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brittle

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brittle

 

  4  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Brittle  \Brit"tle\,  a.  [OE.  britel,  brutel,  AS  bryttian  to 
  dispense,  fr  bre['o]tan  to  break;  akin  to  Icel.  brytja  Sw 
  bryta,  Dan.  bryde.  Cf  {Brickle}.] 
  Easily  broken;  apt  to  break;  fragile;  not  tough  or  tenacious 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  brittle 
  adj  1:  having  little  elasticity;  hence  easily  cracked  or  fractured 
  or  snapped;  "brittle  bones";  "glass  is  brittle"; 
  "`brickle'  and  `brickly'  are  dialectal"  [syn:  {brickle}, 
  {brickly}] 
  2:  lacking  warmth  and  generosity  of  spirit;  "a  brittle  and 
  calculating  woman" 
  3:  (of  metal  or  glass)  not  annealed  and  consequently  easily 
  cracked  or  fractured  [syn:  {unannealed}] 
  n  :  caramelized  sugar  cooled  in  thin  sheets  [syn:  {toffee},  {toffy}] 
 
  From  Jargon  File  (4.2.3,  23  NOV  2000)  [jargon]: 
 
  brittle  adj  Said  of  software  that  is  functional  but  easily 
  broken  by  changes  in  operating  environment  or  configuration,  or  by  any 
  minor  tweak  to  the  software  itself  Also  any  system  that  responds 
  inappropriately  and  disastrously  to  abnormal  but  expected  external 
  stimuli;  e.g.,  a  file  system  that  is  usually  totally  scrambled  by  a  power 
  failure  is  said  to  be  brittle.  This  term  is  often  used  to  describe  the 
  results  of  a  research  effort  that  were  never  intended  to  be  robust,  but 
  it  can  be  applied  to  commercial  software,  which  (due  to  closed-source 
  development)  displays  the  quality  far  more  often  than  it  ought  to 
  Oppose  {robust}. 
 
 
 
  From  The  Free  On-line  Dictionary  of  Computing  (13  Mar  01)  [foldoc]: 
 
  brittle 
 
    Said  of  {software}  that  is  functional  but  easily 
  broken  by  changes  in  operating  environment  or  configuration, 
  or  by  any  minor  tweak  to  the  software  itself  Also  any 
  system  that  responds  inappropriately  and  disastrously  to 
  abnormal  but  expected  external  stimuli;  e.g.  a  {file  system} 
  that  is  usually  totally  scrambled  by  a  power  failure  is  said 
  to  be  brittle.  This  term  is  often  used  to  describe  the 
  results  of  a  research  effort  that  were  never  intended  to  be 
  robust,  but  it  can  be  applied  to  commercially  developed 
  software,  which  displays  the  quality  far  more  often  than  it 
  ought  to 
 
  Opposite  of  {robust}. 
 
  [{Jargon  File}] 
 
  (1995-05-09)




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