2014-04-26 10:52:28 -04:00
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compact
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2014-04-26 11:54:15 -04:00
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adj. Of a design, describes the valuable property that it can all be
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apprehended at once in one's head. This generally means the thing created
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from the design can be used with greater facility and fewer errors than an
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equivalent tool that is not compact. Compactness does not imply triviality
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or lack of power; for example, C is compact and FORTRAN is not, but C is
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more powerful than FORTRAN. Designs become non-compact through accreting
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feature s and cruft that don't merge cleanly into the overall design scheme
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(thus, some fans of Classic C maintain that ANSI C is no longer compact).
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