring which supports a rod having a bob at the top -- used for detecting and measuring slight horizontal vibrations of a body to which it is attached. From Jargon File (4.2.3, 23 NOV 2000) [jargon]: noddy /nod'ee/ adj [UK: from the children's books] 1. Small and un-useful, but demonstrating a point. Noddy programs are often written by people learning a new language or system. The archetypal noddy program is {hello world}. Noddy code may be used to demonstrate a feature or bug of a compiler. May be used of real hardware or software to imply that it isn't worth using. "This editor's a bit noddy." 2. A program that is more or less instant to produce. In this use the term does not necessarily connote uselessness, but describes a {hack} sufficiently trivial that it can be written and debugged while carrying on (and during the space of) a normal conversation. "I'll just throw together a noddy {awk} script to dump all the first fields." In North America this might be called a {mickey mouse program}. See {toy program}. From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (13 Mar 01) [foldoc]: noddy /nod'ee/ [UK: from the children's books] 1. Small and un-useful, but demonstrating a point. Noddy programs are often written by people learning a new language or system. The archetypal noddy program is {hello, world}. Noddy code may be used to demonstrate a feature or bug of a compiler. May be used of real hardware or software to imply that it isn't worth using. "This editor's a bit noddy." 2. A program that is more or less instant to produce. In this use the term does not necessarily connote uselessness, but describes a {hack} sufficiently trivial that it can be written and debugged while carrying on (and during the space of) a normal conversation. "I'll just throw together a noddy {awk} script to dump all the first fields." In North America this might be called a {mickey mouse program}. See {toy program}. 3. A simple (hence the name) language to handle text and interaction on the {Memotech} home computer. Has died with the machine. [{Jargon File}]