[Simple (or Small) Matter of
Programming] 1. A piece of code, not yet written, whose anticipated
length is significantly greater than its complexity. Used to refer
to a program that could obviously be written, but is not worth the
trouble. Also used ironically to imply that a difficult problem
can be easily solved because a program can be written to do it; the
irony is that it is very clear that writing such a program will be
a great deal of work. "It's easy to enhance a FORTRAN compiler to
compile COBOL as well; it's just an SMOP." 2. Often used
ironically by the intended victim when a suggestion for a program
is made which seems easy to the suggester, but is obviously (to the
victim) a lot of work.
brute force adj.
Describes a primitive programming style
one in which the programmer relies on the computer's processing
power instead of using his or her own intelligence to simplify the
problem, often ignoring problems of scale and applying naive
methods suited to small problems directly to large ones....
