sanity check

n. [very common] 1. The act of checking a piece of code (or anything else,
e.g., a Usenet posting) for completely stupid mistakes. Implies that the
check is to make sure the author was sane when it was written; e.g., if a
piece of scientific software relied on a particular formula and was giving
unexpected results, one might first look at the nesting of parentheses or
the coding of the formula, as a sanity check , before looking at the more
complex I/O or data structure manipulation routines, much less the algorithm
itself. Compare reality check. 2. A run-time test, either validating input
or ensuring that the program hasn't screwed up internally (producing an
inconsistent value or state). 3. Conversationally, saying sanity check means
you are requesting a check of your assumptions.

