orthogonal adj.
[from mathematics] Mutually independent;
well separated; sometimes, irrelevant to. Used in a generalization
of its mathematical meaning to describe sets of primitives or
capabilities that, like a vector basis in geometry, span the entire
`capability space' of the system and are in some sense
non-overlapping or mutually independent. For example, in
architectures such as the PDP-11 or VAX where all or nearly all
registers can be used interchangeably in any role with respect to
any instruction, the register set is said to be orthogonal. Or, in
logic, the set of operators `not' and `or' is orthogonal, but
the set `nand', `or', and `not' is not (because any one of
these can be expressed in terms of the others). Also used in
comments on human discourse: "This may be orthogonal to the
discussion, but...."
[from mathematics] Mutually independent;
well separated; sometimes, irrelevant to. Used in a generalization
of its mathematical meaning to describe sets of primitives or
capabilities that, like a vector basis in geometry, span the entire
`capability space' of the system and are in some sense
non-overlapping or mutually independent. For example, in
architectures such as the PDP-11 or VAX where all or nearly all
registers can be used interchangeably in any role with respect to
any instruction, the register set is said to be orthogonal. Or, in
logic, the set of operators `not' and `or' is orthogonal, but
the set `nand', `or', and `not' is not (because any one of
these can be expressed in terms of the others). Also used in
comments on human discourse: "This may be orthogonal to the
discussion, but...."
Related:
- orthogonal adj.
[from mathematics] Mutually independent;
well separated; sometimes, irrelevant to. Used in... - random adj.
1. Unpredictable (closest to mathematical
definition);
weird. "The system's been behaving pretty randomly... - bug n.
An unwanted and unintended property of a program or
piece of hardware,
esp. one that causes it to malfunction. Antonym... - moby /moh'bee/
[MIT: seems to have been in use among
model railroad fans years ago.
Derived from Melville's "Moby Dick" (some say from... - vaxocentrism /vak`soh-sen'trizm/ n.
[analogy with
`ethnocentrism'] A notional disease said to afflict C programmers
who persist in coding according to certain assumptions that are
valid (esp.
under Unix) on VAXen but false elsewhere. Among ... - canonical adj.
[very common; historically, `according
to religious law'] The usual or standard state or manner of
something.
This word has a somewhat more technical meaning in... - pathological adj.
1. [scientific computation] Used of a
data set that is grossly atypical of normal expected input,
esp. one that exposes a weakness or bug in whatever... - What is the vector which is orthogonal to
itself... - death code: n. A routine whose job is to set everything in the
computer -
registers, memory, flags, everything -- to zero, ...
