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Glite Dictionary
🩹 Badly torn 💻 Changed code name
mangled

mangled

8.8
Changed so a name in a program includes extra letters that show its type
  • adjective
  • /ˈmæŋɡəld/
  • Specialized
translation icon : modificado

Examples

  • Dropping it in the ashtray, he switched to the inch of cold, bitter coffee that was left in the mangled cup.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • After the code was processed, the identifiers were left in a mangled state that made debugging nearly impossible.

  • The developer explained that the mangled names in the library encode specific type information that is crucial for the application.

  • Due to the mangled function names, the software update took longer to implement than expected.

Synonyms

bastardized
vsmangled
  • NSFW
7.7

Changed from the original so it is worse and not like it

is a technical renaming that encodes extra information not a quality loss

How Transformed

mangled
  • Specialized
8.8
modified
3.9
original
∞ 2.8

Surface Forms

mangled positive

Morphology

mangled = mangle (semi-transparent) = mangle + ed

The computing sense is a metaphorical/technical extension of 'mangle' (meaning to badly alter), so the relation is clear but specialized and may not be obvious to all learners.

Etymology

Mangled comes from the same idea as mangle 'to twist' or 'to damage', and programmers use it when a compiler twists a name into a strange form. So a mangled symbol is a name that has been changed and is hard to read.