1. Refers to development projects or algorithm s that have no possible relevance or practical application. Comes from "off in the weeds". Used in phrases like "lexical analysis for microcode is serious weeds."
2. At CDC / ETA before its demise, the phrase "go off in the weeds" was equivalent to IBM 's branch to Fishkill and mainstream hackerdom's jump off into never-never land .
[ Jargon File ]