17 lines
2.7 KiB
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17 lines
2.7 KiB
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>pathological</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../P.html" title="P"/><link rel="previous" href="path.html" title="path"/><link rel="next" href="payware.html" title="payware"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">pathological</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="path.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><th width="60%" align="center">P</th><td width="20%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="payware.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="pathological"/><dt xmlns="" id="pathological"><b>pathological</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">adj.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> 1. [scientific computation] Used of a data set that is grossly
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atypical of normal expected input, esp. one that exposes a weakness or bug
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in whatever algorithm one is using. An algorithm that can be broken by
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pathological inputs may still be useful if such inputs are very unlikely to
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occur in practice. </p></dd><dd><p> 2. When used of test input, implies that it was purposefully
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engineered as a worst case. The implication in both senses is that the
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data is spectacularly ill-conditioned or that someone had to explicitly set
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out to break the algorithm in order to come up with such a crazy example.
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</p></dd><dd><p> 3. Also said of an unlikely collection of circumstances. “<span class="quote">If
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the network is down and comes up halfway through the execution of that
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command by root, the system may just crash.</span>” “<span class="quote">Yes, but that's
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a pathological case.</span>” Often used to dismiss the case from
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discussion, with the implication that the consequences are acceptable,
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since they will happen so infrequently (if at all) that it doesn't seem
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worth going to the extra trouble to handle that case (see sense 1).</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="path.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../P.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="payware.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">path<EFBFBD></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"><EFBFBD>payware</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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