Black Magic

Definitions

1. Code or a technique that works through mechanisms its users do not understand and cannot readily explain, typically relying on undocumented behaviour or side effects of a particular implementation. Black magic differs from 'deep magic', which is arcane but genuinely understood by its author, and from 'voodoo programming', where the practitioner has no idea why the incantation works and simply repeats it. The term carries grudging respect alongside its warning: black magic usually indicates real cleverness, and it also indicates something that will break catastrophically when the underlying platform changes.