15 lines
2.7 KiB
HTML
15 lines
2.7 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>sanity check</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="../S.html" title="S"/><link rel="previous" href="sandbox.html" title="sandbox"/><link rel="next" href="Saturday-night-special.html" title="Saturday-night special"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">sanity check</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="sandbox.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">S</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="Saturday-night-special.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="sanity-check"/><dt xmlns="" id="sanity-check"><b>sanity check</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> [very common] </p></dd><dd><p> 1. The act of checking a piece of code (or anything else, e.g., a
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Usenet posting) for completely stupid mistakes. Implies that the check is
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to make sure the author was sane when it was written; e.g., if a piece of
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scientific software relied on a particular formula and was giving
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unexpected results, one might first look at the nesting of parentheses or
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the coding of the formula, as a <span class="firstterm">sanity
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check</span>, before looking at the more complex I/O or data structure
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manipulation routines, much less the algorithm itself. Compare
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<a href="../R/reality-check.html"><i class="glossterm">reality check</i></a>. </p></dd><dd><p> 2. A run-time test, either validating input or ensuring that the
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program hasn't screwed up internally (producing an inconsistent value or
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state). </p></dd><dd><p> 3. Conversationally, saying “<span class="quote">sanity check</span>” means you
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are requesting a check of your assumptions. “<span class="quote">Wait a minute, sanity
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check, are we talking about the same Kevin here?</span>”</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="sandbox.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../S.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="Saturday-night-special.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">sandbox </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> Saturday-night special</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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