The term "sanity check" has an established definition in computer science.
via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanity_check: *"A sanity test or sanity check is a basic test to quickly evaluate whether a claim or the result of a calculation can possibly be true. It is a simple check to see if the produced material is rational (that the material's creator was thinking rationally, applying sanity). The point of a sanity test is to rule out certain classes of obviously false results, not to catch every possible error. A rule-of-thumb may be checked to perform the test. The advantage of a sanity test, over performing a complete or rigorous test, is speed."* *In computer science, a sanity test is a very brief run-through of the functionality of a computer program, system, calculation, or other analysis, to assure that part of the system or methodology works roughly as expected. This is often prior to a more exhaustive round of testing. In computer science, a sanity test is a very brief run-through of the functionality of a computer program, system, calculation, or other analysis, to assure that part of the system or methodology works roughly as expected. This is often prior to a more exhaustive round of testing."* *Another, possibly more common usage of 'sanity test' is to denote checks which are performed within program code, usually on arguments to functions or returns therefrom, to see if the answers can be assumed to be correct."* * -- Brandon* On Wed, Oct 5, 2016 at 11:02 AM, Abraham D. Flaxman <[email protected]> wrote: > Thank you for this thoughtful comment on the language we are using. I > have been thinking about this in terms of “check your work”. This is a > core competency for problem solving, and what I want SWC to add is the idea > that in computational research we can and should check our work > *automatically.* > > > > --Abie > > > > > > *Abraham D. Flaxman* > > Assistant Professor > > Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation | University of Washington > > 2301 5th Avenue, Suite 600 | Seattle, WA 98121| USA > > Tel: +1-206-897-2802 | Mobile: +1-412-726-0401 | Fax: +1-206-897-2899 UW > | Campus Mailbox: 358210 > > [email protected] | http://healthmetricsandevaluation.org| > http://healthyalgorithms.com > > > > *From:* Discuss [mailto:[email protected]] *On > Behalf Of *Pauline Barmby > *Sent:* Wednesday, October 5, 2016 10:58 AM > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* Re: [Discuss] Defensive Programming with R > > > > Dear all - > > > > I think “sanity check” could be considered an ableist term, equating > “insane” with “bad”. > > Can I suggest that “expectation check” would be better and also more > descriptive? > > > > Pauline > > --- > > Pauline Barmby > > Associate Dean, Graduate and Post Doctoral Studies, Faculty of Science > > Associate Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy > > Western University > > [email protected] > > 519-661-2111 ext 81557 > > > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.software-carpentry.org/listinfo/discuss >
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