pathological
1. [scientific comput ATion] Used of a d ATa set th AT is grossly ATypical of normal expected input, especially one th AT exposes a weakness or bug in wh ATever algorithm one is using. An algorithm th AT can be broken by p AThological inputs may still be useful if such inputs are very unlikely to occur in practice. 2. When used of test input, implies th AT it was purposefully engineered as a worst case. The implic ATion in both senses is th AT the d ATa is spectacularly ill-conditioned or th AT someone had to explicitly set out to break the algorithm in order to come up with such a crazy example. 3. Also said of an unlikely collection of circumstances. "If the network is down and comes up halfway through the execution of th AT command by root, the system may just crash." "Yes, but th AT' s a p AThological case." Often used to dismiss the case from discussion, with the implic ATion th AT the consequences are acceptable, since they will happen so infrequently (if AT all) th AT it doesn' t seem worth going to the extra trouble to handle th AT case (see sense 1). [ Jargon File] In addition suitable contents: [ 2 ] [ = ] [ accept ] [ ad ] [ ai ] [ al ] [ algorithm ] [ am ] [ an ] [ app ] [ ar ] [ arc ] [ arg ] [ as ] [ ash ] [ AT ] [ az ] [ b ] [ be ] [ bo ] [ bot ] [ br ] [ break ] [ broken ] [ by ] [ ca ] [ case ] [ cAT ] [ cc ] [ ch ] [ ci ] [ co ] [ com ] [ comma ] [ command ] [ con ] [ cons ] [ cr ] [ crash ] [ cu ] [ dATa ] [ dATa set ] [ de ] [ disc ] [ do ] [ down ] [ du ] [ ec ] [ ed ] [ ee ] [ engine ] [ er ] [ es ] [ et ] [ exec ] [ execution ] [ expect ] [ fi ] [ file ] [ fr ] [ gh ] [ gi ] [ gr ] [ h ] [ handle ] [ hAT ] [ hm ] [ hr ] [ id ] [ ie ] [ il ] [ implies ] [ in ] [ inc ] [ input ] [ io ] [ ir ] [ is ] [ it ] [ J ] [ Jargon File ] [ ke ] [ ken ] [ kn ] [ la ] [ Lex ] [ li ] [ logical ] [ ls ] [ ly ] [ ma ] [ man ] [ mm ] [ mo ] [ mod ] [ module ] [ mp ] [ ms ] [ na ] [ nc ] [ ne ] [ net ] [ network ] [ nf ] [ ng ] [ nl ] [ no ] [ norm ] [ np ] [ ns ] [ O ] [ om ] [ pa ] [ pATh ] [ pe ] [ ph ] [ pl ] [ pr ] [ pt ] [ query ] [ rc ] [ re ] [ rl ] [ ro ] [ root ] [ sa ] [ sc ] [ se ] [ set ] [ sh ] [ si ] [ sl ] [ sm ] [ sn ] [ so ] [ spec ] [ st ] [ su ] [ sy ] [ system ] [ T ] [ table ] [ test ] [ th ] [ to ] [ tr ] [ tw ] [ ug ] [ um ] [ up ] [ us ] [ ve ] [ Y ]
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