[Ads-l] An arbitrary sense of arbitrary

[Daphne Preston-Kendal]

Found on the web:

> Clearly, algorithms are the star of each program as swapping a hot O(n) algorithm with a lower complexity one, such as O(log n), yields almost arbitrary performance improvements.
— <https://cedardb.com/blog/optimizing_data_layouts/>

(O(n) means roughly that if you increase the size of input data to a program by one, the time it takes to run the program will also go up by one unit of time, i.e. in direct proportion; O(log n) typically means that if you double (or triple, quadruple, etc.) the size of the input data, the time it takes will go up by *only* one unit, i.e. it will deal better with rapidly growing data sizes.)

Note there is a well-established mathematical/computing sense of ‘arbitrary’ which the OED hasn’t quite yet picked up (in an unrevised entry), essentially meaning ‘it is indifferent to the general properties I am about to describe of a system, which specific value is chosen at this specific place in the system’. But this is not that sense, though it has likely grown out of it. I think the author means ‘self-evident’, perhaps?

(Computing and mathematics have a good selection of these kinds of repurposings of originally technical terms, notably also ‘canonical’ <http://jargon-file.org/archive/jargon-1.5.0.dos.txt#:~:text=CANONICAL%20%28>)


Daphne

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org