12 lines
2.2 KiB
HTML
12 lines
2.2 KiB
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>idempotent</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="../I.html" title="I"/><link rel="previous" href="idiot.html" title="ID10T error"/><link rel="next" href="IDP.html" title="IDP"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">idempotent</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="idiot.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><th width="60%" align="center">I</th><td width="20%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="IDP.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="idempotent"/><dt xmlns="" id="idempotent"><b>idempotent</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">adj.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> [from mathematical techspeak] Acting as if used only once, even if
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used multiple times. This term is often used with respect to
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<a href="../C/C.html"><i class="glossterm">C</i></a> header files, which contain common definitions and
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declarations to be included by several source files. If a header file is
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ever included twice during the same compilation (perhaps due to nested
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#include files), compilation errors can result unless the header file has
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protected itself against multiple inclusion; a header file so protected is
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said to be idempotent. The term can also be used to describe an
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initialization subroutine that is arranged to perform some critical action
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exactly once, even if the routine is called several times.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="idiot.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../I.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="IDP.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">ID10T error<6F></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"><EFBFBD>IDP</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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