sanity check

programming 1. Checking 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).

[Jargon File]

(1998-08-29)