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]
