Definition: Kludgy and Kludgier

In internet studio terms, a kludge is a sloppy, messy ball of code. A kludge is a software application that was slapped together with little thought of planning and with no respect for the best practices of a mature industry.

Web developers often inherit code from previous, long-lost developers. When a new developer begins working with new code, some kludges work and others don't. A working, functional kludge is one you don't want to touch for fear you'll trip on some code and the whole application will come crumbling down. Most kludge applications are not documented so you'll always need to reverse engineer everything.