Cargo cult programming is an incompetent style of computer programming characterized by the ritual inclusion of code or program structures that serve no real purpose. Cargo cult programmers will usually explain the redundant code as a way of working around a computer bug encountered in the past. Typically, however, they do not understand either the bug or the apparent solution (compare shotgun debugging, voodoo programming).

The term 'cargo cult' refers to aboriginal religions which grew up in the South Pacific after World War II. The practices of these cults centered on building elaborate mockups of airplanes and military landing strips in the hope of summoning the god-like airplanes that brought such marvelous cargo during the war. Use in computer programming probably derives from Richard Feynman's characterization of certain practices as Cargo cult science.

This page, or a previous version of it, comes from the Jargon file

References

• Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, Richard Feynman, W. W. Norton & Co, New York, 1985, ISBN 0-393-01921-7. The coining of "Cargo cult science".

Also the earlier talk "Cargo Cult Science", Richard Feynman, From a Caltech commencement address given in 1974. online at http://www.physics.brocku.ca/etc/cargo_cult_science.html