2014-04-26 10:52:28 -04:00
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slop
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2014-04-26 11:54:15 -04:00
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n. 1. A one-sided fudge factor , that is, an allowance for error but in only
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one of two directions. For example, if you need a piece of wire 10 feet long
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and have to guess when you cut it, you make very sure to cut it too long, by
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a large amount if necessary, rather than too short by even a little bit,
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because you can always cut off the slop but you can't paste it back on
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again. When discrete quantities are involved, slop is often introduced to
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avoid the possibility of being on the losing side of a fencepost error. 2.
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The percentage of extra code generated by a compiler over the size of
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equivalent assembler code produced by hand-hacking ; i.e., the space (or
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maybe time) you lose because you didn't do it yourself. This number is often
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used as a measure of the goodness of a compiler; slop below 5% is very good,
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and 10% is usually acceptable. With modern compiler technology, esp. on RISC
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machines, the compiler's slop may actually be negative ; that is, humans may
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be unable to generate code as good. This is one of the reasons assembler
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programming is no longer common.
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