dusty deck

Old software (especially applications) which one is obliged to

remain compatible with, or to maintain. DP types call this

"legacy code", a term hackers consider smarmy and excessively

reverent. The term implies that the software in question is a

holdover from card-punch days. Used especially when referring

to old scientific and number crunching software, much of

which was written in Fortran and very poorly documented but is

believed to be too expensive to replace. See fossil;

compare crawling horror.

[Jargon File]