10

I am not sure if this is a proper place to post this question, but I was unable to find any better.

In software development, we tend to use the Russian word “костыль” (crutch) to denote a solution that's used to prop the existing code up, not to fix the real cause of the problem. It’s wry and usually used in a negative sense, like “I’ll put a crutch here for now, but when we have time, it should be fixed properly.” The code behaves like a human being on crutches: they're somehow able to walk, but those watching fear that they can fall down any minute.

My question is: does “crutch” sound legit in this context in English, and if not, is there any close analog of “костыль” in English?

CocoPop
  • 8,301
  • 2
  • 17
  • 38
Aleksei Matiushkin
  • 435
  • 1
  • 3
  • 11
  • I voted to close this question because it is not about the Russian language. – Yellow Sky Mar 06 '17 at 08:28
  • @YellowSky I could easily state the question as ‘is “crutch” to be translated into Russian as “костыль” in IT slang’ to make it fit rules better, and receive a feedback on the real question. Instead of doing that I honestly stated the question the way it goes. I believe it’s related to Russian language and is in general “about the Russian language.” Sometimes following rules blindly is the worst thing we can do. – Aleksei Matiushkin Mar 06 '17 at 08:44
  • Hack or workaround. – Atomosk Mar 06 '17 at 09:33
  • 4
    it's kludgy - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/kludgy - but this is off-topic here. – shabunc Mar 06 '17 at 13:26
  • @shabunc oh, thanks. I understood the question is a bit off-topic from the scratch, but I could not figure out where I can ask this question, save for this hub. Thanks. – Aleksei Matiushkin Mar 06 '17 at 14:18
  • @mudasobwa, the question is about English language, so you can ask it at http://english.stackexchange.com/. Your explanation of the word is quite good, so it's not necessary to know Russian to answer your question. – Lara Mar 06 '17 at 18:24
  • 1
    The word is "kludge" – axk Sep 29 '20 at 10:07
  • @axk thanks, I know it now, but still I appreciate your digging here. – Aleksei Matiushkin Sep 29 '20 at 10:12
  • In English, we tend to call something like what you're describing, a band-aid. See meaning 2: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/band-aid – CocoPop Oct 07 '23 at 14:39
  • I'm sorry this question was closed. I think it's an interesting linguistic question in both languages. Sometimes I wish there were more flexibility on here. – CocoPop Oct 07 '23 at 14:42
  • 1
    @AlekseiMatiushkin This article deals with band-aids used in IT and project management: https://lucidinsights.com.au/industry-trends-and-news/agile-series-no-9-solutions-are-great-band-aids-are-not/ – CocoPop Oct 07 '23 at 14:54
  • 1
    @CocoPop thanks for the link, I appreciate it! – Aleksei Matiushkin Oct 09 '23 at 07:36
  • 1
    @AlekseiMatiushkin If this question were still open, I would've posted an official response. My sister's a project manager here in Florida, and she confirmed that band-aid is what they call this. – CocoPop Oct 09 '23 at 13:12

1 Answers1

5

I use "dirty hack" in such cases. I don't think "hack" or "workaround" have such negative connotations.

CocoPop
  • 8,301
  • 2
  • 17
  • 38
tomasmor
  • 82
  • 2