Tales from the Software Community
-- Richard P. Gabriel, 1996, "The Quality Without A Name" // (http://dreamsongs.com/Files/PatternsOfSoftware.pdf, page 42)
> Software has a situation corresponding to compression: bummed code. Bummed code is code that must perform a particular task in a highly constrained footprint because there just isn’t any space to do the task in a straightforward manner. This often requires very clever encoding and multiple uses of single resources. Bummed code possesses a certain aesthetic quality, not unlike the compressed quality without a name. The indirectness of such code is pleasing to admire, though not, perhaps, to modify.