24 lines
3.4 KiB
HTML
24 lines
3.4 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>delta</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="../D.html" title="D"/><link rel="previous" href="delint.html" title="delint"/><link rel="next" href="demented.html" title="demented"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">delta</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="delint.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">D</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="demented.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="delta"/><dt xmlns="" id="delta"><b>delta</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> 1. [techspeak] A quantitative change, especially a small or
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incremental one (this use is general in physics and engineering). “<span class="quote">I
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just doubled the speed of my program!</span>” “<span class="quote">What was the delta on
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program size?</span>” “<span class="quote">About 30 percent.</span>” (He doubled the
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speed of his program, but increased its size by only 30 percent.) </p></dd><dd><p> 2. [Unix] A <a href="diff.html"><i class="glossterm">diff</i></a>, especially a
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<a href="diff.html"><i class="glossterm">diff</i></a> stored under the set of version-control tools
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called SCCS (Source Code Control System) or RCS (Revision Control System).
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</p></dd><dd><p> 3. <span class="grammar">n.</span> A small quantity, but not
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as small as <a href="../E/epsilon.html"><i class="glossterm">epsilon</i></a>. The jargon usage of
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<a href="delta.html"><i class="glossterm">delta</i></a> and <a href="../E/epsilon.html"><i class="glossterm">epsilon</i></a> stems from
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the traditional use of these letters in mathematics for very small
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numerical quantities, particularly in ‘epsilon-delta’ proofs in
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limit theory (as in the differential calculus). The term
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<a href="delta.html"><i class="glossterm">delta</i></a> is often used, once
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<a href="../E/epsilon.html"><i class="glossterm">epsilon</i></a> has been mentioned, to mean a quantity that
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is slightly bigger than <a href="../E/epsilon.html"><i class="glossterm">epsilon</i></a> but still very
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small. “<span class="quote">The cost isn't epsilon, but it's delta</span>” means that
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the cost isn't totally negligible, but it is nevertheless very small.
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Common constructions include <span class="firstterm">within delta of
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—</span>, <span class="firstterm">within epsilon of
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—</span>: that is, ‘close to’ and ‘even closer
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to’.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="delint.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../D.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="demented.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">delint </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> demented</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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