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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>compact</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="../C.html" title="C"/><link rel="previous" href="Commonwealth-Hackish.html" title="Commonwealth Hackish"/><link rel="next" href="compiler-jock.html" title="compiler jock"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">compact</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="Commonwealth-Hackish.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">C</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="compiler-jock.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="compact"/><dt xmlns="" id="compact"><b>compact</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">adj.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> Of a design, describes the valuable property that it can all be
apprehended at once in one's head. This generally means the thing created
from the design can be used with greater facility and fewer errors than an
equivalent tool that is not compact. Compactness does not imply triviality
or lack of power; for example, C is compact and FORTRAN is not, but C is
more powerful than FORTRAN. Designs become non-compact through accreting
<a href="../F/feature.html"><i class="glossterm">feature</i></a>s and <a href="cruft.html"><i class="glossterm">cruft</i></a> that don't
merge cleanly into the overall design scheme (thus, some fans of
<a href="Classic-C.html"><i class="glossterm">Classic C</i></a> maintain that ANSI C is no longer
compact).</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="Commonwealth-Hackish.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../C.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="compiler-jock.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">Commonwealth Hackish </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> compiler jock</td></tr></table></div></body></html>